The modern hacker and maker has an incredible array of tools at their disposal — even a modestly appointed workbench these days would have seemed like science-fiction a couple decades ago. Desktop 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC mills, lathes, the list goes on and on. But what good is all that fancy gear if you don’t put it to work once and awhile?
If we had to guess, we’d say dust never gets a chance to accumulate on any of the tools in [Ed Nisley]’s workshop. According to his blog, the prolific hacker is either building or repairing something on a nearly daily basis. All of his posts are worth reading, but the multifaceted rebuilding of a Anker LC-40 flashlight from a couple months back recently caught our eye.
The problem was simple enough: the button on the back of the light went from working intermittently to failing completely. [Ed] figured there must be a drop in replacement out there, but couldn’t seem to find one in his online searches. So he took to the parts bin and found a surface-mount button that was nearly the right size. At the time, it seemed like all he had to do was print out a new flexible cover for the button out of TPU, but getting the material to cooperate took him down an unexpected rabbit hole of settings and temperatures.
With the cover finally printed, there was a new problem. It seemed that the retaining ring that held in the button PCB was damaged during disassembly, so [Ed] ended up having to design and print a new one. Unfortunately, the 0.75 mm pitch threads on the retaining ring were just a bit too small to reasonably do with an FDM printer, so he left the sides solid and took the print over to the lathe to finish it off.
Of course, the tiny printed ring was too small and fragile to put into the chuck of the lathe, so [Ed] had to design and print a fixture to hold it. Oh, and since the lathe was only designed to cut threads in inches, he had to make a new gear to convert it over to millimeters. But at least that was a project he completed previously.
With the fine threads cut into the printed retaining ring ready to hold in the replacement button and its printed cover, you might think the flashlight was about to be fixed. But alas, it was not to be. It seems the original button had a physical stabilizer on it to keep it from wobbling around, which wouldn’t fit now that the button had been changed. [Ed] could have printed a new part here as well, but to keep things interesting, he turned to the laser cutter and produced a replacement from a bit of scrap acrylic.
In the end, the flashlight was back in fighting form, and the story would seem to be at an end. Except for the fact that [Ed] eventually did find the proper replacement button online. So a few days later he ended up taking the flashlight apart, tossing the custom parts he made, and reassembling it with the originals.
Some might look at this whole process and see a waste of time, but we prefer to look at it as a training exercise. After all, the experienced gained is more valuable than keeping a single flashlight out of the dump. That said, should the flashlight ever take a dive in the future, we’re confident [Ed] will know how to fix it. Even better, now we do as well.
As a kid, I used to take apart and repair flashlights. Recently, I had an LED flashlight fail on me. It’s a slightly fancy one with a spot light in front and a flood light on the side. It wasn’t turning on anymore. Inside was a circuit board with several tiny ICs and such. Aside from making sure the button was working properly, there wasn’t much else a tinkerer like me could do to resurrect it. And since the circuit board is so specialized, I can’t just easily swap it out. I haven’t thrown it in the trash yet, but that’s where it’ll probably end up.
I fixed one for my Dad that had a faulty chip that was just eating batteries. After a couple of days a fresh set would be dead. It was a common problem and the manufacturer had already stopped selling that model and had a replacement out, but it was physically a nice flashlight, just hungry.
So I ripped all the smarts out of it and installed a toggle button from a donor flashlight. Problem solved.
Sure it only has one brightness now, and it can’t strobe (why anyone would want that is beyond me), but the nice magnetic base, swivel head flashlight has avoided being trashed.
I am guessing that the strobe is so that they can label it as “multifunction” or add bullet points. It’s annoying that because of a very rarely if ever used function one needs to press the button several more times to turn off the flashlight in normal operation.
In this particular case, it was smart enough to interpret a single button press as “off” if it had been on long enough.
I have another device with a pointless built in flashlight that I turn on by accident all the time, and of course, you can’t turn it off without passing through the strobe setting first. I really should open it up and just disable the flashlight. All I do with it is blind myself.
another product designed by a member of the LUS (League of Undercover Sadists)
other producst designed by members: cars, “smart” devices like tv’s, phones, washing machines, toasters. devices with unnecessary blue leds in them. devices with unnecessary out-of-tune melody players. windows, mac os, linux, android, ios.
Actually the strobe is used as defense device, hard to attack when 1000 lumans of light disorienting you. Police use them. Oh, and also makes for like a 100hz timing light!
For self defence it should have strobe to switch on first (not last) or a dedicated button. And many of those lights are more like 100 lumens than 1000.
Other explanation I herd is to draw attention of rescue team.
Walking besides a busy road with a strobe drawing attention.
A number of dead cheap lights I have been given have rubber seals over the USB charge port and switch but have other parts that are not waterproof and water or beverage damage gets to the controller board. There is constant power on the newer press several times to turn off which with added water will grow fuzzy stuff and fail on or drain the cell.
The best I have has a recessed clicking power switch in the tail, easy to find rather than feeling all around the barrel. It’s nice that the part is available.
I have a large torch with 12V halogen bulb/lead-acid battery that I tried to convert to LED/Lithium. Failed because LED bulbs with the same base do not emit their light from a small point within the bulb that is at the focal point of the reflector 🙄
My dad prefers to use 6v lead acid flashlights, but as a creature of routine he would destroy them through excessive overcharging. facing your same problem, i took a length of scrap brass 3/4″ x 8″ and melted a hole through the plastic reflector with a soldering iron.
I drilled a hole through the brass 1 1/2″ from the end and inserted and bent an iron nail, to ensure the correct focal distance by pressing against the reflector. to attach the led pcb i drilled a small hole in the end and screwed in a computer case screw.
the brass rod was cushioned at the opposite end by some plastic wadding.
I used a 3v 1a driver and toggle switch with rubber boot. I used a tp4056 module and a barrel connector and two 18650 in parallel from a laptop.
It’s been running for over 6 years now, though i do have to repair broken wires and burnt out drivers every few years.
A 0.2 nozzle prints 0.75 mm pitch threads OK.
Which would have kept him out of that rabbit hole.
Your going to want to clean them up with a bolt or nut, maybe with a thread cutting notch filed in it.
Friction will make enough heat.
But WTF?
Make your own GD flashlight, made to survive a zombie apocalypse and be easily maintained.
He’s wasting much time Fing with parts made to snap together cheaply.
Respect the value of your own time and spend some money on parts.
I’m not even sure I’d use the shell, the battery or the LED, perhaps.
Truth:
I’d end up with a printed polycarb (could still catch fire) shell around an C5 landing light…
Make lightsaber noise…
V8 powered 4×4 self propelled genset following me around, fat power cable, zoomie headers, 45” boggers…Everything better with mouse (small block Chevy motor)!
Those Anker flashlights had a previous life as front running lights on our ‘bents:
https://softsolder.com/2017/07/19/tour-easy-daytime-running-light-fairing-clamp-plates/
Which eventually got replaced by full-on custom lights with 1 W LEDs blinking Morse:
https://softsolder.com/2021/09/07/tour-easy-1-w-amber-running-light-holder-and-first-light/
https://softsolder.com/2021/09/27/tour-easy-rear-running-light-first-light/
But, yeah, that whole button repair thing got out of hand. :grin:
I bet you could fit a C5 landing lite on the front of a recumbent.
Might slow you down a bit, obstruct you view.
But if you build the V8 4×4 genset right it will keep up.
The zoomie headers will help, loud pipes save lives.
haha i often have flashlights fail…the usual cause is alkaline batteries (my god i hate them). and apart from the difficulty of cleaning the contacts, i often break them further during disassembly.
this article makes me feel good about my high level of willingness to simply throw them in the trash! :)
(i also have made a lot of my own lights, because the cateye / blackburn family of bike lights is of such execrably low quality despite the high price, but i’ve abandoned that as well now that i’ve discovered you can buy MUCH higher quality lights on temu for ludicrously low prices)
I just wear my gyno-light (head mounted LED light) to supplement the law compliant POS lights on my bike. It’s old and good, wasn’t that expensive either.
But mostly, I ride in daylight.
You can’t buy back wasted time.
Waste it well.