A while back I got a regular 2AA Maglite to use at work. Then I stuck in a TerraLUX Luxeon upgrade kit. Very swanky, I use it all the time and carry it around in my pocket all day at work. One thing looked flaky to me from the start: the reflector presses down on the shoulder of the LED itself when you screw the reflector down to switch off the flashlight. The whole reflector screwdown to switch off thing sucks anyway. There's nothing to keep you from overtorquing the head and smashing the reflector, and every time you drop it, that shock goes straight to the most sensitive parts of the flashlight. This resulted in a two-part failure. First, the glue holding the LED to the circuit failed. Then the tabs broke off of the LED. A few weeks ago I noticed that i had to shake the flashlight pretty violently sometimes to switch it on, and it was far less tolerant of low batteries. Finally, it died altogether and when I took off the reflector, the LED fell out! First, glue on LED. All I had was Krazy glue, so Krazy glue is what I used. Just a drop under the LED and stuck it on. I don't know how well it tolerates heat. The tabs broke off about a millimeter out from the LED case. So I blobbed solder onto the old solder blobs on the board then rotated the whole assembly to that the blob was up top. Then reheated the blob until it more or less fell onto the LED. Worked like a charm, stuck right to what was left. Cool off, flip over, repeat. I let it sit for a few minutes, then I put a bead of Krazy glue all around the LED's base except where the solder was to make sure it won't wiggle. Used it today, no problems. But I'm ordering a new one anyway, this time with a tailcap switch. I don't trust Krazy glue.
- posted
17 years ago