Repairing flashlights with faulty Cree LED's.

I have two flashlights that are both very solid designs but both with a broken Cree LED. In each case the manufacturer basically told me they are non repairable. Considering that there weren't cheap and are both only a few months old I am looking into options for doing a home repair. As I'm not familiar with Cree LED's are am looking for some input to see if it's worth it going down this route?

Evert.

Reply to
me
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If they're only a few months old, Cree and/or the manufacturer are obliged to replace them. Scream and yell until you get them to.

Point out to them that, as LEDs have an inherently long lifespan, these LEDs must be inherently defective. You are therefore entitled to a replacement under the warranty of implied merchantability.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

Probably not made to be easily disassembable. But can you get some current limited test supply to the LED/s to at least confirm which one is buggered/problem in switch or elsewhere? Beware the LEDs are going to be closely coupled to heatsinking and the orientations can be all over the place

Reply to
N_Cook

Boring, anyone can do that. Where's your hacking spirit?

Reply to
N_Cook

It's better spent on something productive, rather than wasted on a defective product the manufacturer is legally obliged to replace.

And by the way... It takes a certain amount of skill to convince companies to do what they don't want to do. I'm fairly good at this; most people give up too easily.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

I bought a cheap one at Walgreens, failed after less than an hours use. Removed the front lens cap and saw the soldered connection to the LED chip had come loose.

Thirty seconds with a soldering iron fixed it.

Apparently so much current went to the chip it self unsoldered a marginally soldered connection.

Been fine ever since.

Reply to
Wayne Chirnside

For this sort of high power use the heatsink runs pretty hot , so would not take much more in the way of resistance heating of a solder joint , that is usually almost electrically touching the heatsink to make it deteriorate and then soon thermally run away to complete solder failure

Reply to
N_Cook

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