Inside an EDC V3 flashlight (with schematic)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2024
- I'll just assume that this unit is a clone of one of the many similar looking products. It's hard to tell which came first in a sea of lookalike products. I'm sure the true flashlight connoisseurs will know.
In the UK we call these torches, which is kinda bizarre, since it's literally a progression from the original blazing stick that was used for light in the long distant past. According to Wikipedia the word torch comes from the French word torche, representing the fuel carrying wick wrapped around the end of the stick. So basically speaking this torch is an electronic blazing stick that fits on your keyring.
This link finds them on AliExpress. Target price around 10 pounds.
www.aliexpress...
The lithium cell claims to be 500mAh, which is viable for its size, and it is charged at a current of around 350mA. The USB C charging port does not have the load identification resistors, so some smart chargers may not detect its presence and will not charge it. A plain dumb charger will charge it.
The front LEDs have five modes. Brief high power output and four latched intensities, with current draw at 4.2V as follows:-
Momentary high power = 2000mA
High = 660mA
Medium = 140mA
Low = 67mA
Night light = 13mA
The small side LEDs have two chips each and are run at 100mA.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators
I gotta say Big Clive. My pop was an engineer in Chicago and maybe it's genetic but since I was like 7 years old, I just loved dragging stuff home from the alley to take it apart. Were you like that?
Anyhow, taking stuff apart with you (pulling it to bits - love it!) has been a real mainstay for me. Bringing life to "normal" for a time here now and then is wonderful.
Yeah, I still dumpster dive for technical treasure from time to time.
Yep ! same as.
I built a vacuum with a computer fan, a dryer lint sheet, and a 9 volt battery at 6 years old.
literally everyone in here
Same here....hihihihi
I bought this exact flashlight recently! It's got everything I was looking for in an EDC flashlight, especially the low-power red light led for providing tiny amount of light in my tent without screwing up my night vision.
I agree, these lights are amazing, I have 3! For the nightstand it's a great "need quick light". Carry it in my EDC backpack and have even taken them on vacations, the magnet makes them great for hanging next to the bed.
I like the Thrunite for that
It's firefly mode gets you 1/5 lumens
It's awesome
police mode too XD
I waited for the “One moment please” and was not disappointed. Next time I expect a “Watch your eyes. I’m turning the light back on”.
takes my back to my ‘engineering’ youth. The exquisite joy, fear, guilt and wonder when realisation hits that I have effectively broken the ‘thing’ and needed to hide the electronic corpse.
In retrospect I’m surprised there was never a 1980’s TV show called “Police Mode”.
_STARING: _*_Danny DeVito!_*
Inspector gadget
@@voltare2amstereo I ⁵
Sounds like a bad Google translate of a police show title.
We got sledgehammer instead
I can honestly say not knowing much about this type of stuff in my 25 years if work in heavy civil. I really appreciate your show you are very clear , and break things down so people with little knowledge can actually learn from you. Respect Sir
I've mentioned you in the description of my review of this light, and added a link there. Thank you for the in-depth view of this light, and how to take it apart. I've been tempted to see what's inside, but I don't have any clue on electronics.
I do love Clive’s schedule, while most are asleep I’m normally here at 1am looking for stuff to watch 😀
It's really nice to see such positivity in your comment section. You're becoming as rare as hens teeth on this god-forsaken platform. You're one of the ones who just perseveres. I honestly wonder how many years that I have been subscribed...
I will admit that at times it's a struggle keeping up with the comments. But I shall keep doing my best, as I feel they are important.
Would very much like to see you do a dedicated video on how to reverse engineer a circuit board, from analysing the board to producing a schematic diagram.
Hi Clive, thanks for the interesting video! I recently bought a similar V10 version that has a 1000ma battery and even more LEDs and alarm ‼️ sound. It has a clear plastic shell that glows a little in the dark. I guess the internal layout will be much the same as the V3. I'm quite impressed with it’s design and quality. Cheers…
I've got the same one, used it for a long walk in the dark in the countryside and it was fab
Thank you for sharing this informative video, Clive! I own the same flashlight and it was fascinating to get a closer look at the inner workings of it. Your explanations were clear and concise, which helped me gain a better understanding of how it operates. I would love to see you do a video on a Nitcore light next. It would be really interesting to compare the qualities of these flashlights. Keep up the great work!
As always Clive shines light on the subject.
The Torque Test Channel had a pretty good economy luminosity test rig. It was a combination of a hollow stryroform dome and a light sensor. I think they have a video explaining what went into it.
Their findings were that lumens ratings were even more absurd than the battery capacity ratings.
For those in the know, yes. For many many years.
I quickly gave up on the lumen race. for quite a while now, regen tech and actually useful low nodes are what get me going for lights.
I trust my combo taser/light 😃 500 million volts and 100,000 lumens. Runs off one 9v 😃
@@napalmholocaust9093 ROFLMAO!
@@napalmholocaust9093 mine has so many lumens that people ask me to turn it on when they need a few extra hours of daytime.
@@WitchidWitchid Ha, ha, ha, you guys are funny!
I believe this is the only video on the Interwebs demonstrating a torch screaming and sending its own distress signal. I'm so glad the Dremel of discovery was not required.
Suggestion for those buying one of these: Buy the clear one, not the tinted one. It's glow in the dark!
Thanks mate!
Glow in the dark stuff on a torch is great, really enhances utility in my opinion, though some cheap lights use cheap GITD pigments that don't last long. The best pigments glow for over eight hours, excellent if camping, etc.
Oooh, I saw these while looking at the ones you covered recently. Glad to see you pulling one apart.
Also glad to see you looking at the black-case version so I can see how much of the light it blocks...
man, i love reading your descriptions ^-^
"plug it into a dumb charger and it should charge."
this is why i love this guy.
"Maybe I shouldn't be stabbing it in there" 😂😂😂
Imagine getting into a Chinese elevator. Minimal buttons to keep costs down, so you have to know the weird pattern of pushes that specific control panel model was created to accept. Imagine a car, or an airplane cockpit.
That airplane cockpit sounds like a Boeing, with all the weird inconsistent modes.
I would bet that polarity protection mosfet was put there by the designer after having a mishap like that cellphone killer a few months ago that was wired in backwards. Seems weird since the only time the battery would be connected is during assembly, but it's probably cheaper for a mosfet than to make sure it's plugged in correctly every time.
10 mins ago a delivery guy brought me exact same. Now Im eating breakfast and watching having my own in hand :)
Actually seems to be a quality product 👍
The original Rovyvon Angel Eyes E3 cost £50, Vs £20 of the Boruit V3. The Rovyvon uses a constant current drive and not PWM, and the components are first choice. But for almost one third of the price you got similar functionalities but not similar quality. In addition, the original has one Li-Po battery and one AAA alkaline, and can switch between the two.
Thank you Big Clive for the video...
I’m going to get one that looks like just what I need thanks Clive 😊
I really wish the lights with multiple light modes would support programming, and being able to set a lower default light setting.
I use a streamlight at work, and with the 10 tap programming, I can set it to disable modes I don't need (strobe) and set it so when I turn it on, the low 150 lumen setting is the default, I can go brighter if need be, but that's rare for my use case.
You're in luck. Look up Anduril flashlights. Anduril is flashlight programming offered on a few brands of flashlights.
I like nitecore because of the firefly mode ,you can last days with it !!
And when in the absolute dark you see way more than enough!!
I have a Nitecore TIP2 that is a similar but better form factor. It has a keychain holder which is magnetically attached to the light, making it easy to detach and mount to something ferrous. It's also made of aluminum, which is nice. I've had it for year, works great, other than the similarly unfathomable controls.
When I have to open one of these throw-away items I usually use my jeweler's saw. You can make very fine cuts with it but it needs some practice since the saw blades are fragile compared to other saws.
6/0 blades are like cutting with a sewing thread thick blade , I could make one last all week sizing ring's without breaking
How opportune! I saw these a few weeks ago and ordered 2 from Ali Snail. Clear plastic case version, they arrived this morning (28/4/23 in NZ)
Paid around $24NZD each and pretty happy. Tempted to place one either side of my windscreen, on Police red/ blue mode, to clear the road ahead.
Not very good idea to play an alarm vehicle because of the unmarked police cars._
@@DjResR You’ve heard of irony yeah?
I bought one after the last video of similar one and one of those for good measure :D and now I now whats inside of both. This one is great little light and now my edc
Pretty neat light. I'm a sucker for about any new light.
The LEDs driven by the transistors might be regulated by a PWM output, which is more efficient than wasting heat in a current limiting resistor... useful for getting that little bit extra juice out of the battery.
Speaking of batteries, I found a battery recycling drop off thingy where people put their used vape pens... free li-po batteries!!
Love these little flash lights. I have the small one and this one. Not high water raiting but thats fine for what I bought them for. Airsoft, work and for EDC
They have since revised the software on the buttons (or I got one programmed by someone half competent).
Long hold is "full intensity".
Two presses is "on".
Long press is "off".
Single presses cycle through modes.
Things I have never in all my years ever wanted a flashlight to do: strobe on and off rapidly
"It has so many modes and only 2 buttons" Yeah Clive wait until you discover the clicky wonderland behind the lenses and reflectors called Andúril or Andúril 2. 😀
Probably the best little flashlight for $3.54 ever thanks Temu
I think the polarity protection MOSFET actually has its drain tied to the battery and source to the positive rail, not the other way around as drawn in the schematic. Otherwise it would not be particularly effective as reverse polarity protection due to the internal body diode :)
Since the front LEDs are directly driven by the battery and tied to the negative rail via MOSFET, what controls the output levels? Is the microcontroller generating a PWM signal for the output? 13mA/2A ~= 1.5/255, so it's in the right range for 8-bit PWM I suppose.
In addition to the LEDs, the FET itself might be baked in the high-current mode. The datasheet for the A1sHB chip notes about 100mOhm RDSon, so at 2A in the high current mode it's dissipating about 0.4W of power. That's above the chip's maximum rating (350mW). The 'high' mode of 660mA is better (about 44mW dissipation across the FET), but it must still get very toasty in there.
I came here to ask the same question. Must be PWM if the microcontroller is driving a mosfet that feeds directly to the battery.
Simple PWM control.
Now you should bring your own branded flash light.
yesss. milled from T6 aero grade aluminium, no button double/tripple/what ever tap codes. just on and off. 300lm and at least 10h runtime. usb-c chargeport and watertight capped.
Oh the luxury of TWO buttons! And yet operation is still not easy and intuitive.
If you spudger the lipo it will be spectacularly destructive possibly. Great video bigclive
I've got the model M300 one and I'm loving it. It's super useful, I use it almost everyday.
Super cool Big Clive. Thanks!
How cool is it that 53,000+ people have already watched this? that a frickin' ton of people... and many go WAY past that!
That light displays perfectly the problems exhibited by all of these LED lighting units. They're too damn complicated. If I buy a light I want a switch that turns it on or off.I don't want modes. I don't want fancy flashing garbage. I don't want different power levels. I want one click for on and one click for off. That's it and manufacturers have all forgotten that the customer doesn't need nor want the fancy nonsense.
Probably designed for the younger generations. After all most of us Old Farts who think like that will soon be dead! 😜😉
I do like what acebeam has done with their lights. You have one main switch that turns it on and off and a second one that will cycle through different modes when you're on and goes immediately to strobe if the light is off. There's definitely times where you want more or less light depending on what you're trying to illuminate and how far or close it is to you.
So far, one of the more amusing videos.
Thank you. Keep working. Good luck! 👍
Thanks Clive. Another great tear down. Been recycling Vapes for batteries. Many now have this type of “ flat” battery.
Have 💯 of used vape cases that I was looking for ideas to reuse them.
But But looking at this light , thinking that the case from a “ lost Mary” would make a nice light similar to this.
Another item for my wish list of projects with recycled batteries.
I bought two of these the other week, I like it.
I notice you said "can't really test that", when mentioning the 900 lumens. In fact, you can often use the light sensors on your cell phone. I't surprisingly accurate. Not 100% but absolutely close.
There is a community of flashlight modders that reprogram the chips in flashlights. Any of those people here?
I miss the days when the switch was either on or off. Now you need an instruction manual just for a torch.
I bought this one and it is truly awesome, especially having in mind that it costs about $9.
I bought the GITD version of this recently. It's already replaced all the AAA lamps I used for EDC at work. I tend to carry a small lamp on a lanyard around my neck for quick checks of the kit I work on, with bigger lamps used as required. If I lost or break this, I'll be replacing it with the same.
Great video. please make a video one day of your work and non-work EDC. I'd like to know what you carry around.
About 3 months ago I bought this EDC V3 for just under a tenner which, considering its versatility was a pretty good price. Its red-blue flashing part is bright enough for emergency signalling in poor weather, its small UV light isn't up to identifying banknote forgeries, but otherwise it's quite a useful high powered, well made EDC flashlight with a quality Type-C charging point. I like that it dims down, useful for not disturbing sleepers. Altogether you did a jolly good teardown, Clive. 🌻
You should get an anduril (a type of firmware) light, they're super fun. Lots of features and modes. Many, many different makes and models to choose from. I ended up getting a few...
@@nemesis2264 The SC31 was my first! Now I have a D4V2 Ti... and others...
I bought this but in the glow-in-the-dark ,which works quite efficiently well. The rovyvon ones are a different breed tho.
I've heard the Rovyvons mentioned a couple times now in relation to these lights. Also seen them online, and am considering one.
Would you say that in a positive way or a negative way? I do know they're a bit more expensive, but if you're getting what you pay for, sounds like it'd be well worthwhile.
@Joshua C. Better built. The quality of light is better too. Still Chinese made but you are getting what you pay for.
Good review, useful information. I think I need such a gadget.👍
With microcontrollers, you can pretty much do any mode you want - as long as you have sufficient memory and output pins.
I got the translucent version that can be "charged" with the UV led and then it is glowing in the dark. Quite handy :) For this black one the UV led is not very useful.
Does it glow for a long time?
@@robm8809 around 2 minutes
@@randybb Thanks. That's not so good, the best luminous pigments glow for eight or even ten hours, very useful if camping, the glow lasts all night and makes the torch easy to find.
@@robm8809 the previous test was during a day and it was not very visible, but when it is really dark then after 15 minutes it is still glowing.
@@randybb Thanks. :)
good video. thank you again for the knowledge
I’ve got the same one. Brilliant torch 👍👍
That's a pretty neat little flashlight, I think I'll get one.
Is there any sort of temperature protection for main LEDs or battery? Seems like everything could get too 50C quickly on turbo.
I think they rely on software to limit duration at high power.
I like how yours comes apart so easily by unscrewing. My V3 is probably welded shut
I have an Astrolux K1 and it is freaking awesome...Has a UV-led for fake money detection and a red led for when low visibility lighting is required (burglary??)
High quality case and other materials...
Bought it for 18 euros but nowadays it sadly goes for about 50.
I don't get why these things don't have a power switch and then a mode/brightness button, it would make them so much easier to use
If you find such a thing, let us all know. I've been wanting one for my bike for years. It's disappointing to try turning or dimming your light (e.g. night dog walkers) and start flashing at them with 3,000 lumens.
My Sofirn SC21 can start really dim everytime. It uses ramping mode so i can set at whatever brightness i want.
This is actually close. Double click either button and the relevant light comes on in the mode you last used. You don't have to cycle through modes from a default mode.
The transistor circuits are well designed. LED current is regulated to base current times beta, which is (logic high - 0.7V) / 15 Kohm .
The β of the transistor will double with 15 °C temperature increase, and so does the current in the load. We use a resistor on the emitter to limit thermal drift, but there is none here.
The designers relied on the fact that the tiny battery can't drive enough current into the power LED so to harm them. Typical China design. Buy a Nitecore Tiny2, is more expensive but is designed to IEEE standards...
@@rayoflight62 Are you trying to advertise your own design? Anyways, a resistor in the LED current path will drop voltage according to the LED current and thus requires a supply voltage well above the LED voltage . This is an old video, but I'm guessing this device was running only a fraction above 3V from a Lithium cell with something regulating the logic down to a stable 3.0V supply, thereby regulating logic high to a fixed number . Regulating away thermal variation in transistor beta would require next level logic or internal temperature sensing and PWM control in the logic circuit .
No, just a strategically placed NTC...
My problem is modern LED flashlights are too bright for a daily driver for me. I would rather they be half as bright with double the battery life. And I hate the ones where you have to press the button multiple times to get to the light setting I want. My ideal flashlight would have several pins and a jumper inside the battery compartment that I can pick one of 4 light settings, and then just leave it where I want it so I don't have to play around with the button for several seconds every time I just need a little light on something.
I was gonna tell you to look at one of these, but it looks like you've already got one.
I would reccomend you look for the white one because it glows in the dark and the green LED fluoresces the entire shell really well.
I actually thought the UV LED was green because the entire shell was so bright
also they're less than $15 now which is very reasonable imo
NICE ! I bought this last black friday just FYI I have the clear version whcih i think its much better since the light goes though way better for around 10$ its worth every penny !
What nobody talks about it that these push button utilities most don't do proper low power electronics that keeps the self discharge really low.
If you don't want to do this put in a physical switch.
I want flash lights that I can keep a year or two in a drawer for an emergency and then when I want to use it, it still works and has a least half of its charge.
You don't run around using a flashlight every day.
It should at least have still half of it's charge. But so many chargeable stuff is dead after just a month.
I have see some young people on YT doing optimized electronics that work for a theoretical multiple years standby of a micro-controller, so I know it's possible to do it with push buttons but you have to want to do it.
Unfortunately many lithium batteries also have a protection circuitry inside that really doesn't care about this and gobbles up lots of energy during standby.
Big Clive -- "I'll destroy mine, so you won't have to destroy yours" 😁
we love ya clive. cheers
I love the way on a few of these Chinese torches have gone from the SOS to police lighting 🙂
When you start hearing birds and you haven't gone to sleep yet....
That's a bad two coming...
A bad two?
Had one hanging from my belt hook for about a year now, still going strong :) Bourut it is called
Two amps is quite surprising. Could the design be relying on the battery protection chip? Is that a standard discharge rate limit for such cells, or is it a custom unit?
2 amps would equate to 4C which is massive for a standard cell but normal for a high current rc heli/drone cell.
the leds still dont like that. they'll be cooked in a short time after serval high power blasts.
Really cool devices!
V10 version has come out now.. And daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn it is nice. Brighter, more Led options, UV is in the torch head making it more useful and the Blue can actually be used as a light and not just as a flashy plus has both Neutral and warm whit options too.. Give it a look ..
From Amazon the Boruit v3 torch is now £20, and the v10 £24 (less 8% at present). LED Lenser prices soon?!
Clive, your the led guru, what do you make of this?
I have an led bulb in my living room which has gone bad, if you try to switch it on it just glows dimly with a very slight flicker and when you turn it off it continues to glow at the same brightness for two to three seconds then extinguishes.
Sometimes if you leave the light on for a long time it will come to live and illuminate properly.
Its obviously a component in the power supply but I've not opened Tue blub to investigate yet.
Very common failure. A failed LED chip that is tracking slightly, causing the glow and flicker. The fade-out is the low current of the faulty LED string discharging the smoothing cap slowly. Sometimes the tracking will establish a temporary bridge that results in the light illuminating at almost full intensity.
They have a glow in the dark version that charges itself from the uv led. Bought 3, my credit card thanks you Clive 😂
Only took 12 days to get to the US - these things are nifty!
the fact manufacturers of these kinds of devices skips those middle pins on the usb type c to cut costs... its only like a 2mm traces, 2 solder pads and a surface mounted resistor missing for it to work correctly with the "smart" chargers, you only save like 2 cents per device at most by not adding that
I always find myself wishing that flashlights would power on in low mode, when they don't have a brightness selection switch separate from the on/off switch.
I have the V10 EDC flashlight. It has the lightning bolt button on the left and the power switch on the right. It has UV as well as three modes of brightness. On the side of the light, it has an alarm, a red light, blue light, white light, warm white light and green light as well as strobing red, and strobing red and blue. The red light, white light and warm white light are useful. Not so sure about the blue light or green light, nor the red flashing or red and blue flashing. I suppose they might be helpful one day.
Please suggest small EDC pouch having compartments to carry charging cables, usb adapters, card readers
I may have missed it in the video, but did you measure the current it draws when it's off?
I don't think I did test the quiescent current on this one.
Im currently looking into buying this flashlight, Boruit-branded, and in transparent-ish glow in the dark case, and it seems like there are even more generic, non-branded versions of this flashlight, and possible a knockoff boruit version, too. The exciting world of buying cheap stuff from China.
Can you please do the v15 and v20 flashlight disassembles.
Get a Rovyvon Clive. I took one apart to replace the battery, which they supplied. Wont need destruction.
Big Clive, you light-up my life! ... Because you're obsessed with LED's! 🤣
Although, to be fair, modern life as we know it COULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT LED's! ... In fact, I couldn't write this comment WITHOUT LED's! ... Unless Lenovo make a Candle Backlit Tablet? 🤣
Oh bugger! ... My Backlight Candle has blown out again!
Hi Clive watched your teardown for the EDC V3, liked it so much went to purchase one & found the latest model V10 LED Keychain EDC Flashlight USB so purchased 2 of these. They are amazingly bright for there size. But was using one of them the other night in the garage and noticed that on all settings for the main light it slowly dims in stages. I measured this with a lux light measurement app on my mobile & it is definitely going down in brightness in pretty steady stages... both of them do this & if I cycle the main light back the the set brightness I had it goes back to being brighter. Just weird did your V3 do the same when you where testing it?
I'll check that. But I prefer lights that do that as it protects the LED against overheating and also saves battery life as your eyes adjust to the lower intensity levels.
I’ve got a question; if those lithium batteries have got that little protection chip on them, does that mean you can charge them directly with a 5v USB supply?
I did a little experiment with one & it did seem to limit the voltage, but that just seems too easy.
Considering that the same people probably make a lot of the PD circuits you would think they would know to add a resistor across the USB to signal to a smart power supply.
I don't know why they always skimp on those. It's gotta be the cheapest part on the circuit. Either they're really greedy or just not very good at designing things.
@@Okabim i guess its both.
Is there a playlist of wellmade products?
There's not. Mainly because I tend to look for badly made products.
All the lights for all occasions... :P