Ultrafire WF-008 "recoil LED" torch

[Plowboy]

What is a good mount for one of these? Would like to mount it on the scope.

[trapper]

I finally got some batteries and a charger and I am very impressed with the torch. I'm very unimpressed with the batteries though. I got the regulated ones which are a little longer than the unregged ones. The problem is they are too long for the charger and you have to force them in. After a couple of hours under stress in the charger they came out with the positive terminal shifted to one side. I was able to push it back to centre but I doubt it will take too many more charge cycles before it's permanently damaged.

[fenring]

Those are different to mine.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20392

My charger is a Solarforce also. So something is different and causing the problems.

[trapper]

According to the DX website the batteries you have are also longer than the non-protected version. Looks like it's the charger then. I have the Ultrafire one.

[Counter]

OK, so I'm a sucker for a bargain so I ordered one of these torches and a few mounts and things. I already had a charger and a couple of batteries but I ordered a couple more batteries just cause they were so cheap.

Note on the batteries: the ones I already had are protected, but the ones from dealextreme are even longer and I had trouble fitting them in the charger. Rather than force them I pulled the charger apart and modified the spring contacts so all batteries go in ok now.

Now to the modes. My torch is a three mode version (despite dealextreme saying it was a single mode) and that annoyed me a bit so I decided to fix it. I noticed that if you turned the torch off for longer than 12sec it reverted to the full power mode when turned on again. After pulling apart the torch and checking out the driver PCB, basically the driver controller is kept alive and remembering its last mode by a 4.7uF capacitor. Once this cap discharges the microcontroller loses its memory and will revert to high power next time it starts up.

Removing this cap effectively makes sure that the torch always starts up in high mode, however I opted to lower its value to decrease its ‘memory’ time. It’s a fairly simple process to change this cap if you have a decent soldering iron and a pair of tweezers. I think it is worthwhile to keep the other modes because the current draw on high from a full battery is around 1.35A and on low it is around 137mA. Runtime is about 3hrs on high with the last hr getting dimmer. Low should last for ages.

On my driver I found the standard 4.7uF cap to give a memory of ~12sec, a 1uF cap gave ~6sec, a 0.22uF gave 0.5-1sec and a 0.1uF didn’t allow any change of modes.

So I installed a 0.22uF (25V 0603 ceramic)and left it at that. This means that a quick tap on the switch will still allow me to change to low output (or strobe, because it is so useful…), but it means that it always comes on in high mode.

One thing I noticed after the mod was that after 10min of running on high, I can’t select any other modes as the heat affects the circuit. After a minute or so it has cooled enough to work normally again. I don’t know if this happened with the original cap as I didn’t test it, but I can live with that.

Hope this helps others who hate doing the mode dance. Bear in mind that there are obviously a few different versions of this torch so it might not work on all, and if you frizzle yours don’t blame me.

[badger74]

Great info Counter. I'll give it go when I get back from Germany. Get ready for some questions though!!

[fenring]

Good info mate. Happily, mine is a single mode.

[Counter]

No worries guys.
Seems like there are a few different driver boards supplied with these torches. If your board is different badger, you can always disable the driver board and direct drive (might be a bit risky) or just run a low value series resistor (a bit less efficient but no big drama).

Anyway, I'm happy - it does its job:

[andrewk]

still waiting for my fricking order to arrive. its been 2 months!

[fenring]

Christ mate, that's slow! My orders only take about 10 days.

[MAWLER]

Yep, ^ about 10 days for me also, except I got the 3 mode version

[andrewk]

i emailed them on the 3rd asking what the hold up was and i still haven't heard back. ment to be 2 day turn around on enquiries

[trapper]

I just mounted the WF-008 to the barrel of my airgun. It's amazingly bright! It literally turns night into day when looking thru my Simmons WTC scope. Targets are clearly visible at ranges well beyond the range of the gun. I can't wait to try it on a fox.

[choppy2925]

Hi have direct driven 2 of these torches now. One because the board blew from a battery issue and the other because it was a 3 mode version. I have cycled 6 batteries through mine with no issue at present. I use the 18650 protected batteries - the 2400mAh version.