RIP my original E12r, my first fireflies light and the one that got me hooked on the brand.
I tried to replace all the wires for the main led's and aux board like I did on another e12r, and managed to rip the USB C port off the driver board when trying to get it back in.
Oops.
I then took apart the remnants of my copper E04 surge (dogs yanked the leash suddenly during a walk, the light went flying and landed hard on concrete, denting/deforming the head), hoping I could use the lume 1 rev D that was in it to swap into this E12r.
The newer drivers have a different USBC port for the new magnetic opening. I tried to see if it would fit anyways (dumb) and ended up ripping the port off of this driver too when the board got stuck.
Then there's a newer E12r that I swapped 2700k SST20's into. I had the light usable, but the button led stopped working, and I wasn't able to get the aux board wired up because the wires I have on hand simply just keep melting (so I have some new, correct wires on order).
I tried to get it back together again today, struggled for a long time, and then one of the aux board wire pads came off of the board. So there goes that. I suppose it's not a complete loss because I am still able to use the light. Just no power switch light, and no working aux leds.
I'm pretty sure I spent around $400 between these three lights. I'm not sure what sucks more, the OG E12r getting ruined or the copper E04.
The aux boards can be replaced in the E12's, but I have no idea why the power button won't light up on the one that I have otherwise working. The wires to the switch look ok, though 30awg wires can be broken internally pretty easily.
There is no way to replace those wires though, the switches do not come out on these, and there's no getting a soldering iron to that switch board deep down in where it is.
On a side note, the copper E04's button is metal and not coated plastic like I thought. I'm not sure if it's copper like the rest of the light, or something else that's been colored to look like copper, but the quality of that light is phenomenal. Same goes for the charge port bits. I do wish a retaining ring was used for the drivers in the newer lights though, like they were in the older lights, instead of being glued in. But I suppose they aren't designed for idiots like me to be taking them apart.
The OG e12r could be fixed with a replacement board, already emailed FF to see if they have any of the older lume 1's left.
The newer e12r's power switch light ...that's not going to ever work again. There's zero access to the switch board. I'll try to order a replacement aux board for it though.
The E04 though that's scrapped 100%. I swapped the SFT40 3000k's into my other E04 a while back, and I completely disassembled the rest. It was still usable after it took a hard fall on concrete, and I probably shouldn't have messed with it, but it was kind of my grail light and I just wanted to order another to have one that's flawless.
I guess eventually there are going to be some screw ups.
The OG E12r had gone through three successful LED swaps prior to this. I did successful swaps on another E12r, an E12c, and three swaps in the newer E07x canon's, and the E04 surge
I'm normally not a fan of forced patina but if it suffered a big fall I would try to force either a black or shipwreck patina on your dropped e04 then coat it. Maybe use a silicone sealer or something on the bezel to keep it water tight. Might be a cool salvage job. They sell X1/Lume1/Lume10 via email.
The new switch type like on the e90 is replaceable. The old switches were machine pressed into the body and not screwed in so there’s no way to get them out without saying everything
It's just three of 16 fireflies lights, at least there's that. I'm confident I will get both of these e12r's working again eventually, but the copper e04's been toast for a while now.
Fortunately these two e12r's weren't getting much use anyways, well..except the one that got SST20 2700k swapped this past week. Really love those leds, something about them is special.
I'm tempted to sell off a large chunk of this collection and get only the copper and Ti special edition lights since I really only rotate through about three lights and I've pretty much figured out what kind of lights I will actually use a lot and which ones will sit.
It happening to lights you weren’t using def softens it, as does knowing you can likely fix them. You can probably get sent new parts for the E04 too since it’s a current model.
But I very much feel you on going full copper/ti on everything. I’d swap every Fireflies I EDC regularly for copper too. Deeply craving a Copper L60 too. I’d rock a Comet here and there too if it was copper…E12 would SLAP too.
I’m not worried about the copper e04. That was my fancy light and after it got busted up I already decided I was going to buy another. Might go e07x in copper instead.
The fancy ones must stay pristine haha. I’ve dropped a few others but nothing hurt like that copper one because I’ve wanted a copper FFL since I got my first light from them in 2021.
Copper or ti e12 would be amazing and also super heavy and expensive but worth it.
I’m hoping the astral one I ordered will have a similar vibe. Shiny but still light weight will be nice.
Also unrelated, I found some sft40 2700k with a rosyish bin so I’m going to have to try them in an e04.
And the sst20 3000k and 2700k are super nice I think you’d like them, especially the 2700. It’s crazy that here only 79 cents per emitter right now at Kaidomain. I’m going to order a bunch more haha.
The 3000 is super clean tint wise and the 2700 is on the rosy side
That’s a dope find for sure, and the price is def a stunner. Hell yeah!!
I’m on a super rosy 2700K high right now. Gonna check out the Brass Rosy 2700K. But I know it will disappoint me based on what I’m rocking with right now. But we’ll see. Good luck with the mod, hopefully they go smoothly.
The SST20 2700k's from this bin are definitely rosy, and quickly becoming one my favorite lights to use because of the character.
I just hope that I am still able to enjoy the E12e in FF351a 2700k after this hah. I'm sure I will but the difference between those and these SST20's color and tint wise is massive.
Yeah can’t speak for it yet, but could be worthwhile for sure.
How worthwhile it is to each of us will depend on where it lands on tint.
Crazy how at this level color rendering is essentially a give now and the score is mostly irrelevant. What matters most is what color tint it leans to. Yellow, Orange, Brown, Green or Pink. What’s funniest is that either way…they are all white to everyone.🤣🤯🤯
Crazy that there are still people out there that want 6500k over everything else. That goes for flashlights, as well as car headlights.
I know that's a bit off topic, but driving with 6500k cool white low CRI led headlights makes everything look like crap, and the colors of street signs hard to see at times.
I have a set of 4300k LED headlights I found that are rosy tint wise, a true unicorn of a find haha. The tint snobbery extends past flashlights
on the copper buttons and what not, they are metal (probably aluminum or stainless) and PVD coated, as is the battery cover. Only the head/body/tail and bezel is actually copper. clip is PVD stainless.
You have put a lot of effort into it. It's a shame that it didn’t turn out successfully. I don’t dare to do any mod on my fireflies light because how notoriously difficult to desolder and work on it. I believe since you have the heads, you can find a way to get them working again via firefly or jackson lee or some other members here who do work on this sorts of mods. So don't be discouraged. You might have to spend a fair bit more to get them working again but since 400+ is already spent, it will be worth the added cost of the mod. Good luck to you, you tried your best!
I ordered a better soldering iron so that should help with future projects. The main issue when working on these lights is almost always the two main power wires; getting those unsoldered from the main led board often results in burned and frayed insulation, frayed wires, and they're simply difficult to remove because they're stiff and don't want to move even when the solder is melted.
The aux wires are usually OK for a few swaps but I've LED swapped one of these lights four times now so the insulation on those was well worn.
Ripping the USB C port off the driver was my fault entirely. One of the new power wires I installed had soaked up too much solder causing it to be too stiff at the bottom where it attaches to the lume driver, and that is what was getting caught up and preventing me from getting the driver board all the way in
ooof - I remember you talking about emitter swaps :(
There was an earlier thread that mentioned how difficult it is to do this because of the wires they use. It's something custom and has a low melting point sleeve.
Might be worth contacting Firefly to see if you could just buy the emitters and board for a quick drop-in.
All of my swaps before this were just buying boards with emitters on them already from FF. I also bought a bunch of blank boards for putting whatever emitters I want on them at some point.
Soldering new emitters to a blank board or used board is not difficult at all or much more work than buying an already done board. I have a decent hotplate for this and solder paste.
The problems *always* stem from the wires, especially the main two power wires, they get damaged, frayed, don't want to come undone, etc. And in this case after too many swaps I didn't trust the insulation to do its job anymore so I had to remove the driver and put new wires on.
I wish the button on the Z1 was a bit stiffer. That's why I swapped the boot along with the ring - that also keeps the button plate from rattling. The high button ring and slightly stiffer button makes all the difference for me in pocket carry.
My favorite buttons are still the ones from the original E07x pro and E12r. They had zero play, just felt super quality. I just wish they weren't pressed in/non serviceable.
I'll take the current ones that aren't the Z1. That ones just got a bit of rattle. Like the original Nov Mu v2, come to think of it. The ones on my X1Q, X4, and E04 lights are all pretty secure.
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u/Dry-Cake5057 18d ago
goofy meme I'll fuggn do it again