/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Ok, this thing...

>HF light
>ripped out 3x AAAs and replaced with Li-Ion
>rigged up little board from power bank with 5V/1A output so can charge via USB and provides battery protection
>attach 3 extra LED strips and replace on-off switch with off-lo-hi switch
>turn on Low, everything works well
>turn on High, works for a few seconds, then cuts off
>based on guess, it’s too much current
So I just took the extra 3 strips off. Now I turn the power on (Lo or Hi), and the LEDs just start flashing real dim. There is a little button on the board you can press to see the battery level indicator LEDs. If I press that, it turns those little lights on and then the switch works perfectly. It’s almost like switching on the main one light, the little board doesn’t sense that something is plugged in and needs power, but then pressing the little battery level button turns it on. But with the 3 extra strips, even on low power, the board automaticaly knows something needs power when I press the switch.

What is going on? Maybe the low power of the light + 3 strips pulls more current than the one light on high, and there’s a certain threshold the board needs to see to send 5V to the output?