Introduction: How to Fix a Broken Rechargeable Flashlight!!!!!!

I am a seventh grade boy from Monterrey, Mexico, and I want to fix a broken flashlight and make it better because I think that if something breaks you should not throw it away, and, instead you should try to fix it and make it better. I know many people have different, more complicated flashlights, but mine was very simple inside. It also used a charger, so it was a reusable flashlight. How it works is you just put the charger into the outlet, and it is supposed to charge, so when you use it, it is supposed to turn on. These are the steps that I have come up with:

Steps:

1. Open the flashlight

2.See what the problem is.

3. Fix it!

(I know this is not very in depth, but I did not know what the problem was back then)

Materials we will need for this project:

-A screwdriver

-Scissors

-Hot glue gun

-Soldering iron

-Solder

-Batteries

Step 1: Opening Up the Flashlight

This step was the easiest step do far. First, I had to cut the stickers all around it. Then, I had to get all of the nails out with a screwdriver. Lastly, twist the top part of the flashlight (where the light comes out of) and..... It would open.

Step 2: Trying to Understand What the Problem Is

This step was a bit harder, but I am lucky that my flashlight was very simple inside. there was just the battery, the light itself, the charger, the button, and the circuit board. I already saw that two of the cable's were cut, and the charger was broken, but, what I did notice was that there was a little green light on the battery, which meant that it was charged, but it did not turn on. So, that meant that either it did not work because of the cable's, the button did not work, or something was wrong with the circuit board.

Step 3: Fixing the Flashlight

First, I decided to fix the charger. At the bottom of the flashlight, there was supposed to be a plastic stick, with a tiny plastic circle at the top, and at the bottom of it, the charger was supposed to be glued to it, so people could grab it, and pull it so the charger comes out of a hole, so people could charge the flashlight, but, the pieces where apart, so I glued them together. Inside, there are pieces that are connected by cables, and are supposed to transport electricity. In the first piece, the charger was supposed to be touching the metal, which transported the electricity to where it needed to be, but, the charger was not touching the metal, so I pushed into place, and when I tested it, and it started charging! Then, I started to work on the cables. First, I had to cut of insulation and exposed wires. Next, we had to solder the wires to the accumulator. Then we tried to test what was broken, and we did it by exception. First we tried the batteries. we got a pair of new batteries, and we put the wires on the batteries. We pressed the button, but it still did not work. Then we tried to see if the button was broken. There where two legs at the bottom of the button. we connected the two wires to the battery, and tested it, but it still, it did not work, so that meant that the problem was with the lights. So, finally, we soldered the flashlight and the wires, took another flashlight's light, and soldered the old flashlight's wires to the new flashlight's light, and when we tested it, it worked! That is how we fixed our old flashlight. Thanks!