Thanks Pleiades really appreciate the help. I am working away from home for a week or two so will have a look when I get home, fingers crossed.

No worries. I'm interested in the solution (if you find one). Keep us posted with how you get on/what you find.

I think I found a way for led start always with full power.
I put a 10k ohm resistor on the cap that holds memory of the last mode, so after powering off the led, if I wait 3 seconds it discharges, if I plug power sooner it changes mode. Not perfect but is a workaround...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5n...Q=w939-h920-no

I also have another led but when testing around I ended up destroying the U1 chip and the Q1 Transistor. Is there a way to connect directly or I need some chip?

Did you try cutting out the u2 chip? I think that was the one mentioned earlier in the thread?

Yes I did, But did not do anything, this u2 chip is for the blue and red led that I will not be using.

ooo the rascals, not sure why do they keep changing the design. that's the 4th variant on that board ive seen now.

So my attempts were unsuccessful :(
I tried to ground the pin and i must have accidentally shorted it somewhere else as well so when i applied the 12v feed i had a squeak, a pop and then a puff of smoke from one of the resistors. On the other light i decided to remove the u1 chip, now both lights oddly behave in the same way the leds light up at full brightness then dim down to i guess what would have been the dim mode. the strobe mode is gone so i guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad haha.

I think the moral of this tale is probably... Spend a few more pennies and get a pair of lights that only have one mode in the first place! ;)

We got one to work by removing the U2 chip, but when we ordered another one it had a totally different circuit board. It seems as though the U2 chip is missing on the new circuit board.

https://i.imgur.com/4bKfCwh.jpg
The picture shows the new U5 circuit board, which still uses 3 modes, on the left, and the working U5 which works and uses the full light mode only (you can see the U2 chip has been removed).

Does anybody have a fix for this? I haven't found a video yet with this exact version.