I was invited along on a “sunset” 4X4 tour of the local desert, and thought I’d take my S15R along. When I picked it up, I noticed my keyring was stuck to the base and it looked like keys were touching both of the charging rings in the magnetic tail cap. I pulled the keys off and then found out the light wasn’t working. I tried troubleshooting it by:
Measuring the voltage in the protected Olight 14500 battery that came out of the light - it measured 4.05 volts.
Putting the Olight battery in another 14500 flashlight - it worked so the protection didn’t “trip”
Putting a fully charged nimh AA battery in the S15R - it did’t light
Putting a new alkaline AA battery in the S15R - it didn’t light
I then put the protected Olight 14500 battery back in the S15R - the light still didn’t work. I then plugged in the base charger and put the light on the charger. It gave a red “charging” light for about 10 minutes, then went green. The light now works.
Any thoughts on what happened, and how to prevent it in the future?
I’ve had a similar thing happen with my S15R and my S10R. I found that loosening and then firmly re-tightening the tail cap retaining ring solved the problem right away. I use one of these tools.
I also have a non charging S15. I switched caps between the two once when the “R” was having fits and the light worked. I have never contacted Olight about this but was about to when I discovered that swapping the tailcaps ointed to the “R” tailcap as being the problem source. Maybe this is a common issue. Maybe they have a better solution?
Mtndon: have you noticed if the central contact for charging ever gets stuck on you? When on the charger the pin pushes that contact and breaks the batt+ connection to the host. If that contact is out of alignment or stuck in it won’t reconnect with the tailcap/body. If that happens obviously the light won’t turn on. It can be fixed by poking at the depressed contact or redocking it to the charger. I just bring it up as it happened to me a few times. I actually rebuilt the tailcap using a brass button as the contact. Anyway…
I haven’t noticed that but will try to keep it in mind if/when a problem rears its head. I suppose if that happens loosening the retainer might make it pop free.
Thanks. I didn’t realize that that middle part of the tailcap moved :).
I think I got it working again. I noticed that the area on the charger face around the middle pin look like it was covered with something (might’ve been rust, I am not sure). I scraped that area and it turns green now. I keep that light on our kitchen counter, maybe 3-4 ft from the sink, maybe the moisture caused that?
And once again my S15R stopped working, and I forgot about this tip and was just about to pitch the light. Then I decided to Google it and this post came to the top… Fixed it again in 30 seconds. :student: :+1:
I love my S15R but this glitch drives me nuts. I’ve gotten to where if I am heading away for a few days and I want to take this light, I remove the tail cap and go through the loosen-retighten routine. I wonder if this issue is why Olight discontinued the light? It is still a great pocket light.
Yeah, as a matter of fact the last time it failed me was when I was heading off on a trip to a very rural area… My Nitecore keychain saved me there.
I honestly don’t even understand why this trick works. Obviously tightening it makes sense, but it wasn’t loose, and something about the action of unscrewing and then tightening does the trick.