Novatac Gold Storm Flicker report
Today My Storm decided to inform me, prematurely, that it would be good to recharge the battery:
Thereby becoming a candidate for a driver swap, possibly to H17f… or signal spring eliminator:
HDS decided to turn the Flicker into a feature, not a bug, lol
update
upon further investigation, suspecting a problem with the signal spring shorting to ground, I slapped the light around a few times, and she got turned ON! I just cannot abide a masochist, so I grabbed a Q-Tip and some Alcohol, and proceeded to rectify the situation.
Problem solved.
Note dirty contacts, and flicker, are a documented point of failure in HDS designs that use a signal spring such as the B42 and U60 that preceded the Novatac:
B42 manual https://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Legacy/EdcBasic/EdcBasicUsersGuide.pdf
“Note: you may notice a slight flicker on the Minimum brightness setting. This is normal. “
U60 manual: https://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Legacy/EdcUltimate/EdcUltimateUsersGuide.pdf
“Note: you may notice a slight flicker on the very low brightness levels. This is normal.”
.
elsewhere in the manual, in reference to low batteries it says:
“The same behavior can also occur if the battery contacts become dirty. Gently wiping the battery contacts with a clean dry cloth is normally sufficient to remove dirt. If in doubt, please replace your batteries.”
So I decided to clean the contacts, and after that I could no longer turn the light ON by slapping it.
…
Note to self, too much lubricant can ground the switch signal wire erratically…
fwiw, I have also had twisties become flickery and unreliable after too much lubrication, and the solution was the same, clean the contacts…
this is not an HDS/Novatac specific issue… Too Much Lube is Bad!