Ok, Another Novatac Gold Storm Flicker report
today the light started flickering at the 13 lumen level, same as described in Post 25. Like last time, it also flickered on minimumā¦ Im talking about flicker so obvious a child could see itā¦ not just something my snobby trained eyes can detect in rare circumstancesā¦ I mean like, no, I cant use this light like this, kind of flicker.
Nothing I tried solved the problem, not a flash of high mode, not cleaning all the contacts again, not slapping itā¦ nothingā¦ this light just Flickers!
The flicker went away when I installed a fresh battery.
The one I took out was at 3.82vā¦ note that yesterdays flicker report was coincidentally at a very similar voltage, 3.84v. Two different 16340 batteries. My current belief is that this Novatac just does not like 3.8x volts. It works without flickering at lower voltages, including on Primary batteriesā¦
fwiw, I started this thread with a report of Visible flickering on a different Novatac, in that one the battery was at 3.57v.
So, it seems as though there is a Flicker issue with the Novatac circuit, when a LiIon is about 1/2 discharged, not just on one light.
.
I did already do a battery detect reset for LiIon prior to the last 2 Flicker events.
there is more detail about that in this thread
Novatac LiIon Low Battery Voltage Warning System features
At this point I dont think this Flickering is an issue that can be eliminated.
imo The solution is simply to use a fresh battery.
Its a Feature, not a Bug
An undocumented Low Voltage Warning
if there was a line in the manual that said something like:
Note, when using LiIon below 3.85v, the light will flicker to remind you to replace and recharge.
it would have saved me a lot of grief
Im moving on from Clicky UIās
My next adventure is to experience the HDS Rotary interfaceā¦ stay tuned for those Investigative Reports of flickers, tints, beams, ergonomics, and UIās 
Now that the Gold Storm is out of my pocket, what took its place?
I went back to my Utorch S1 Mini, modded w N219b 4500k 9080
I love the Aspheric Beam! I call it my Budget Sundrop
Its the one in the middle:
and on the left:
totally different beam, size, weight, than the Novatacā¦ each has its pros and consā¦ choices are good
.
New Experiment
I changed the Battery Detection on the Gold Storm to Primary
ran the light on its maxiumum of about 85 lumens for 35 minutes, and got the battery down to 3.84 volts.
turned the light on at 13 lumens, and it started to flicker,
just like when it was set to LiIon Battery detect
soooā¦ I ran it on high for another 5 minutes, to see if I can have some NoFlicker time, below 3.84vā¦
YES! after 5 minutes on high the battery is at 3.77v and the light does not flicker on the 13 lumen mode anymore
so, the type of battery detection has nothing to do with the 3.8x flicker, and it not only has an identifyable start of flicker voltage, theres a point after which it no longer flickersā¦ about 5 minutes on high, or lessā¦
so I reset battery detection to LiIon
and to confirm it was enabled I inserted a battery that was at 3.04 v and as expected, the light stepped down from High and refused to give more than 27 lumensā¦ I knew where this was headedā¦ to the 3v low mode blinking, where no other mode worksā¦
then, to see if I could get under the low voltage blinks, I inserted a battery at 2.92 volts and found it would power the light with no low voltage warningā¦ except that it stepped down to 64 lumens, and would not give more, but it also did not blink or flash
so again, there is a cut off below which the Low Voltage warning stops interfering with normal useā¦
.
moral of the story, if a Novatac blinks at you when the battery is up around 3.8v, and you want it to stop, force high mode for a while, maybe it will get over its need for attentionā¦
