It’s got me stumped again. It’s something to do with the tailcap, just not sure yet. I can jump the body to the negative on the battery and it works fine. When I install the tailcap the button blinks red and turns off. I stretched the spring, took it out and just used magnets which worked better but it still acted like it had low voltage. Seems like a connection issue and the design is so simple but yet I havn’t figured it out fully. I will make a youtube tomorrow so I can show Banggood the issue and try to get some resolution. I will let you know the title so you can see it for yourself. I think the tail cap and the body are not seating together well enough to allow enough voltage to pass. I am a novice at this, so I could be way off base. I guess the driver could be messed up some how. Could the driver be kicking into the 2 cell configuration and sensing there isn’t enough current or voltage?
It’s an issue with contact.
Bad contact = bad connection = badly working light.
Do these lights work at both 3v and 6v?
Anyway, I assume you wiped down the ends of the battery tube and where they contact the head and tail cap. Grease or gunk can reduce contact.
Make sure there is at least a tiny gap between the head and cap and the battery tube. Do you know what I mean? Like on the new S43 and S43S, the battery tube ends are very slightly different length. If the battery tube is installed backwards the outer lip of the tailcap will bottom out on a machined groove on the battery tube and prevent it from screwing down all the way and making electrical contact. The fix is to simply flip the battery tube around. Have you tried flipping the battery tube around on your light? Try it and see if that fixes it.
Intrested
I’m interested!
So I have cleaned everything. Even went as far as to disassemble everything minus desoldering the wires, checked everything visually. Reassembled everything and it still does the same thing. With one cell it will turn on. The switch will be blue then blink red and then the whole light shuts off. Every once and a while it will turn on and ramp about half power before the light turns off in the same manner. (Switch blinks red and then powers off.) With 2 cells it does absolutely nothing. I mean nothing at all. Banggood has agreed to refund my money. May contact Mtn. Electronics and see if they have a new driver that may work. I’m guessing it’s the driver at this point. Not sure what else to try.
If you have a DMM and can take the reflector out you can measure the voltage going to the led. Put the black probe to the bare body.
One fresh battery should read 4.2v and 2 batteries should read 8.4v, or close.
Almost all lights run the battery positive directly to the led, then the negative side is controlled by the driver before going to the body ground.
If good voltage is going to the led, then the problem must be in the driver or the drivers contact to the body (or the battery contact to the body).
I noticed once some sparks when I started putting the tailcap on. Does that mean anything?
That seems a little strange. I don’t think any of my lights have done that. It might be likely if there is a big surge of current, like a light that turns on turbo when the tailcap is turned on. If the switch is on and you put the tailcap on there is the big current as the led lights up. I don’t have an SC04, but I don’t think it automatically turns on when the tail cap is installed. So it’s strange to me. I can’t say anything definitive about that spark.
5000K dual battery config
Well Banggood refunded my money today. I contacted Mountain Electronics about a new driver and they were reluctant to help. Gave me an option which I may take just to have it work to some degree. Also sent a translated message to Haikelite but it may take a day or 2 if they even respond.
Mine didn’t work right out of the box either. After fooling with it I would get a flash the several quick flashes. I don’t know what that mode is or what. I ended up cleaning the contacts with IPA since there was plenty of grease to go around. Also, this isn’t regular Ramping IOS so it seems and wasn’t used to it’s simplified features, no batt check? But the switch isn’t super sensitive so it seems to need pretty positive inputs. I also found that it seemed pretty picky with what battery I used and button top 26650s were a must in 2 bat configuration vs flats with a magnet, for whatever reason.
I doubt Richard would be willing to custom make I driver just for this model flashlight. You would more than likely need to choose a driver that he already makes. It’s also possible that Lexel has a driver that might work. It seems unlikely it would still be able to operate on two different voltages, though. You probably need to choose either 3 Volt or 6 volt and then whatever diameter driver will fit.
Well, knowing it is using a boost driver, I don’t think Lexel still has one.
Just wait for Haikelite/Dale to respond. He will be willing to send you a driver no problem for warranty.
It may take a while though…
Why would you think there is any relation? Haikelite tends to make their own user interfaces unless they specifically say they are running such and such UI version xx.
Really? I was thinking it was a Buck. So how are the 4 leds wired? 2S2P or 4S?
Told Richard I would be willing to sacrafise one. I would prefer it work with 2 cells. He did have one that may work but wasn’t sure how lo g it would last. It was because the LED’s were in a series I believe.
4S seemingly.
2P2S would be possible. However, it would require a buck boost driver, which Haikelite hasn’t made before, and would be more expensive.
4S would be the preferred setup, since it would just require the same type of boost driver found in the SC26, beefed up a bit.
Could these leds be wired 4P and handle a FET driver without burning up?
The LED’s are on seperate mcpcb’s in a series.