Why’s that? I thought conductive grease on the bare aluminum parts would be good to improve conductivity.
The connection is made at the contact points of the metal surfaces. With high voltages there might be arcing through the air which will cause all kind of issues. Thus you can use “bulb grease” which fills the space with a better dielectric to prevent arcing. But that’s nothing you will find in flashlights. It also seals the metal surfaces against air and moisture to prevent corrosion.
Using a conductive material will not improve the resistance. You would need something like liquid metal and also consider the resistance at the points of contact between the aluminum and this other metal. The biggest issue with any conductive non-solid material is that it will eventually cause short circuits because it will reach places where it doesn’t belong.
Lubrication in flashlights is used to increase the lifetime of the threads and o-rings. Aluminum on aluminum can be very abrasive and tearing on the o-ring can prevent a proper seal. It will also help to seal the flashlight against moisture.
Also keep in mind that aluminum oxide is an electric insulator. When you screw the threads together the forces will break the extremely thin layer of aluminum oxide.
From what I can see, the contacts are clean, springs are clean and tight, edge of the battery tube is clean, o-ring is properly seated and I don’t hear any rattling.
I used a pencil eraser on the main contact ring, cleaned away the eraser dust, then wiped it with a rag and a tiny amount of Ballistol, then wiped clean.
I haven’t taken anything apart besides opening the battery compartment and rear tailcap but don’t see any obvious signs of scorch or anything loose.
I don’t have another 18650 light but I ran the batteries through another charge cycle to full.
It was just riding in my backpack, so I’d be surprised if it suffered any major shock or impact since I’m not rough with the pack since it has a lot of other stuff in it.
Thanks for the help so far.
Ballistol reacts with copper and partly dissolves it. The traces on a PCB are a very thin layer of copper. So please don’t use ballistol on PCBs.
I’ll remember that.
It was just a drop on a rag and only applied to the contact ring but I’ll be careful to not do it again.
Did you try removing the o-ring and fully tightening?
Since you are new to 18650 cells, can you confirm the positive end sticks up above the plastic wrapper? Some people use flat top 30Q because it just barely sticks up and sometimes it makes contact and sometimes it doesn’t. With button top cells they add the button which raises it about 1.5mm.
It seems logical the charger is working and the battery is not completely dead, but to be sure do you have a voltmeter to verify?
Other than this, it seems the driver may have gone bad. Can you solder? You can get replacement drivers for about $10. You can unscrew the bezel and driver, remove the screw that holds the reflector into place and then check the led board (mcpcb). It’s possible a wire may have come undone.
I’m new to the forum and these type of lights. I’m getting the double blink when I screw the battery in, what does that indicate?
In ramping, I’m getting to roughly (wild guess) 200 lumens and then it turns off. It’s no brighter than a 10 dollar flashlight from home depot. The light also seemingly turns on and off randomly if I leave the batteries in.
Using BXE 18650 9800mAh button tops that are protected. I went to a batteries plus store and tried out another battery with the same result.
Any thoughts?
Well, that explains it. Pour oily water into your car’s gas-tank and see how well the engine runs.
Get a set of legit 30Qs from a reputable seller (ask here), and it’ll work fine.
Thanks! I used one of the threads to find a reputable seller. Ordered these, hope they do the trick:
Looks good!
I’ll take a look inside when I have some uninterrupted time in the next day or so.
I’m hoping that I’m in for one of those magic “take apart, put back together and it works great” deals.
If not, I may have to re-learn to solder.
Wow…. just wow. What I’m shocked about is that a brick & mortar retailer is selling absolutely dangerous crap like that. And a store called “Batteries Plus” should know that any 18650 with claims of 9800mAh is fake, fake, fake, fake.
Never go back to that store, except perhaps to demand your money back for them scamming you.
The double blink means the driver has power.
I’ve never heard of the light randomly turning on and off. I can only assume it’s something to do with those batteries.
Return the item for not meeting the specs. If they refuse, threaten to sue. It the still refuse - sue. You’re bound to win.
Thanks again for all of the responses. So the 30q’s have not improved the situation. I have charged them via the USB C included with the light. I hold the green button and light ramps for roughly two second and then quickly turns off. Like last time, no brighter than an out of the box $10 light from home depot. The light also still randomly comes on and off.
Any thoughts? Any experience on trying to return for an exchange?
Returning shipping to China usually starts at $60 plus there may be additional customs fees, so that is not really an option. Warranty related stuff would be them sending you a replacement head or whatever part is bad. It’s cheaper for them for you to keep the bad item.
If I had to guess, I’d say the FET is not working. Channel one uses a 7135 chip that allows .350mA to go through (about 150 to 200 lumen) and as you ramp up it switches to channel two which has the FET that provides all the higher currents.
I don’t know what could cause it turning on and off on it’s own, though.
Are you able to make a video of how it’s acting?
Are you sure it’s a Q8? Those don’t have built in charging.
As you suspected, it’s not a Q8. It is a SP36. If I’m in the wrong spot, let me know. The directions specifically cited this thread to get support.
I’m trying to upload a video. What that video displays is me screwing in the batteries and receiving 2 blinks. I feel like your hypothesis is directionaly correct. Instead of moving on to a higher power it simply shuts off.
I sent Sofirn US an email so hopefully they have some input.
Note: It’s hard to get a video of it turning on and off. That said I just saw it light up across the basement unprompted ha.
The SP36 driver is basically the same design as the Q8, but with a charging circuit designed in. It’s still a single 7135 chip and FET design. So what I said before still applies. If the FET is not working then you only get from moonlight to about 200 lumen. Some early versions of this light used NarsilM and later versions used Anduril. Unless I’m mistaken, both user interfaces use the same basic method of transitioning between channels one (7135 chip) and two (FET). As you ramp up once the 7135 chip reaches full output it stays there and the FET starts to add power.
So a bad FET would make it ramp up the 200 lumen and then just stay there. A double click to Turbo would shut off the light as that is the only brightness level that uses the FET only.
It definitely sounds like you have a driver problem, unfortunately the SP36 driver is glued in and not easily replaceable.
I would contact the store you bought it from to see about getting a replacement head or whole light.
I imagine you folks know this but I traded emails with Sofirn and they couldn’t have been more responsive and helpful. I provided a video and we tried some basic trouble shooting. In the end, they are sending out a replacement. Thanks again for all of the help here.
Sounds good.