Gifted a Blf A6 this Christmas and he told me the other day that when he turned it on it became to hot to hold in seconds. I had my a6 on me put it on turbo and had him hold it for a while. “Not even close” is what he said after holding it for about 20 seconds. He is going to bring his by so I can take a look. What would be a common cause?
Light on or off?
If off, shorted battery through the switch?
Most probably a short. Mine was a cut in the insulation. A short between the battery and led+ gets hot in seconds, springs melt, no light. Between led- and B- you get simply direct drive, only slightly hotter than normal and bypassed springs won’t melt.
I believe he said the light was on. He can be dramatic at times so I’ll have to look at it.
As y’all know I’m trying so fix an x5/s2 that suffered a reflector short but I doubt that’s the case with this one what should I look for in this case?
It could easily also be a reflector short but the A6 has an insulating disc so it would be one of the solder bumps. The other possibilities are cut insulation, and L+ or L- to ground on driver.
Alright. Cut insulation is that on the star or somewhere else as well? I’m going to try and look up some pics of drivers to figure out what is what. Thanks for your patience I know it’s annoying explaing things to greenhorns like me.
Best picture I found was one that you posted Rufusbduck thanks!
He might have a better (high drain) cell. Swap the batteries to test this.
Does the light ever go off? If it doesn’t go off, I’m going to assume that it’s not a short. If it was shorting and getting too hot to hold…both springs would most likely be melted by now or a wire would have desoldered itself from the driver. Maybe he’s just not used to hot rodded lights??
No worries here, the cut happens when turning the bezel causes the reflector to put torque on the mcpcb and shear the wires between the mcpcb and pill. In cases where the mcpcb is stamped and the wire holes are drilled both may end up with edges sharp enough to cut the insulation. Silicon coated wire is great for flexibility but it’s much softer and easier to cut than say Teflon insulation. My solution was to replace the damaged wire and chamfer the mcpcb slots and pill wire holes to “dull the scissors” and also add a bit of adhesive around the perimeter to make a repeat much less likely. It’s not going to be an issue with center wired triples or lights where the mcpcb is glued or screwed in place but it’s something else to be aware of
This is what I was thinking, as well. Low or standard current cell won’t get the LED as hot, as quickly as a high current cell can - when running direct FET+.
The cell is a Lg MJ1. He held mine with a 30q and said it was nothing close to how hot his became. He still has not brought me his. Don’t think it was a cell issue.
Well I guess he put the battery in backwards. I got it everything looked fine. Took it all apart cleaned and tightened Everything. Checked it and would is fine. Who knows.
Dead short and too hot to hold in seconds? That sounds oddly like a narrow escape from meltdown with possible kaboom…
I know it that’s what worries me but no signs of anything I cleaned and tightened everything used the same battery and it’s fine. Maybe it won’t blow up on him lol.
Guess its good he wasn’t using a ICR based battery. At least with imr inr they have to try to force them with incredible abuse to just vent
Wait, the BLF A6 will overheat if you do that? No reverse cell protection?
Sounds like the guy is new to flashlights and didn’t realize a 1400 lumen light could get hot. Compared to a Walmart Coast light, they do get hot fast. He may have exaggerated the time it took. It would seem fast when you are used to a light that doesn’t get hot at all.
That’s true. I shouldn’t have gotten it for him but he said he needed a good one. When I tried to tell him how to cycle modes he didn’t really listen. I tried to make it clear that the battery was potentially dangerous how to charge/insert it etc. I’m afraid he blew it all off and thought he’d figure it out. Needless to say I won’t be gifting another non alkaline powered flashlight unless I know they will listen or already know. If you can’t already tell by the rant he’s my father in law lol.