Nitecore EA11 dead after a drop (now alive again)

No danger. The shim your making will simply be an extension of the negative contact. The entire body of the flashlight is also negative, though it is non-conductive where the anodizing is present. Therefore if the shim bites the anodizing and makes contact with bare threads then there will be no difference in potentials (negative on negative).

Great!

and thanks to you guys…you just saved my day, and my light.

also check button top _ On Battery _ for any flattening. it happens.

also you may try small magnet on button top for extra length to make sure this is not a positive contact problem.

The button top flattening is ruled out as my solder-blobbed Sanyo 14500 works in my other EA11.

I have two new questions:

1. What holds the pcb in its place in the head in the first place?

2. If I put a shim to make contact, how big is the possibility of the pcb sinking deeper into the head, again losing contact?

Well, I’ve never taken mine apart so I do not know the internals. Was hoping you wouldn’t have to go there.

I think you could fashion a shim from rolled up aluminum foil to tell you what you want to know pretty quickly. If it lights, you will then know the problem.

After thinking a little more, were you able to cycle the light on and off when you hooked it up with battery holder? You shoud have been able to. If not, the switch STILL could be bad. It should cycle on and off.

Hi Streamer, I have answered your post and your suggestion worked (post # 13)

Now, materials ready for tonight’s project:
Either I grind out the washer’s inside or cut shims to fit.

Perhaps these two concerns of mine went unnoticed, here they are again:

1. What holds the pcb in its place in the head?

2. If I put a shim to make contact, how big is the possibility of the pcb sinking deeper into the head, again losing contact?

Is that white blob at about 12 o’ clock position in the head on the right a glue to keep the pcb in place?

On the head in the left (the malfunctioning one) no longer has it.

I’m guessing it to only be thermal adhesive. I believe the driver sits on a shelf and is not going anywhere.

You did not answer if you could cycle light on and off with battery holder.

Yes, it can be cycled normally with the battery holder.

What happens if my brass spacer ring touches that long, horizontal thing?

grind away this edge. to permit the body tube to screw in further

I just checked the head and that part where the arrow is does not touch anything in the tube.

I think he means the outside of the tube, does it look like it stops the battery tube from being screwed into the head any further when tightened?

If so, I think what overclocker is proposing is that the edge the arrow points is the stop for the battery tube when the tube and head are screwed together as far as they can go. So if you ground this off a little, the battery tube can fit further inside the head. Then the shiny (un-anodized) ring on the end of the battery tube will make contact with the negative ring on the outside of the pcb without using any spacer.

Looking at my EA11’s head right now, the edge of the head (like in the arrow) does not contact anything, so grinding it away will only shorten it but won’t help the un-anodized tube inside the head, when screwed tightly, make contact with the negative ring in the pcb.

As I posted earlier, I tried putting a piece of soldering lead along the negative ring and screwed in the tube, the soldering lead serving as conductor between the tube and the negative ring and light worked again.

Photo below shows the head as ‘floating’ as a piece of paper can go in between it and the tube: (grinding will not help in this case)

Looks like you are planning a lot of work. In dutch homes we use solid core pvc wire for the wiring.
Clip off a piece and roll it in the shape of the tube. The more it presses against the tube the better.
The good thing is: if it is just a tiny bit to small you can “forge” it to perfect fit by flattening it with a hammer.

Edit: sorry, the previous post was not there when I wrote this.

Gotcha, good call!!! Looks like the shim is the easiest solution.

This brass shim made the light work again…. thanks to Streamer on his trouble-shooting tips!

( That fall to the concrete floor perhaps head-first moved the pcb forward and distanced itself from the tube cutting off the ground connection.)

that long horizontal thing is the reverse polarity protection to keep from conducting if battery inserted backwards.

i’m so glad you got it solved!!! :+1: :+1: :+1: :beer:

I think to fix pcb you would have to remove bezel, reflector, etc to re-align it properly.
But, if your shim works for you that is OK too.

Make sure tube o-ring seats properly now that you have increased total length by small margin.

Good work!