maybe do a test
take the ball out, and verify if it is affecting the feel of the ring, or not.
> it works semi-OK for 30 seconds and then it becomes thick and uneven
I have never experienced grease becoming denser with use. I did have a problem V11r, that would get looser on part of the travel. The fix was to lube the top outer face of the control ring.
I look forward to your success!
I have taken the ball out and the ring worked freely, but I did not do it for long. As you know, opening the light requires removal of the driver first, so I will do the entire procedure when the new ball arrives, which should be within the week.
I do not think it is the grease becoming denser. I think it is the ball settling in the hole in a way it stops turning. I believe it is not round, even though I have not checked.
I will let you know how it goes with the new ball.
fwiw, some of my lights feel like there is almost no detente. Especially after I add damping grease.
Im not sure a ball is necessary. If the grease is damping enough.
I have removed the ball from an Eye10. I used extra grease to get maximum damping. To be honest, I think I used more than necessary, it is a bit difficult to turn the dial now. But it met my objective. There is no chance the dial will turn unintentionally.
At the other end of the spectrum, I have one light whose ball has an unusually strong detente. I dont actually like it, because the extra effort to turn the dial past the detente, makes the dial turn too suddenly.
Most of my lights, have an almost unnoticeable detente, so I can ramp smoothy off the stop.
I look forward to your effective solution. Totally understand wanting to wait and try a new ball. But I wish you would try no ball, until the new one arrives. You may decide not to use it, and I wont have to wait as long for your results.
Balls are overrated… 
I’ll throw this out there since we are on the detent ball, as a solution for a wore out hole or maybe a track groove from hole to hole where the ball rides.
This ball is about .015” bigger than the 2 mm ball which should let it ride and track in a completely different position than the 2 mm.
I bought a few just encase I ever needed it.
Well, I have found the issue with the ring not working smoothly, no matter what.
Here is a picture of the new 2mm ceramic balls I received today on the top right and the bigger, not to mention corroded ball that was in there - I should have looked!.
I also used a felt wheel and Dremel red polishing paste to shine all the surfaces, but it is obvious the main issue was the ball.
the princess and the pea… LOL
congrats on getting to the root of the problem
prize goes to moderator007 for the correct guess 
moderator007 gets all the credit and my thanks for pointing out the proper size and a good type for the ball. I got 10 to have in hand
He also pointed out other trade secrets I will look into in due time
My sincere and deepest gratitude!
Your original ball looks like a 3/32 ball, can you take a precise measure to see.
I measured the original ball at 2mm and have used that size in several RRT-01’s and TCR-1’s.
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You got me wondering what happened here, so I went and measured the ball out of a brand new never opened TCR-1 I just modded.
It measures 2.38mm which is the 3/32 ball.
Its got me wondering if the ball had been replaced in the TCR-1 I original measured the ball in.
Either jetbeam used two different sizes (which I doubt) or someone had lost and replaced my TCR-1 ball with the wrong size.
I measured my wear replacement 3/32 ceramic balls at 2.38mm and the brand new original TCR-1 ball at 2.38mm so that would be the correct size ball.
I don’t know exactly what happened Pol77, I measured my TCR-1 ball at 2mm and ordered 50 of them with 10 3/32 balls as potential wear replacements.
2.38mm or 3/32 should be the correct size though. Puzzling why they would use a standard size ball and not metric.
It might be best to order a few of both sizes to make sure one will be a exact replacement.
Aha! The plot thickens! I will see how it goes with this ball and if it is smooth, I’m happy. If I do not like the feeling, I will try the larger size.
I have used the 2mm many times and wouldn’t have even known any difference if it wasn’t for your pic, then measuring a original one I know had never been replaced.
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The Si3N4 balls should be a permanent replacement that shouldn’t flat spot, they’re way harder than steel balls.
They also have a G5 geometric tolerance rating which makes it more true to a perfect sphere than the steel balls.
can someone verify the claim that there is thermal protection in the 2020 RRT-01 driver
output testing is showing 2020 driver is no brighter than the 2019 model, they reach about 550 lumens, according to tests done by HDS and myself.
there seems to be a difference in the components on the battery side of the drivers (bottom left 2019 vs bottom right 2020):
I can’t be sure without having one to test but what looks like a black 603 resistor just to the left of the numbers 200506 might be a thermistor.
I see they have moved components on the left side up a little to make room for two extra components.
Is the small part circled in green diode D3?.
thanks for your great observations and info
so, a thermistor does what? dims the light at a certain temperature?
I also see other changes, no idea what it all means
btw, I received the 2020 driver from Jchang76 as a free upgrade, after I lent him a 2019 driver… I am very grateful to have the option to test the newest driver… Thank you!
I dont know, why do you ask?
D3 on the 2019 board is missing on the 2020 version.
Its a resistor that changes value with temperature.
You can read about it here.
It could be using a thermistor and a resistor (the two foghorne circled) to create a voltage divider like described in section “Hardware linearization solution”.
Its missing from the battery side of the board. It could be that it was relocated on the other side of the battery pcb, which we dont have a view of.
Its a two piece stacked pcb driver.
moderator007, can you say from the changes you see in the components what the purpose may be? Would the design dim the light to maintain a max temperature or will it work as a safeguard to shut it off if a temperature is reached?
If it is a thermistor it only gives the mcu a way to measure the temp. The code that compares the reading would determine where and when step down or shut down would happen. It was all up to the designer and coder as to the features.
So there is a possiblity the hardware is there but the code to take advantage of it is not.
I did turn on 2 TC-R1 lights, one with the 2019 and one with the 2020 driver and put them side by side on the table until they got fairly hot, but I did not push it because I have had a 2019 driver die on my a few days after I used the light for an actual emergency where I had to repair my girlfriends home lights that shorted. so the light was on top of a wardrobe on max until the battery almost died, while I was repairing the lights. It got quite hot but kept working and as the battery was depleted, output and temperature were lower and the light cooled off and kept working. A few days later, the light would suddenly not turn on. Replacing the driver fixed it. It looks like temperature killed the driver but not on the spot. In any case I am since reluctant to repeat the experiment and was excited to hear the 2020 driver may have some kind of thermal regulation / protection, but my short trial did not show it has. Maybe it needs to be tested for longer.