First check the carrier and batteries over to make sure that all the button tops are the same and in place and that the carrier protection pcb’s are correct. Someone reported that one of the buttons came off the carrier that preventing it from making contact.
After that, make the bays that are working with tape or something and see if the bays that drain the cells are always the same.
FYI, it will always drain at least 4 cells, the carrier is setup in a 4s2p config so at least 2 sets of 2 cells will be drained or the light will not work. Now which bays drain can change, that is what you want to narrow down, does the bay that drains follow the cells or the carrier.
More then likely the cells you are using are borderline for contacting the protection buttons and that is why they are not reliably making a connection. A small solder blob on the top of the cell should fix it in that case.
Thanks. I’m using the Sony vtc6 button tops which is what most people seem to be using. The battery carrier seems to be a really tight fit so I’m trying to remove the rubber sleeves to see the batteries will fit better. However a few of the torx screws on the carrier are stripped so I have no way of taking the sleeves out unless I cut them open. Wondering if that’s worth a shot.
I think the screws are hex head, not torx, might help?
You could cut them off, it will make it a bit harder to line things up but easier once they are lined up.
All the buttons are in place on the middle PCB’s? if evreything checks out on the carrier itself, then must just be a variance in the cells, one of the button tops might just be a little different then the rest and doesn’t seat properly.
Do you have another set of cells you can try just to see if you can get all 8 to connect?
After a bit of trial and error I finally managed to get all 8 to discharge. Turned out I really had to massage each battery in place, screw in the tailcap, massage then screw in again and rinse and repeat till I absolutely can’t screw it in more. All the buttons are in place and all 8 batteries work.
Still I’m considering taking out the sleeves. Holding the batteries in place is the easy bit, lining them up properly takes a bit of effort and there’s no indication whether or not they’re all seated properly. Thanks again!
And you could try leaving out that floating PCB between the batteries, you remove some battery reverse safety but for me that solved all contact issues. And I found it easy enough to load the carrier into the battery tube without it.
What is the latest regarding the replacement reflectors? I've sent emails to Nealsgadgets and Lumintop requesting my replacement reflector and have not received any replies.