My > 10 years old Akoray K-106 sometimes flickers.
I've cleaned all contacts - even completely disassemble the tail switch, which I don't recommend as it is very difficult to reassemble - but no way, it still occasionally flickers. I wouldn't like to trash it though, because I find it well built, and I have recently replaced the orange tailcap with a very efficient GITD one.
I assume the driver is somewhat defective. Any suggestion to replace the whole head (driver + LED) with something "ready to install"?
Check it has not loosened over the years of unscrewing to replace batteries.
2. too much lubricant between the end of the body tube and the contact ring on the pill.
Clean out all lube in the head threads and on the pill, and also the body tube threads, including the end, with alcohol, and see if that solves the issue. Then relubricate with very little lube, and mostly for the O ring.
Thanks for the link, I see this light has changed significantly over the years: different positive contact in the head, (apparently) GITD tailswitch and o-ring inside the bezel. But I prefer to repair/improve my current K-106 rather than trash it and buy a new one.
It is very tight, moreover the threads are very clean.
No lube in this light. Threads and o-ring are perfectly clean.
Still flickers if you bypass the tailswitch? Ie, unscrew the tailcap, short the battery to the case with a key or anything else metallic?
If no, it’s still the switch, despite cleaning.
If yes, it’s (obviously) something else.
Sometimes LEDs themselves will flicker as they age. We have WALK / DONT-WALK signs on intersections where whole segments will randomly flicker. I’ve seen LED car taillights where similarly segments start flickering. Etc.
Takes a little work, but you can light up the LED directly (battery + resistor) via multimeter probes or similar, ie, bypassing the driver and hitting it on the +/- pads directly.
Then again, still flickers, it’s the LED. No more flickering, it’s something else (suggesting the driver).
of a 3 mode programmable version of the Akoray K-106, plus another version with 5 non programmable modes, plus the one on Fastech that is a single mode
so, I dont know where to send you to find a new driver… for your old light.
since the light has PWM, in some versions, maybe that is what you are seeing as flickering.
one thing that makes flicker worse, is a low battery. I have a couple of lights that flicker when it is time to recharge the battery.
Does your light flicker when the battery is fresh?
Thanks for your suggestions, I will further investigate these trails and let you know.
The bad battery suggested by jon_slider might be the culprit: I've just realized that the 14-year old Maha Imedion which powers this light has an internal resistance close to 1Ω .
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