Troubleshooting lights

This is going to be really good.

That was quite literally done as I ran through the process which has the advantage of actually forcing me to think through what I was doing as I did it. I thought I'd already tried that with this light. I'll also try to do it with the no tools and equipment as far as possible as not everyone has spent thousands on tools and parts. Field expedients can usually be found. I usually end up doing stuff like this when my tools aren't with me. Photographing all this clearly will be the trickiest bit - but I'll get there. Just don't hold your breath - I have to work this weekend and have stuff to prepare for that.

Now all Mr Admin needs to do is make this a sticky....hey Don please check your PM.Sealed

So when a light isn't working you don't bang it with a hammer or against the wall first? LOL

I'll probably be using that LED Troubleshooting Guide A LOT. Thanks for the link Don.

Last night I bought some NyoGel 760G and NyoGel 779ZC from Lighthound after reading these:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=242414

http://www.cpfreviews.com/Flashlight-Care-Nyogel-Lubricants.php

You really have to have something like that. A little bit will last you a long time. Use as little as possible to get the results you want. I found Super Lube at an Ace Hardware near me and I'll probably never need any more.

Sticky'd. Great, Thanks for the tips!

Nah, that's in advanced troubleshooting. Along with jumping up and down and screaming

My favourite is re-soldering with an arc welder. 400 amps or thereabouts makes for impressive results.

"Fixes" things every time - just remember not to burn your home down while trying this...

I've got a bit of a temper so I tend to bang things or throw them against the wall. None of that advance troubleshooting of mine has ever worked of course. LOL But it still happens every now and then. Wink

Arc welding? I don't think I'm even ready for regular soldering yet. Laughing

I was just going to use vaseline but I thought I'd use what the flashlight experts recommend. Smile

Maybe we could add a section about "First steps with your new light", as most of my problems have come from loosely tightened switch and light modules. This guide will be really good, thanks to all for what you can add to it.

That's a good idea.

Probably split this up into something like:

First steps

Preventative maintenance

Basic Troubleshooting

Trickier troubleshooting

Electrical and optical measurements

Soldering

Replacing components

Take a while to illustrate all of those though. Will try to get pics of sorting out the Aurora light above in the near future.

Yes that looks good, Don. Let me see if I can play around with some formatting options here...

It is rather messy - I was fiddling with the light and typing as I went along. Pretty it isn't.

Not at all, no worries, we're just outlining at this point.

BudgetLightForum Flashlight Troubleshooting Guide

Intro

Whether it's a $10.00 Trustfire or a $250.00 Surefire, almost any flashlight can arrive with problems out-of-the-box, or it can develop problems later on in its lifespan. However, most of these problems are easy to resolve with minimal tools, even for somebody who is not particularly handy.

First Steps with a New Light

Preventative Maintenance

Troubleshooting

Basic Troubleshooting

Setting up

Inspection

Cleaning

Lubrication

Trickier troubleshooting

Fault isolation

Electrical and optical measurements

Soldering

Replacing components

Something like that? Suggestions are welcome.

Looks good to me.

It might get to be rather long though - maybe some of it as separate posts?

Also perhaps in big red letters at the top, the very important motto; "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Or the troublesome tradesman's variant; "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is..."

If it gets too long an unwieldy I can look into splitting it up or we can put an index at the top. We'll figure something out.

First Steps with a New Light

So, your new light has arrived. As it happens, one arrived for me today. So we'll use it as an example. It is one of these a flood to throw light. Having got it out of the packaging, it is not a dreadfully good idea to throw the packaging away. You may need it to return the light, of there may be things lurking it it. In this case I found a nylon holster lurking in the bottom of the box. So having found all the parts, we can put the packaging aside.

A visual inspection is always a good idea. So here it is.

Looks OK.

Does it rattle?

What I usually do next is give it a gentle shake. Are there any rattles or bad sounds? If there are, put a battery in it and try again. They shouldn't rattle - if they do, something is loose that needs to be tightened up. The first places to look are the switch retaining ring and the pill. If they are loose, you are going to get flickering or worse. However, this light, being a zooming light has to be checked with the head at the various settings. There is a faint rattle at the farthest extension (Tightest spot). The whole head will rock slightly at this setting, probably because there isn't enough body tube to keep it in line. There was a small amount of movement from the aspheric optic. Don't touch it with your fingers, if it is coated glass you will damage the coating, if it plastic you will scratch it. Use a lint-free cloth or anything you'd clean spectacles with. Tightening up the bezel ring fixed that. You can see the gap for the bezel ring quite clearly in this picture, far more clearly than I could actually see it. There are no other rattles so we'll set aside the head issue for the moment.

Inspect the threads

Just a visual inspection just now. Tailcap first as it is easiest.

This photo doesn't show it but they are covered in some grey crud - which may, or may not be a lubricant. Judging by the squeaks, if it is a lubricant it isn't doing its job. So I'll clean the tailcap threads. I find the best way to do this is with some toilet paper which I push into the threads with a fingernail and then twist the tailcap around to use my fingernail and paper to follow the threads and clean them out. A couple of pictures to explain.

I have my thumbnail engaged in the threads and am using it to push the tissue into the threads.

Fold the paper back so we can see the threads.

Here's what came off.

We'll set the tailcap aside for the moment. Obviously there is no point at all in only cleaning half of the pair of threads, the body tube is going to need cleaning too. As it happens there is a huge (maybe 1mm long) lump of crud stuck to the black stuff so it needs a good clean too.

Before

You can see the lump of crud at about 5 o'clock. Same technique to clean the body threads. You can, of course use a cocktail stick, toothpick, scriber or whatever, I just tend to use a thumbnail because it is hard to lose.

Here's what came out of the body tube.

Yuk!

So we now have nice clean threads. And boy do they sound like dry threads. Not nice. So we'll put a little silicone grease on the threads and O rings. Then we'll wipe most of it off. I usually apply a blob to the threads of the tailcap and screw in in and out of the body tube. The O ring should get lightly coated too. Lubrication is a matter of personal preference - many people prefer a lighter lubricant - maybe even most, but I prefer a heavier one even though I end up wiping most of it off again. I've been using the same tube of silicone grease for more than ten years and the stuff is dirt cheap. If you perfer a runnier lubricant, feel free. The trick is Don't Use Too Much. You'll just have to clean off the threads again. Remember that lubricants are an electrical insulator and you are depending on those threads to transmit current. Don't fill the gap with so much lube that it won't work.

So I apply a small quantity of lube

Then I screw the tailcap in and out and make sure the O ring gets well greased. Then I remove the tailcap and clean the threads just as I did at first. There will be plenty grease in the threads of the body tube now and I can give the O ring a little more if I feel it needs it. It does so another very small amount gets applied to the O ring - an amount about the size of a match head is too much. I wipe this round the O ring then go and wash my hands - I loathe the feel of silicone grease on my hands.

I'm now in two minds about the movable head. In this case it's meant to move and it is friction that keeps it in place. However, the feel is horrible so do I lube it or not. Nah, that can wait, after all it's not yet been dark since I got my new precision instrument toy. We'll see what it's like in a day or two.

This one's head is not removable so I don't have to repeat what I did with the tailcap.

Of course what I actually did was ripped open the package, pulled out an 18650 and made sure it worked. The I played with it till it was time to go to work. Now that I'm home from work I've done the preliminary inspection.


Great Don! I can't add anything to that. Very clear. I can clean up some of the other posts in this thread later on.