BLF A6 FET+7135 Light Troubleshooting and Mod thread

I bought quite a few anodised & bare BLF A6's, & none of them have that "misalignment" issue (I just checked them in case I had missed it).

I don't think it will help, but check the O-ring & make sure it is in its proper position, & not skewed.

Best Regards,

George

Sounds like they cut the threads with the head or tube not correctly centered(runout not close to zero). Sounds like something I would do had I the opportunity to make that mistake. Magnification might show which is the faulty part and you could ask for a replacement. If it’s the pill section and not the bezel or tube make sure to request it with driver and emitter installed if you cannot do that yourself. Exchanging parts with another host might also identify the culprit.

While troubleshooting the switch in my A6 I notice it works perfect while not installed in the tail cap. It’s when the retaining ring is starting to tighten down that the switch turns on, (shows continuity) through the circuit. There are no solder blobs on the switch legs that could touch the side of the tail cap.

I’m not sure what else to check, any help could be appreciated.

Check the flexible colored plastic switch cap. Does it seem to stick up and feel firm when the switch ring is tight?
Does it have a little cylindrical bump on the inside, that transfers your push down onto the actual switch?

If so that might be a bit too long, and you can shave it a bit at a time.

My bare BLF-A6 is very loose between the bezel threads, I have build it into a triple and had the spacer a tiny bit too thick so that the bezel part did not close fully, and when screwed tight the head pulled itself in an angle. Then I made the spacer a bit thinner and now the bezel part closes right against the head and that aligned the bezel.

I tried swapping the front part between the faulty bare and an anodized and the bare head is wrong somewhere.

I get the idea… i think. I’ll look into that. Thanks.

Edit: i removed the white centering ring at the bottom of the reflector (is that the spacer?) on the bare head and it seems to fix the small angle. However the bezel still does not align with the body. It’s OD is a tad larger then the body which is not the case on the ano i think…

Update to my initial problem as described over pages 24 and 25:

After some back and forth Banggood is now sending out another head unit, with no further service beyond that (which sounds reasonable for a budget provider).

And I bought a second one, which arrived today - pop the battery in, and it just works, all the modes - how life is meant to be. I guess it’s hit and miss with these lights.

UPDATE: After charging the battery and putting it back in, the new torch now doesn’t appear to work again… sigh, more debugging.

UPDATE 2: Putting another battery in, it worked again. All my batteries (two types) are protected cells. Is is possible partially discharged protected cells might work but a fully charged one wouldn’t because it trips something?

Will see if the new head fixes the problem with the original.

M

Debugging is a process. The first thing to try varies with the problem. On a light that doesn’t come on the first thing I sound do is remove the tail cap and put a paper clip from the bare metal of the tube to B-. If you get light then the problem is in the tail cap. Loose retainer, bad switch, rubber button pressing on the switch and opening the contact(remember, a reverse clicky turns off with a half press which is just what happens when there’s no play under the button). A light that comes on when the switch retainer is tightened is could have a short somewhere on the switch pcb. Pics would help.

Thanks - yep having done that entire process on the previous light was going to go through it again.

However happy news - it just seems like it in turbo mode it cuts out on one protected battery but not the other. One can go to 7 and hold it, one goes to 7 but cuts out after half a second - I assume it’s tripping something. I can step back to 6 and it’s fine.

Probably the protection circuit of the cell.

+1

You want unprotected high drain to run turbo.

Or batteries with a known quality Seiko Protection IC.

Best Regards,

George

If it’s the protection circuit then it has to be reset correct?

On mine it does turbo for a moment then cuts out - but I can instantly switch back to level 6 and it works so not sure if that resolves whether it’s the protection circuit or not.

My understanding is that when protection kicks in then the battery is dead until the circuit is reset. So it doesn’t sound like your issue is due to the battery’s protection circuit tripping.

It probably depends on the protection circuit… For what i’ve experienced with a few lights and batteries, when the protection kicks in, it does reset by itself as soon as the light is turned off.

This happens to me with the TrustFire mini 01 and 02 for instance, using fully charged TrustFire protected 16340. On high the light blinks at full once quickly and then shuts off. Turning the light off and on again,the light comes on in mid mode. Once i’ve cycled back to high it blinks and turns off again. Once i’ve managed to drain a bit the battery on mid for a few minutes, then it can hold on on high. FWIW.

Thanks for the info. I don’t use protected cells but at least I know now that they work in different ways.

I read through all BLF A6 threads, but did not find anyone with the “problem” I have. Banggood made it right, just want to share, maybe someone else will get lights like mine.

The tail cap of my A6 does not screw in fully to the body tube. There is always a small gap, which I think should not be there. I can touch the O ring with my nails in the gap. Actually I thought the body tube was too long, but after ordering an Astrolux S1 which has an even bigger gap, the culprit must be the tail cap incorrectly machined. It is even worse on the Astrolux, which interestingly has a slightly different machining at the end of the body tube, and a smoother anodisation.

Did anyone notice something similar?

Or Keeppower 2900 mAh 18650 protected. It’s protection circuit is designed to step in not under about 10 amps.

Is the PCB retaining ring completely screwed in?