I have a Thorfire TG06S that I got brand-new about 1.5 years ago. That was around the time I started to get more interested in ‘proper’ lights, high performance etc. In the beginning it was pretty cool and very bright for an AA - brighter than I’d ever experienced before. Then I started to get some 18650 lights in and the rest was history. This relegated the TG06S to sitting in my ‘miscellaneous electronic items’ box for a long time.
Recently I took it out again and threw a cell in, and it’s not working as it should.
- I have to click the power button at least 5 or 6 times before it turns on. If I click it again it turns off and I have to repeat the same cycle of clicking multiple times before it turns on.
- When it’s on, I can sometimes half-click to change the power level, but if I half-click again, it shuts off and I have to ‘cycle-click’ yet again.
- What I’ve tried:
cleaning all the contacts on the tube, tail, and head
unscrewing the spring/button assembly in the tail cap and having a clean/fiddle with that
rattling the light just to see what would happen
- I’ve tried to open the head to get to the LED and see inside, but I figure it’s glued and I currently don’t have many tools with me. I don’t want to brute force it open with anything makeshift because I like the host and want to keep it nice.
I don’t really do much modding, but I’ve been considering swapping the emitter out in this TG06S if it’s possible. I don’t really know what I’m doing though, not having much experience or knowledge in this area. Was wondering if anyone had any sort of idea about what might be going on with my light?
To clarify, it worked perfectly out of the box when I first got it. I used both regular AA, Eneloops, and a Sanyo 14500 in it.
First thing you want to do is remove tailcap from light and use a small piece of wire, with battery installed in tube, hold the wire onto the negative/flat end of the battery and then touch the wire to the exposed edge of the battery tube.
If the light fires up and changes modes properly by tapping the wire off and on to the tube, then you have verified that the switch is the problem.
If that test produces no change then problem is possibly with the driver.
It is also possible that the driver has bad connection. Try to unscrew driver ring (if is has one, if it is pressed in you are going to have to try to pry it out)
Loosen ring and then re tighten and test again before tearing everything apart.
My TG06S has a ring but also have a clone of same light and it is pressed in.
On that tube light everything comes out from inside, once pill ring is removed.
Based on what you said, I did the wire test thing and it worked - so it seems the problem is with the switch.
It’s not obvious to me if anything is damaged or not. Is it as simple as getting a new switch and replacing the whole thing? Are these types of switches still available to buy online?
This is the head, it doesn’t have the ‘plier holes’, but there’s a gap at the side where it looks like a shiv or something could fit in. Unfortunately I don’t have anything that small at the moment to jiggle with it.
Does anyone have any experience doing an emitter swap on the TG06s? This would be the first time I’m attempting something like this.
I’ve tried Google, I can’t seem to be able to find any sources for replacement switches. Does anyone know of lights which are similar/clones of the tg06s? Or that the tg06s is a Clone of?
Get some Tuner /electrical cleaner spray and using the thin red stick that goes into spray nozzle, spray it into the button area of the switch while pressing button down slightly.
If that light just stayed in a drawer or on a shelf it is hard to imagine it just went bad while sitting. More likely has fine dust particles internally which is not giving good effective contact.
To answer you question, Omten is the brand to look for, there are plenty available. You will need to measure your size of switch and line it up to proper model but before you do that please try the tuner spray.
you will need it going forward and will find it use full for any older radios, etc. that use rotary controls. One can lasts years of use and it is not expensive.
Also if you have any junker flashlights that you don’t like/use try getting the tailcaps apart and see if the switch in them are what you need.
Could try computer duster spray as well but probably not going to fix the switch problem.
Hi Keith, thanks once again for all that. Good information, I’ll look into it. I think you may right on about the dust particles in the switch. I was playing with it again tonight, just ‘cycle-clicking’ and every so often it would switch on and function as normal, even the half-presses worked. I’ll have to look into getting that tuner stuff.
Have you tried testing the switch with a DMM? That would be the first thing I would do to isolate the problem.
Aren’t the tail cap and flashlight tube anodized? Could be just a contact issue with the tube and retaining ring. Try putting a spacer (bare wire, paper clip, or aluminum foil) on the retaining ring and see if that makes a difference. If it does then you can put something thin under the retaining ring to raise it slightly enough to make better contact with the tube.
I don’t have a DMM. Good idea about the spacer, I’ll give that a try.
What I have tried is hand tightening the tailcap as much as I could, as well the retaining ring itself (which admittedly could have been tighter). It seems to have improved my cycle-clicking ‘hit-rate’ somewhat. As in, the percentage of clicks that go ‘live’ increased minimally compared to dead clicks.
I’ve used a bit of bare wire and twisted it - forming it into a loop. Set it below the retaining ring and tightened it down.
This has improved the success rate of clicking on and off. It’s still not fully fixed though.
In the beginning, the light would turn on maybe 10% of the time.
After fiddling around with the tail cap using yours and Keith’s suggestions (apart from the tuner spray, haven’t managed to get my hands on any yet), the light is now turning on maybe 50% of the time. Occasionally, when it turns on, it will be very dim, flickering, and may even turn itself off.
I will try experimenting with other types of spacers to see if that improves anything.
good advice has been given here . They say that like 905 + of flashlight problems are just a simple connection issue .
Usually the tearing the tail cap apart / cleaning and reassembly magically makes the issues disappear.
I assume you tried beating it across your upper thigh or whacking your kneecap with the light .Cursing is almost mandatory before trying anything sensible .
Starting to sound like it’s a contact issue. Are you sure that the retaining ring is making solid contact with the switch? Maybe something is making it hang up? You can put a bit of aluminum foil or thin wire spacer between the retaining ring and switch to eliminate that as a possibility.
I took the tailswitch apart and tried cleaning it with a microfiber cloth and cotton buds. I don’t have any electronics cleaning spray or solvent on my at the moment. I’m guessing oxidization on the retaining rings and the switch board could be an issue - I live in a very humid country averaging 80+% all year round.
I’m convinced it is a contact issue now. I’ve tried tightening the retaining ring as much as possible - I don’t have the proper pliers though - didn’t work. I tried spacing with both bare wire and aluminum foil - and the light works a little better but still not a complete fix. The foil seems to be doing a better job than the bare wire though.
You don’t need pliers to tighten the ring. You can drive 2 nails though some wood at about the same distance as the holes between the retaining ring, and then bend the nails as needed to the proper width.
Also did you clean the bottom of the tube where it contacts the retaining ring? A single pass over it with fine sandpaper or steel wool will take off any gunk that might be causing contact issues. Don’t need to be aggressive doing this since you don’t want to take any metal off.
I used a coarse piece of cardboard to try and smoothen out the bottom of the battery tube - and it worked! (sort of) It still has occasional failure when trying to turn the light on, but the success rate is now higher. After 10 tries the light only failed to turn on once.
I tried taking out the foil spacer and it stopped working again.
This is progress - however I’d still like to try getting it to 100% again.
Glad it’s almost all the way there. If it doesn’t work without the foil then it sounds like a spacing issue to me so maybe with a slight thicker spacer it will be back to 100%.
I tried adding 2 more layers of aluminum foil - nothing really changed. It’s still about 80-90% success rate. Occasionally will notice that the beam is flickering ever so slightly. Sometimes the beam will continue flickering and die off completely. Clicking on and off usually brings it back online.
If it was me I’d try adding more foil to both sides of the retaining ring if you haven’t already done so. It could be a case of the retaining ring not making solid contact with the switch as oppose to a contact issue with the tube. Have you been able to completely tighten down the retaining ring? There shouldn’t be any movement of the switch body when the retaining ring is tight and you’re pushing on the spring with your finger. When it flickers does it get any better or worse when you whack it with your hand? I would also clean the ends of the tube as much as possible.
The tube isn’t in backwards is it? On some flashlights it’s possible to do that but the light won’t work properly if that’s the case.
I’ve hand-tightened it as far as it will go without damaging the tube. There isn’t any movement or wiggle in the switch assembly when I move the spring.
It’s inconsistent. Sometimes when I whack it, nothing happens, the flickering doesn’t stop. Sometimes it dies off.
I’ve cleaned the ends of the tubes as much as possible - mostly using a microfiber cloth.
No, the threads are such that you can’t reverse the tube.
Thanks for all the ideas, I’ll keep working on it. Unfortunately I’ve just injured my hand (in an unrelated incident ) - so for the time being I can’t really work with my dominant hand fingers properly, haha.
