I deciced to buy some Sofirn flashlights as they seem to be good value for money according to the forum. However I noticed the Sofirn IF22A I bought does not accept my Fenix ARB-L21-5000 battery. Note this is my bad since I didn’t not read carefully when ordering and it is mentioned that the flashlight only takes 21700 batteries up to 72 mm and the Fenix is a 76 mm after measuring, which seems annoyingly big for the 21700 standard.
But that is not my question, my question is why does this battery not work at all? I can understand I cannot close the flashlight properly but I seems the + and - are making contact. And there is nothing mentioned in the manual or product page about the light not accepting protected batteries, it is even mentioned that a button top battery should a better connection with the driver they are using.
Ofcourse I tested the fenix battery and it works fine in other flashlights I have. Does someone on this forum have an explaination for this?
If you look at the threads on the light, they are coated so they don’t conduct electricity. Only the bare ends of the body tube conduct electricity. Both the head and the tailcap have to be tightened down ALL THE WAY for the bare ends of the body tube to be touching the electrical contacts inside the head and inside the tailcap. The battery may make contact on both ends, but the body tube is what carries that negative connection of the battery in the tailcap all the way back up to the head. You can test it with your stock battery by turning on the light and then slightly unscrewing the head or tailcap. The light will turn off immediately.
Thanks for Asking, just learned two things in my first 5 minutes about my first Sofirn! Must mean that you can manual lock out by backing off a few twists. Plus the UI lock and the fact the button is just hard to accidently press!