I’d rather have the O-ring be snug, for waterproofness and to make sure the head doesn’t completely unscrew accidentally.
I used to wrap zipper-pulls with a small piece of scotchtape to “lock” the in place until needed, replace the tape after.
They do loosen up over time, either flattening out and/or wearing. Hence extra O-rings…
My Skillhunt is a little heavy (but smooth) for one hand use but doable. More so than my CO1S which is just a tad too easy. I think I prefer the Skillhunt.
Hi all,
I gave a closer look to my E03A's O-ring, and others I have in stock.
The E03A O-ring is 10mm internal diameter, 1 mm thick. It is a silicone O-ring, very flexible and very stretchy. See what I can easily do by sliding two fingers around the light body:
This causes part of the O-ring to protrude out of its groove when twisting the head in:
The other o-rings I have are:
Could you guys please measure the O-rings on your "easy to twist" E03A? Are they clear silicone, or black rubber? Maybe Skilhunt have changed the O-ring model recently, hence my issues?
oh ya thats definitely not normal, i dont have that problem
Don’t use silicone lubes on silicone o-rings
and
Silicone oils and greases cause silicone rubber to soften and swell
DC-Fix (and the actual company)
I think I'm out on AAA lights in general. I've tried modding a couple now and they were too small and cheap to be anything but frustrating. If I'm going for tiny-twisty-keychain I end up wanting one of my 10180 lights, and if I want brighter and clicky I start with my DQG Slim AA and go up from there.
I really wanted to do a hot-rod 10440 light but I don't have the necessary skills to compensate for just how crappy they're all built (read: I can't build a new improved pill for them)
I have two Skilhunt E3A lights, one regular cool white and one high CRI neutral white, both with slate blue color anodization and purchased from AmazonUS in early December of 2020.
Both lights have O-rings that measure and look like the O-rings in your posts. The supplied O-rings are too loose and stretchy in my opinion and can be pushed out of their groove if I am not careful when screwing the head onto the body as you have also experienced.
Compared to other AAA sized twist lights I have (Sofirn C01S and Glaree E03), when using only one hand, the regular cool white E3A is somewhat difficult and the high CRI neutral white E3A is almost too difficult to twist. I switched the O-rings between the two E3A lights and this did make a difference convincing me that the specific O-ring is responsible for the operating torque required.
I measured the outside diameter of each body at the bottom of the O-ring slot (0.458" average O.D.) and the inside diameter of each head where the O-ring mates (0.512" average I.D.) and found no appreciable physical difference between the two lights that would affect the operating torque contribution from the O-ring, further convincing me that the specific O-ring is what makes the difference.
I prefer twisty lights that are difficult to twist so they stay together as one unit and compared to other twistys I own, the E3A has more turns of thread engagement which also helps with this and the precision tight-fitting threads between the head and body allows the E3A to be "turned off" and be "completely locked out from turning on unexpectedly" (due to bending or axial forces at the head / body junction) after less than a quarter of a rotational turn from the "on position" which is less and better than any other twisty I own.
One cosmetic difference between my two lights, is that the regular cool white E3A does not have the white circle with the plus sign engraved on the body to indicate the correct battery polarity orientation.
This same light also has an area on the head threads that is not completely anodized but I do not understand the internal construction of the light's electronics well enough to know if it will continue to function correctly and be able to turn off instead of always being stuck on if the adjacent anodizing on the body threads wears sufficiently to the point where the light's body is electrically shorted to the head.
While I prefer the compact form factor of the Skilhunt E3A, I use my Sofirn C01S and Glaree E03 lights more because of their additional low brightness mode which is especially useful as a passenger in a car or while inside a dwelling after other's bedtime.
great details
agree O ring is key to the feel of a twisty
looks like that O ring is just too big…
what mode sequence is Glaree… and does it have memory?
thanks!
Flashlights… food… flashlights… food… flashlights… food… eh, flashlights.
Yeah, got my green Ti2s from Thrunite. Pretty nice. Lightweight thinwall design, not much lube (if any) but certainly not scratchy. 1-mode, probably 100lm similar to the E3A.
Reflector with hotspot+spill, though, unlike the E3A’s TIR and smoooooth beam. Bit of an uneven beam, yellowish corona, nice white hotspot, but also a slightly more yellowish center. Probably the usual Cree rainbow hijinx.
Nice milled tailcap with protruding stud for a ring/lanyard, similar to the E3A, not the milled-into-the-cap afterthought lanyard-hole like seems usual.
For a few bux extra, the E3A will have a much nicer and smoother beam, but still, for 6bux a pop, the Ti2 is really quite nice.
Glaree E03 user interface:
Always starts in LOW with a twist if it has been OFF for more than ~12 seconds.
When ON, a twist to OFF then twist to ON cycles through LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH and repeats
If OFF for less than ~12 seconds a twist to ON cycles to the next brightness level
Two very quick twists while ON or OFF activates STROBE
Cool white LED and orange peel reflector. LOW and HIGH modes are similar in brightness to Sofirn C01S.
As I remember, with an 800 mAH NiMH AAA battery, LOW lasted over 24 hours, MEDIUM about 6 hours, HIGH about 45 minutes.
I purchased the Glaree E03 from AmazonUS (as a package of two lights for $14):
I bought two lights and then another four. I was made aware of this light by a post from forum member Lightbringer who's posts have lead me to both budget and premium lights.
Yeah, I’m sort of a crash-test dummy for a lot of lights. 
@jon_slider: thanks for the explanation, I really did not expect that silicone could be harmful to... silicone 
So I put one of the same silicone spare O-rings provided by Skilhunt, and since I don't have any of the "very good lubes" recommended in CPF's thread, I used some "Tri-Flon" spray, a synthesized lubricant with Teflon. Now the switching is very smooth, although when I leave the light unattended for a while the first operation is a bit harder, then becomes smoother after a couple of on-off. I'll live with that, especially as I consider it a good security against accidental activation.
I do agree: with 1/4 turn from ON the head is securely OFF, and still 1/2 turn away from the O-ring starting to appear.
I wish I could find a solution for the extremely wobbly head of my Astrolux M01, which makes it impossible to leave on a keychain (I've found it to be accidentally ON several times in my pocket). The "Teflon strip + thick grease" suggested in this thread turned out not to work on the long term: they do eventually interfere with the electrical contact between the body and head and makes turning the light on to Low and even more High a hit-and-miss operation. None of the thicker O-rings I have do fit, and even if I find the correct diameter/thickness combination (which would require ordering several 20 piece sets to try and find the optimal one) I'm afraid the head would still be wobbly because there is so much play in the threads. Maybe very thick conductive grease, if this does exist?
glad the teflon spray lube is working to make the light smoother to twist
I also find some of my twisties stick when first twisted, its part of what moved me to clickies instead of twisties
> Maybe very thick … grease
nyogel 767a is very dense and sticky, you might like it in the threads, to fill gaps and resist rotation
I dont think it needs to be conductive, as long as the end of the body tube, and the contact ring on the pill, are kept wiped clean, no excess lube.
What I use in the threads can be thicker than what I use on the O ring itself.
I would still use a thin lube on the O ring, such as Nyogel 760, or Nano Oil.
I get Nyogel from oveready.com and I get Nano Oil from darksucks.
I have two lubes with teflon, I do not like them. They tend to stick and make it difficult to turn the threads. It seems they are designed to coat metal surfaces, rather than lubricate them…
I have Krytox 205, highly NOT recommended. It dries to a white powder, and sticks terribly to O rings, making it feel like the light will tear the Oring when turning the threads… bad bad bad,
I also have TefGel that I find much too sticky, both in threads and on O rings, so also not recommended…
one of the very best lubes I have found is the darksucks Munky Spunk. It is a thin grease, works equally well on both threads and O rings.
Thanks jon_slider for the lubes recommendations.
In my Astrolux the negative contact is through the threads. In order to significantly reduce the wobbling, I will need a thick layer of thick grease, which may prevent a good electrical conduction.
From the CPF comprehensive thread you mentioned, NO-OX-ID seems to be a good option.
But unfortunately the shipping fees to France are a total deterrent:
litchfieldstation.com sells the 2oz. can for less than $2, but charges at least $24.50 to ship it to France
On ebay, even the tiny 7gram tubes which costs only $2 imply a minimum $19 shipping fee
then I think you should focus on finding an O ring that provides adequate pressure…
most lights have wobbly threads, it is really the O ring that stabilizes the head
O rings wear down, and then we experience “loose threads”, that were there all along.
I've followed your advice, and replaced the O-ring with a slightly thicker one: 7.5mm outer diameter, 1mm thickness. This appears to be the perfect size: the head can still screw in over the O-ring, and the head is far less wobbly.
My Astrolux and I both say Thanks!
Following your recommendations, I have bought a variety of versions and angles, here are the results:
Smooth lenses:
Frosted lenses (they call them "Shamian"):
In conclusion, if you like smooth beams without significant color shift, do your E3A a favor by replacing its pebbled lens with a 30° Shamian one, or 60° if you like a more "wall of light" beam.
Thanks samyy for the good suggestion.
(Necro) Does anyone know if Skilhunt has sorted this by now? The E3a is attractive as a very simple light where not much can go wrong. So it’s hilarious if they ship it with the wrong size O-ring and you have to order a replacement from somewhere to get it to work right.
I spent a while reading E3A posts because I’m likely to buy one for myself, but I think AA or AAA lights given as Muggle gifts (i.e. to non-flashaholics) have to be able to run usefully on ordinary alkaline (alkaleak) batteries. I think the E3a may do quite badly with those. So I’d want to reprogram it (change the sense resistor to lower output to maybe 30 lm) before gifting it, or else include a pack of L92 lithium cells. Most non-flashaholics don’t want to deal with rechargers.
I think they may be out of production, but the Sofirn C01 (not the C01S) was a couple of bucks cheaper, single-mode, and on the dim side.
I find 1aaa lights to be rather too large for a keychain. They are great for the watch pocket of my jeans. I do like the tiny size of the E3A. The difference from the C01S (I have both) is pretty noticeable. On the other hand, the runtime isn’t that long, and you do want to run it on a rechargeable or lithium to get reasonable performance. Alkalines would be just for in a pinch. I think of backing mine off to maybe 20 lumens in hope of getting 5 hour runtime on an alkaline. But, that involves taking the light apart and changing a tiny SMT resistor.
Actually for a keychain light if you’re not too worried about robustness or reliability, I think you could do worse than the v1.0 Nitecore Tube that is on closeout for $5 at illumn.com. My review is here: