1st LIGHT!!!! New A6- Doesnt work- VERY frustrated

I am new to flashaholicism…… but my experience with the A6 has dampened my enthusiasm. I have been trying to read everything I could for the past several weeks so I could choose a ‘good first light’. I was considering the AstroLux S1 as my first led tube light but after seeing there had been some QC issues with that light for some users, I decided to go with the BLF A6 hoping to avoid any hassles until I could learn a little more about the hobby.

After ordering I could not wait for the A6 to arrive, I was really excited from all that I had read about it. I patiently waited and the flashlight finally came at the end of last week. I had not received the batteries/charger yet but I could not resist holding and playing with it even though it wasnt working. Finally the Samsung 30Q batteries came today and I patiently waited for them to charge.
I was finally ready to see what all the fuss was about!!
I pushed in the switch………. Nothing!!! What a disappointment!! I was really looking forward to seeing what this thing would do.

It is frustrating when you come to expect that things will probably not work like they are supposed to.
I hope this is a simple fix and there is something stupid that I am doing wrong
Is there anything I can or should try before starting the long process of returning and waiting for a replacement.
It would be nice to avoid that hassle.

Welcome to the hobby… and don’t let this experience ruin your stay!

Ironically, the Astrolux S1 is the “improved” version of the BLF A6 with many of the problems fixed.

There are several reasons your A6 is not working:

-Tailcap not making contact with the tube (most likely)
-Faulty driver (likely)
-Faulty Switch (unlikely)

First you should try bypassing the tailcap by shorting the battery negative with the body, this should turn the light on. If it still doesn’t work then it is a driver problem. I suppose you ordered it from banggood, just send them a message describing the problem and they will send you a working replacement.

At the same time I would like to recommend looking at the Luckysun BLF D80, IMO it is a much nicer light than the A6 in both build quality and performance, but you need non-protected batteries for it to work.

Just making sure your problem isn’t this simple: Are you sure you inserted the battery with the positive end facing the head of the flashlight? And are you sure you tightened the head and tail?

Im pretty sure I have the battery in correctly, even tho the Samsung 30Q does not have +/- markings. I put the flat end of the battery towards the tail of the light and everything is tight? I also tried shorting the tail of the battery to the body with a paper clip, but no light. Should I assume it is the driver part of the light at this point? Seems I live in a proverbial state of ‘Murphy’s Law’

it took about 2-3 months before I got my issues sorted out. I had to get new tail caps as they were not making contact with the tubes. I’m not really sure if it was worth the hassle.

If your battery is button top and you inserted the button top toward the head of the light and the flat end towards the tail, then that’s right. And if you’re sure that both the head and the tail are tightly screwed in, then sorry, I don’t have any more suggestions for you.

I agree, customers should not be put in a position where they expect items to not work as they are designed and can only hope they will be lucky and get one that does.

So it seems your problem is either the driver or the LED. You should contact banggood customer service, tell them you’re from BLF so they place your case in top priority.

More specifically, send an email to heyanqing1@banggood.com with pictures of your light and description of your problem. You should request a new head assembly or an entire new light. She’s in charge of all A6 with quality issues.

Thanks……. I’ll do that, but Im really bummed out about this.

You’re welcome… if possible you could check if the switch and tailcap are working, by removing the head and take a voltage reading with Bat+ and the body.

I’m assuming you have the black anodized version in which case for the light to work the silver deanodized ends of the tube need to make contact with the brass ring in the head and the deanodized seat in the tail. If bypassing the tail switch doesn’t turn it on then either:

The brass retaining rings are not tightened down sufficiently(or can’t press the driver into place) or,
The end of the battery tube isn’t in contact with the brass retaining ring in the head or,
There’s a cold joint on the emitter wires either on the driver board or on the emitter board or,
Some other problem on the driver or,
Led is bad.
Some things can be fixed with little skill
Some things can be fixed with patience and a bit of skill
Some things can be fixed with solder
Some things can’t be fixed.

Lots of people have had good luck with these but budget lights are prone to having manufacturing and assembly issues. You may be able to fix it or you may want to speak to them about a replacement. Good luck.

If in the USA there is probably a BLF member close to you that you could send your light to and that can diagnose/fix the light and ship it back to you.
Would be quicker than the return reship from China.
I would be glad to help if needed.
You pay shipping to me and I’ll pay the return shipping.
PM me if needed.

HTH
Keith

I have a cheap tester but I took the head off and tested +battery & -body but didnt get a reading. I made sure the battery was pushed down and checked both switch positions. I also tested the bare battery……… good.
Not sure if it would be the switch or the tailcap?

I appreciate it Rufusbduck but I am hoping that Banggood will go ahead and just send a replacement now. They have my billing info so the replacement should not be dependent on the return. I dont even get into town but every 4-6 weeks.

It doesn’t sound like the case here, but wasn’t there a thing where some people had the A6 starting in moon mode and they thought it was faulty?

Yeah, I read that thread and had already considered that………. no light!

Thanks Keith…
That is something to consider…… I’ll let you know

Coscar, I realize it was mentioned before, but I’ve had no less than four people try my BLF A6 and go “I think it’s broken” so I have to ask, did you make sure that you’re properly cycling through the modes?

The half press is like second nature after a while to most people here but it can be confusing/seemingly impossible to people that are new to the idea.

Again, if this is construed as insulting or patronizing I assure you it is not. That being said, give the light one full press until you hear a click, then press far enough that you almost click it but release, then repeat. It’s better to find out now if that’s the problem or if you have a bigger issue.

I’ve been modifying lights for about four years now and I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve slapped myself for forgetting something simple. I’ll give you a story to hopefully amuse you while your dealing with the frustration:

About three years ago (roughly) I showed a friend of mine a freshly modified 4D maglite I had built. It ran on regular alkalines, had a three mode driver, and the option of a modified aluminum reflector or an aspheric lens I found that would fit the bezel. In short, it was the bomb at the time.

He asked me if I could build him one, so I thought about it and since I had the parts on hand I said ok. A few days later, he had his three mode 4D maglite in his hand and we were playing around with it in his back yard. Several family members were very impressed etc. He put it down while he ran inside for a minute, then came back out as some of our other friends were pulling into the driveway. This is where the problem started.

As they parked and got out of their car, he grabbed it and turned it on, and a very dim glow was all that happened. He turned it off and handed it to me. I quickly turned it on and got the same, something had to be wrong :frowning:

I took the head off the light and tried again, same thing, uh oh! We went inside and yanked out the heatsink which was practically press fit in (anyone else use some of Britelumens stuff when it was around?) and checked the wiring, everything looked good.

We turned the light off and started talking about possible reasons for the issue and I clicked the light on absentmindedly and BOOM full power.

We were in low mode the whole time, the driver had mode memory and I didn’t understand how it worked so it never occurred to me that it would come back on in low even if it had been turned off! (These days you can pick if you want mode memory and how it memorizes modes, but even if they had the option back then I didn’t know about it.)

Anyway, I hope that you sort out your troubles and that you don’t get discouraged, I’ve had bad drivers, burned led’s, bad switches, faulty connections, and crappy solder joints too. Ultimately, there’s nothing like these lights when they work properly, and I firmly believe that it’s worth the hassle when you get to enjoy them.

I prefer troubleshooting the problem from the other end.

I would remove the tailcap. With the battery firmly in place within the battery tube, I’d hotwire the negative terminal to the exposed end of the body tube. The LED ought to react - whether in moonlight, low, medium, high, turbo, or strobe - the flashlight ought to light up upon contact. If it does not light up, then the problem is somewhere in the head … and is something best left to BangGood to take care of.

On the other hand, if the flashlight lights up, then the problem may be something simple to fix:

  1. The threads may be too short on the body. The gap can be bridged by inserting a conductive ring (say a paper clip, molded to shape and trimmed to size, to fit into the tailcap).
  2. If that’s not the problem, I’d open the tailcap to see whether there is any visible signs of any defects.
  3. I would also check to see whether the bootcap is interfering with the proper actuation of the switch.
  4. If I happened to have a spare switch, the replacing it would also be an option. However, by the time I got to this point, I would probably have BangGood take care of replacing the flashlight.

Has anyone been required to return a bad head or tail or tube? They know these problems well by now.