The people you corrected may have either variety.
They can look this stuff up[ to check if they don’t know. It’s possible they in fact do know what they have.
Nye warns about gooping up a space that needs sometimes to be empty like a sliding switch.
I specifically meant people who claimed that “bulb grease” is conductive. But using something conductive as bulb grease would only cause a short circuit. Same with conductive Nyogel, which is not intended to be used in flashlights where it can easily travel the short distance onto the PCB and cause a short circuit. I think the common use for a conductive lubricant is when you want to improve the ground path in moving parts. In another thread I also explained recently why a conductive lubricant wouldn’t improve the connection in a flashlight.
But for us flashlight enthusiasts it should be enough to know that it’s probably a bad idea to have anything conductive in a flashlight that can move around.
Blah blah blah… Any time I have any problem that seems intermittent, whether the light flickers, goes mental, whatever, first thing I do is undo then redo the retaining rings on the driver and the tailswitch. Takes care of like 95% of those problems.
Failing that, disassemble then reassemble the tailswitch first, then around the driver (some are almost press-fit to make the ground connection, and weird, despite the ring). Especially the tailswitch, disassembling, reseating, then tightening back up, typically takes care of another 4%.
EDIT: just kidding.
IMHO the two NAILS method always work.
If you want to be able to apply more pressure, you can replace one (or both) nails by an awl.
I agree with Lightbringer. I'd actually disassemble it, reseat parts and put it back together. Since your driver is soldered in, I would think that isn't the issue. I don't think needle nose pliers were mentioned but I have a few with small tips that even do the job.
It's no fun having this issue. Just today, my S2+ was somewhat intermittent and then completely stopped lighting up. Turned out it was a loose retaining ring on the spring side of the driver. However, barring two bad solders at the head, I think you have a loose connection at the switch. You may confirm this by removing the tail cap, place the head pointing into a transparent, firm material, leave battery in and bridge/connect tube battery tube to negative end of battery with a paperclip, bare wire, etc. . If the light performs normally, the problem is in the tail. I think you have the Biscotti firmware so it should be in mode one.
I’ve had success with stiff wire bent into a ‘U’ shape and held perpendicularly in a pair of pliers. May have been a bicycle spoke or a wire coat hanger (or neither!) I can’t remember and don’t have my light tool kit with me.
Sammy, I think we’ll have to agree to go on disagreeing about this aspect of reality.
I will incorporate into my voluminous precautions for new flashlight users the warning not to mistakenly use the high dielectric 760G product (“760G has … dielectric isolation”) which some flashlight vendors sell.
Thanks for that. Bridging did indeed make the torch work, I couldn’t shake it about though, but it’s looking like the problem may be at the switch end. I have the 3/5 firmware. Tool comes tomorrow so I can disassemble/reassemble the switch and hopefully all will be well, if it is the soldered head end then it’ll have to go back I guess.
My tool arrived and I completely disassembled the switch section, put it back together and uh oh
Still flickering, I was a bit nervous now especially as the led end is soldered, still I managed to insert a small screwdriver into the one slot that was partially visible by one of the solder blobs and I tightened up the led end about 1/5 of a turn.
Success!
Looks like the led end was the loose one, all seems well for now.
Just as an aside, are there any illuminated switch mods for the metal switched Convoy S2+ that don’t require soldering?
Glad it was resolved. I had a similar issue with my S2+ and fixed it by tightening the retaining ring with tweezers. I believe only the rubber switches are compatible with non-soldering lighted tailswitch mods.
The newer S2+ metal switches come with a clear membrane vs black, so you should be able to replace the switch with a lighted switch and see some light come through. Though it will be a lot less than an S2+ with a rubber tailcap. And it will probably affect how your flashlight functions, so you may also have to install a bleeder resistor on the driver. Here’s a great BLF link on installing lighted switches: D.I.Y. Illuminated tailcap.
