It sounds like there may be something physically wrong, but it’s hard to say what exactly. If you loosen the tailcap to cut power, then tighten it again, what happens?
Wow that’s a pretty impressive light.
FYI I’m using the Maxpedition single sheath pouch for my D4S. It’s a fairly snug fit with the elastic band around the middle, but the elastic can be stretched or even cut off if desired.
When I loosen the tail cap and cut power, the light goes off. When I tighten it back up, the light comes on and stays on until I loosen the tail cap again (because I can’t get it to turn off any other way).
Okay, sounds like there’s definitely a short or a dead chip in the head of the light, then. It could be the 7135 chip, the FET chip, or some sort of other contact between LED- and ground. In any of those cases though, hardware repairs or replacements would be needed to get it working again.
If you have a way to measure the brightness, it may be possible to narrow down the possibilities… like, if it’s running at a steady ~130 lumens, it’s probably a dead 7135 chip. If it’s running at 1000+ lumens, it’s probably the FET or a driver bypass of some sort. But that probably doesn’t matter unless you’re planning to repair it yourself.
There were more changes with that upgrade. This thread should give you everything you need about that:
Thanks for the info!
I haven’t found a source for the pouch by itself, but I will keep it in mind.
I may have one of those around. I would have thought it was too small, but I’ll give it a try. Thanks!
NOTE: If you or anyone else gets this pouch: It was bit snug but I widened it to perfection by pushing in an object (small glass bottle) of significantly greater diameter than the D4S, and letting it sit overnight.
The Trustfire holsters sold on Amazon will work.
Here it is on Amazon and it will accommodate flashlights up to 6”. The D4S is only four and one eighth inches long. The way to avoid having 2 inches of empty holster is to glue a small length of Velcro below the existing Velcro, then fold down the cover to D4S length. This will allow you to have a well-fitting holster. The info states that it will accommodate flashlight diameters from 35mm to 50mm, but the closeups show the same weave over the entire case, as opposed to a visible stretch weave. Therefore I’m a little skeptical about how comfortably the D4S will fit.
That’s the one. It does work. There will be less than 1/2” of empty holster at the bottom, but of course if that bothers you, stuff in a small piece of bubble wrap or foam or whatever. Yes, you would probably want to glue on a small piece of velcro to close the flap more, or not. Won’t fall out.
That sounds like you have the holster. Does it comfortably fit the width of the D4S; can you easily place the light into the holster? Because the photos don’t show a visible stretch weave, unless the whole thing is an unusually woven stretch weave.
Yes I have it. It works. No stretch.
the one thing I do with a holster like this is cut off the ring on the back then reinforce the top of the belt loop with a couple of rivets (if you don’t have that setup your local shoemaker should be able to do it for you). The bottom of the loop is fine, the top is only one row of stitches so I don’t trust it.
Thanks, I just ordered it. Your reinforcement sounds like a good idea. It also sounds like you might have a nice workshop there.
Right there with ya girl! When mine gets here… I have a stack of XP-L Hi in 5A3 that are going in! I love the 5A3 tint, I do wish the 5A4 could be had… but have never seen them.
Just FYI, I got in touch with Mountain Electronics and sent them a video of my problem with the light. They said it looks like the 7135 may have died and offered to repair it. Thanks ToyKeeper for your responses. Given the choice between mechanical failure and user error, I generally lean towards user error (as in I did something dumb). LOL.
I see your list, and the bin codes seem loosely related to the Kelvin temp, but then I see FW1A at 4000K and FW3A also at 4000K as well as 3500K. Then there are combinations: FW3A & 1D, FW3A & FD2, etc. I find all this confusing; not sure how to interpret it. I’ve seen some graphs/charts but my poor vision finds them a bit confusing and hard to read. Does a particular bin represent a Kelvin range? You talk about 5A3, 5A4 which clearly means something specific to you, but, unfortunately not to me.
FW1A, LH351D 4000k (second favorite)
FW3A, LH351D 3500k
FW3A, SST20 FD2 4000k
FW3A, Nichia 4000k sw40 r9080 (favorite light!)
FW3A, Cree XP-L Hi 5A3
Emisar D4V2, SST20 4000k
S2+, XM-L2 T6 4C
Any help, so that I can see the basic principles perhaps like a basic “primer”, will be much appreciated, especially if you make it relatively simple. If that is too much, then any information at all. I googled the subject, but didn’t get a clear understanding of it.
It’s difficult to explain without a chart of the bins and what each one is. This chart shows the bins used by Cree, and I made it clickable so hopefully you can zoom in to see detail if necessary:
The SST-20 and LH351D emitters use different names for the bins, but they are still pretty much the same aside from the name. Also, both of these have a conspicuous hole between 4000K and 5000K, which is unfortunate. Basically, they are missing the entire series of “4” bins Cree makes in the 4500K range.
Nichia emitters seem to use a different binning system, so they’re harder to translate.
Thanks ToyKeeper. That’s a great image that I can see very well. I appreciate the time and effort you took to answer my questions. I can remember back to the days of the “Luxeon Lottery”, when today’s LEDs were not even imaginable.