I was able to get in on the GB and pick up 2 of these incredible lights. (one NW, one CW)
When I received them, I put a fresh battery in, ran through the cycles, everything was fine.
My plan was to "gift"one, and keep one for my collection. Before I wrapped it up, I thought I'd check one more time before I sealed it up and put a bow on it. This time, I had it on for maybe 1--2 minutes as I went through the different modes. My light cuts out, and I cannot get it back on, sometimes I gently tap it and it will come on, then it cuts out again,
Switch feels fine, (a hard click through the modes). When it lights, goes through all modes and looks fine, but very annoying when it cuts out.
I can't give a gift that doesn't work.
Anybody else have this problem ? How did you correct it?
Replace the driver. At $20 a piece free shipping, with all the other requirements placed on the light corners had to be cut somewhere and I’m willing to bet QC on the driver components was one of them.
I would check the obvious & easiest first. Make sure all the parts are tightened. The head, body, & tail cap. Make sure the retaining ring on the driver and switch is tight. Hopefully it's just a connection, grounding issue.
If it still doesn't work, you'll have to do an visual inspection by taking it apart. Inspect all solder points and make sure all parts are making electrical contact. Do you have a multi-meter?
With mine, the body doesn't screw all the way into the head. That is evident as 1 or 2 treads of is visible. It seems like the driver and the retaining ring is sitting too high preventing it from screwing all the way down however it still makes contact and lights up fine.
I used canned air and blew a lot of metal and whatnot shavings out from inside the reflectors, around the emitters, and around the battery compartment generally, before I used the two lights I got. Could well be more inside under the drivers, haven’t opened them up yet.
Try swapping the parts of your two to isolate the problem.
Remove the tail cap. Use a wire and hold it to the cell and then touch it to the bare body threads, to see if it works that way. You can just go through modes that way too, by using the wire. That eliminates the switch and then you can see if it still acts strange. If it does still act up, I would take the pill out and try a cell direct to the pill, using wires and see if it works right. After that, it's a tear down, to check everything and find the problem.
I get a kick out of some of the ‘help’ replies. I know people are trying to help but maybe get an indication of the posters level of knowledge. This one said he banged the light a few times to get it working and clicked the switch. I’m guessing he’s about as ‘in the know’ of things as I am. As a newb I would not have known what a retaining ring even was in order to tighten it. And if someone told me how to test by bypassing the switch, well, I remember how complicated that was the first time. The teacher has to reach the student at the student’s level of understanding.
I believe there is a video of troubleshooting flashlight problems that goes thru cleaning and tightening things, which eliminates a lot of problems. Not sure where I saw it however. Hoping the original poster gets his light working again.
“I would take the pill out and try a cell direct to the pill,” (after some 3 plus years here in the Forum I would NOT have a clue what this advice here means or how to do it)
Once again I know these people are only trying to help, thank you.
Triple A, as I reported in the GB thread, mine quit working as well. After taking it apart, cleaning it, and putting it all back together , it has been fine ever since.
I don’t know if this it the video Saypat had in mine, but it should help you troubleshoot most flashlight issue. For all their advancements, flashlights are still pretty simple tools.
Sounds like the retaining ring on the switch in the tail cap is loose, tighten those down, at the driver and at the switch, with tweezers or needle nosed pliers (pliers works better) and the problem should be solved.
Hi Triple A, I also ordered 2 lights with one of each tint, and had a very similar problem. One of the lights would only work intermittently. Since I have experienced problems like this before, I disassembled the light and performed all of the suggestions listed in this thread. After a couple of hours of troubleshooting, I discovered that the battery tube was slightly shorter on the light in question (like .02”). The collar in the top of the tube would bottom-out on the head before the tube made a good ground connection with the driver retaining ring. My temporary fix was to take a very small diameter copper wire, bent into a circle, to make the connection solid. No more problems!
I don’t want to rely on this for a permanent fix. Thinking I may heat the retaining ring with a torch and add some solder to increase the thickness for a better connection. Note- the battery tube is made from aluminum, so can’t be soldered for increased height.
Hope this helps.
Has it been noted that you can’t flip the battery tube around on this light? The text must start at the head and go towards the tail. The top section threads are about 1mm longer than the tail cap section.
Yes, that means the clip has to open at the head instead of tail for head down carry on the belt.
Right Dale, also if you look closely, the battery tube has a tapered “collar” cast in, that follows the angle of the head, signifying correct placement.
You didn’t =really= want to give it away anyway, right?
Since you have two, you can figure out which is the problem end. Just change the tail cap with the other unit and see where the problem goes. If it stays with the same light, it is head problem… if it moves to the second light, it is a tail-cap problem.
Once you figure out what the problem child is, you can be pretty sure that other parts will make for a good gift light. Then you can deal with =yours= after the holidays. No doubt it can be fixed even if you have to make it a warrantee issue.
Even with the small problem I experienced, and the non-moddable driver in this light, they were a bargain! Thanks for all of your hard work on the GB, Krono.
I’m glad you are happy with them. If anyone is unable to get theit issues figured out though, contact Neal. I also advised him to give EE a heads up on these issues, and for better QC in the future.
and clicked the switch. I’m guessing he’s about as ‘in the know’ of things as I am. As a newb I would not have known what a retaining ring even was in order to tighten it. And if someone told me how to test by bypassing the switch, well, I remember how complicated that was the first time. The teacher has to reach the student at the student’s level of understanding.