I stepped outside with the pooch this evening, swinging my trusty pal. I turned my light on and was enjoying looking off to the distant ridge-top, when suddenly it went dark with no warning. Thinking I had inadvertently hit the tail switch, I clicked the tail witch through a cycle of off and on. The side switch lights up but nothing from the emitter. Breaks my heart, I love this light, and have no real talent with fine electronics. What is a guy to do? Anyone have any ideas or maybe be willing to have a look at it? Being discontinued, it would be most desirable to keep this gem alive. It really is a well built bit if kit, and my first real thrower.
Try some different batteries out yet? On the off chance it’s that.
Took out the batteries, cleaned contacts on flashlight and batteries, checked individual battery voltage (4.08v), re-inserted and reassembled…no joy.
it could be a simple component failure. If you are able to take off the bezel, remove the lens and reflector, you can troubleshoot a bit to rule out a dead LED. Id yiu can get to the + and - contacts on the thing the LED is mounted on, get a multimeter and set it to the diode check setting. Touch the positive probe to the positive contact and the negative to the negative. The LED should light up very dimly if its still alive. If it doesn’t either it’s dead or your multimeter isn’t able to light up the LED. It should still show the forward voltage on the display. No reading, the LED is probably failed. In that case its easy to swap in a new one. You could ask Sofirn for a new LED. If the LED is okay, it could be a dead driver component. That would require more advanced diagnostics though
Okay, this, I am capable of. Thank you Sirstinky, I’ll be doing this once I get home from work this evening. My worry is a driver issue, darn thing looks glued.
The driver is probably glued, but you can get it out by carefully pushing on the edges of it with a wooden or plastic pick through the switch hole (the switch bezel should unscrew). The biggest issue is going to be glued parts. Brute force, strap wrenches, thick rubber gloves, and a hair dryer will be your friends in that case.
Welp, good news bad news. The good news is the emitter lives on. The bad news, now I know it is a driver issue.
Sofirn drivers I haven’t figured out how to get out with breaking yet. Maybe somebody else has. Pretty sure they’re all glued. I’ve heard of heating the thing and pushing down from above working for some ppl.
I don’t have that light tho so idk
Insert the batteries and bridge the rear battery negative with the bare non anodized edge on the body. Just to entirely rule out the switch.
Email Sofirn support and ask if they have a replacement driver. Even though it’s discontinued they may still have parts.
1 Thank
If you’re good with electronics, just swap in a non sofirn or sofirn driver from a similar light. Just needs to be the same diameter.