Sure you twist one way to turn, the other way to turn off.
I do not, at the present time, own a twisty. If I did I would have a look inside one. Other than just being made with well anodized threads and making/breaking the tailcap or head to tube connection, what mechanism is used to turn on/off?
Thanks.
Tube makes contact to driver or not
To my knowledge, you’re not missing anything there. Because of well-anodized threads, a twist breaks the tube-head connection. That’s it!
Dunno about that. I ruined an EA01 with a f’n alkaleak, and after drilling out the cell, “drilling” out the tube with a wad of scotchbrite, soaking it overnight in AcOH (and again today for round 2), also scotchbriting the threads on the head, it’s still not working.
Touching the (+) end of another alkaleak to the head, and jumpering the (-) end to anywhere on the threads, it lights up fine. Stick the cell in the tube and screw it in, and nothing.
The head screws in alllllll the way without the cell, but is snug with it, so it’s meant to apply some kind of pressure. Yet it never lights.
At the bottom of the cell looks like a thin brass(?) washer with 4 internal “teeth” that stick up.
I’m thinking the (+) end always makes contact, the tube is always electrically connected to the head, but that washer lifts the (-) end of the cell just enough to break contact with the tube, and you need to snug it up to make that contact, and that’s where the fault lies.
Or maybe something else just isn’t making contact, who knows. I got another EA01 on the way ($:money_mouth_face:, as I really liked that one…
This one, I may just go crazy and try everything, even pulling out that washer. Got that endoscope from GB, but it ain’t exactly hi-rez, so it tells me nothing.
Once I get the new one, I’ll be more prepared to go take measurements with a known-good one and verify my assumptions. Maybe it is anodisation that makes/breaks contact, and it’s supposta always be connected to the tube, who knows…
The twisty mechanism in my maglite led AA is driving me mad. Whenever the connection is slightly loose the light starts to flicker. Which is why I always look for twisty lights that have only one opening, either the head or the tail, but not both.
I seem to recall seeing a AAA size light a while ago that turned OFF by tightening the head and ON by loosening the head. Confusing?
I recall thinking that was good… very unlikely that a tightened down head would come loose in the pocket and turn on.
How would that be done? Anyone recall seeing a light like that?
No, but a tail would definitely come loose, at least with my maglite. Very annoying when the damn thing flickers and changes modes by itself and you have to really tighten the tail real hard.
Olight i3e & i3s, aaa battery twisty. “To turn the light on, fully tighten the head. To switch output modes, do a rapid twist off-on to advance to the next level.”
That’s a puzzle.
Probably not a misprint as
I also found that in 2 of selfbuilts reviews
It works like a clicky - rapid off+on is electrically exactly like a quick half-press.
I’m puzzled by DQG Fairy. You tighten it somewhat to turn it on low. You tighten it fully to switch to high.
BTW nobody mentioned QTC lights yet. Tighten slightly to get moonlight, keep tightening to smoothly ramp up all the way to turbo. :+1:
There’s the option of “battery crush” lights, too: threads not anodised so negative always connected, tightening the head down makes contact between the middle of the driver and the top (+) of the cell.
The led mini mags have a pill that is pushed down by the reflector, preventing it from contacting the negative body. The negative battery spring pushes up the cells and the pill. Loosen the head and the pill makes contact with a small unanodized portion of the tube. Terrible for thermal management, finicky, and doesn’t make much sense. Somehow I have managed to collect four of them over the years. The overall design and simplicity of the old incan mini’s is a habit hard to kick, especially factory fit with an led. I know, I’m horrible for being a mag fan. It’s cool. I miss the first gen led mini mag. I still have one, and in my opinion, it’s the best one they made…
Back to the topic, I’m not 100% sure how my reylight pineapple mini works, but the thick copper ring on the driver makes contact with the battery tube when it’s tightened. It looks like it fits inside the battery tube, instead of butting up to it, like I was guessing it would. It’s solid copper, so no anodizing/insulating. The battery tubes on my lumintop worm and AA tool both make contact with a copper ring printed on the outside edge of the driver.
Short resume of how a twisty works?
Fire up your Convoy S2(+) and loosen the tailcap a bit. The light goes off.
By means of quick tighten and loosen the tailcap you can imitate a twisty.
All this time the switch itself stays on “on”, of course.
The “secret” lies in the quality of the ano on the rear threads (tailcap side).
You can also try this with a Convoy C8. Not with a Thorfire C8s (IMHO).
You can also use the BLF A6 as advanced twisty, moving in modes in both directions. :partying_face:
I think there are a couple more but the Vollsion SP-11-S work by loosening the head to turn on, it had an extra contact on the driver board which worked with the spring breaking contact.
These types of lights have a small springed dual position contact plate and two separate contacts on the driver board, the plate is always connected to the outer ring and when tightened also moves to contact a central pad for low & high modes.
Thanks CRX
I realize the above. However the Old Lumens Nichia 219B Copper Mini LED Flashlight, is copper, uses twist action. There’s no anodizing on copper, so the mystery to me is what happens when we twist? I may have to buy one, or one of the olight i3e or s, to find out.
I do recall seeing some small light a year or so ago that had a foam rubber crush ring. The head needed to be unscrewed a lot in order to guarantee it remained off. I thought that was lousy.
I have a thought for a project based on a simple tube light with rear clicky, like a Convoy S2. The tailcap would need to have the clicky switch removed and plugged with a contact plate. With everything else the same that would mean turning on/off by quarter turning the tail cap to tube end.
1. I wonder how durable the anodizing is if that was the done daily?
2. Is there another dependable on/off method that could be used?
Like Lexel said, the battery tube touches the driver.
But the driver has no electrical path to the copper head.
It’s how nearly all twisties work.
It’s not relying on the anodizing for electrical insulation (isolation?).
This may help on those unanodized lights. This is the pill out of a 4Sevens Mini Turbo, stainless. So there is no ano anywhere on the light. The entire can would be negative as soon as the head is threaded on, but you can see that the driver doesn’t make electrical contact with it - its isolated. There’s a raised ring around the outside edge of the driver that makes contact with the battery tube when you tighten it down, but not before.
Only one side of the driver would have the Neg contact to the tubes top edge. MtnE has this AAA Fet driver with good pics. No Neg contact on the emitter side but has the copper ring on the tube side. Tighten for ON style. The Pics may help.
FET Driver - ~12mm - Single-sided - MTN-SLdd - Perfect for AAA Clicky + Twisty
A lot of the little twisty lights with the USB port hidden on the top side threads work a little differently than described above.
A fixed center terminal at the top of the tube contacts a flexible dome switch when the head is tightened and the circuit is completed, “igniting” the low mode. When tightened further, the dome switch flexes and creates a new, lower resistance path, and the light switches to high.