I thought pencils are no longer using lead? as lead is toxic.
In the US Gooberment’s official maintenance kit for the KL-7 cipher machine is a genuine Pink Pearl eraser for cleaning the electrical contacts on the encryption rotor disks.
And back in the days of circuit boards with gold plated edge connectors, every tech used erasers for cleaning the edge fingers.
i got a tn30 xml2 from joe here on blf through ebay…
he is a great seller and i would recommend him to anyone… very friendly and great communication
i knew of the potential for a flickering issue ahead of time so i had him check the light before he sent it out
i received the light and the light flickered heavily on modes 4 and 6… i went out and bought some deoxit and cleaned both sides of the battery carrier as well as both sides of the driver board… still flickered
i even tried my tn31mb battery carrier which has had the finish sandblasted off to improve contact… the brightness improved 7% but still flickered
tried connecting the battery carrier with a wire to bypass the switch and i got the same results as using the tn31mb carrier.
joe was very nice about this whole thing he took the light back and gave me a full refund
i have emailed thrunite about this issue and they replied with a generic “thank you” and asked for a video… i did not take a video before i sent it back… they asked where i sent it back for some reason? i told them joe from blf and have yet to hear anything back
this is a little frustrating since this flickering issue has not been fixed since many members have reported it over a number of months…
thrunite either doesnt care, or they are trying to sell their old stock of lights and hope no one notices
there have been reports of this issue as far back as may of 2012
the driver on my thrunite was dated march of 2012… looks like they took a regular tn30 and added 3x xml u2s and rushed it out the door as fast as they could
im really disappointed with thrunite… i really like their lights too… its a shame this issue is not being resolved.
This is a strange occurrence that has happened on 3 of the 9 TN30s that I have. It was 2 out of 9 but somehow Justin's light deveoped a flicker. I tested it thoroughly before it left because I knew it was going to a fellow BLF member. I was stunned/furious when I heard that the light he received flickered. I received the light back today and it had a horrendous flicker on modes 4 and 6.
After reading this thread I polished/tightened the carrier and head plate on the defective light. Not only did the flicker problem vanish the light output increased over 5%.
It is clear the problem with the TN30 is the coating used on the carrier and head plate. I have not had a single problem with any of my TN31 lights which is strange.
I just got done doing both my TN31’s. Thanks guys. I know one of mine wouldn’t work unless the carrier was in on one particular end first. Now it works on either end.
i got a message from thrunite puzzled as to why i didnt send it back to their usa warehouse for service…
i already explained the issue and that the seller refunded my money twice…
i understand they are a china based company, but the language barrier is really quite frustrating
If your Computer ever fails to boot, or get to Post, Especially after it has been moved, Disconnect from Power, just open it up, place your left hand on the Power Supply or Case, to Earth yourself out (So you don’t give the Motherboard or Ram a Boot of Static Electicity), while earthed, then remove the Ram Sticks with your right hand by pressing the lock tabs down at the ends of each Ram Stick, remove and clean the contacts on the Ram with an eraser. Then once again earth yourself out on the Power Supply and replace the Ram firmly in the Sockets (insuring Ram lock tabs at the sides engage). Ram Sticks should only fit one way, but can be Forced in the wrong way. Make sure the Ram Sticks are inserted matching the Socket slots. Plug back into Power and Power up, most times your Problem will be solved. Sorry, my Thrunite’s work ok, but considering the Topic i thought this might save some people a few $$$ to buy more Flashlights.
I just got done doing the L3 Illumination K40 battery holder. I think it made it brighter. Looks as bright as the TN31’s on a wall.
You can measure contact resistance and compare before and after.
Pass a few amps through the contact interface and measure the voltage from one side of the interface to the other, so with 4A and 1 mVdc measured you have 0.001/4 = 250 micro-ohms.
The test prods should be as close to the interface as possible so you don’t end up measuring conductor resistance, but knowing the conductor material and cross section this resistance can be calculated.
Good relay contacts have less than 30 mV across them at rated current and I’d think the contact force in a flashlight is considerably higher than for relay contact closing force.
IMHO, for a 4A, 3V flashlight a total circuit resistance of (3/4)/20 = 0.04 ohms or less should not be a problem.
Excellent thread Alex, thanks alot for sharing !!!
I have a few TN31s and TN30 and although i have no problem with them, it is very good to know.
For this very reason I won't be buying anymore high end thrunite products. My xm-l u2 had the flicker which I fixed straight away by polishing the carrier but didn't have the same luck with my xm-l2 version which was stuck with a level 4 flicker.
They've had plenty of time to fix this issue but have just choose to ignore it.