To prove a point, and show others in the U.S. how easy it is to get a free laptop charger, I went over to a Best Buy today to see if I could find any more compatible chargers. The recycle bins are usually just inside the front door, in a vestibule. There are another set of doors before you enter the store, so you do have some privacy. That should comfort anyone who is a little shy about helping themselves. Here are a series of pictures so anyone can become familiar with the lay of the land before they set out on their mission.
This time while I was digging deep and pulling out 4 laptop chargers, the greeter just inside the second set of doors, inside of the retail space saw me and came out.
He asked the rhetorical question, “can I help you?” translation, “just what do you think you’re doing crawling around in our recycle bins?”
This time I replied, “Why YES, you could help me. I am looking for a compatible laptop supply to charge my flashlight here”, and I showed it to him.
When he saw it, he jumped right in and pulled the whole unit away from the wall so we could get a better look at the bins.
That didn’t help because by the time he had seen me I had already pulled them all.
He suggested I go inside to the GEEK SQUAD counter, they had more in the back, besides they surely would like to get a look at that light.
Although they had no idea what it actually was, they were super impressed with it and scurried into the back to find a compatible supply with the right plug.
They found one with the right plug but it was only 12V. I should have grabbed it but didn’t.
I did a ceiling bounce test for them about a minute earlier, there was a very noticeable difference in the amount of light for a moment at that end of the store.
This woman was on her way over to tell me NOT to turn it on again in the store. :laughing:
Of the 4 power supplies I pulled from the bins, the 2 best were the Lenovo’s. 20V @ 6.65A! Really beefy supplies, I will definitely use them for another project.
Point is, anyone needing an excellent charger for their light has FREE options.
Although on that trip I didn’t find one with the correct plug, I could still could have spliced the plug from my burnt original to one of the 4 I picked up today.
Don’t feel too bad. I looked through the documentation and there was no mention of removing the tiddily wink. I unscrewed the head and didn’t see a tiddily wink so I plugged it in and got the random flashes as well. I took the head off again and this time I turned the head upside down and then the clear tidily wink fell off. It’s charging fine now
So I got the DX80 today, got it charging for about 1.5 hours. While still plugged in to the wall (and light), heard a loud pop from the wall wart and then the charging stopped. Charger was very hot. Laser temp gauge was reading 86 degrees celsius on the top. I let the charger cool down for over 30 minutes then plugged it into the wall and tried to charge my DX80 but got nothing. My charger is dead now too.
I would like to know if all power supply fails happened when having the charger attached to 110V mains.
or if this also happened in Europe, where 230V mains is used.
In Asia they also have 230V, so maybe they never tested the power supply on a 110V grid……
I see in these pictures that they have opened the tail cap.Is it easy to open it?I ask because I am afraid to try it without knowing how to.
(I want to open the tail cap,so as to put the lanyard into the holes without the use of the included steel circle).
I’ll let you know as soon as mine arrives hopefully next week.So far there aren’t any reports regarding failing chargers in the german TLF. Folks say it doesn’t get hot at all.
Maybe it’s really an 110V issue.
