Novatac flickers, low battery, full battery, primary battery

jon_slider · 2018-10-24T19:18:11.000Z

Novatac Gold Storm Flicker report

Today My Storm decided to inform me, prematurely, that it would be good to recharge the battery:

Thereby becoming a candidate for a driver swap, possibly to H17f… or signal spring eliminator:

CRX:

I made a prototype brass sleeve to contain a copper sliding bar with a spring on the end so the light can run on 18350 cells and dispense with the signal spring.

HDS decided to turn the Flicker into a feature, not a bug, lol

update
upon further investigation, suspecting a problem with the signal spring shorting to ground, I slapped the light around a few times, and she got turned ON! I just cannot abide a masochist, so I grabbed a Q-Tip and some Alcohol, and proceeded to rectify the situation.

Problem solved.

Note dirty contacts, and flicker, are a documented point of failure in HDS designs that use a signal spring such as the B42 and U60 that preceded the Novatac:

B42 manual https://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Legacy/EdcBasic/EdcBasicUsersGuide.pdf
“Note: you may notice a slight flicker on the Minimum brightness setting. This is normal. “

U60 manual: https://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Legacy/EdcUltimate/EdcUltimateUsersGuide.pdf
“Note: you may notice a slight flicker on the very low brightness levels. This is normal.”

.

elsewhere in the manual, in reference to low batteries it says:
“The same behavior can also occur if the battery contacts become dirty. Gently wiping the battery contacts with a clean dry cloth is normally sufficient to remove dirt. If in doubt, please replace your batteries.”

So I decided to clean the contacts, and after that I could no longer turn the light ON by slapping it.

…

Note to self, too much lubricant can ground the switch signal wire erratically…

fwiw, I have also had twisties become flickery and unreliable after too much lubrication, and the solution was the same, clean the contacts…

this is not an HDS/Novatac specific issue… Too Much Lube is Bad!

chadvone · 2018-10-25T00:22:33.000Z

Just checked my Novatac 120E. It has horrible flicker,buzz, noise, etc etc.
Doesn’t matter what cell or what battery configured.

Might make a good host for a mode someday.

jon_slider · 2018-10-25T01:59:59.000Z

chadvone:

Just checked my Novatac 120E. It has horrible flicker,buzz, noise

sad, but glad you have something to work on

So far every single flicker incident I have had with my 4 Novatac, and 1 EDC Basic (body tube), was traced back to the signal spring shorting out

cleaning the contacts, and replacing, or reseating the spring has solved the issues… for me
Unique Titanium has springs for $4

jon_slider · 2018-10-26T07:44:57.000Z

Ok, Another Novatac Gold Storm Flicker report

today the light started flickering at the 13 lumen level, same as described in Post 25. Like last time, it also flickered on minimum… Im talking about flicker so obvious a child could see it… not just something my snobby trained eyes can detect in rare circumstances… I mean like, no, I cant use this light like this, kind of flicker.

Nothing I tried solved the problem, not a flash of high mode, not cleaning all the contacts again, not slapping it… nothing… this light just Flickers!

The flicker went away when I installed a fresh battery.

The one I took out was at 3.82v… note that yesterdays flicker report was coincidentally at a very similar voltage, 3.84v. Two different 16340 batteries. My current belief is that this Novatac just does not like 3.8x volts. It works without flickering at lower voltages, including on Primary batteries…

fwiw, I started this thread with a report of Visible flickering on a different Novatac, in that one the battery was at 3.57v.

So, it seems as though there is a Flicker issue with the Novatac circuit, when a LiIon is about 1/2 discharged, not just on one light.

.

I did already do a battery detect reset for LiIon prior to the last 2 Flicker events.
there is more detail about that in this thread
Novatac LiIon Low Battery Voltage Warning System features

At this point I dont think this Flickering is an issue that can be eliminated.
imo The solution is simply to use a fresh battery.

Its a Feature, not a Bug
An undocumented Low Voltage Warning

if there was a line in the manual that said something like:

Note, when using LiIon below 3.85v, the light will flicker to remind you to replace and recharge.

it would have saved me a lot of grief

Im moving on from Clicky UI’s
My next adventure is to experience the HDS Rotary interface… stay tuned for those Investigative Reports of flickers, tints, beams, ergonomics, and UI’s

Now that the Gold Storm is out of my pocket, what took its place?
I went back to my Utorch S1 Mini, modded w N219b 4500k 9080
I love the Aspheric Beam! I call it my Budget Sundrop

Its the one in the middle:

and on the left:

totally different beam, size, weight, than the Novatac… each has its pros and cons… choices are good

.

New Experiment

I changed the Battery Detection on the Gold Storm to Primary

ran the light on its maxiumum of about 85 lumens for 35 minutes, and got the battery down to 3.84 volts.

turned the light on at 13 lumens, and it started to flicker,

just like when it was set to LiIon Battery detect

sooo… I ran it on high for another 5 minutes, to see if I can have some NoFlicker time, below 3.84v…

YES! after 5 minutes on high the battery is at 3.77v and the light does not flicker on the 13 lumen mode anymore

so, the type of battery detection has nothing to do with the 3.8x flicker, and it not only has an identifyable start of flicker voltage, theres a point after which it no longer flickers… about 5 minutes on high, or less…

so I reset battery detection to LiIon

and to confirm it was enabled I inserted a battery that was at 3.04 v and as expected, the light stepped down from High and refused to give more than 27 lumens… I knew where this was headed… to the 3v low mode blinking, where no other mode works…

then, to see if I could get under the low voltage blinks, I inserted a battery at 2.92 volts and found it would power the light with no low voltage warning… except that it stepped down to 64 lumens, and would not give more, but it also did not blink or flash

so again, there is a cut off below which the Low Voltage warning stops interfering with normal use…

.
moral of the story, if a Novatac blinks at you when the battery is up around 3.8v, and you want it to stop, force high mode for a while, maybe it will get over its need for attention…

jon_slider · 2018-10-26T19:51:47.000Z

Todays Update

since it is now clear to me that the Gold Storm has a LiIon flicker problem at 3.84v, I have decided not to use LiIon in this light.

I reset the battery detect to Primary, and inserted a Primary CR123… all is well… No Flicker to report today.

In this Battery Detect mode, there will be NO Low Voltage warning at 3v either. I can still use LiIon, and since I only use Protected cells, it matters not at all, to me, that the 3v Low Voltage Blinking is DisAbled.

In fact, its better with NO LiIon Battery Detection, since I can use a 3v primary without ending up with a light that is Blinking on Lowest mode.

On to the next Adventures!

Lithium · 2018-10-28T21:46:37.000Z

Jon,

Please send that Gold Novatac to me, I’m willing to make it a triple with H17f driver…or probably more realistically, keep the single led and just change the driver

jon_slider · 2018-10-29T03:02:13.000Z

Thanks for the offer to help. Very much appreciated.

I will think on that H17f after i hear how the black 120t works out. I have been offered the stock driver that CRX is replacing w H17f

chadvone · 2018-10-29T03:10:57.000Z

I want to see the Novatac H17f for sure.

Lithium · 2018-10-29T09:16:14.000Z

Oh, stock driver is even better…well, not for power, but I like the original UI, as you know

jon_slider · 2018-10-29T23:12:54.000Z

I like the stock UI too… when it does not flicker

The H17f driver in the triple Novatac that CRX is building for a friend, may be done in the next week. Im looking forward to his impressions.

Lithium · 2018-10-30T00:51:00.000Z

Looking forward to that too!

CRX · 2018-10-30T01:20:09.000Z

Shame, I’m away for three months

lumenzilla · 2018-10-31T07:14:58.000Z

Lithium:

Oh, stock driver is even better…well, not for power, but I like the original UI, as you know

I second that.
Been looking for driver (17mm) with same UI but none the result.

jon_slider · 2018-11-01T19:45:26.000Z

CRX:

Shame, I’m away for three months

LOL
when you return, please share a link to your H17f driven Triple Nova

I have received some spy satellite photos, so I know what you’re up to…
but will not steal your thunder

chadvone · 2018-11-02T00:18:07.000Z

I am exited to see this. One of my favorite lights meets my favorite clicky driver.
I don’t know how you do it CRX. I have stared at my Novatac and a clicky switch for hours and couldn’t come up with a way to make it work.

CRX · 2018-11-02T01:22:20.000Z

chadvone · 2018-11-02T01:26:25.000Z

Tease

CRX · 2018-11-02T01:27:00.000Z

Lithium · 2018-11-02T01:35:25.000Z

Stop teasing and show the real goodies! We want full pictures and lumens measurements

CRX · 2018-11-02T12:53:43.000Z