Sofirn SP10A low mode issue and strange ramping

Tyzmon · 2018-07-19T20:33:23.000Z

Hello fellows,

like perhaps some of you I own a Sofirn SP10A single AA light. It’s from the newer batch featuring “one click to moonlight from off”, and due to the rather good interface it’s been my EDC (using one eneloop AA) for about three months. Few days ago I noticed some issues:
The lowest low (call it moonlight) and low mode aren’t working any more, the LED just stays off (middle, high and turbo are fine).
Today I disassembled the light, had a look under the microscope for any broken solder joints, redid some and put everything tightly back together, but (I suppose otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this) nothing changed.
The thing that makes me wonder: Whenever the light is off and I press the button twice it should directly go to turbo, instantly. But the weird thing is: It does, kind of. It goes to turbo, but it does this by ramping up from 0 to 100% brightness for about 1 second. I tried to make a video of this, but due to the automatic exposure compensation of my smartphones camera it unfortunately wasn’t realy visible.

Maybe I will disassemble it again and have another look at it, but for now - has anybody experienced similar issues with a light? I know there has been a thread regarding the drop resistance of those single AA sofirn lights.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

vt2nv · 2018-07-19T21:21:49.000Z

AA or 14500?

Tyzmon · 2018-07-26T21:04:01.000Z

I’m using two Eneloop AA Pro, but unfortunately don’t have any 14500 cells. Tomorrow I will test the light using a laboratory universal power supply .

Edit: Today I got the issue resolved. The culprit was a broken copper trace right next to the middle one of three solder joints interconnecting the two pcbs (there are 6 solder joints connecting these in total), which I only noticed after I had separated both boards. To fix this I’ve soldered some copper wire and secured everything with silastic, hoping this will make the light survive another drop

In the photo you can spot the missing pad right under the copper wire.

MascaratumB · 2018-07-26T22:16:32.000Z

The SP10’s I had don’t have that copper wire! Strange…
Nice that you solved the issue. Otherwise I would recommend to look at this thread when some issues with the SF14 (on Eneloops) are being discussed: Sofirn SF14 should come with a warning

Nice little light, I hope you enjoy it