The Jumper Wire Trick

Lumencraft-Matt · 2019-07-20T13:57:21.000Z

Hi all,
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This trick is very simple, but highly effective for troubleshooting and modding flashlights.
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If you have tips and tricks of your own please let us hear them.

cayman · 2019-07-20T14:12:38.000Z

Excellent and useful video, thanks.

lampliter · 2019-07-20T16:12:28.000Z

Thank-You

hodor · 2019-07-20T16:31:09.000Z

Agreed, very helpful!

Henk4U2 · 2019-07-20T16:53:56.000Z

Very instructive! I might have a useful addition to this video.

In one shot there is a Maglite standing on its head, and you tilt that a bit to see if it the led is functioning.
Of course you have to do that, because you have a wooden workbench that absorbs the lumens.

BTW, that’s why I prefer lights with a (slight) crenulated bezel.
If that’s not the case, I use an opaque polyethylene cutting board. Where I can see the light shine “through”.
You don’t need the full 8”x 10”, just a piece big enough for your largest bezel to rest on.

Lightbringer · 2019-07-20T17:08:04.000Z

That also works for tail e-switch lights, too, where the driver’s in the tailswitch.

When the driver works, clicking the switch will change modes through the cycle, but if shorted, you only get one mode, the highest.

I’ve been wanting to do exactly that to the LuxPro I got (4×AAA), but can’t for the life of me (nondestructively) remove the retaining ring. No clue as to whether it’s RH or LH threads, and even ring-pullers in the 2 holes ain’t budging it.

The method should also work for side-clicky e-switches, but only for go-or-blow. Ie, keep it connected and then try the switch.

Ilumenati · 2019-07-20T19:10:35.000Z

Thanks Matt,

Superstocker · 2019-07-21T05:30:14.000Z

Thank you Matt. I did a variation of this today to help diagnose a driver. I didn’t have magnets or a wire with alligator clips. So, I stripped a decent bit of the insulation off a wire and bent the stripped section up a little bit. Then I set the battery on top of the wire and held the driver on the battery positive with one hand and touched the other end of the wire to ground on the driver. Definitely not as stable as your set up and wouldn’t work well at all if more than one battery was required. It worked ok for me though. Thanks again.