its the one from tmart with no names on it. its so dim that the light wont even come out the front .but if ya look into front of it you can see its on. anyone have any idea if there is a simple fix?
Is it just as dim if you remove the reflector?
yes …i cant even explain how dim it is id guess like 1/10 of a candlepower .just got it today and i tried new battery. its so dim it makes a old maglight soltaire look bright
There’s a small black insulation disc around the emitter that keeps the reflector from shorting. If you look into the reflector, can you seen something black surrounding the emitter? Better yet, unscrew the bezel ring and take the reflector out, BUT BE CAREFUL not to lose that small black plastic piece, and check if it’s there, in position, around the emitter. Once you’ve confirmed that, put the reflector back in and screw the bezel ring back, but DON’T DO THAT upside down, otherwise the black piece may fall out or out of place.
i tryied it with reflector off still same thing . i am so bummed i waited so long to get this baby and its a dud. :_( and its sucha dark night to play with a new light .did get to play with my streamlight nano and its bright as hell for justa inch long or so
All I can guess now is to take assemble and reassemble the tailcap and then the pill. Don't pull off the star though, just reseat the driver.
In the HD2010 (the one I have, at least), the whole pill unscrews from the front, i.e., remove the bezel ring, then pull out the reflector, then unscrew the pill.
If you can do that, try connecting a battery to the bare pill (battery + to spring, battery - to the side of pill) and see what happens. If it’s not dim (don’t look directly), then it’s some short or something in the body or maybe the tailcap.
Where’d you buy it from?
EDIT: NVM about where… just saw the subject :)… Maybe contact Tmart about the problem?
EDIT 2: Also maybe PM Sherry Ye - she works for Tmart and was very helpful when I got a “bad” HD2010 from them awhile ago.
think ill just contact tmart . by the way its so dim i can put my eye right up to the led which i dont do due to uv. its so wierd how dim it is
Did you try to pull the pill out and test it by itself?
Also, see my earlier edit about contacting Sherry Ye…
To me it sounds like the led has shorted on the reflector the first time it has been turned on.
Dang hopefully tmart will do me right i tryied to take the pill out and it still didnt work
So you had the pill out, and connected to a battery, and it’s still dim like before?
yes but ya have to look right at the led to even see its on . it will cycle thru all modes blink high low medium etc but there all crazy dim .if ya shined in at the wall ina dark room ya would not see the beam
By any chance, do you have a voltmeter/DMM? If so, I’m curious what the tailcap current reading is. If you do have a meter:
- Connect the battery + to the spring on the pill,
- Move the positive lead on the meter to the 10a connector on the meter, and set the meter to measure current/amps, then
- Touch the black lead/probe to the battery -, and the red lead/probe to the side of the pill.
That should give you a reading of current…
ive read from other flashlight before this shows no current draw at all .id guess its to low for my meter to read. i contacted tmart and they want me to send it back and when they receive it they’ll send new light. that will be a month from now. took em 2 weeks to get this light to me. LOl and with my luck ill get it ona full moon
Hi,
Ok, this is weird. I had just finished doing a small modification on a new light I got, just a driver and emitter replacement, and it worked earlier, but then I tested it about an hour ago, and it sounds like I was seeing exactly the same symptoms that you’re seeing. Dim and it will change modes, including to strobe, etc., but really dim.
Anyway, I think I just fixed the problem on my light. It was that, on the battery side of the driver, the ground ring was not making good contact with the pill. In my case, the driver was press-fitted into the pill, so I thought that’d be good enough to provide contact, but I guess not. I tried some “wire glue”, but that didn’t help, so I fluxed the pill edge and ground ring, and turned my soldering iron to max, and tried to solder bridge from the ground ring to the pill. It doesn’t LOOK like it worked, but the light now works and is no longer dim!
The driver for the HD2010 (or at least the one I have) is held into the pill by a retaining ring. If you look at the driver end of the pill, you’ll see the ring and it should have two small holes/depressions one on each edge of the ring.
Take a pair of tweezers, or the ends of a needle nose pliers, and try to put that into the two holes and maybe loosen, then re-tighten that ring. If it’s not tight, probably the same problem as the one I had. I’ve also been able to turn the ring with just the point of a ballpoint pen, so if you don’t have tweezers or needle nose, try that.
And we're back to post #5. That's why I wanted him to try reseating the driver.
Did he ever try/do that yet?
In my experience, you have a bad connection some where. It could very well be the connection between ground ring and the pill.
A lot of times they are soldered in, might could try that. I have also had a led that was not properly reflowed to the mcpcb, it essentially had just enough connection to flow small amounts of current but no more than that, current could have been flowing through the left over flux. Try taking a 9v alkaline battery and touching the pads on the led itself. If it lights up somewhat bright its a bad reflow. The 9v alkaline has to high of internal resistance to give enough current to blow the led incase your wondering about how that will work. Its a sure way to tell if something is wrong with the led.
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Looking at the pics here LED-TECH.DE Online Shop there are two silver pads, positive on the right negative on the left, direct connections to the led. The die wires are on the negative side. There will be a tiny bit of silicone covering them usually, just scrape it off a little to make a good connection.
Yep, checking the LED itself is a good place to start if you want to diagnose this yourself. If not, I would box it back up and send it back to tmart before you potentially void any sort of warranty.
Anyway, it’s usually a bit easier to probe the LED with power right on the MCPCB the LED is mounted on, which also often indicates which lead is (+) and which is (-). I would try that before probing directly to the tiny LED itself. Using a 9v battery is fine for a big XM-L, not gonna hurt it at all.
