A2 won't work with different bulb assemblies

[Illum]

Update: Just found out what the problem was! All the "new" batteries that I tried initially now turn out to be nearly dead. That is why the A2 would not light up the main lamp. I have a batch of 12 "new" batteries that I have had for around five years and all of them did not light the lamp.

ahh, bought yourself a ZTS tester finally? Good, CR123As have the tendency to deceive voltmeters because its OCV doesn't correlate with capacity.

 

[yellow]

UI have a batch of 12 "new" batteries that I have had for around five years and all of them did not light the lamp.

same here.

"just" 6 batts, three different makes ... never used
Arent they supposed to have a 10 year shelf life? Mine all were/are exp. 2013

 

[Illum]

same here.

"just" 6 batts, three different makes ... never used
Arent they supposed to have a 10 year shelf life? Mine all were/are exp. 2013

Thats heavily dependent on storage conditions, and increased sensitivity in high drain applications. Read somewhere that ten years down the road they will still retain 40% of their capacity since date manufactured. Heres the catch, the voltage sag of a full battery is not as apparent as that of a partially depleted battery under a moderate load. Therefore sometimes the cells are in fact conforming to their design specifications, but act like they are already dead under the load you planned on using them with. My advice is to circulate the stored CR123As every 5 years or so, and test the cells in each batch with a ZTS tester or equivalent to make sure they are still good. ZTS uses a small load to test the voltage as opposed to a conventional "OCV" voltmeter. I have seen many cases of people testing CR123As on voltmeters, not knowing that OCV in this case does not correlate with inherent remaining capacity unlike that of an alkaline cell. The CR123As can "test" ~3V and sustain as low as 1V under load.

 

[LE6920]

I had a similar issue with one of my user A2 lights. I couldn't figure it out. I sent it to SF and whatever they did it has been running great since. None of the exterior parts looked replaced, so I am guessing it was something in the circuit? I was driving me crazy as sometimes the LEDs would work and not the incan bulb. Sometimes a new bulb didn't work at all. I was swapping the parts and bulbs to another A2 and that ones worked so I knew it was the light. Otherwise I would have gone crazy.