Do I have a faulty switch?

I noticed on my Fenix that there's a very faint high pitched sound coming from the switch. It's only when I have it on high, press half way is slightly louder, but fully clicked it's still there. Is this normal, or should I be concerned?

I've never heard of a switch making a noise like that. My bet is you are using a 2xAA light and the noise you are hearing is one of the batteries letting of a little gas because of reverse dis charge in the light and the noise is either the gas escaping from the battery or you have got a small leak around the switch area and the gas is coming out there. Try new batteries to see if it cures the problem.

Could be that the sound coming from the circuit board? Get it checked though. All the best.

insanefred said:

I noticed on my Fenix that there's a very faint high pitched sound coming from the switch. It's only when I have it on high, press half way is slightly louder, but fully clicked it's still there. Is this normal, or should I be concerned?

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This is perfectly normal.

The sound is from the head, but somehow it sounds as it the tailcap. If your want the verify that, your can remove the tailcap and make a short between the battery and the tube.

Your must not hold the button half pressed, making the light flicker. This can damage both the switch and the driver circuit!

It's not making the light "flicker", I have it pressed half way down for a moment, to light things up.
I tried different batteries, same thing.
Yes, I am using AA light.
If this is normal then, oh well.

Fred, this has been an issue with Fenix lights, at least the L2D anyway.
It is supposedly completly normal and seems to be more of an issue with the newer reverse polarity batches and there are plenty of threads on the subject.

You would think that they could make a quite light but... :laughing:

TONY M said:

Fred, this has been an issue with Fenix lights, at least the L2D anyway.
It is supposedly completly normal and seems to be more of an issue with the newer reverse polarity batches and there are plenty of threads on the subject.

You would think that they could make a quite light but... :laughing:

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It sounds like Fred has a Fenix with a forward clicky, maybe an L1T/L2T? A previous poster said that you must never hold the switch at half-press but that's assuming it's a reverse switch.

Fred, if the noise is faint like you said then it's perfectly normal. Many modern lights have a high pitched whine due to the regulation/boost circuits and it's nothing to be concerned about.

superflytnt said:

A previous poster said that you must never hold the switch at half-press but that's assuming it's a reverse switch.

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This has nothing to do with forward/reverse switch, but if your can hold the switch partial down, to the point where it just get contact, your might get some sound from the flashlight.
This is due to arching in the switch and is very bad for the switch and might also damage the driver.

In the Fenix (and many other lights), the driver can make a sound, this sound does not have to be a high pitched sound, just at the edge of hearing, but can be at a lower frequency. The reason for this frequency is the regulation in the light, it is doing some fast adjustment to keep a stable light output. It is not the actual boast/buck frequency, that is way outside the hearing range.

HKJ said:

This has nothing to do with forward/reverse switch, but if your can hold the switch partial down, to the point where it just get contact, your might get some sound from the flashlight.
This is due to arching in the switch and is very bad for the switch...

Click to expand...

Yep. I've heard it on a few switches. It's usually more of a sizzle sound, sometimes very high pitched. My Raidfire Spear (and several other members') did this. I removed the switch and squirted a little DeOxit Gold into it... cleared it up. The reason it does it in high mode is because that's when the most current is waiting to jump across the switch contacts. If there's a little bit of oxidation on it, or it just doesn't make good contact, it'll arc.

One more reason why I love my NC D10. The PD switch is much more reliable and the electronics have a millisecond delay to turn the light on after the piston makes contact to avoid this kind of arcing.