hellokitty[hk]
Enlightened
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2007
- Messages
- 645
I recently made my first p60 drop-in with an L2p, S6 tailcap, 2.8A AMC 7135 driver, and an XM-L.
It started out pretty rough if you look through my thread, but I got it all sorted out in the end (so I thought).
Now, I'm having a weird problem, it seems like there's some weak contacts somewhere. Sometimes, the light will flicker a bit, if I shake it, or smack it a little, it usually stops. It hits the low voltage warning absurdly early, but if I smack it around a little, I can keep running on high for quite a while longer. Sometimes, it doesn't turn on unless I wiggle it around. When it won't hold high at all without having to wiggle it all the time, the batteries come out at about 3.8 - 4.0 v open circuit. My hobby charger usually only puts <800 mAh back in, and they hold ~4.1 - 4.15 v that they come off at. I'm pretty sure there's some resistance somewhere causing a voltage drop, probably a lose contact.
Ruling some things out:
I'm using aluminum foil and copper tape from illumination supply. I'm assuming that the adhesive is conductive. It's stuffed so tightly I need pliers to take it out, so that seems quite solid.
The batteries are in tight enough to rub a pretty noticeable circle on the bottom of my batteries, and the top of one of them has a very slight indent. It doesn't turn off if I shake it forward and back.
I've used the pill itself outside of the host a bit, and it's worked perfectly. There are three solid looking solder joints from the pill to the driver board's negative contact rim. Wires to the LED look solid. The pill (copper) is screwed into the reflector pretty well it seems, and the threads were cleaned with alcohol prior to screwing them in. I hope there's no oxidization there and I don't want to check just yet because it's pretty difficult to take it out. I didn't see any the past few times I've taken it out.
I have a Redilast 2900mAh, purchased recently and a blue wrapper Solarforce protected 2400mAh, also purchased recently. Initially, both cells seemed fine, charging up to 2000mAh - 2500mAh+ on my hobby charger after hitting the low-voltage warning. Only about ten cycles each, never stored at full charge, spent most of their life in my flashlight or in the refrigerator, never discharged too low.
Removed the original lube using a cotton balls and alcohol and relubed with krytox three times (cleaning off the old lube each time). I've always thought that dielectric lube is fine for aluminum contacts. Honestly, if it were anything, I'd have to guess tailcap contact somehow, I have no idea how. It looks okay to me, if anyone can see anything I'm doing wrong here... The flashlight worked fine at first, so I thought it was the contacts oxidizing or something, but lubing with krytox doesn't seem to have changed anything. I've tested using a wire instead of the tailcap, and though I haven't tested very much, I haven't experienced this problem using a wire (though it was a few weeks ago, before this problem had been a problem. I tested like this when I was troubleshooting because the pill wasn't stuffed all the way in, which gave similar symptoms).
There are pictures in the thread linked above.
Thanks for helping.
It started out pretty rough if you look through my thread, but I got it all sorted out in the end (so I thought).
Now, I'm having a weird problem, it seems like there's some weak contacts somewhere. Sometimes, the light will flicker a bit, if I shake it, or smack it a little, it usually stops. It hits the low voltage warning absurdly early, but if I smack it around a little, I can keep running on high for quite a while longer. Sometimes, it doesn't turn on unless I wiggle it around. When it won't hold high at all without having to wiggle it all the time, the batteries come out at about 3.8 - 4.0 v open circuit. My hobby charger usually only puts <800 mAh back in, and they hold ~4.1 - 4.15 v that they come off at. I'm pretty sure there's some resistance somewhere causing a voltage drop, probably a lose contact.
Ruling some things out:
I'm using aluminum foil and copper tape from illumination supply. I'm assuming that the adhesive is conductive. It's stuffed so tightly I need pliers to take it out, so that seems quite solid.
The batteries are in tight enough to rub a pretty noticeable circle on the bottom of my batteries, and the top of one of them has a very slight indent. It doesn't turn off if I shake it forward and back.
I've used the pill itself outside of the host a bit, and it's worked perfectly. There are three solid looking solder joints from the pill to the driver board's negative contact rim. Wires to the LED look solid. The pill (copper) is screwed into the reflector pretty well it seems, and the threads were cleaned with alcohol prior to screwing them in. I hope there's no oxidization there and I don't want to check just yet because it's pretty difficult to take it out. I didn't see any the past few times I've taken it out.
I have a Redilast 2900mAh, purchased recently and a blue wrapper Solarforce protected 2400mAh, also purchased recently. Initially, both cells seemed fine, charging up to 2000mAh - 2500mAh+ on my hobby charger after hitting the low-voltage warning. Only about ten cycles each, never stored at full charge, spent most of their life in my flashlight or in the refrigerator, never discharged too low.
Removed the original lube using a cotton balls and alcohol and relubed with krytox three times (cleaning off the old lube each time). I've always thought that dielectric lube is fine for aluminum contacts. Honestly, if it were anything, I'd have to guess tailcap contact somehow, I have no idea how. It looks okay to me, if anyone can see anything I'm doing wrong here... The flashlight worked fine at first, so I thought it was the contacts oxidizing or something, but lubing with krytox doesn't seem to have changed anything. I've tested using a wire instead of the tailcap, and though I haven't tested very much, I haven't experienced this problem using a wire (though it was a few weeks ago, before this problem had been a problem. I tested like this when I was troubleshooting because the pill wasn't stuffed all the way in, which gave similar symptoms).
There are pictures in the thread linked above.
Thanks for helping.
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