4/7 MiniMkII Ti went Crazy?

[AVService]

I apologize for sounding insulting about this but I do not accept that this can happen with this light.
I ALWAYS make sure that the head is way more loose than it needs to be and the grit and nasty Ti feel of this light is something that you might not be familiar with.
I appreciate the help either way and am still unsure that I can trust this one again.

Just because I have no experience with that particular light means nothing with regards to twisties and this particular UI. My comments were regarding the assembly of the light, not operation.Just for the heck of it, I put my Preon P1 MKIII in my pocket today clicked on but loosened the head just enough for it to turn off. For all intents and purposes it's now a twisty with the same UI as your Mini. Guess what happened throughout the day. Yep, it cycled on and off enough times to change the mode group more than once.

 

[Rasher]

...I do not accept that this can happen with this light.

Well, I can tell you this: My mini Ti (also with crazy gritty threads, even after much use and repeated cleaning a re-lube with the recommended product) can turn on with the head unscrewed unreasonably far (and this with having fixed the spring issue and trying cells of differing lengths). One night I tossed it on to the passenger seat of one of the sports cars (so a bit bumpy ride compared to a normal car, but I'd venture not any worse than a good pocket ride). I noticed an occasional flicker in my peripheral vision - it was the light. By the time I'd reached my destination, it had changed mode groups on its own.

 

[AVService]

Well I appreciate this from your actual experience......sort of!

But I think it just reaffirms my choice to not put this back in pocket.

Never want that experience again to say the least.

Well, I can tell you this: My mini Ti (also with crazy gritty threads, even after much use and repeated cleaning a re-lube with the recommended product) can turn on with the head unscrewed unreasonably far (and this with having fixed the spring issue and trying cells of differing lengths). One night I tossed it on to the passenger seat of one of the sports cars (so a bit bumpy ride compared to a normal car, but I'd venture not any worse than a good pocket ride). I noticed an occasional flicker in my peripheral vision - it was the light. By the time I'd reached my destination, it had changed mode groups on its own.

 

[defloyd77]

Have you contacted Foursevens yet?

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Well, I can tell you this: My mini Ti (also with crazy gritty threads, even after much use and repeated cleaning a re-lube with the recommended product) can turn on with the head unscrewed unreasonably far (and this with having fixed the spring issue and trying cells of differing lengths). One night I tossed it on to the passenger seat of one of the sports cars (so a bit bumpy ride compared to a normal car, but I'd venture not any worse than a good pocket ride). I noticed an occasional flicker in my peripheral vision - it was the light. By the time I'd reached my destination, it had changed mode groups on its own.

I see what you did there. ... :laughing:

~ cG

 

[AVService]

Have you contacted Foursevens yet?

21 emails back and forth.

Can't believe my email let one through with the words "Munky Spunk" in it either?!:duh2:

 

[AVService]

OK I think I understand what and how this happened now?!
I just hope I can explain it clearly?


So the light makes a complete circuit to turn on when the edge of the battery tube (which is at Ground Potential by the spring making contact with the battery all of the time) makes contact with the circular contact ring inside the head on the Pill Board.
The Battery Positive Contact is already always in contact as the spring keeps it that way.

So the only thing keeping the light from being on all the time is the really tiny space between the head tube threads and the edge of the circular contact on the pill board which I hope you can discern in the pic even?

I discovered the tiniest fleck of metal in that gap which if settled just right would turn the light on and keep it from turning off too until the battery was actually removed from the circuit!

The fleck then would "Relax" and move from the contact randomly really and the problem would seem to be gone but instead would still be there lurking until again at random it would bridge that small gap.

Further I think the nature of the Ti tubes itself might have produced this conductive fleck merely by operating the light and the fleck was just a tiny Ti piece that ground itself off the threads.

So this also has a much higher probability of occurrence with the Ti lights as well where the entire body of the light is at Ground Potential unlike the Anodized lights where only the edge is exposed metal and can make contact with the Pills negative contact ring!

So with a conductive fleck sitting between the ground and ground contact pad it is easy to picture my problem happening and that it would not be as simple to turn off as merely loosening the head as you might think.

All of this really speaks to proper thread Inspection and Maintenance as a real priority on these Ti lights if you want to avoid possible mishaps including Nut Roasting,as it were!:thumbsdow

And I sure do!

 

[jon_slider]

that sounds like a happy outcome

I have had erratic behavior from my twisty lights also, due to me using too much lubricant, which can also cause mode skipping and create contact with the end of the body tube and the contact ring. They become stable and reliable when periodically I wipe out excess lubricant on the inner and outer threads and pill.

In the case of my Ti twisty, it also generates a larger amount of black metallic residue than some of my other lights. So, after I lubricate my O rings and threads, I find it helps to wipe off the excess periodically (since I cant seem to resist using too much lube at first).

Im happy you found an explanation for your hotpocket experience.

btw, I share your distaste for the choice of naming for the lubricant darksucks offers for Ti Threads, and I refuse to buy it for that reason.. I use Nano Oil instead, which fwiw, I also got from darksucks

I avoid buying Ti Twisties now, because my experience has been so galling, and gritty, but your little Ti Nut Roaster is very cute, and also makes a good spare battery carrier to support an HDS or other 16340 light.

enjoy your lights!

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

What did you have to do to remove the fleck?

~ cG

 

[AVService]

I have no issue at all with the name of the product I just wish that my Spam filters intercepted it.
I actually think it is pretty funny.

Also I looked back into my PMs and do you realize that it was 1 short year ago essentially that your were a Naive Babe in the Woods here who owned nothing but AAA lights and seemed pretty committed to staying that way?!?!?!

Time Flies!

that sounds like a happy outcome

I have had erratic behavior from my twisty lights also, due to me using too much lubricant, which can also cause mode skipping and create contact with the end of the body tube and the contact ring. They become stable and reliable when periodically I wipe out excess lubricant on the inner and outer threads and pill.

In the case of my Ti twisty, it also generates a larger amount of black metallic residue than some of my other lights. So, after I lubricate my O rings and threads, I find it helps to wipe off the excess periodically (since I cant seem to resist using too much lube at first).

Im happy you found an explanation for your hotpocket experience.

btw, I share your distaste for the choice of naming for the lubricant darksucks offers for Ti Threads, and I refuse to buy it for that reason.. I use Nano Oil instead, which fwiw, I also got from darksucks

I avoid buying Ti Twisties now, because my experience has been so galling, and gritty, but your little Ti Nut Roaster is very cute, and also makes a good spare battery carrier to support an HDS or other 16340 light.

enjoy your lights!

 

[AVService]

Wel.......
Lets just say it was a process to find something both small enough to slide along that tiny groove yet stiff enough to remove the fleck!

I ended up using a small chunk of Steel Cable that I unwound maybe 6 or 8 strands into a deadly pokey scraper and that ended up doing the trick,but not before poking my finger in a deadly way first of course!

I am getting so blind that I actually couldn't see the offending fleck until I put a lot more light in there and stared for a while.
Then I had to use a small magnifier to verify the sighting.

It drives me crazy as I am a Technician anyway to have something like this so simple yet unresolved that I just couldn't leave it alone until I figured it out.

But I am pretty happy and confident that I not only got it fixed but understand what happened too so I can keep carrying this one without as much fear.
I rarely even use a Keychain light as I always carry several other lights too but you know how it goes,the minute I leave it behind I will need it somehow.
I was about to switch it out for the Fenix E15 that was in that spot for years prior but..........I JUST COULDN"T!:thinking:

What did you have to do to remove the fleck?

~ cG

 

[jon_slider]

LOL
Im still naive, but not a babe
I dove into 16340 after my AAA Copper Maratac set was completed with 3000k, 4000k, and 4500k N219b LEDs

it also helped that Olight took me under their wing as a reviewer, briefly, and sent me a few samples of their mini batons

it seems Im more about the LED than the host
Im running a similar program now in the CR123 size lights, building up sets of 2000k, 3000k 3500k 4000k and 4500k Nichias

Here is my only 47s Olight an Atom Mule, with an N219b 4500k 9080 mod, same LED as that Gold Storm.. the HDS is shown w its original XP-G, now 3500k N219b

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

I'm glad you finally got it sorted out.

~ Cg