ARC4 fixed but curious

[sharkeeper]

I applied a solder buildup to the gold disk facing the battery neg terminal. The feedback is very tactile both ways and the click quite audible. A click as loud as a mouse would be too loud! Might as well use a kroll!

Cheers!

 

[Dave Wright]

NewBie,

Excellent info regarding the switches. I hope Arc and HDS are taking notes. No need to reinvent the switch if the avionics industry has already figured it out. I don't know how much of the problem is because they need to tap the battery at all times.

 

[McShawn]

NewBie, those problems are not good, I have great functioning switches on both my Arc4's now but the machining and flashing at high power of my one unit still needs to be fixed. No email back yet asking about this problem, has been awhile, I guess I need to email again.

 

[this_is_nascar]

It appears that most of these switch issues were introduced with the inception of the REV2 lights. All of my REV1 lights have a flawless switch. All of my REV2 lights needed to be fixed.

 

[cy]

sharkeeper, I've been recogmending this fix for quite some time now. Applying a blob of solder between the gold disc and battery contact will fix the switch and contact problems.

Add a flat rubber disc and it becomes the tailcap 1.2 mod. There is aprox. .065-.075 space to build up. If you use a flat rubber disc, then you need to build up solder until it raises the gold disc slightly off the lip of batt tube.

If you are using the stock tailcap assembly, you would use slightly less solder. You may also need to relax the cone spring. In either case the switch becomes tactile. responsive and sweet.

I don't understand why more folks have not tried this. As this fixes 95%+ of all the complaints related to the arc4.

 

[sharkeeper]

My 1st revision was OK but there was spring rattle...

It was replaced with a rev.2 that had a mushy feel (due to the foam washer no doubt) and this was taken care of with solder.

I'll post a pic of what the disc looks like if anyone is interested.

[ QUOTE ]
I don't understand why more folks have not tried this. As this fixes 95%+ of all the complaints related to the arc4.

[/ QUOTE ]

It probably has to do with the fact this is not an inexpensive product and should work *perfectly* out of the box. Some people are probably not very good with a soldering iron! (hard to believe especially from a flashaholic point of view!)

Cheers!

 

[asdalton]

[ QUOTE ]
indenial said:
I've decided to exercise my rights as a consumer and request a refund. Too many problems for such an expensive product IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sadly, this has been my experience with the Arc4 as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[pEEf]

Sadly this was on par with my 4+R2 experience. Right out of the ziploc baggie, using the supplied battery, there was no tactile click, and the slightest pressure would activate the switch. (see This Post)

I was able to remedy these problems myself with about a half-hour of fiddling around and minor fabrication, except for the reflector anyway (Details), but what bothers me is that I shouldn't have had to! For such an otherwise amazing light, these seems to be poor or non-existant QC.

For a cheapie at Wal-Mart I expect this, and maybe even for a "second", but I paid full-price and still had to tinker!

I don't understand why Peter is allowing this to happen so many times. Seems like it would save postage, time, and more importantly; customer satisfaction, if these problems were addressed before the light leaves Arc!

-Phil

 

[McShawn]

Thanks for your reply pEEf, and I agree completely. They do have QC issues. But I still like their lights. Maybe someone will come up with some good fixes that ARC will incorporate.