Khaytsus
Enlightened
I've had my Arc AAA since mid January, and I love the light, it's around my neck 24/7, sometimes off sleeping if I roll over on it and take it off. I don't want to do without it, it's constantly coming in very handy since it's right there all the time.
But it's driving me insane at the same time! About two months ago it started flickering and acting weird, I changed batteries, fiddled, cleaned, wiped, erased, and suddenly it was fine. I had even emailed Arc asking what I could do, they responded pretty fast, but I had gotten it working. Since then, it's done this at least every two weeks or so, I'll have to clean and wipe and fiddle and get all confused about what's going on.
Then I started noticing in the shower the light wouldn't come on, or it would come on SO DIM you could *just* make out the emitter, and if I left it on by the time I toweled off, brushed hair and teeth, it'd be back on. Later I noticed as I was under a heat vent it did the same thing, went to use it, it was fairly warm (nowhere near uncomfortable to hold) and it was extremely weak. At that point, I got curious, tossed it in the freezer, and in about 20 seconds it was back to normal. I let it warm back up slowly again, then put it near the heat again, repeated, and it did the same.
When it's warm/hot it's very, very weak, when it's cooled back off the light is normal.
That was then... Now the light is *always* in moon mode, sometimes it'll flicker from moon to sun back and forth a little, sometimes winding up in either mode. Heat still makes it less bright, but cooling it doesn't necessarily make it brighter. I don't know *what* to think, I'm considering that perhaps the regulator board is just defective.
Just to clairify some things, the heat transitions aren't large temperature transitions, nor are they extended exposure, so the battery itself is unlikely to be changing temperature very much, ie: I'm not melting it, or trying to make a superconductor out of it. I've wiped and cleaned every possible lubrication off of the light, thinking perhaps the spray-on teflon stuff I have (Triflow) was insulating, but I don't think that's the case anymore, I've wiped and wiped. I've used an eraser on the bottom and top contact, reflowed the button contact with an iron (doesn't take much to do, I was kinda surprized!), and of course replaced the battery with brand new ones, I have a 8 pack of brand new AAA's, I've tried several of it, plus I've bought another set of four AAA's of another brand.
I am about to print out a return slip right now (exchange of course; I don't want rid of it!
but I wanted to post this as well, to see if Peter or anyone has any ideas? The light has never been dropped (probably not so much more than onto carpet from a few feet!) and I've never used anything except regular AAA's in it, no lithiums, etc.. Never hooked anything up to it, etc.
The sponge retainer looks like crap where I had to take it off to reflow the button, but other than that (and the slight silvering around the lanyard ring hole where I dangle the light from my neck) the light is in perfect condition.
Maybe someone will have a guess at what went wrong, I hope I just got a dud, it'd stink if I got a replacement and that one did the same thing three months down the road, first because I gave up my first one, and two because I'd be left wondering again
Cheers.
But it's driving me insane at the same time! About two months ago it started flickering and acting weird, I changed batteries, fiddled, cleaned, wiped, erased, and suddenly it was fine. I had even emailed Arc asking what I could do, they responded pretty fast, but I had gotten it working. Since then, it's done this at least every two weeks or so, I'll have to clean and wipe and fiddle and get all confused about what's going on.
Then I started noticing in the shower the light wouldn't come on, or it would come on SO DIM you could *just* make out the emitter, and if I left it on by the time I toweled off, brushed hair and teeth, it'd be back on. Later I noticed as I was under a heat vent it did the same thing, went to use it, it was fairly warm (nowhere near uncomfortable to hold) and it was extremely weak. At that point, I got curious, tossed it in the freezer, and in about 20 seconds it was back to normal. I let it warm back up slowly again, then put it near the heat again, repeated, and it did the same.
When it's warm/hot it's very, very weak, when it's cooled back off the light is normal.
That was then... Now the light is *always* in moon mode, sometimes it'll flicker from moon to sun back and forth a little, sometimes winding up in either mode. Heat still makes it less bright, but cooling it doesn't necessarily make it brighter. I don't know *what* to think, I'm considering that perhaps the regulator board is just defective.
Just to clairify some things, the heat transitions aren't large temperature transitions, nor are they extended exposure, so the battery itself is unlikely to be changing temperature very much, ie: I'm not melting it, or trying to make a superconductor out of it. I've wiped and cleaned every possible lubrication off of the light, thinking perhaps the spray-on teflon stuff I have (Triflow) was insulating, but I don't think that's the case anymore, I've wiped and wiped. I've used an eraser on the bottom and top contact, reflowed the button contact with an iron (doesn't take much to do, I was kinda surprized!), and of course replaced the battery with brand new ones, I have a 8 pack of brand new AAA's, I've tried several of it, plus I've bought another set of four AAA's of another brand.
I am about to print out a return slip right now (exchange of course; I don't want rid of it!
The sponge retainer looks like crap where I had to take it off to reflow the button, but other than that (and the slight silvering around the lanyard ring hole where I dangle the light from my neck) the light is in perfect condition.
Maybe someone will have a guess at what went wrong, I hope I just got a dud, it'd stink if I got a replacement and that one did the same thing three months down the road, first because I gave up my first one, and two because I'd be left wondering again
Cheers.
