DX.com Ultrafire 18650 - Being problematic - Bin it?

[Adam Gudsell]

Hi there I have a single cell 18650 Ultrafire TH-T60 from DX.com that is playing up - sometimes comes on perfectly - sometimes not at all. When it does come on it goes well for up to 30sec then for no apparent reason loses about 95% of power, will flicker recover and generally perform extremely poorly.

Knocking it in palm of hand sometimes brings it back but to life but 30 sec of high power performance is the most I will get out of it. Only certainty is that it is not the batteries. I suspect the LED has a bad connection or similar and I have a very limited knowledge of soldering etc on how to repair.

At the end of the day it was about a $25us torch and I probably paid way too much - I have since got a fenix 18650 but have "misplaced it" hence I got htis out of the cupboard and started playing around with it again. Can I replace the LED to make it work reliably again? could it be something else (pretty sure I have eliminated the tail cap switch? should I just throw it in the bin and put my energy into scouring the house for the Fenix?

Any sugestions greatly appreciated - doubt I will be shopping on DX.com again in a hurry - just sick of junk.

Cheers
Adam

PS i am in New Zealand so the cost of getting a replacement part sent from anywhere but chinese freepost probably means its not worth it.

 

[Adam Gudsell]

Geez I am a plonker! posted in wrong place. Asked dumb question without doing any real research. Then found the budget light forum where this thread was moved to and found answer to my problem. Fixed light I was about to throw in bin with help from a sticky thread at top of page (tightened tail cap and flickering stopped) double thumbs up to that thread and two slaps to the head for me... Now if Only i can find my Fenix.... perhaps I should start a thread where is my fenix...

 

[Jakefreese]

All my ultrafire lights I have I have ended up rebuilding them replacing the drivers and LED's. I do have one of them that works good from day one, then I have a few that have worked great for a bit then crap on me. I won't buy anymore of them. I bet there are some bad solder connections in yours, as one of the ones I took apart the solder joints were worse than terrible in, that one had the same symptoms yours has also.

 

[DellSuperman]

My experience with budget lights are usually with poor soldering & thermal paste.
My 1 & only ultrafire, I had to dismantle the whole light engine, clean & touch all solder joint at the driver & emitter side before it could work properly.

 

[NoizeSuppressor]

I have 2x Ultrafire JBF 18650 (3000mAh, yeah right). Other than the fact they go flat fast, they are also shorter than my Keeppowers... They don't fit as well, sometimes the light doesn't turn on...