Turbo DV8
Flashlight Enthusiast
If you own this light, listen up, people! If I wanted, I could just give you the short story, but it wouldn't be as fun as relating how I stumbled upon this! It's kind of a long story, and maybe a bit confusing to follow, but I shall try. If you don't want the long story, go to the last paragraph!
I received the MTE 1xAA SSCP4 42180-U light today from Deal Extreme. The first thing I noticed was that the end surface of the body which mates with the tail cap had some anodizing on it. So, I lightly sanded it on a flat surface. (I was under the mistaken impression that the end of the barrel must make a negative contact with the aluminum switch retainer ring in the end cap.) However, the second thing I noticed was that the threads on the tail cap only engaged one full turn before the end of the cap bottomed out on the flange on the body. Once tightened, only one lefty-loosey turn was required before the tail cap popped right off. And the threads were very loose. This was all very cheesy and not acceptable to me. I made a couple measurements and discovered that the ground is made through the threads, not the end of the barrel-to-switch retainer ring. There is no contact made there. The end of the tail cap bottoms out on the outer flange of the body before contact is made with the end of the barrel.
Anyway, I measured and found that I could shave 1.1 mm off the end of the tail cap, near where the O-ring snuggles into, before the end of the body barrel bottoms into the switch retainer ring. And 1.1 mm more forward travel of the tail cap would give me about two more turns of thread engagement, for a total of three. That should still leave enough of a smooth "snuggle zone" for the O-ring. I felt good about that, so I went ahead and ground 1.1 mm off the end of the switch and deburred it (it would rip the O-ring to shreds if you don't!) Well, bloody hell, for some reason by doing that I did get three full turns, but after that the cap just keeps turning! The threads were such crap that by realigning where the cap/body threads engaged by shaving 1.1 mm off the cap, it moved the engagement point just far enough forward to where the one good thread in the cap no longer came to rest on the one good turn of thread on the body! This is my life, you understand.
Although the tail cap keeps turning, it is engaged enough so that I cannot easily just pull it off the body. So I thought, what the hell, why don't I just leave the tail cap in place, and do battery replacements through the head-end. So I tossed in a Rayovac Hybrid AA and tightened the head. Damn blazes, now the light turns on all the time even when the switch is off! Turns out that the plastic wrap on the Rayovac Hybrid does not extend onto the negative contact of the cell, so when I tightened the head far enough, the negative end of the cell came into contact with the switch retainer ring, which then grounded the light out through the threads. I think, "Fine! I'll just turn this thing into a twisty instead of a clickie." So I wrapped several layers of Teflon tape around the stripped threads which gave them more than enough increased bite to stay in place, and after several tightening and loosening cycles, the threads cut through enough of the Teflon tape to make a good ground. Here's where it gets good.
I go outside to play with my new butchered, hacked POS made-in-China-but-reengineered-in-USA light. I twist it on and shine it on a 60' tall redwood tree. Damn, this little thing is bright! Play some more then twist it off. Go back inside for a while and come back out for more fun and games. This time I clicked the light on through the tail switch. Pretty bright, but this battery must be getting tired because it doesn't seem as bright as before. Oh well, I don't expect regulation for $13! But then while the switch was on, I twisted the head down, and BLAMMO! The light got at least 30% brighter! Back and forth I went, and each time I tightened the head down, it was almost like having a "Turbo" mode!
Bottom line, folks, the switch on this light is CRAP! Do whatever you need to do to shunt that tail switch and turn it into a twisty, and you will be amazed at what you gain. First, your battery needs to have a reasonably flat bottom, with no plastic wrap from the side extending down over the negative electrode. The Rayovac Hybrid works as-is, but all my other Ni-MH did not. You may have to just take a razor and trim the bottom strip of plastic wrap off the bottom of the cell. Then, if your cell still won't bottom out on the switch's aluminum retainer ring, you'll have to use a suitable nicely conductive washer or something over the spring to fill the small gap. Then it will be a twisty for sure, and you are on your way to experiencing "Turbo" mode on your MTE 42180-U light!
I received the MTE 1xAA SSCP4 42180-U light today from Deal Extreme. The first thing I noticed was that the end surface of the body which mates with the tail cap had some anodizing on it. So, I lightly sanded it on a flat surface. (I was under the mistaken impression that the end of the barrel must make a negative contact with the aluminum switch retainer ring in the end cap.) However, the second thing I noticed was that the threads on the tail cap only engaged one full turn before the end of the cap bottomed out on the flange on the body. Once tightened, only one lefty-loosey turn was required before the tail cap popped right off. And the threads were very loose. This was all very cheesy and not acceptable to me. I made a couple measurements and discovered that the ground is made through the threads, not the end of the barrel-to-switch retainer ring. There is no contact made there. The end of the tail cap bottoms out on the outer flange of the body before contact is made with the end of the barrel.
Anyway, I measured and found that I could shave 1.1 mm off the end of the tail cap, near where the O-ring snuggles into, before the end of the body barrel bottoms into the switch retainer ring. And 1.1 mm more forward travel of the tail cap would give me about two more turns of thread engagement, for a total of three. That should still leave enough of a smooth "snuggle zone" for the O-ring. I felt good about that, so I went ahead and ground 1.1 mm off the end of the switch and deburred it (it would rip the O-ring to shreds if you don't!) Well, bloody hell, for some reason by doing that I did get three full turns, but after that the cap just keeps turning! The threads were such crap that by realigning where the cap/body threads engaged by shaving 1.1 mm off the cap, it moved the engagement point just far enough forward to where the one good thread in the cap no longer came to rest on the one good turn of thread on the body! This is my life, you understand.
Although the tail cap keeps turning, it is engaged enough so that I cannot easily just pull it off the body. So I thought, what the hell, why don't I just leave the tail cap in place, and do battery replacements through the head-end. So I tossed in a Rayovac Hybrid AA and tightened the head. Damn blazes, now the light turns on all the time even when the switch is off! Turns out that the plastic wrap on the Rayovac Hybrid does not extend onto the negative contact of the cell, so when I tightened the head far enough, the negative end of the cell came into contact with the switch retainer ring, which then grounded the light out through the threads. I think, "Fine! I'll just turn this thing into a twisty instead of a clickie." So I wrapped several layers of Teflon tape around the stripped threads which gave them more than enough increased bite to stay in place, and after several tightening and loosening cycles, the threads cut through enough of the Teflon tape to make a good ground. Here's where it gets good.
I go outside to play with my new butchered, hacked POS made-in-China-but-reengineered-in-USA light. I twist it on and shine it on a 60' tall redwood tree. Damn, this little thing is bright! Play some more then twist it off. Go back inside for a while and come back out for more fun and games. This time I clicked the light on through the tail switch. Pretty bright, but this battery must be getting tired because it doesn't seem as bright as before. Oh well, I don't expect regulation for $13! But then while the switch was on, I twisted the head down, and BLAMMO! The light got at least 30% brighter! Back and forth I went, and each time I tightened the head down, it was almost like having a "Turbo" mode!
Bottom line, folks, the switch on this light is CRAP! Do whatever you need to do to shunt that tail switch and turn it into a twisty, and you will be amazed at what you gain. First, your battery needs to have a reasonably flat bottom, with no plastic wrap from the side extending down over the negative electrode. The Rayovac Hybrid works as-is, but all my other Ni-MH did not. You may have to just take a razor and trim the bottom strip of plastic wrap off the bottom of the cell. Then, if your cell still won't bottom out on the switch's aluminum retainer ring, you'll have to use a suitable nicely conductive washer or something over the spring to fill the small gap. Then it will be a twisty for sure, and you are on your way to experiencing "Turbo" mode on your MTE 42180-U light!
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