My Zebralight H30 Q5 making NOISE!!! Another Problem???

[davedds]

I finally got my Zebralight H30 Q5 from the Fenix Store today, waited till dark and started to play around with it. At 1st I was using the "Headband" and the H30 was in the center of my forehead. Went through all the paces with low/med and then high, Pretty cool, so far.

Then I slipped it off the headband and onto the pocket clip and the clip the whole unit on my baseball cap next to my "temple/ear" area. Turned it on low and then med and all was well. Hit the "High" and all of the sudden I hear a "High Pitched" buzzing sound. Turned it off and then cycled through the low/med/high settings and the same thing, a "High Pitched" buzzing sound. Switched batteries to another fresh Duracell DL123 and got the same result. If I place the H30 about 6 inches away from my ears then you can not hardly tell if there is a sound. None of other lights made any noise in any mode...

I wanted to check this out over here on CPF is anyone else experienced this before. If this is normal before a call goes to Fenix Store about a possible defective H30.

Thanks all...

 

[Lite_me]

Re: My Zebralight H30 Q5 making NOISE!!! Problem???

Well, seems like others are hearing it too. Check out this thread in the Review forum. Here's a link to a post in the thread about the noise.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=2501400#post2501400

 

[TigerhawkT3]

Re: My Zebralight H30 Q5 making NOISE!!! Problem???

That is inductor hum. It is very normal and very common.

 

[davedds]

Re: My Zebralight H30 Q5 making NOISE!!! Problem???

Yes, thats about what I hear. Most of the posts before the one you link looks like they are talking about "flickering" of the light and not any sounds, and that post was very recent. Perhaps this is another issuse with the batch H30/Q5 that have been "Fix" for the UI/Flickering problem.

Here we go again!!!

PS after reading about the "flickering" I also had that light flicker on high!!! Did we fix anything zebralight???

inductor hum may be normal to some, but none of my other lights have inductor hum...

 

[lumenlover2]

Re: My Zebralight H30 Q5 making NOISE!!! Problem???

That is inductor hum. It is very normal and very common.

not a sign of quality. and that it`s common does not mean it can`t be fixed!

With all these little bugs still not fixed I´m waiting till everything is perfect on these lights before buying one that`s for sure.

 

[Grox]

Re: My Zebralight H30 Q5 making NOISE!!! Problem???

The hum is very common. It has to do with the way the circuitry controls the power to the light.

It happens in many many lights - eg SF A2, U2, HDS, Novatac just to mention a few.

 

[rantanplan]

Mine from the latest batch is quiet, doesn´t flicker or misbehave otherwise ... so I´m very happy

 

[lowatts]

My L2 makes this noise, which apparently is pretty common in L2s. It might be that a spec change was made in the H30 to fix another issue which required a change to a "noisy" part. I hope this can be changed in future lights, since this light will be used close to the ear by many, but I suppose it might not be possible without some other performance compromise.

 

[__philippe]

Hint to the compulsive fault finders among us who you enjoy worrying about the H30 tiniest noises, try this experiment:

Hold the light in max mode near a transistor radio;
that should produce interference noises loud enough to ruin forever our elusive quest for the holy grail of flashlight perfection...

Cheers all the same,

__philippe

 

[kaichu dento]

Yeah, no reason to be searching for quality in a take-it-or-leave-it world, right?!?

 

[davedds]

Just an update for those who care??? (No one anyways) I sent the H30 back to where I got it from (Fenix-Store) and with their great customer service, I got a perfect H30 back with absolutely no noise or flicker!!!

Thanks Fenix-Store!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[dom]

Good to hear things worked out Dave
Fenix-Store people are fantastic.

Cheers
Dom

 

[RGB_LED]

Just an update for those who care??? (No one anyways) I sent the H30 back to where I got it from (Fenix-Store) and with their great customer service, I got a perfect H30 back with absolutely no noise or flicker!!!

Thanks Fenix-Store!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

That's great to hear.

Hmm... I have both a small flicker whenever I switch modes and also a very faint hum when the light is on but it doesn't affect function at all.

 

[coors]

My replacement H30 on high mode made the high pitched sound when I first received it, but after cleaning the contacts it completely went away. This replacement H30 works perfectly, but runtimes on rcr123 are 22 mins longer and subsequently it's much dimmer than the one which I returned. I know that people say that such small differences in output are not actually observable, but I think that at such low lumen output levels of the H30 that 18% is significant. All that I know is that every time that I turned on the H30 which I returned (on high mode) I was dazzled, amazed and even thankful. Now when I turn this new unit on (on high mode) I find myself wanting more light than it's giving...every time. A very frustrating experience for me!:mecry:I wrote to Zebralight with my complaint, but they ignored me completely. So, I guess that I'm stuck with a perfectly working, underperforming example of the H30.

coors

 

[Sgt. LED]

Mine is quiet, if it gets loud I'll try to remember to clean it before sending it back.