N30 stopped working

[superubergeek]

Hi,

Long time looker but here is my first posting.

Thanks to great forum members, I purchased N30 HID about 3 months ago but unfortunately HID stopped working. The batter shows I still have 75% but HID failed to turn on completey after flashing it briefly and it turned itslef off.

Is this a common problem? Accoring to the website, it is already out of the warranty but this was my realy first use.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[mtbkndad]

Completely charge the battery again. Then try the light.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

 

[Sarratt]

... I wish the original poster would reply


I am so very close to ordering an N30 .... .....

I've tried to read all that I can about the N30 and I will bet that that the Original Poster did not "condition" the battery properly.

I don't want to start a new thread for a simple question so .... how long is the re-charge time for the N30 ? ... If say ..I use it for 30 minutes (50% runtime) how long will it take to re-charge?

thanks

ps ..has anyone from Canada ordered an N30 ?... any surprise costs ?,,,thanks

 

[BlueBeam22]

...
I don't want to start a new thread for a simple question so .... how long is the re-charge time for the N30 ? ... If say ..I use it for 30 minutes (50% runtime) how long will it take to re-charge?

I have found it to take several hours to recharge after using it a lot, although I don't think I have used it for a total of 30 minutes yet. To answer you question, an overnight charge should be plenty to fully charge it from a 50% discharged state.

To superubergeek:

I agree with Mtbkndad that you should try fully charging it and then see if it works.

 

[mtbkndad]

... I wish the original poster would reply


I am so very close to ordering an N30 .... .....

I've tried to read all that I can about the N30 and I will bet that that the Original Poster did not "condition" the battery properly.

I don't want to start a new thread for a simple question so .... how long is the re-charge time for the N30 ? ... If say ..I use it for 30 minutes (50% runtime) how long will it take to re-charge?

thanks

ps ..has anyone from Canada ordered an N30 ?... any surprise costs ?,,,thanks

I would order an N30. They are great lights and Matt is a fantastic person to work with, either on projects or as a customer.

Once you get it, charge it. If it does not run right or very long initially then charge it twice in a row without using it and then try using it. Somebody mentioned that N30's were out of stock for a while, when new supplies come in this will not be so much of an issue.
Part of the problem is that VERY shortly after the introduction of the N30 the company changed hands and went from the west coast to the east coast. All of this happened just as the N30 was starting to get popular. So they went from being available to not available for some time. Then Matt had to decide if it was even a product he wanted to keep. All this time N30's were either in storage or being moved or being in storage again.

This resulted in the batteries losing their initial charge and needing proper conditioning to able to get the run times back up.

Now one other point I like to mention for anybody buying ANY HID is run it through a few cycles as soon as you get it to be sure everything is working right in the beginning. It is just not fair to the companies you purchase from to buy products and have them sit for months on end and then find out one may or may not be defective and expect the company to fix it.

I do not work for BatteryJunction and do not receive anything from N30 sales, so I am speaking strictly as a consumer here.
Remember the NiMH batteries want to be used and not stored. The indicator LED's are just approximate. If a light has been sitting long enough for the LED's to only show 75% voltage before it is turned on you can definitely expect that light to tank in a few minutes once the batteries are under load. When my N30's show less then full capacity I charge them. You just never know when you will need the light for an extended period of time.
If you do not use the light for months on end you will need to charge it every month or so in order to keep the charge up. So buy, use it daily, and enjoy it .


Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

 

[Patriot]

I typically find that the N30 will hold a charge for at least a couple of months but obviously it's a reduced charge. I find that it holds a charge better than my X990 did anyhow.

One thing that I've learned about the N30 is that best run-time performance seems to come after charging it twice. Once it's done charging I plug it back in an hour or two later and it seems to "top it off" I guess. In other words, I put it through two charge cycles after I've been running it down past 50%.

 

[Sarratt]

.....
I do not work for BatteryJunction and do not receive anything from N30 sales, so I am speaking strictly as a consumer here.Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

But you are the person who did design the light ?

You were the maker of the original Amondotech N30 ?

And by all accounts an amazing creation!

I don't mean to insult or in anyway be negative about the light or Battery Junction or anyone... its just that $200. is a lot of money to me. So I have to be very careful.


S

P.S ... I keep asking my wife... to ask me ...... " do you need that light?" .... I need a good reason fast

 

[Patriot]

... I wish the original poster would reply


I am so very close to ordering an N30 .... .....

I'm just curious why the original poster's answer really has that much bearing on your decision. If the light does have a legitimate problem does that mean you're not going to purchase one even after all of the positive comments about the product here? What would be your second choice and would it be any more reliable? I personally don't think it would be at any price.

I suppose I'm asking because every manufacturer can and will have the odd problem, even the best of them. I can recall one of the Polarion X1 owners (no need to mention names) having a light that turned on by itself due to a switch failure. Obviously this was a rare case and I haven't heard of any other failures since that weren't self induced. Electronics will behave like electronics. Whether you're dealing with a computer, a piece of Pioneer Elite sound equipment, or a new Mercedes-Benz there exists the potential for a problem. Usually the more complex the system the greater the chances for issues to arise.

HID lights are no different. The parts are typically made using the best components that the price point will support. Your likelihood of ever having a problem may decrease with lights from Xeray or Polarion but it isn't a guarantee against failure and it also comes at a much greater cost.

Again, the N30 has a great reputation among a crowd of fairly discerning enthusiasts. If it was not worth the money we would instead be warning you against it. If you still feel that the N30 is just too high risk at $150 then perhaps HID just isn't for you. Maybe you could compromise and get the POB. Incan spotlights are another option.

 

[mtbkndad]

But you are the person who did design the light ?
You were the maker of the original Amondotech N30 ?

?

Just curious

S

Call me stupid if you want but it was all volunteer to help one friend and then another.

I had already developed a working relationship with the manufacturer. After requesting a compact HID that was made in a 6V lantern style form factor; I was presented with 3 early concept drawings. I told them one would be good in HIGHLY urban areas, one could give them design "legal" problems (Possible trademark issues with a name incorporated into the design.), one would be good in the US if developed.

The first is sold in Japan only.
The second was dropped-

The third became the N30. Their designers came up with the basic idea. I helped them refine it. LOTS of testing and refining. Since they had not gotten their investment back from other projects, they were really not interested in investing a lot into this light. Plastic mold making is VERY expensive.
It took me nearly a year to get Wayne of Amondotech and the manufacturer to both believe in the little light that the manufacturer made into a hand made prototype for me to evaluate.

As Matt alluded to in his L35 thread, the whole N30/L35 project almost got lost in the shuffle with the change of ownership. I literally was able to contact Matt for the first time, just in time for him contact the manufacturer and keep it going into what it is today.
Matt took a chance because up to that time he did not know me from Adam.
I just asked him to go get one of those little lights out of storage ASAP and try if for himself , well Matt being a true flashaholic did not need a lot of convincing after that .

So as you can see, I did work on these lights from the beginning.
I do not get royalties or commissions from them.
I do know how challenging it is to be a business owner and have people get products and then not properly test them for months before calling the company to report a possible problem. It is just not fair. When people buy the lights, or any other products for that matter, they need to take the time to find out right away if they work or don't.

In the case of the person who started this thread, at this point I think the light probably needs to be put through a good charging cycle and everything will likely be okay after that.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

 

[gchand]

We tend to forget that we here @ CPF deal with the latest in technology WRT flashlights/lanterns, and as such we have to deal with occasional "teething" problems.

Mtbkndad has (in my opinion) done an extraordinary job in helping to bring the N30 (and eventually, the L35) to fruition.

Battery Junction is more than willing to stand by their products.

For an R&D community, we are quite lucky here!


George

 

[Illum]

a brand new N30 requires a break-in period
the battery indicator may say theres 75% remaining but it won't light...at this period you can expect the runtime to be under 10 minutes

Run it until it goes out, charge it, repeat
by the third time the runtime should be around 30 minutes

if not, when the charger indicator light turns green unplug it, then plug the charger back in and the light should go back to red.

I've been through at least 10 charge/recharge cycles now I get over 50 minutes of runtime and the charge indicator will indicate something lower than 75%.

I'm hoping the L35 alleviates the issue because of different battery chemistry, and this is the only real issue I have found so far...oh, the light is NOT waterproof

 

[crazedmodder]

... I wish the original poster would reply


I am so very close to ordering an N30 .... .....

I've tried to read all that I can about the N30 and I will bet that that the Original Poster did not "condition" the battery properly.

I don't want to start a new thread for a simple question so .... how long is the re-charge time for the N30 ? ... If say ..I use it for 30 minutes (50% runtime) how long will it take to re-charge?

thanks

ps ..has anyone from Canada ordered an N30 ?... any surprise costs ?,,,thanks

No issues ordering to Canada and it came pretty fast. No duties or anything either BUT I might have just been lucky, might as well be prepared to pay them just in case.