Curious_character
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2006
- Messages
- 1,211
I recently got an Olight Warrior X. It's an impressive flashlight, but I'm seeing a potential problem with it.
After carrying it in a pocket for a short while, I noticed some very small particles of magnetic material ("iron filings") captured by the strong magnet at the base of the light. These little particles are just about everywhere, and I can see they'd easily build up to where they would bridge the small gap between the center and outer contacts. These particles are especially common in beach or river sand, so a short time in that environment would almost certainly result in a complete circuit across the contacts.
Concerned about the consequences of shorting the contacts, I measured the short circuit current and found it to be more than 9 mA. So if the terminals are shorted, a fully charged 3000 mAh cell would completely discharge in about two weeks. The contacts would also be easily shorted by a stray paper clip or other steel or otherwise magnetic object in a bag or drawer where the light is kept.
I found some thin tape to put over the back of my light to prevent a short circuit, but it does make the button harder to operate.
What I haven't been able to determine is whether this is normal or if I got a defective unit -- Olight support has uncharacteristically not responded to my query. (Possibly the response got dumped into a spam trap somewhere.) I'd sure appreciate it if someone else could measure the short circuit current across the contacts and report the results. It can easily be done with any digital multimeter. Just set it to measure current and put one probe on each contact with the light off.
c_c
After carrying it in a pocket for a short while, I noticed some very small particles of magnetic material ("iron filings") captured by the strong magnet at the base of the light. These little particles are just about everywhere, and I can see they'd easily build up to where they would bridge the small gap between the center and outer contacts. These particles are especially common in beach or river sand, so a short time in that environment would almost certainly result in a complete circuit across the contacts.
Concerned about the consequences of shorting the contacts, I measured the short circuit current and found it to be more than 9 mA. So if the terminals are shorted, a fully charged 3000 mAh cell would completely discharge in about two weeks. The contacts would also be easily shorted by a stray paper clip or other steel or otherwise magnetic object in a bag or drawer where the light is kept.
I found some thin tape to put over the back of my light to prevent a short circuit, but it does make the button harder to operate.
What I haven't been able to determine is whether this is normal or if I got a defective unit -- Olight support has uncharacteristically not responded to my query. (Possibly the response got dumped into a spam trap somewhere.) I'd sure appreciate it if someone else could measure the short circuit current across the contacts and report the results. It can easily be done with any digital multimeter. Just set it to measure current and put one probe on each contact with the light off.
c_c
