Stupid, Stupid, Stupid..Need help

[Katdaddy]

Last night I was changing batteries in my HDS U60. Wife comes up in middle of operation and starts asking me about something. I, being an idiot, don't stop and deal with wife before proceeding and put the battery in backwards. Not realizing what I have done I screw everything back together and ...... No light. Take it apart and find what I have done. Turn battery around and put back together and ..... No light!!! AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH! I'm thinking to myself that these have protection against this brand of stupidity so I take the tail off my B60 and it works. Try again with original tail and no light. I take apart and put back together several times messing with spring in process. Finally I have light and everything seems alright. I put the light on the dresser and go to bed a little later. I wake up in middle of night and find light is on. I try pressing button and get nothing so I unscrew the tail to get it to go off. Tighten it back up and go back to bed. Wake up this morning to find the light on again. Again pressing button yields nothing so I have to unscrew it to get it to go off. This was about three hours ago and it has not come back on by itself again. I have tried button several times and everything seems OK. What is going on?????

 

[LED_Thrift]

Although you thought you woke up, you're actually still dreaming. Today's web-savvy crowd has developed the ability to sleep-blog. You'll be fine in the actual, as opposed to virtual, morning.

 

[Oddjob]

When you have gotten it to turn on have you done a factory reset? IIRC when you screw the tail on and as soon as you get that few seconds of dim light, press and hold the button until the light turns off. Maybe changing tailcaps for the factory reset may work. Hopefully others can help if this does not work for you. Good luck.

 

[Katdaddy]

After I had messed with it awhile the LED did light up when I tightened the tail and all seemed well. It retained my settings. What I am really wondering about now is how the heck it turned itself on....twice?

 

[orcinus]

Oh no, it's the dresser gnomes!
(correction - lesser dresser gnomes... the regular ones bump flashlights off the dresser in the middle of the night)

 

[mr.snakeman]

Oh no, it's the dresser gnomes!
(correction - lesser dresser gnomes... the regular ones bump flashlights off the dresser in the middle of the night)

You have that problem too?:nana:

 

[Katdaddy]

Oh no, it's the dresser gnomes!
(correction - lesser dresser gnomes... the regular ones bump flashlights off the dresser in the middle of the night)

Ok.....I guess that covers the paranormal explanations. Any other possibilities???

 

[manoloco]

re-tighten the retaining ring inside the tailcap, it probably was already loose before you made the mistake with the cell, no ones fault, im pretty sure it will be back to normal operation again, just dont overtighten!

 

[Yoda4561]

Chip weevils?:thinking:

 

[manoloco]

guys as fun as anyone can find the mistic creatures that dwell in our closets and flashlights, i think we would be more helpful if we concentrate on real recomendations on how to fix the nova, there are more joke posts than help info!

 

[Katdaddy]

re-tighten the retaining ring inside the tailcap, it probably was already loose before you made the mistake with the cell, no ones fault, im pretty sure it will be back to normal operation again, just dont overtighten!

Not familiar with this. How do I get to the ring and how to tighten?

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[manoloco]

inside the tailcap there is a bare aluminum ring, with two holes, you should use the 2 holes to tighten that ring, use a needle nose plier to reach those little holes, be careful!

 

[Katdaddy]

I'll give it a try.

Thanks again!

 

[TITAN1833]

Have you cleaned everything with deoxit ?

 

[manoloco]

titan´s recommendation is good, now that you are fiddling with the light you might as well take time to clean the contacts with deoxit or something similar, if you dont have anything handy try just tightening the ring.

 

[louie]

inside the tailcap there is a bare aluminum ring, with two holes, you should use the 2 holes to tighten that ring, use a needle nose plier to reach those little holes, be careful!

But this is a HDS U60, not a Novatac. Most HDS tailcaps aren't removable. I think perhaps the last batches with knurled tails and recessed buttons might be. I don't know if those have the Novatac-style tailcap ring.

I would also suggest a full reset as well as the usual cleaning of everything. Specs say the HDS has full reverse battery protection without diode loss penalty, so no harm should have been done.

 

[manoloco]

oops sorry about that, hope i didnt make the op go haywire tryint to find the retaining ring...

like Louie says if you have an old style HDS you are in for a treat taking the tailcap off. i havent done that in mine. theres a thread on modding hds that might help you dissasemble that, but your absolutely best option is to contact Henry.

 

[tebore]

I bet your tail has the spring with the 4 brass fingers holding it in place. It's possible you just bumped the spring out of the 4 fingers. It's a tough fix but check to make sure the spring is inside the 4 brass fingers.

Try a factory reset. Double check the signal springs to make sure they have proper contact. Make sure the battery hasn't been damaged in anyway as well. Try a new battery.

 

[manoloco]

i still think the tailcap is the culprit, since he said that with his other tc the light worked ok, i have seen those 4 brass fingers, it seems like a low chance of them letting the spring loose, is this a common mishap?

Tebore is the guy who made the modding thread i was referring to, great you could chime in, thanks to his thread i modded mine with a SSC P4

 

[Hellbore]

Maybe when you inserted the cell backwards the nub on the + side damaged the tailcap spring or something under it?