Weird Nuwai .5 Dimming

[jayflash]

My once reliable .5 that became my work, shirt pocket, EDC replacement for regular AAA penlights, has a recurring loss of brightness. I'll clean the contacts and the brilliance returns for a short time and, again, they need cleaning. I've yet to solve this continuing mystery.

 

[Brock]

I have had the same problem. I have went back to my Peak 3 LED AAA, not as bright, but smaller and a LOT more reliable. I tried everything to clean up the contacts and threads with no luck.

 

[UVLaser]

Is it the AAA or the 2AAA one?
Should't this be in the LED forums?

 

[jayflash]

The Nuwai .5 I'm having trouble with is the 2AAA. Perhaps this should be in the LED Forum, it would get more views, but since I believe this to be electronically related... This is a vexing problem that suddenly occurred after months of reliable, daily use. I'm wondering if cleaning the contacts coincidentally "fixes" a loose board connection by pushing on the inner + contact?

Moderators, please put this in the forum it best represents.

I'll have to try a Peak or two. I didn't buy any lights last month and have been itching to check out the Peaks. You could say that the enthusiastic reports on them has piqued my interest. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif What is considered to be the best source for them?

 

[UVLaser]

Can the guts be taken out?

 

[jayflash]

Yes, the head can be heated (I used a small propane torch for a few seconds) and easily twisted off of the body. Mine finally went, permanenty, dim so I opened it up hoping to resolder a cold or loose joint. Touching up the connections didn't help.

This light had a few hard falls to concrete and began strobing for a few seconds, every once in awhile, in the past month or so. It began strobing before going dim.

It's not worth my time to go any further with this light. After EDCing it for the past six months I've found that I prefer a thinner, lighter, shirt pocket light. Perhaps a Peak will be better.

Some time ago I wondered whether LED lights along with their circuitry would stand up to the hard knocks of everyday use on the job. One nice aspect of incan lights is that damage from dropping is more cheaply corrected than replacing a bad board.

 

[UVLaser]

So the light started dim because it fell on concrete, not because you got a bad one.
ok then.

 

[jayflash]

I'm not sure the falls caused the dimming because the light was OK after each impact - I was just speculating that the impacts may have affected the board. Come to think of it, the light would strobe briefly, but infrequently, from early on so, who knows?

If I see another .5 on sale, I might buy one for the right price.

 

[Advancedmart]

Who did you buy it from? If you bought it from me, I can sell you a new one at a reduced price.