What is the trend in flashlight clickie designs?..

[mega_lumens]

Clickie failures are still a problem in flashlights whether they are from cheap brands or the BMWs of flashlights. What is behind flashlight clickies that is so hard to eliminate such failures, and are there any new promising technologies for clickies?

So many electronics, commercial and military devices use clickies, but do they have same failure problems? I never hear of digital cameras, remote controls or cell phones have button failures as much as I see threads here about light clickies.

 

[kramer5150]

So many electronics, commercial and military devices use clickies, but do they have same failure problems? I never hear of digital cameras, remote controls or cell phones have button failures as much as I see threads here about light clickies.

I think the internal mechanics are very similar to a ball point click pen. I don't think too many consumer electronics follow that convention (fortunately):thumbsup:.

 

[Illum]

the main concern, and limitation, of switches is mainly on the limited knowledge from material sciences.

From experience, Surefire Z57s fail because theres a plastic "mount" that has insufficient area that "holds" the contact strip against the force of the spring. and overtime it snaps due to fatigue, which the spring then ejects the guts and the contact spring into the body tube. If someone can make a clickie that balances the stress load of the plastic with the tension of the spring [spring inside the clickie that makes it click] such premature failures could be avoided.

Bottom line of these is mediocre quality components and flawed design. IMO this is where maglites triumph, whose ever heard of a magswitch failing?:shakehead

 

[LukeA]

the main concern, and limitation, of switches is mainly on the limited knowledge from material sciences.

From experience, Surefire Z57s fail because theres a plastic "mount" that has insufficient area that "holds" the contact strip against the force of the spring. and overtime it snaps due to fatigue, which the spring then ejects the guts and the contact spring into the body tube. If someone can make a clickie that balances the stress load of the plastic with the tension of the spring [spring inside the clickie that makes it click] such premature failures could be avoided.

Bottom line of these is mediocre quality components and flawed design. IMO this is where maglites triumph, whose ever heard of a magswitch failing?:shakehead

Compared to a normal clickie, a mag switch is HUGE and DEEP. And better protected.

 

[SaturnNyne]

I think the internal mechanics are very similar to a ball point click pen. I don't think too many consumer electronics follow that convention (fortunately):thumbsup:.

I wish my surefire clickies had as good a track record as my Pilot G2s... :shakehead

That's bugged me for a long time, the clickies on surefires and ballpoints both feel cheap, have a plasticy click, and rattle when engaged. The difference is that the SF switch costs more than many whole flashlights but only the ballpoint will work every time.

 

[nerdgineer]

Flashlight tail clickies are small and have to conduct amps of current through even smaller metal contacts. Inductors in LED drivers will cause arcing and pitting in the metal contacts (tail clickie hotwires carry even more current...).

Reverse clickies only have a single, primary set of contacts but forward clickies usually have some additional contacts which are smaller than if there were only one set. This appears (anecdotally at least) to make forwards a little less reliable than reverses at any given price point.

High reliability clickies are usually much bigger (big contacts) or carry much less current than flashlight switches. Given these constraints, clickies still work OK most of the time, but I remain a fan of spring loaded twisties (Fenix E01s, L0Xs , CMG Infinities, et al) because of their better inherent reliability (big contact surface, no moving parts, easy access to the contact surfaces for cleaning) than the above.

 

[mega_lumens]

^^ Do you think there are viable engineering/technological solutions available today to concretely improve the reliability of clickies, and if so why aren't the leading brands adopting these solutions?

 

[AardvarkSagus]

...whose ever heard of a magswitch failing?:shakehead

Mine's dead. It's an old daily use light that my Dad carried poking around crawlspaces all the time on the job. But it won't click at all.

 

[rainbowbright]

It's so hard finding a good twisty nowadays. sigh. :sigh:

 

[nerdgineer]

^^ Do you think there are viable engineering/technological solutions available today to concretely improve the reliability of clickies, and if so why aren't the leading brands adopting these solutions?

Better design and materials cost much more money for what most customers will see as very small improvement. Most manufacturers have made the call it won't return on their investment.

I think the Nitecore lights are electronically switched which might be more reliable. Infiniton had a high reliability electronic push button switch, but they went out of business.