What stops a MagCharger charging....

[Chicken Drumstick]

More woes with my MagCharger :(

It had been working fine, then one day stopped charging, well the small LED on the cradle stopped coming on.

I've got 2 cradles (one new after it stopped charging) and also got a new power supply as well as a 12v power supply.

The MagLite still works and the battery still has power in it, so I can't see why it would be the battery not accepting a charge. And I've tried all the combo's of cradles and power supplies, so I'm fairly convinced they aren't the issue.


So what else can cause a MagCharger to stop charging?


I notice there's a small diode in the upper contact ring that has a small spring on the end of it, is this likely to be the cause or should I be looking at something else?

Thanks.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

TTT

Nobody??

 

[Russel]

[...]I notice there's a small diode in the upper contact ring that has a small spring on the end of it, is this likely to be the cause or should I be looking at something else?

Thanks.

Sorry I don't have more, but have you tried testing the diode with a multimeter?

 

[Bozzlite]

Check to see if the power supply is getting warm when plugged in. It should be. If not, the power supply or wall socket itself has malfunctioned.

If it is warming up, try cleaning the contact ring on the flashlight and the contacts in the charger. Check the connection that plugs into the charger and clean it.

Check all the contacts inside the light, head and spring. Trying cleaning the battery contacts. Twist the light around in the cradle and see if the light comes on.

Check the voltage on the battery, then put it on the charger, maybe it is charging but just not lighting up the red led.

If none of that works, try contacting CS at Maglite.

That's all I can think of.

Well, one more thing. I don't remember seeing one on mine, but is there a fuse in there somewhere that might have blown?

 

[snakebite]

not much in there to fail.
post a pic.
iirc there is a fuse,lm317 adjustable reg,and a few resistors.oh and the led.
i noticed the one in my work truck led not coming on when near full charge unless engine is running.
its been that way 15+ years.but it works fine.

 

[Kestrel]

What stops a MagCharger charging....

With a thread title like that, I hope I could be forgiven in replying, "take away its credit card?" :ohgeez:

 

[powernoodle]

Brother Bozzlite gave a fine answer. Thats pretty much everything right there.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

Well thanks for the info.

What I did was replace the diode in the positive (??) contact ring. A little fiddle to get the right length. And then... nothing. That was with the new cradle I bought, so I hooked it up to the old cradle and still nothing. Got pissed off and left it. Returned 10 mins later and there was a faint glow from the red LED charge light. Horay!!!

After about an hour the charge light was lit up like normal. Really odd as it never used to do this and the battery wasn't totally flat, not by a long margin.

Left it on a long charge and it fully charged the pack and the light is as bright as it ever was. I then spent a couple of hours fully discharging the pack and tried it on the new cradle. That one seems totally not working, not light, no heat and charge - it went back to the vender yesterday. The old cradle however seems (at the moment) to now be working fine. Re-charged the battery no probs.

I used the same power adapter for both cradles BTW. But replacing the diode in the flashlight certainly seemed to do something.