A2 flickering LEDs with no incan? (and how long does SF take to replace a LA)

I just bought an A2. My first 'better than Mag' light.. from what I've read, it's a pretty ideal EDC for me. It briefly worked, and I can tell it'll be great for that.

Took it out of the box and it wouldn't come on. The LEDs would flicker slightly, but no real light. Fiddled with it for a bit and both the LED and incan worked fine. Briefly. Soon it went back to LED dim flicker only, no incan. Further fiddling with the light - clean all contacts and threads, remove pocket clip, fresh batteries - didn't make it work. Basically, I tried everything I could find suggested on here. If I remove the incan bulb entirely, the LEDs work just fine.

I called SF and they immediately got my address to send out a replacement LA. How long does this typically take? Is there anything else I can try?

Still nothing. Tried soldering over the wire attached to the base of the LA, which had been indicated as a weak point in some cases.. no help. Still no replacement LA from SF. Do I need to buy another bulb myself? Is this something the vendor I bought it from should be helping out with?

It'll take a little while to get the LA from Surefire, I'd think..

You should buy a new one from some place that can get it to you quicker than the replacement. You're going to need to buy a new one in the future anyway. The one you get as a replacement for the bad one can just be a spare.

Yes, I am thinking about picking up a G2 battery carrier / spare

Perel,

It seems that maybe something more is going on here, going by the info you have provided.

First of all, make sure you have two brand new fresh 123 cells installed.

Next, remove the tail cap entirely and short the back of the battery to the end of the light body with wire or copper braid. What happens? If the incan and LED's light up, that's good, and it means that your LOTC is to blame. Look inside it and see if any of the three tabs are broken off.

On the other hand, if both LED and incan don't light up, something is wrong. If neither LED nor incan light up that's either really bad or really simple. Remove the head of the light and check to see that all is clean and looking good. Next, remove the pocket clip entirely, along with the plastic peice that goes under it. Now reinstall the head and turn it down tightly. Sometimes the pocket clip keeps the head from turning all the way down and the LED return path goes through that contact. Plus it may cause lack of contact at either of the lamp connection points. Ensuring that the pocket clip is pushed all the way down is another way to go about it, but if you remove it entirely, then there is no doubt about things. If the pocket clip is to blame SF CS will send you a new one. This has happened before.

If the LED's only light up, it may mean that your lamp is blown, or that the LVR is toast.

Do you have a DVM? If so, measure the resistance of the cold lamp. It should be only several tenths of an ohm. Something like .4 or .6 ohms or something below 1 ohm.

If it is MegaOhms, then the lamp is obviously blown.

If you don't have a DVM, you may be able to look at the filament and see that it is broken, but even if it looks OK the lamp may still be busted.

So do one or more of these tests and post back here.

Although, there is one more test you can do. Bend the leads of a 10 ohm 1/4 watt resistor such that you connect one side to the batt - and the other to the butt (end) of the light body. The LED's only should light up.

Anyway, the likely suspects here, IMHO, are the tail cap, the lamp, and the pocket clip. Although there is a remote possibility that the LVR is broken.

• Yes, brand new batteries. I've tried both the SF batteries that came with the light and two sets of BS cells.
• Bulb resistance is .2 ohms.
• I've already removed the pocket clip, and that didn't help any.
• With the tailcap removed, jumpering battery to body produces exactly the same results as actuating the tailcap does:
  • Bulb in - *very* dim (can easily look straight into them, and even see the light-emitting part distinct from the diffuser.. it's kinda cool looking) flickering blue light from the white LEDs. Identical results with a 10 ohm resistor or a jumper wire.
  • Bulb out - normal, white (the standard A2 'angry blue' white) light from the LEDs. Again, idential results with a 10 ohm resistor or a jumper wire.

The bizzare thing to me is that the LEDs *do* come on, just extremely dim and flickering.. and that they work just fine if the bulb is removed. Sounds like the LA is fine, though. Does that mean it's probably the LVR?

Perel,

It could be a problem with the LVR, but it could also be a problem with the lamp. It's obviously not open circuited (i.e. blown), but the next step is still to change it out and see what happens.

So when you get the new lamp, install it and see what happens. If your A2 is still not working at that point, you'll need to send it back to SF for brain surgery.

And on a brand new light, too. Can't say I'm at all happy with the customer service I've received thus far. Thanks for your help, guess all I can do it wait. And probably go buy a G2 locally, since I need a bright light next week.

Any idea how long that LA will take to arrive?

Where do you live? I'd guess that it would take a week (at least) to physically ship one to me, not counting time to take care of internal stock issues and business blappity blap..

I'm in the Washington DC area.

One other weird thing I've noticed - if I *unscrew* the head slightly, about one turn, the LEDs work fine with the incan in. Incan doesn't come on though.

Also, there is a little dot of what looks like corrosion dust on the LA bottom contact. It brushes off easily. There's a bit of pitting in the contact on the lamp body for that connector; no corrosion though. I cleaned off the corrosion, reinstalled the lamp, tried to turn it on, took the lamp back out, and there was already another dot of corrosion or whatever it is on the tip of the contact.

Ok, one more bizzare update. I just can't stop tinkering with this light.. and now it seems to be working.

If the head is left about 1 turn *loose*, both bulbs work fine. It won't work at all with the head fully torqued down. Moving the tailcap O-ring to the head, so the head has two O-rings, fixes it. Of course, now my tailcap is a bit loose and isn't watertight, but at least the light works. I'll get one more O-ring and that should hold me over until I figure out what's really going on and/or send the light back to SF.

Any idea why *loosening* the head would make everything work fine?

Perel,

Yes. I believe I know what is going on. Tightening down fully on the heads is causing one of the LVR's input contacts (where it gets its power to run itself, and also where one side of the FET connects to the body of the light to complete the incan circuit loop) to become intermittent or more or less disconnected, depending. When the head is loose, something or other isn't flexing or moving, and yet there is still contact at the center LVR switched negative to the lamp. This would also explain the flickering/dimming LED's.

This light needs to go back to SureFire and they need to fix it, and they should fix it ASAP. None of this "We're sending you a lamp by the slowest shipping method available. You should have it in two weeks" B.S. Call up SF CS and tell them in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and that you want them to do something right away.

Kevin at BatteryStation gave me the email address of their SF contact. I've emailed her and will see if I get a reply Monday.

I feel better knowing what's wrong, and at least having it temporarily working. At least I've gotten pretty fast at field stripping an A2 now..