Nite Ize suddenly lost power

Was using my AA mini last night (2nd time I've used it since installing upgrade) and it suddenly lost about 50% of it's output. Now it's about half as bright with a slight greenish cast. Replaced batteries, cleaned contact inside, removed led & put it back in, etc. It briefly fired up to full output again, but that's it. This light has been rarely used since I bought it several years ago. Has this happened to others with the Nite Ize? This is exactly the kind of thing I wouldn't want happening in a serious situation so am thinking of just going back to the incand. At least it's reliable.

I've had several drop ins from Nite-Ize (roughly seven or eight including the new coloured leds) and one of them has the symptoms you describe - sudden (one way) loss of about fifty percent or whatever and serious blue tinting thereafter. I'd love to know what to do about it other than taking it back to the shop (I've no idea where the receipt is!).

I have heard that overdriven leds tend to go more blue - might that be it? But what about the output loss?

Anybody with ideas out there...there's at least two of us now! :thumbsdow




Be lucky...

Nite ize's modules aren't exactly the best to use anyway, I've had numerous times where I switch my mag 2AA on and it either: not come on; strobes with irregular intervals; or as if overclocking, drive the white LEDs teal green [supposely an overclocked white drives blue, but this is teal], giving out less than 50%.

A light series of tapping on a hard surface usually corrects the problem, but it will repeat its mistakes next time you turn it on, at least thats what my module does.

I've tried everything: cleaned the contacts, replaced the battery, bought a new module, tapped it, whacked it, drop-kicked it, slingshot it, and froze it...


no dice..., except this new module seems to be fine, for now... They're just $5 apiece, so if it worry you, buy another.

Illum_the_nation said:

They're just $5 apiece, so if it worry you, buy another.

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Ah... here in the UK, they're £8.99 !!! So we get one for your two.

I think I'll buy another one and then take the dud back and see what they say. It's worth a try (unless they've read this on CPF...)

Many thanks,





Be lucky...

Is there a more reliable LED upgrade? I'm going to toss the NiteIze LED and maybe keep the clickie for whatever. A light that's not dependable is next to worthless imo.

Mines been okay so far. The first one I had worked well. The one I currently have didn't turn on once but it's turned on fine a hundred times since then.

Spordin said:

it suddenly lost about 50% of it's output. Now it's about half as bright with a slight greenish cast. Replaced batteries, cleaned contact inside, removed led & put it back in, etc.

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Weird, I had that happen with one of mine, but fresh batteries restored it to its full glory and it's been running fine. Here are some pics I took (posts #65-72 have the rest of my story). Are my pics similar to what your drop-in did?

I guess it looked somewhat like the pic on the left, with a slight greenish cast. Btw, after it first happened I installed two new alkies and it made no difference. The drop in light had been used maybe a total of 30 min (probably less) before this occurred.

Again, this along with a few other problems I've read re. the niteize means *to me* that it's nothing more than a play thing and never to be relied on for anything serious. too bad

Spordin said:

Is there a more reliable LED upgrade? I'm going to toss the NiteIze LED and maybe keep the clickie for whatever. A light that's not dependable is next to worthless imo.

Click to expand...

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews_index/reviews_index_ledbulbs.htm

Click on "host light body" column and browse the minimag section:

Doug's been more than generous rating Nite-Ize at 3.5 of 5 stars, by my first impressions Id give it a 2

I got two Nite-Ize upgrades and never had any problem with them. For a while they were used heavily but then I got myself a Surefire 6P and U2.

Mine did the exact same thing after less than an hour of total use. I tried different batteries, etc, no use.

Somebody else had the same experience...I think it was greenLED???

I have a different LED conversion in my minimag now.

Spordin said:

Is there a more reliable LED upgrade?

Click to expand...

Yup. It's called wait until August. (That's supposedly when the actual Mag LED AA lights are gonna debut.)

:Ohgeez: The Opalec NewBeam! It stopped being mentioned much on CPF after the Nite-Ize drop in came out, but I never heard of anybody complain about theirs failing. The Nite-Ize is pretty much a cheapy copy of the Opalec.