POP Goes The ArcFinity ...

So after reading through yet another thread singing the praises of the good old ARC AAA, I decided to remind myself how lucky I am to own one with an ArcFinity adapter by taking it out and turning it on.

Before I go on, I should mention to the audience that my particular ArcFinity is somewhat jerry-rigged. I bought it brand-new, still in the plastic wrap off another CPF'er who was selling extras a while ago. Upon receipt, I quickly discovered that the ARC AAA head would NOT screw in properly at all, let alone all the way down flush. (I don't know if this is because the threads were different or what -- they really shouldn't be.) So I ended up having to throw in a couple of washers, and a piece of wire wrapped over and over itself to bridge the air gap between the AAA head and the battery caused by the foam spacer. I know at least one other person has filled that gap with solder, but since there was the possibility I'd still want to use it with the old AAA body, I didn't do that.

This arrangement (with a bit of shaking) seemed to work pretty well ... until today.

When I tried turning on the ArcFinity, I met a great deal of resistance. So I started to unscrew it -- which resulted in a loud BANG! That was maybe half-hour to an hour ago, and my ears STILL haven't stopped hurting.

Freaked out, I quickly disassembled the whole light. I examined the battery, but only noticed a slight peeling on the top of the wrapper -- no paste leakage or any other sign of battery explosion. I took a quick voltage reading, and got something like .45 V -- NOT good. Wondering if the ARC AAA head was damaged, but not wanting to risk using the jerry-rigged ArcFinity, I got out the old AAA body and battery for a quick test -- it was just fine. (Which, considering some of the things people have done to ARC AAA's in this group, really shouldn't have surprised me.)

So I ask you: what the heck happened???

My best guess right now is that, despite unscrewing it quite a bit to keep it off, the coiled wire I used to bridge the head must've shorted the battery to the casing, causing it to discharge without putting out any light. Severe discharge, of course, causes the generation of gas, which in turn causes a loud pop when ignited ... if you're damned lucky like I am.

I guess more to the point -- how do I get my ArcFinity adapter "adjusted" so that the damn AAA head fits properly, and I can avoid this ear-splitting situation in the future?

-XCN-

Originally posted by Xcandescent:
Upon receipt, I quickly discovered that the ARC AAA head would NOT screw in properly at all, let alone all the way down flush. (I don't know if this is because the threads were different or what -- they really shouldn't be.)

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Just so you know, I had to use pliers to screw mine together to the point where the pieces would almost be flush. Pictures of my assembly process can be found at: www.ledmuseum.org/arcfin.htm

I also used solder on mine, but I coiled up a very short length of cold solder and stuffed it in the hole rather than melting a blob on the contact, so the "fix" is completely reversible.

Since the head of my ARC AAA was already pretty scratched up from the previous installation/extraction, I decided to go for broke. I lubed up the threads with petroleum jelly, pulled out 2 pilers, and proceeded to basically destroy the black anodized coating on the head of my ARC AAA -- only to have the extra "O" ring pop off just when I was getting close to having it all the way in. So I had to unscrew it with pilers (further ruining it), then I shoved the "O" ring all the way to the top of the threads, then screwed in back in. I did notice that it got considerably easier to screw it in/out the more I did it ... hopefully I haven't destroyed the threads on the head as well.

Long story short, it finally works as intended. I didn't even have to shove any solder in the head. Hopefully I won't be surprised down the road by another explosive "POP" now that I've done it "right".

-XCN-

***** deleted ****** (uh.....sort of)

Hey XCN,

Are you having trouble getting the Arc head screwed into the adapter ring itself (that comes in the kit) or are you having trouble screwing the finished modified head into the Infinity body?

Also, when using pliers on your Arc head, might want to use something to cushion the head so it doesn't ruin it (pieces of cardboard, small pieces of wood, pieces of rubber, etc.)

I was having trouble getting the Arc head into the adapter; the adapter fits just fine into the Infinity.

Cushioning the head wasn't really an option; it literally took THAT much friction and force to get the thing in the first couple of times.

In any case, it's already done and good. Now that it's finally loosened up, I don't anticipate having to use that much force in the future. A bit late for the coating on my Arc head, though.

-XCN-

not had a bit of trouble using my adapters.
have several le's and my cpf ed.
maybe yours is an earlier rev and has different threads?

No, it was the latest rev. (I believe that would be rev. 3.1)

-XCN-

Very strange.
Mine screwed in with the tips of my fingernails very easily ALL the way in.....???

I had one of the earlier versions of ArcLe's and the LATEST version of the Infinity.

I built up just a tad with solder as I fixed the flickering thing ( other threads).