UltraFire AAA woes

My new AAA UltraFire (WF-602C) is giving me fits. I only use it in short bursts. It will be running fine, I turn it off and then 30 seconds later it won't turn on. At first I thought it was the old AAA NiMh batts I was using, but same is happening with new alkalines. If I let the battery sit for a while it will then sometimes come on. This is happening with batts that have less than 10 minutes of use on them. Anyone else experiencing this???

Someone had a fix for this in a thread, do a search on : Ultrafire hone use both words and you should come up with the thread. It had to gdo with filing down the caps on both ends and smoothing out the body on both ends so everything fit better and got better contact, if memory serves me.

That fix relates to a mechanical fit. They talk about flicker and dimming, which I don't get.

I'll do some testing to be sure, but I think my problem is related to the voltage needed to start the circuit. Seems like once it's on it can hang in there but if the batt voltage has dropped a bit during use, it can't restart.

I just got a Ultrafire AA the other day, and it was doing the same thing. I woould turn on sometimes and sometimes not at all, especially after it was on a while. Other times it would seem dimmer. I did the fix they described and now it works fine.

Have you tried your AAA on a newer nimh or lithium? My experience with Ultrafire is that they draw more current than the similar Fenixes. My 1AA Ultrafire draws enough current that, while it will run for about an hour on nimhs, it only runs about one half hour on a new generic alkaline before it starts flickering. You may have an exceptionally heavy current draining 1AAA Ultrafire sample.

I had the same problem with my AA Ultrafire and :huh2: AA Huntlight.
They would have a "delayed" start time or not at all. I switched batteries etc . they are both NOT working :candle:
Now I know the reason wht I ordered that Civictor last week!!!!
see this thread:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/128352

too bad. these lights at the price would be a great value, not now however!
sad to say

Did some testing and determined that the problem has nothing to do with the switch (twisty).

The light simply won't come on if the batt voltage drops below 1.27V. At least that is the case with alkalines, but it should be the same with NiMh.

Also determined that the light runs about 1500mA on new NiMh. That's a 1.8W draw on the battery!

As is, the light is pretty useless.

Any thoughts on what I can do? Any way to easily replace the LED on this and if so what to use and where to buy?

Lee1959 said:

I just got a Ultrafire AA the other day, and it was doing the same thing. I woould turn on sometimes and sometimes not at all, especially after it was on a while. Other times it would seem dimmer. I did the fix they described and now it works fine.

Click to expand...

I could not find the thread. Could you please relay what you did to fix the problem. Thx.

RonM said:

The light simply won't come on if the batt voltage drops below 1.27V. At least that is the case with alkalines, but it should be the same with NiMh.

Also determined that the light runs about 1500mA

As is, the light is pretty useless.

Any thoughts on what I can do?

Click to expand...

I checked my Ultrafire 602C out after reading your post.

My unit draws almost 1200mA
Also, it will not even fire up if the OPEN circuit voltage falls below 1 Volt!
This is obviously not the world's most efficient convertor.
The LED can be easily replaced, but that won't help ya much.
The other thing you can do that works is to use a #10430 LI-ion AAA 300mAh cell in it. You'll like the brightness.

Well this stinks. Basically I have a light which is only good for being turned on and keeping it on until it dies. Which is of course not what I need in an EDC. Two thumbs down for UltraFire. So sad. It had such potential.

I bought mine SPECIFICALLY to mod. It's a lot cheaper modding a $20 Ultrafire then a $40 L1P. Mine is now happily modified with a Flupic. :naughty:

I used a pointed needle file's tip to tighten the head and tail cap components, there are little holes in the tail cap and slots in the head, tighten then down gently, mine were fairly loose.

Then I used a flat needle file and filed smooth the ends of the body where it was partly covered by coating. Then as per the other thread I slowly filed a small amount off the end of the buttcap and head to shorten them a slight bit, working very slow and putting everything together to check fit and how well it worked, and redoing the process as needed. Then cleaned out all the filings and put Sil-glide paste on the O-Rings.

It works fine now.

PM incoming

My Ultrafire WF-602A starts flickering at 1,13 Volt and does not fire up, after switched off, if the AA-battery is below 1,2 Volt.

My Ultrafire WF-602C doesn't flicker, but does not fire up, if the AAA- battery is below 1,2 Volt.

My Ultrafire WF-602A1 is a totally differnt thing. Machining and finish is superior This one is bright with almost dead batterys. It runs on alkaline, NiMH and 14500 LiOn -cells with almost the same brightness.
Runtime one a 14500 cell is 2hours and 20min. Nice GID tailcap boot also.

edit: I must have made a mistake. Possibly i mixed up the batteries, or the battery recovered while testing other lights.
Once started, WF-602A1 runs batteries down to 0,7V or lower, but does not start, with a battery lower than 1,2V...

Well HiltiHome, sound like your UltraFire AAA does better than mine, but not by much.

Anyone know what is the max input voltage these babies can take? Maybe I can use the circuit and LED in some two-battery configuration.

I just got my 602c and it works just fine. I bought it since I liked the AA 602A and the 602c was advertised as a LiIon 10440 battery light. I had some of these and wanted to try a light with them. Works GREAT. Just as bright as my brightest 1 watt lights, draws .45 amps from a 3.6v cell, fully charged. I figure this is .45 x 4.1volts(fully charged)=1.6 watts from the battery. The light works fine on NiMH AAA cells, but as others have said, won't start if the voltage is less than 1.2.

I plan on using it w the LiIon cells, only with alkaline or NMHi cells in a pinch.
Love it. I didn't even know it ran on "regular" AAA batteries until I got it.

Main problem is that it is too bright for many "around the house" tasks.

Holland

My 602C also won't start with less than 1.2 volts. IMO that makes it unsuitable for EDC. I would prefer the light to give me some warning that the battery is getting low rather than giving me no indication of when the battery will have to be replaced.

This light is really much better using a 3.6 volt Li Ion AAA cell, you won't have the worry about the "won't start below 1.2 volts" and the light is much brighter. Get a Li Ion AAA cell (10440 cell)... you will be much happier.

stjohnh said:

Get a Li Ion AAA cell (10440 cell)... you will be much happier.

Click to expand...

I think I'll go ahead and do that after my bank account recovers from my latest flashlight purchases. I wonder what the run-time would be on a Li-Ion.

The AAA Li Ion cells are available:

Dae has them for about $17 for 2 cells with charger

http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/nanoreg-lithium-intelligent-charger-p-460.html

http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/ultrafirereg-lithium-500mah-rechargeable-p-456.html


FifthUnit is about $19 with shipping for same 2 cells with different charger.

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.974.html

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.973.html

AW (in the Dealers Corner) so sells 2 AAA (10440 cells) +Nano charger for $15 shipped, but the AAA cells are 380maH rather than the 500maH cells the others sell.

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=97268

I've purchased from all of these vendors without problems.

Holland