Older ARC-AAA flickers - head not crimped ? What abt modding it ?

My wife's ARC-AAA developed a flicker. It's an older model (both the ARC and the wife, actually).
I cleaned all contacts and replaced the battery, the flicker didn't go away.
I soldered a wire to the (+) on the head and connected it to my bench power supply. I ran a wire from the metal thread of the head to the bench power supply, too. Now electrical contact should be perfect.
The head lit up, sinking 130mA at 1.3 V
After a few minutes, the LED started to flicker and current somewhere b/w 90 and 130 mA (a constant 1.3 V across the head).
Around half an hour later, still flickering, rather dim now, current ranging from 60 to 90 mA (still 1.3 V).

I read a bit on CPF where the crimp was mentioned as a possible cause to the symptom. The head of my light looks like not having been crimped or maybe not crimped much. Pix:


I connected one segment of the outer (circular) track of the PCB to the head's body using a tiny screwdriver. No change.
I connected the remaining segment to the head's body and this made the light come back to full brightness and 130mA current draw !

My first thought was adding some solder. At second thought, the head is made from aluminium, that won't accept any solder.
So I considered pressing the collar down some more with a screwdriver to improve contact b/w PCB and body. But wait - why not first upgrade the LED while the collar is not much crimped ?

At this point I have a few questions to the ARC-AAA experts of the forum:
1) Has the collar of my light been crimped correctly or can this be considered uncrimped ?

2) Is there any point in upgrading the LED of this old ARC AAA (while repairing it at the same time) or is this not a good idea ? Something like an incompatibility of the electronics with newer LEDs ?

3) If an upgrade is appropriate, where to order the brightest 5mm replacement LEDs and have them shipped to Europe ? I have doubt's that the ones I got from local EBAY are any better than the original LED.

4) Is simply crimping the head sufficient to achieve a reliable electrical connection b/w PCB and body ?

Any help greatly appreciated !

Yeah, that looks uncrimped, for sure!

The hardest part of this mod is getting the epoxy off the board and LED without destroying any componets. I've done a dozen or so and killed 2 or 3 boards - it's like being an archiologist, chipping away thru stone to get what you are looking for.

All the mods I've done have been with a nichia CS on an old AAA - it roughly doubled the brightness! Totally worth it in my opinion, esp since it shouldn't reduce runtime much if at all. As far as a supplier, I'm not sure - I'll try to remember to look and see if I have any laying around tonight.

If you were to crimp the head down all the way, it would likely fix your problem. If you are good with aligator clips, you could try hooking up a battery to the head with a pair and see if touching the threads vs the grounding ring on the PCB makes any difference, then you'd know for sure.

Hope this helps - feel free to PM me with any other questions.

Josh

*

Check out this thread and email him. He can make it a MIllermod

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/111724&page=1&highlight=3%2F4+watt

Or send it in to ARC for repair. I emailed them at [email protected] from the webpage

Warranty

All of our flashlights are covered under our Limited Lifetime repair/replacement warranty against manufacturer's defects. It also has a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. We encourage you to check your Arc thoroughly within this 30-day period to make sure you absolutely love everything about this light. If you need repair/replacement or have any questions:

Mega Tech Devices, LLC.
3101 N. 33 rd Ave
Phoenix, Arizona 85017 USA

[email protected]
www.arcflashlight.com

Phone: 602-269-6950
Fax: 602-269-8153

The Arc-AAA/Arc-AA was completely designed by Peter Gransee of Tempe, Arizona. All Arcs are made in the USA. This includes the machined housing, coatings, PCB, PCB assembly, rubber components, split ring, clip, packaging, laser marking, final assembly, etc. Only the LED and some of the discrete electronic components in the head are made overseas."

tnx for highlighting all the options, guys. I think I go for self-mod. The fact that my light is not crimped is encouraging.
Are the Nichia CS still state of the art or has something less bluish taken over their place now ? I found the fourth Nichia CS group buy ended long ago and the only place to get them Nichias seems to be The Sandwich Shoppe, at this time. Did I miss something ?

This great thread by jtr1962 answers my question for the brightest 5mm LEDs and where to get them. JELED 50K are on the way to me !

Here it says how to change the LED of the ARC-AAA.

Trivergata, now with 50 pcs of the JELED 50K coming, let's not bother abt transferring a Nichia CS over to the old world. Thank you for offering this, though.

LED replaced, following chimo's guide. Now dramatically brighter, with a Lithium AAA not much behind my Fenix E1 !
Peter from ARC explained to me how I best re-pot it. I was lucky, it worked out fine, now very happy !