My Dorcy 3W lantern is malfunctioning

I've been comparing my new D-Mini to my Dorcy lantern, to compare their output, beam quality, etc. After doing this a few times, the D-Mini seemed to get better and better compared to the sickly Dorcy. Well, I decided something was amiss and did some troubleshooting. Here are the results:

-It pulls about 50mA, which is around 6-8% of what it should. I've measured it before, so I do have a basis for comparison.
-I've only used the Rayovac Maximum Plus lantern battery (alk) for about an hour at most, but I tried 4D in the adapter anyway, with the same results.
-It's so dim that I can look right at the emitter without discomfort.

I'm completely stumped as to what's gone wrong. Any suggestions?

Anyone? :candle:

TigerhawkT3 said:

Anyone? :candle:

Click to expand...

First, measure the battery voltage to make sure the batteries are not at fault. Doesn't matter how new they are. One could have taken a dirt nap.

I am not familiar with your Dorcy lantern. If the batteries check OK, perhaps the battery contacts require cleaning or have become loose?

I checked the voltage as around 6.2V. The four D cells that I also tried work fine in my 4D MagLED, but give the same results in the lantern as the lantern batt.

I'll try to take some pictures of the light so you can see a bit of how it works.

Here is a pic. The word at the top right is "Switch," and the words at the bottom left are "Switch contacts." +ve and -ve are indicated.

If you think the switch is at fault, it looks like you can lay the battery on top of the head on a table and use a paper clip to bridge the switch connectors.

Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought that was 1 watt?

I found the doomed flaw of this lantern is that the "3 watt" rests on a plastic holder = no thermal path and might cook itself to death....

from the graph of http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/dorcy_3wlantern.htm I think its reasonable to say theres maybe but a resistor in the field here, so theres not a lot of conduct paths to be obstructed by dirt, grease, etc.

have you tried to take the bezel off and apply [correctly measured] voltage to the die directly and see whether it is the issue or the battery contacts?

I did indeed bypass the switch. It would be pretty difficult to measure the current with the light all closed up.

I don't have a bench power supply, so I don't think I could directly power the emitter.

I think I'll just give Dorcy a call.