Last night my SECOND MiniMagLED 2AA started flickering!

Maaaaan, this is really frustrating.

When I first got my MiniMagLED, I was very very happy with it. It was bright, tough, compact, great tint -- nice and white.

Then after a few weeks, it started to malfunction, flickering and not staying on.
I was able to exchange it at Walmart without much hassle, even without the receipt.

The second one (the one I have now) began just as well, functioning flawlessly and the tint was also nice and white.

Last night I was out at my car looking for something, and the damned flashlight started to do its flicker-thing.

I took it into the house, frustrated, and took it apart to once again attempt to pop out the LED assembly. I just am not able to get that to happen, though. (I mention the difficulty in one or two other threads, actually.) But when I put the light back together, for whatever reason it seems to be working okay now.

Some have said that this is due to some sort of crud building up on the terminal inside the light -- that's why I'd like to get it apart, so I can clean that. Maybe the battery is now touching a cleaner part of the terminal or something? I dunno. I just know that I'm pretty damned frustrated with this happening on not one, but two MiniMagLEDs!

Has there been a recall yet?


-Jeffrey

I have always had flickering problems with minimags, before the LED version even came out. I also have had issues with the big Maglites flickering. Nobody seemed to believe me when I mentioned this before.

Some reported problem is fixed after batteries are replaced. Did you try that?

regards.

These do have a tendancy to start flickering when the battery gets low instead of dimming, so I would try the battery replacememt first. But if that doesn't work, there is another fix you can try which I have done on two different lights which has fixed them both. Inside the LED module itself, there are small tabs on either end of the small circuit board that provide the positive and negative contacts. I found that these get compressed over time and start making intermittent contact. I added a small dab of solder to each of the tabs, and after reassembling it there were no further problems. I also added a dab of solder to the positive battery contact too just to improve contact there also.

As for disassembly, first remove the batteries and the head. Then I used two small screwdrivers to push down on the metal case of the LED module where it is visible through the slots in the plastic retainer. It took a fair amount of force, but when it popped loose the module just dropped out the bottom.


Before you disassemble the module, mark the metal case where the groove in the plastic part goes so you can reassemble it with the correct polarity when you are done.


To get the module apart, just push in the plastic tabs on the side to seperate the plastic bottom from the metal shell. I alternated sides, pushing each tab in a little until it came loose. The circuit board may stay in the plastic part or it may stay clipped to the bottom of the LED which is glued to the metal shell. If so, just pull it loose from the LED leads, it just clips on.


Now add a dab of solder to the contacts in the middle of the circuit board on either end.


Do the positive battery contact on the plastic part too if you want. Then insert the circuit board in the slot in the plastic part. To observe proper polarity, you will notice that the plastic piece has a wider cutout on one side. The wider round component on the circuit board goes on this side, with the LED clips toward the open end.


Carefully reassemble the plastic circuit holder to the metal shell with the LED. Line up the slot with the mark you made earlier and be carefull you don't bend the LED leads. You may have to wiggle things a little to get everything to fall into place, but a gentle push will clip the circuit board to the LED leads. Once the module is reassembled, just put it back into the body. I used an unsharpened pencil to hold the module at the end as I pushed on the plastic retainer with the slots. Put the head back on and reinstall the batteries and you should be good to go.

I agree with Don. When I did my Cree update, I found the + and - terminals very flaky. I hard wired them instead with direct red and black wires to the case and +battery terminal.

Argh, mag.. you have been in the flashlight business how long? You should know better...

this is good info.

Thanks! I have the same problem; I took mine apart but I accidentally knocked the led off the metal case. I'm concerned about gluing it back on because I'm assuming it's a somewhat special glue that conducts heat?

I've had this problem w/my 'mini' maglite 3AA, as well as the larger 2D. I've never bothered to try and fix it. Just seems to be a feature of the brand :shrug:

Yes, actually that is going to need some kind of heat-conductive compound, don't use glue whatever you do :green:

I actually got the thing back together; the led's not glued down anymore but it's holding. I used DonShock's fix and no more flickering on the same set of batteries!

I'm surprised how many suggest various methods for DIY repair but everybody ignores the obvious. Get it back to Mag Instruments. If there is a problem it can be swapped/repaired etc without invalidating the guarantee. Very occasionally, manufacturers slip up and may for example have a batch problem. If a faulty sample is returned then remedial action can be taken to prevent further problems. Of course in a perfect world this shouldn't happen but even the very best like Maglites can occasionally go wrong and like any mass-produced product can occasionally have an issue.

Back about the time this thread started I had found that Mag was making a nice 2AA LED. I bought 4 of them 2 for me two for my wife. We were using them when geocaching when it got dark. I also had a river rock 1AA on me at the time that is now my fathers light. Oh and always my trusty old surefire. Well hers was the first to start doing the exact same thing on even new batteries. But in a short amount of time they all started doing it. As they started doing it we left them in the Geocaches for others to have. Since then I have not tried another Mag. I have replaced her light with a Surefire G2L and god only knows how many different lights I have played with since then.

peterkin101 said:

I'm surprised how many suggest various methods for DIY repair but everybody ignores the obvious. Get it back to Mag Instruments. If there is a problem it can be swapped/repaired etc without invalidating the guarantee. Very occasionally, manufacturers slip up and may for example have a batch problem. If a faulty sample is returned then remedial action can be taken to prevent further problems. Of course in a perfect world this shouldn't happen but even the very best like Maglites can occasionally go wrong and like any mass-produced product can occasionally have an issue.

Click to expand...

Well, the reason is for me is simple; fixing it myself avoids the phone calls, the days or weeks of wait time, and the potential shipping costs of having Mag repair it. I fixed it in 15-20 minutes and now that I'm familiar with the procedure, I could do it in 5.