Nitecore Defender tailswitch going out?

My NDI has started staying on about 1/3rd of the time when I turn it back off. It's not physically sticking, and it feels and sounds the same, but instead of turning off it just stays on.

It was happening 1/10 times, then 1/4, now it's happening even more often and I think it's going to get stuck completely.

I've tried Deoxit on it but not sure it's going to help, all I can do is put it around the clickie post and hope it works its way down in.. I've got it standing up right now and maybe it'll help.

But wanted to see if anyone else had the same problem? I'm going to contact Nitecore to see if I can get a replacement clickie.

My click switch has had just the opposite problem. I have clicked it and it doesn't come on. But it has only happened a couple of times.

I read that when the Surefire clickys fail they use a couple drops of oil in the tail cap switch and it fixes them right up. You might want to try it. Maybe its just a mechanical problem that a little oil will resolve.

Bill

I think I'll try that lube trick sometime. I'm having 'sticking' issues as well. Usually when I click on and off a half-dozen times in a row when playing with the light.

So far Deoxit has not helped..

I have the same problem with the switch. Already sent my NDI back to tad gear for a replacement.

The Nitecore has been out a couple of months now. That is about the rated life expectancy of the switching mechanism I guess. Time to see how good the warranty and customer service department are.
:shakehead

I hope the switches don't end up being a point of failure, but I have to admit I was uncomfortable with the switch on mine from the beginning. It was very very easy to push from day one. Now it almost seems like I could blow on it to turn it on. Not sure if that's good or bad but I got a bad feeling.

Bill

I cant remember exactly who it was, but the member that did the anatomy of a foward clicky got edgetac to send him Clickies to replace the NDI one when it failed..so..hopefully that works for everyone too...

Crenshaw

Here it is......
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/187895

I hope TADGear is stocked with extra modules. They sure look like they are cheap to make. Lite_me, thanks for the link and photos.

Lite_me said:

Here it is......
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/187895

Click to expand...

Thank you...by the way, love your sigline...

Crenshaw

I never thought twice about the clickie until middle of last week when a couple times I was saying to myself "I swear I turned it off?"

I tend to click rather than momentary most of the time, I just hate pressing in stuff all the time.

And I'm not going to send back the whole light for a clickie, that's just silly. I'm sure they can replace just the switch.

I'll fill in more info later, but thanks to a few other threads I've found, some people have temporarily fixed this.

Here's the main thread on this, including nice pictures. Note you DO NOT have to do any desoldering to open the switch part described below.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/187895

Basically you remove the switch and use an Exacto knife to very carefully push the blade into the seam of the switch near each of the pegs, just enough to get the blade in a bit. Do this for each of the 4 pegs. Then take a small jeweler screwdriver and near each peg open the crack a little more, keep going around until you have it open a few mm, then you can carefully pull up on the cover and open it.

Be careful, there are 2 springs, 2 plastic thingies, and 1 metal plate. You don't want to pop it out all over, although none of it is under high pressure or anything.

What I did was clean the two plastic thingies well with alcohol then sprayed them with some silicone lube spray and put it back together.

Make sure when you put the plastic stem parts back in the switch that they seem to be functioning, it's easy to put them in 'wrong'. Easy way to tell is to put them in place then put the jewlers screwdriver pushing up into the switch (like the spring would do) and make sure the click action functions.

Then carefully line up the springs, line up the pegs, and slowly put it back together. Make sure you apply pressure evenly and get the two pieces back together flush.

The switch is working 100% for me now, but not sure it'll last.

I'm happy to report that EDGETAC went ahead and mailed me two switch module replacements from overseas as soon as they had them in stock. Ms.(?) Wong replied to my PM pretty much the same day. Good stuff.

I need to PM her again... But so far, mine is working good since I lubed it!

I received my unit from Hong Kong late last week and it comes with an extra tail switch. I guess it's a problem or they would not have included an extra switch.

:thinking:

swxb12 said:

I'm happy to report that EDGETAC went ahead and mailed me two switch module replacements from overseas as soon as they had them in stock. Ms.(?) Wong replied to my PM pretty much the same day. Good stuff.

Click to expand...

Ditto, great service IMHO.