DBS v.2. Please read. On going issue. Long

I would like see if anyone can lead me in the right direction with my continuing issue with my Dereelight DBS v.2. Below is a timeline from when I received the light from Alan and the troubleshooting steps taken to resolve my issue.

1. Early July I ordered an received my DBS w/3SD pill within a week from Dereelight. At the same time I ordered 3 AW 18650s with charger from Lighthound.
2. Charged the batteries and pulled them off the charger when the light turned green, measured voltage was 4.17-4.19 on all 3 cells.
3. Inserted a battery, powered on the light and after a minute I noticed flickering in all 3 modes. The flickering in HI was so bad, it was like a strobe light and then it would automatically step down to MED . I tried all 3 cells with the same problem. The light was un-useable.
4. I contacted Alan while I was at the beach via my Blackberry outlining the problem and he advised me that a new pill will be on the way and when I returned from the beach, there it was in the mail.
5. I installed the new pill, made sure all cells were fully topped off with the same voltage as stated above. The light seem to work and I contacted Alan and thanked him for his great customer service.
6. A few days later, the problem returned with the new pill
7. I cleaned all contact surfaces with Deox-It from suggestions from some CPF members and reassembled the light. Issue not resolved.
8. I had to contact Alan again to advise him the problem was still present. Alan sent one of his newest 3SD pills and I received it in 1 1/2 weeks. I noticed the new pill didn't have a spring and I asked him about it. He said it was OK.
9. The newest 3SD was installed and when powered on, it would just flash and cut right off. Contacted Alan again and he did say there was a "Bug" in the pill and they had to correct it and when done he will send me another pill.
10. I received the new reprogrammed pill, (this time it had the spring on) along with 2 new switches, and installed it with my fully charged AWs and right off the light came on for a few seconds and the cut off. I had to power it on about 5 times before the light stayed on. Everything seem to be working for a few days until the light started again with cutting off. This was all in HI mode but in Med and Low the light works flawlessly. BTW, when this started happening I checked the voltage of the cells and they were 3.8 - 4.05 and only had been run for a total of about 10 minutes.
11. I put one of my older pills back in and it works in all 3 modes but it has the bad flickering in HI then switches to MED mode.

Now its Sept 23rd, So I ask before contacting Alan again, is it possible that I may have bad Cells? I mean I have tried 3 different switches, 4 different pills, cleaned and lubed the light and still I have a light that cannot be used. Is there any test I can do to test the cells besides checking the voltage? I really love this light, had a DBS v.1 which worked flawlessly and sold here to a member.

I would love to hear some suggestion that may resolve my issue before I contact Alan.
And BTW, I would like everyone to know that Alan has been great at working with me to resolve this issue. A+ to his customer service.

Thanks for listening.

Another guy had the same problem. He let the DBS sit around and then tried to light it. In that time the batteries got very cold. When the batteries were warm it worked fine. Is it really cold where you are?

One quick test is to start it on low for a minute and then put it on high. If that works (or just warm the battery by holding it for a while) then you know that is the problem.

Just out of curiosity, have you tried a non-Dereelight pill in the light? Try a pill from some other light/manufacturer, if it doesn't work then it's the physical flashlight that's kaputt. The body consists of two sections that are screwed/glued and/or press fitted together and it might be a contact problem between 'body parts'.

StefanFS said:

Just out of curiosity, have you tried a non-Dereelight pill in the light? Try a pill from some other light/manufacturer, if it doesn't work then it's the physical flashlight that's kaputt. The body consists of two sections that are screwed/glued and/or press fitted together and it might be a contact problem between 'body parts'.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replys.

I don't have any other pills to try.

Flashlight Aficionado said:

Another guy had the same problem. He let the DBS sit around and then tried to light it. In that time the batteries got very cold. When the batteries were warm it worked fine. Is it really cold where you are?

One quick test is to start it on low for a minute and then put it on high. If that works (or just warm the battery by holding it for a while) then you know that is the problem.

Click to expand...

I have tried that also because I was thinking that it was a tempature problem. didn't help.

Thanks

try to clean all the contact area . Not sure if this help.

Thank god my dbs v2 didn't have any of these issue :thumbsup:

If you don't have other non-Dereelight pills then test the pills you have. Take off the head/reflector part, hold the 18650 against the positive spring on the driver and use a piece of wire that you tape to the negative end of the 18650 to touch ground/side of the pill, then see if the pill works like it should without the body.

Did you replace the switch and make sure the switch's contacts are making good contact with the tailcap?

StefanFS said:

If you don't have other non-Dereelight pills then test the pills you have. Take off the head/reflector part, hold the 18650 against the positive spring on the driver and use a piece of wire that you tape to the negative end of the 18650 to touch ground/side of the pill, then see if the pill works like it should without the body.

Click to expand...

Superb advice! If the above works then you have body contact issues.
I assume that you can't test the cells in another 18650 light?

Thanks again for the replys.

StefanFS, I will try that when I get home.

WadeF, I have made sure the switch is making contact. I have tried 3 different switches.

KRS1, I have cleaned all contact areas.

SGT LED, No, I don't own any other 18650 lights.

Thanks

Wow well keep us posted, the only thing left is a body contact issue. Stefan gave good advice, lets see what happens.

PS Great to see such superb support from Alan!

I'm having a similar issue. My 3sd dbs arrived last Saturday. Of course i took it out that night and messed around. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Sunday nights i work 16 hour night shift and of course i took my dbs. Again, i played around with it for a good bit throughout the night and again, i didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Monday night, however, after cycling through the modes to get to high and clicking the switch to select it, the light flickered shortly and the turned off. I've tried to trouble shoot. At first i thought that it was cycling through the modes that did it, but so far is seems completely random. It has only happened on the high mode so far -- whether that's because it's mostly what i have used, i do not know. I guess I'll be contacting their customer service also. I think it's the switch so hopefully they'll send one of those on over.

jrmy0641,

Have you tried another battery? Also, the DBS comes with an extra switch. Give it a try.

Thanks

jrmy0641 said:

I'm having a similar issue. My 3sd dbs arrived last Saturday. Of course i took it out that night and messed around. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Sunday nights i work 16 hour night shift and of course i took my dbs. Again, i played around with it for a good bit throughout the night and again, i didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Monday night, however, after cycling through the modes to get to high and clicking the switch to select it, the light flickered shortly and the turned off. I've tried to trouble shoot. At first i thought that it was cycling through the modes that did it, but so far is seems completely random. It has only happened on the high mode so far -- whether that's because it's mostly what i have used, i do not know. I guess I'll be contacting their customer service also. I think it's the switch so hopefully they'll send one of those on over.

Click to expand...

5.0Trunk said:

jrmy0641,

Have you tried another battery? Also, the DBS comes with an extra switch. Give it a try.

Thanks

Click to expand...

i will try another battery. i completely forgot that there was an extra switch in the box

jrmy0641 said:

I'm having a similar issue. My 3sd dbs arrived last Saturday. Of course i took it out that night and messed around. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Sunday nights i work 16 hour night shift and of course i took my dbs. Again, i played around with it for a good bit throughout the night and again, i didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Monday night, however, after cycling through the modes to get to high and clicking the switch to select it, the light flickered shortly and the turned off. I've tried to trouble shoot. At first i thought that it was cycling through the modes that did it, but so far is seems completely random. It has only happened on the high mode so far -- whether that's because it's mostly what i have used, i do not know. I guess I'll be contacting their customer service also. I think it's the switch so hopefully they'll send one of those on over.

Click to expand...

I bought a DBS with 3SD and had all kinds of troubles with it, with more excellent help, advice and support from Alan. I had similar troubles with the light coming on for a moment and then going off again. I became convinced it possessed by a devil and was thinking of having it exorcised. Before resorting to such extreme measures, I took the thing apart, removed the pill (which was tight and clean), cleaned it some more and reinstalled it and put the whole thing back together, whereupon it suddenly started behaving as it should.

It sometimes takes several tries before it will change modes but once it does change, it will be ok and will change correctly.

I have decided that, though I like the light and it's throw (which is what I mostly want), I don't need the multi-mode capability and have ordered a single mode pill, a 1S.

To be honest, I don't know how much of my problems were of my own making and I don't think they were on a par with those experienced by 5.0trunk.

All the same, the 3SD pill does seem to be a bit prone to misbehavior and I haven't seen or heard of DBS troubles with any of the other pills. If the problem is confined to the 3SD, and if more than just the odd one or two are giving trouble, maybe Mr Deree needs to have another go at it.

All the same, I'm grateful to the several people who advised me to get the DBS. I've got several other lights in the same class (a Tiablo A9, an MRV sk, a Fenix TK 11), all fine lights but for whatever reason, I think the DBS has the edge.

I have just gotten home an tested all the pills per StefanFS's method and the all tested fine without any issues. I then put the light back together with battery except the tailcap and used the wire again and everything is also working fine. So to me, it looks to be a problem with the body and tail cap making a good connection. Does this sound right?
I sent an e-mail to Alan directing him to this thread. Hopefully he will reply.

Thanks

If you think it is a body to tail cap problem, why not measure the resistance with your multi-meter?

lostpacket said:

If you think it is a body to tail cap problem, why not measure the resistance with your multi-meter?

Click to expand...

If you tell me how, I will.

5.0Trunk said:

I have just gotten home an tested all the pills per StefanFS's method and the all tested fine without any issues. I then put the light back together with battery except the tailcap and used the wire again and everything is also working fine. So to me, it looks to be a problem with the body and tail cap making a good connection. Does this sound right?
I sent an e-mail to Alan directing him to this thread. Hopefully he will reply.

Thanks

Click to expand...

I don't think you have the switch installed properly. You gotta make sure the contact on the switch that touches the threads of the tailcap is tightly against the tailcap. I kinda bent mine out and made it so it kind of followed the threads as I screwed it in. Kinda hard to describe.

I had an issue like this once and it was simply down to the switch not being installed properly.

WadeF said:

I don't think you have the switch installed properly. You gotta make sure the contact on the switch that touches the threads of the tailcap is tightly against the tailcap. I kinda bent mine out and made it so it kind of followed the threads as I screwed it in. Kinda hard to describe.

I had an issue like this once and it was simply down to the switch not being installed properly.

Click to expand...

WadeF,

I just got finished playing with the switch doing exactly as you said with the switch and making sure it makes contact with the threads. It is still cutting off in HI. I really don't know whats wrong.

Switched battery. Same problem persists.