ARC-AAA: DIY maintenance tips and tricks

Received an ARC-AAA today under warranty replacement (Thank You ARC!) and it was really stiff to turn compared to the other one I had. With all the ARC-AAA's in use out there, I'm hoping owners can share their DIY maintenance tips and tricks in one place. Must be the modder inside me tweaking a brand new light? I don't claim ownership over these tips and tricks, but this is how and why I did 'em.

Here's 3 tweaks to start off... These details below are reversible, please be responsible for your judgment, ability and comfort level.

Share your ARC-AAA maintenance and/or repair tips and tricks!


Tight o-ring If you can't find replacement o-rings, here's an easy 5 minute DIY@home fix:

Materials: Fine sandpaper, scissors, toothpick, pencil, lube.

1. Use a toothpick to remove the o-ring from ARC-AAA head.

2. Take some fine sandpaper (220 grit works great) and cut a 1" wide strip, wrap around a pencil or object with similar diameter as the head's o-ring groove.

3. Pop the o-ring over the sandpaper wrapped pencil. Lightly remove material off the inside diameter by spinning the pencil while holding the o-ring in place.

4. Apply the lube of your choice into the head groove where the o-ring sits.

5. Re-install the o-ring

Even if your o-ring is still tight, the lubricated head groove will reduce twisting effort. Another benefit is the lube won't get wiped away by the battery foam when changing batteries because it's underneath the o-ring!


Exposed o-ring

My o-ring wasn't really exposed while on or off, but I've read posts about solder blob height tolerances causing this. Mine sat a little higher than I liked it, which isn't necessarily 'bad' since this compensates for batteries with dented bottoms and differences in cell length between brands. You can tweak the height by performing the following steps.

Materials: Braided copper de-soldering wick, flux, soldering iron, solder.

1. Remove the anti-rattle foam from underneath the head, set aside.

2. Apply flux to your braided copper wick, remove the solder blob from head.

3. Tin the tip of your iron, flux the contact pad and re-apply solder to form a new battery contact solder blob. Play around with the amount of solder removed to increase the number of turns required to switch on your light.

4. Once satisfied, re-install the anti-rattle foam donut.

Optional: I stuffed the original anti-rattle donut (sticky side down) inside the AAA battery tube and made another donut for the head


Making your own anti-rattle foam donut Replacement, addition, extras, etc...

Materials: Self-adhesive foam floor protecting furniture pads (dollarstore), 3/8" and 3/16" hollow hole punch, hammer, sharp razor blade, finernail clipper, scissors.

1. Take the floor protector foam pad and punch out a circle using the 3/8" hollow punch and hammer. If you don't have a hollow punch set, you can also trace ARC-AAA head (with foam pad removed) outline onto the material and cut out with scissors. Pressing the head against the foam will leave an impression mark that can be trimmed away with scissors.

2. Use the razor blade and slice the circular foam cutout to match the height of the original foam donut.

3. Take the 3/16" hollow punch and create the battery contact hole. A razor blade tip or paper hole puncher may substitute as tools to make the solder blob hole.

4. Peel away the sticky backing paper and apply the foam donut to your light, almost done...

5. You can take the nail clippers to make a beveled edge for neatness, just work your way around the donut taking little bites from the material and 'yer done


HTH!

Derek

I can add:
- how to clean a battery leak - This should probably be the first thing you do, even if you then have to resort to "tougher" methods as described below. I'll get to this later.


How to revive a "dead" ArcAAA

As you may know, the negative path on the ArcAAA's board is secured by a crimp that goes around the lower edge of the head (there's an alternative neg. path on the other side as well). Sometimes, the potting compound oozes out of the head as it cures and gets between the crimp and the negative path. For reasons I can't fully understand these lights may work just fine for a long time and then one day they quit working. Maybe over time crud works its way in between the crimp ring and the negative path on the board? Anyway....

Here's my fix

1. Take the foam cushion off.
2. Clean the extra goop.
3. Using a needle (or a dental pick, or similar tool), scrape the excess potting compound (black) from around the edges of the crimp. At room temperature, the potting compound is kinda brittle, so it should be easy to remove.
4. If you're feeling adventurous, you can actually lift the crimp a little using a thin-tipped screwdriver (I use the one on the Leatherman Micra). Work the screwdriver tip under the crimp and slowly and gently lift the crimp. Work your way around the head repeating the lifting action. Don't try to to lift the crimp entirely or you may losen the LED pill, and that adds a level of complexity (but see below for a fix for that as well).
5. Once you're done, scrape away the potting compound.
6. Once the potting compound has been removed, you can use alcohol or contact cleaner (DeOxit, for example) to clean the contacts and the crimp's underside.
7. Now comes time to re-do the crimp: Place the ArcAAA head at an angle over a hard surface (kitchen counter works) and roll it while you press down on it. You can also place the head almost parallel to the counter's surface and then increase the angle as you "stand up" the head while applying downward pressure (not sure how else to explain this). You're basically using the edge of the crimp as a swivel point, the movement bends the metal onto the light's board.
8. Put the foam back on. Sometimes the old one will have enough glue remaining that you can use that. Otherwise, put a tiny drop of superglue on the foam before replacing, or use a new one (you can get them from Arc).

9/10 times this will be enough to get your light working. If you're still unsure about the negative path (IOW, the light still flickers):

1. Grab your phone book and place the ArcAAA LED down on it.
2. If you somehow losened the LED pill (hard to do, but it can happen), use a wooden dowel and a hammer to gently re-seat the pill back in its place before proceeding.
3. Place a screwdriver (doesn't need to be too thin, or you'll cut the crimp) on the crimp and, using a hammer hit the screwdriver. Don't worry, the electronics are safe - you can hit that hammer hard enough.
4. Repeat a couple of times around the crimp. This flattens the crimp further onto the negative path ring.
5. Replace the foam washer.

If *that* doesn't work... send it back to Arc! :nana:

I also received a new AAA-P (GS) in replacement of an AAA-P CS yesterday. I also noticed it was very stiff. There wasn't enough lube on it at all, if there was any. I added some silicone grease on the threads and some silicone lube on the o-ring and it's still slightly stiff but the twisting action is now really smooth. My o-ring is also slightly visible but not enough for me to care. The seal seems good anyway. One thing I noticed, it seems the circuit board isn't crimped anymore but now glued with black epoxy. Why? The foam on mine has trouble to stick since the circuit board is now much more deeper from the edge that was crimped on my last AAA-P.

Thanks for adding those instructions Migs! Forgot mentioning the ARC-AA shares the same basic design and these same tricks should work just as well.

WildChild, when I pulled off the factory foam donut on the replacement light it had the same 'crimp' that you're describing. Compared to before, it's not really a crimp anymore, more like a tapered fold just past the threads that holds the driver in place. That's part of the reason why I stuck the original foam pad down the battery tube and made another one that fit a little better. ARC's AAA driver has grounds on both sides of the board. The trace inside the head makes contact with a small lip that the driver board rests on, so even if the outer crimp was poor, the light should still work. Maybe the new style tapered crimp makes it easier for the company to service under warranty?

In any case, PM your mailing address and I'll make you a new foam pad!

You're welcome, my friend!

Total speculation here but: didn't the newer iterations of the Arc have a protruding LED acrylic dome? There's no easy way of shortening that (short of regrinding and repolishing the dome), but an easy fix would be to position the circuit pill back a fraction of a mm. This would, of course, get rid of the protruding LED dome, but it also makes the board stick out further than "normal" (or previous iterations). When doing this, there's less "lip" material to crimp onto the board, and that's why the crimp is not as flat. This also implies that the negative path on the other side of the board is no longer making contact with that internal lip - and thus making the crimp contact even more important.

Or...

they changed their assembly methods and they're not seating the crimp completely on purpose (for warranty repairs, as Derek points out?).

Or...
I'm full of air and don't know what I'm talking about. :nana:


Whatever the case might be, cleaning the board contacts and the internal side of the crimp, and then pushing the crimp down *hard* has fixed every "dead" Arc that I have come across (OK, I exclude the ones where I killed the circuit somehow, but that's another story) :devil:


One thing is for sure, that exposed o-ring bugs the heck outta me. If I had the proper tools I'd grind the NEG nub from the bottom of the battery tube!

Could you post pics?

WildChild said:

The seal seems good anyway. One thing I noticed, it seems the circuit board isn't crimped anymore but now glued with black epoxy. Why?

Click to expand...

That's what I was talking about... too much potting compound oozes out of the pill when curing and often coats the underside of the circuit board. You can easily scrape it off with something sharp. After you're done, clean real well, and finishing laying that crimp down.

mosport said:

Thanks for adding those instructions Migs! Forgot mentioning the ARC-AA shares the same basic design and these same tricks should work just as well.

WildChild, when I pulled off the factory foam donut on the replacement light it had the same 'crimp' that you're describing. Compared to before, it's not really a crimp anymore, more like a tapered fold just past the threads that holds the driver in place. That's part of the reason why I stuck the original foam pad down the battery tube and made another one that fit a little better. ARC's AAA driver has grounds on both sides of the board. The trace inside the head makes contact with a small lip that the driver board rests on, so even if the outer crimp was poor, the light should still work. Maybe the new style tapered crimp makes it easier for the company to service under warranty?

In any case, PM your mailing address and I'll make you a new foam pad!

Click to expand...

The foam is still sticky and it's still kept in place correctly. Anyway, I have a collection of 6-8 foams and 6-8 o-rings I was sent by Arc last year when I asked for a replacement foam. Finally, I'll probably remove some solder from the blob because I find that the head become loose without that much twisting (o-ring out of the body). I also may fill the gap between the circuit board and the edge of the head so the foam sticks better.

Here are a few pictures:

O-ring.


In this pictures, you can see the bottom of the threads that they look eaten up. The aluminium was too weak for a machining of this precision?


Solder blob, crimping and potting.

Dood, that's scary! :green:

I stand by what I said: somebody put too much potting compound while assembling that head! I'd be cleaning the black gunk real well (some boiling may be required to get the stuff under the crimp) and re-seating that crimp like it should have been done from the get-go.

OTOH, if it's working, just let it be until (if) it dies.

WildChild said:

Solder blob, crimping and potting.

Click to expand...

It will stay like that! Anyway there's a lifetime warranty on these little things. I'm quite happy my old AAA-P CS was replaced by an AAA-P GS. Also, the LED is well centered in this one, it wasn't in my 3 years old one.

greenLED said:

Dood, that's scary! :green:

I stand by what I said: somebody put too much potting compound while assembling that head! I'd be cleaning the black gunk real well (some boiling may be required to get the stuff under the crimp) and re-seating that crimp like it should have been done from the get-go.

OTOH, if it's working, just let it be until (if) it dies.

Click to expand...

You know what they say: "if it ain't broken..."

The crimp on my light looks pretty much the same as those pictures, minus the excess potting epoxy, our ARC's must've been from the same batch. Happy the LED is straight and I'll be leaving the crimp alone. The fact that light works despite a top layer of potting compound is a very good thing!

You mentioned protruding LED acrylic domes Migs, think that was on the first batch of GS ARC-AAA's when they were available in HA-III clear natural. I remember reading concerns about dome scratches and the LED position was quickly addressed in later production units.

Wildchild....my o ring also sticks out and is visible when I have the light in on or off mode. What did you end up doing about it and do you think it is that big of a deal? I am new to arc's and flashlights....

The replacement Arc-AAA I received now has two thinner O-rings, which do not stick out, nor do the threads eat into it anymore.

Will update with a pic soon.

-Amarendra

mosport- did you pay for that light? :laughing:

I'm actually just kind of kidding- but my slightly older Arc AAAs (all over a year and a half old) have all been PERFECT from when I got them to this day.

I'm idly wondering whether the fact that you had to go to this trouble is due to Arc QC going way downhill, or that (with the O-ring, for instance), they're just installing cheap or mis-sized O-rings?

The solder blob thing is a little more annoying though, especially on a new light.

At any rate, they're good tips- thanks for the post!

greenLED said:

You know what they say: "if it ain't broken..."

Click to expand...

It finally broke (started flickering)!

I just boiled the head, removed all the black goo, made 4 real crimping points, flattenned a bit the solder blob, a new foam donut and no more flicker! I hope it will hold up...