Maratac AAA stainless trouble...

Max Lumens · Dec 18, 2009

Hi, I hope someone can help. I ordered a Maratac aaa ss a couple of weeks ago and could not get it to function correctly. No matter what I tried the light would flicker and cycle through its modes by itself. I changed batteries, cleaned contacts and inspected the light completely. I gave up and sent it back to C.C. and promptly received a new one today.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH! The new light, if I can get it to come on at all, is behaving exactly like the old one. Am I just having bad luck or is there something I can do to this light to make is work right?

Thanks ,

Paul

Dan FO · Dec 18, 2009

What battery are you using?

lightplay22 · Dec 18, 2009

A friend of mine had trouble with his and it was a very small metal filing that was sometimes shorting the side wall to the circuit board. It took a sharp pointed knife blade to scrape it out. It looked like a sliver left over from the thread cutting.

I could not see it without a light shining on it because it was so small.

Hope this helps.

Paul6ppca · Dec 18, 2009

I had one that had troble switching modes i returned it and the new one is flawless.Very good customer servive,i had my new light in 2 weeks,I got the SS polished.Love it

Max Lumens · Dec 18, 2009

Dan FO said:
What battery are you using?

Energizer Lithium.... but I have tried many others. It almost seems that the threads are milled too short or that the ic board is mounted to far into the head of the light. I can get it to work if I crank down on it hard(really hard). It just seems ironic that this is the same problem as the light I sent back.

Patriot · Dec 19, 2009

Max Lumens said:
Energizer Lithium.... but I have tried many others. It almost seems that the threads are milled too short or that the ic board is mounted to far into the head of the light. I can get it to work if I crank down on it hard(really hard).

If you can see a space/gap between the base of the head and the start of the body lip when the head is screwed all the way down, then the pill isn't too far into the head and the threads aren't too short. :thumbsup:

Remove the head from the body and remove the battery. Place a sheet of 220 - 400 grit sand paper over the top of a mouse pad. Place the body open side down, flat on the sandpaper and give it 2 or 3 twists in each direction. Clean the sanding dust off with a clean, dry rag, re-lube your threads with a good SS grease (white lithium grease works fine) and reassemble for testing.

There's go promise that this is going to work but it's the first thing you should try. This fixed one of my SS AAA's that was originally working fine but after a lot of use became difficult. I sure hope it helps.

shark_za · Dec 19, 2009

I managed to sort out a flicker issue on my iTP A1 by twisting the spring inside the bottom of the tube. Seems it was not making good contact on that side.

Cuso · Dec 19, 2009

Patriot said:
If you can see a space/gap between the base of the head and the start of the body lip when the head is screwed all the way down, then the pill isn't too far into the head and the threads aren't too short. :thumbsup:

Remove the head from the body and remove the battery. Place a sheet of 220 - 400 grit sand paper over the top of a mouse pad. Place the body open side down, flat on the sandpaper and give it 2 or 3 twists in each direction. Clean the sanding dust off with a clean, dry rag, re-lube your threads with a good SS grease (white lithium grease works fine) and reassemble for testing.

There's go promise that this is going to work but it's the first thing you should try. This fixed one of my SS AAA's that was originally working fine but after a lot of use became difficult. I sure hope it helps.

This issue plagues a lot of SS Maratacs ( trust me I know). Instead of sandpaper I use a diamond sharpener . All of the SS Maratacs that have gave me "issues" , have been fixed this way. Sometimes its the contacs in the head and sometimes its the body lip that needs a little polish. The contacts in the head can be fixed with some alcohol and a pencils' eraser. Clean the head and then do the sandpaper trick. The body's lip should be slightly tapered inward, so that it does not "grab" on the sides of the head and thus making proper contact with the board...

Max Lumens · Dec 19, 2009

Thanks for the suggestions and I have tried all the above without any success but...
Here is the mystery.. I have an ITP aaa aluminum and recently received a Preon kit. The head of the Maratac works great with both the single aaa body of the Preon and the body of the ITP and the body of the Maratac works great with the head of the ITP! ???

I guess the good news is I can use the Maratac head on the currently unused Preon 1 body and be done with it.
-Paul

Patriot · Dec 19, 2009

That only leaves a contact type of issue. I suppose you could use them interchanged but if it were me I'd rather just have the Maratac working as it's supposed to in full form. You may have just been experiencing a run of bad luck but unless CC gets your "problem child" back, they may not know what to correct on other units.

Maratac AAA stainless trouble...

Max Lumens

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Dan FO

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Max Lumens

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Patriot

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