Solarforce L2P battery died, now it won't come on at all

eclipse13

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I have a Solarforce L2P that I'm running on a Solarforce 3.7v 18650 rechargeable battery. Tonight at work it stopped working. I assumed it was a dead battery. Now that I'm home I grabbed another charged 18650 and it won't come back on. I also tried it with 2 Surefire 123 primaries, and got nothing. Everything in the light seems to be as it should. Any ideas?
 
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skyfire

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maybe its not making contact somewhere.
or the switch could of failed.

try cleaning all the contact points. make certain the switch is tightened.
inspect the drop-in for anything abnormal.
try rotating the dropin incase its spring might now be making good contact.
 

eclipse13

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The drop in looks fine and I've rotated it a few times. All of the contacts seem to be hitting where they are supposed to. Is there any way to see if it is the switch without simply replacing it? I don't have any other solarforce switches. I tried a Surefire G2L switch, but if I remember correctly that one shouldn't work on it anyway.
 

WarriorOfLight

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I'd bet the switch died, the quality of the L2P is good so far, but the switches are poor quality, specially if you have a 3A XM-L dropin. This switches are not designed for high currenty >3A
 

eclipse13

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I put the drop in out of my G2L into the host and it works just fine. Everything in the L2P drop in looks like it should. All of the soldier points look good and nothing looks burned up. So did my drop in just burn out? This bad boy is only a month old...
 

purelite

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The best course of action is to get a Malkoff for the Solarforce host. The SF hosts are great bang for the buck, the dropins are unreliable CRAP!! If you dont like the Malkoffs then try Nailbender. he makes great dropins very affordable and RELIABLE. I dont want to come across as a jerk but it's the truth, I have been down the same road. Those $12.00 dropins seem like a great deal but you really do get what you pay for . Go made in the USA for the LE
 

digitalerik

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I tried to warn people. Solarforce drop-ins are something that you want to stay away from. If you didn't purchase it through solarforce directly, good luck getting a replacement. You will be SOL.

On the plus side, at least you're out like 18 dollars? My little mistake with their drop-ins cost me 39 dollars when it was all said and done. So, could be worse. I look back on it in amazement that I actually paid illuminationgear 24 dollars excluding shipping for one solarforce drop-in. I learned the hard way that time. Nailbender is the way to go. He'll take good care of you.
 
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eclipse13

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I've had several other solarforce lights and haven't had any trouble. I had no idea that they were something to stay away from.
 

RI Chevy

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X3. I have heard a lot of good stories about Solarforce drop-ins. Not to take anything away from Nailbenders. He is in a league of his own. The Solarforce drop-ins are a good budget drop-in.
 

jspace

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Are you using a Solarforce dropin?
I had a similar thing happen to mine. I was using the low voltage 3 mode. I sort of gave up on it though and never fixed it.
Have you tried using the diode check function on your DMM? The diode should faintly light up.
You could also try using alligator clips or something to hook + and - directly to the pill without the host.
If the LED is good, the host is good (since you tested with another dropin), and it doesn't light up making direct contact with the pill, then it would seem (to me) to point to a driver issue.
 

purelite

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Yeah I dont want to bash SolarForce. They are a good option for tight budgets and I love their L2T host. I just wouldnt trust their dropins for an emergency survival light. For a kickaround work on the faucet kinda light they are great. Probabaly a relatively low number of failures compared to the volume they produce but I just remember having a failure on one of them and started to shy away from their dropins in favor of Thrunite P60s

Though I did have one problem with one of those also :)
 
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WarriorOfLight

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I have bought a lot solarforce Dropins @ solarforce-Sales.com. I never had problems. The sent me a wrong dropin, I sent them an email and they sent me a replacement dropin.
All my Solarforce dropins still work as expected. For this price the dropins are the best.
 

Tuikku

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I have had one bad driver in Solarforce R5 low voltage dropin. I used very depleted 3 x AAA when it shut down.
I upgraded (or downgraded) driver to "AK-47" one to drive R5 at only 1A, suits very well for me since it has high PWM frequency and does not heat much at all :)
Also: lower low :)
 

chiphead

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How is the battery on a meter, I was looking to order a few from Lighthound? This Solarforce 18650 is suppose to be new and improved.
chiphead
 

eclipse13

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I have no idea. These two are my first 18650s and I can tell you that I've been super impressed. I carry these lights daily and burn up 123s pretty quickly. I've had the one 18650 in this light since I got it just over a month ago and it is still working.

I emailed the retailer and it is part their 30day warranty. The retailer claimed that Solarforce offers a 12 month warranty, so I emailed them. I let you know what they say.
 

eclipse13

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Solarforce has agreed to repair or replace, I just have to mail it to them in Hong Kong. I'm not sure it is worth the hassle, but I may buy a replacement and then send it to them the cheapest way possible. That way when it comes back I'll have a spare.
 
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