Any point in keeping Fenix L1P with dead head?

Hello,
I've got a Fenix L1P that would seem to have a dead head. Should I just toss it, or is there a low cost option to get repair or otherwise do something useful with it?

Thanks!
Levi

send it back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to fenix

Hello,
I would keep it for parts.
I guess an L1P is some five years old and the warranty must have been expired. From that era I still have a dead L2P and L2T. I keep them for O-rings .

Kind regards,
Joris

Is the head actually dead?

Is it possible that the threads could be dirty or that the retaining ring in the head &/or tail cap needs tightening?

If you short the battery to the body does the head light up? (possible tail cap failure)

Give those a try & see if it can revive it.

Nope, I tried shorting out the tail cap portion before and no luck. Threads look fine. The only thing that looks like a retaining ring I can see in the head is soldered in...

The light engine is actually loctited inside the head, and the circuit is soldered to the engine. It's difficult to remove the engine, then to attempt repair you would need to desolder the circuit just to look at it. However, it may be worth it if, say, the only thing is a broken LED. I put a SSC P4 LED in my L1P and it's quite nice as a simple backup light. I have directions on a method to remove the light engine from the head somewhere:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...nother-way-to-get-the-darn-Fenix-L1P-pill-out

but do not have any info on the regulator or repair thereof. If broken, you could certainly do a custom job of some sort.

:welcome:

Sometimes the head is not dead. The circuit board gets pushed into the head too far and no longer makes contact with the body tube.

I had a L1P die. Took it apart, cleaned the end of the body tube and contacts in the head. Worked for another year then died again. Cleaning did not work this time but the head is not dead. It still worked - on my Civictor V1 body. My Civictor head worked on the L1P body so ...

-

An Ultrafire C3 head also worked on the L1P body.
But why would anyone take a head off a perfectly working C3 to fix a L1P. (My C3 body is in a garbage dump across the pond.)
The C3 comes in many variants from P4 through Q3 to Q5 bins and in single and 5 mode versions. Aluminum and SS bodies as well. 1AA or 2AA body tubes. Rated for 14500 at which point it is fairly bright..

As near as I can tell, mine is definitely dead. I can put a battery in just the had portion, then a paperclip to the inside edge and the back of the battery and get nothing... Looks fine to my eyes just looking in there. I'm guessing I fried the regulator somehow.

I did send Fenix a note to their service department to see what they say...

I have an L2P that barely survived a alkaline leak that started at the tail.... some thing "put a battery in just the had portion, then a paperclip to the inside edge and the back of the battery and get nothing." However, when I contact the center contact and the brass pill with alligator clips, it'll light up just fine.

I dunno, I'm pretty sure I've got the front of the battery touching the center contact and a paper clip touching the brass plug and the back of the battery and never anything whatsoever.

I got a response back from fenix, but they're looking for a distributor or serial. I've got no serial# that I can see anywhere, and it was bought from tadgear.com which doesn't seem to exist anymore...

LeviGSmith said:

I've got no serial# that I can see anywhere

Click to expand...

It should be on the head, on one side it should say something like "L1T/L2T V2.0" on one side then the serial on the other

LeviGSmith said:

It was bought from tadgear.com which doesn't seem to exist anymore...

Click to expand...

sales Link Removed - Norm

Dr Jekell said:

It should be on the head, on one side it should say something like "L1T/L2T V2.0" on one side then the serial on the other
Doesn't seem to be on mine. No writing at all on the head inside or out. Only thing on mine is on the tube which says "Fenix L1P 1W LED".

Click to expand...

Hmm, that does look like a good possibility... Though it doesn't look like they carry Fenix anymore... Thanks!

Well, I'll be darned... Everything looks perfectly clean in there, but in an effort to fully comply with Fenix suggestions I did some work with q-tips and alcohol... Did get some black gunk from the threads, but since I was pretty sure I was bypassing them I wouldn't have thought that would make a difference. But I put it back together and I'll be darned if I didn't catch a flash of light for a half second... Nothing after that with some wiggling though. I didn't have time to play with it further this morning, but this is the first sign of any life I've seen from it...

Take anything from it you want and send it to a modder on here to create something

i love nothing more than a retro light with the latest led

Dr Jekell said:

It should be on the head, on one side it should say something like "L1T/L2T V2.0" on one side then the serial on the other.

Click to expand...

My L1P has no head markings at all. I think I got it directly from 4Sevens before he started his Fenixstore or 4Sevens companies. This was a very early Fenix product (the second?), and I think, before they started putting any marks on the head. IIRC, even then the early numbers were found to not be real serial numbers, but something like distributor batch numbers. My original instruction sheet claims a limited lifetime warranty (parts cost not covered), but it's unlikely anyone associated with Fenix today will have the parts or knowledge to fix such an old light. I think it'd be a project for the OP or modder, unless the OP wants to follow up on the warranty and try for a discount on a new model or such.

Yeah, I contacted EliteLED whom Fenix referenced me to years ago and then it got forgotten about in a drawer. This time Gary offered to just give me a 10% discount on a L0D Q5... Is that right? Now I'm questioning the model#... It's another single AA model...
But I'm still left with this nice looking light that at the time was the best light I ever had. Well, ok, until my new one shows up, it's STILL the best light I have even when not working. So I was just trying to think of something I could do with it. I'm really trying to clean up, but I really hate the idea of throwing it out!

louie said:

My L1P has no head markings at all. I think I got it directly from 4Sevens before he started his Fenixstore or 4Sevens companies. This was a very early Fenix product (the second?), and I think, before they started putting any marks on the head. IIRC, even then the early numbers were found to not be real serial numbers, but something like distributor batch numbers. My original instruction sheet claims a limited lifetime warranty (parts cost not covered), but it's unlikely anyone associated with Fenix today will have the parts or knowledge to fix such an old light. I think it'd be a project for the OP or modder, unless the OP wants to follow up on the warranty and try for a discount on a new model or such.

Click to expand...

This is the perfect occasion to learn how to take the whole thing apart. Then clean everything (I mean CLEAN... use a toothbrush on the threads and hard to reach areas) and put it all back together nice and tight after lubing all the o-rings. I can't count how many times I've fixed various things doing just this.

Sometimes a little sandpaper on the tube ends makes the difference.

I agree with the others, keep it and first try and get your money back. If not the use it for spare parts for further use. Never know what you might need down the road. Some tinkering and you might find new uses for it

Well I did some more cleaning and toying. That's brought me to this point, which is that shorted out or not, (so the problem is in the head) I'm getting light for about a half second. Then if I let the light sit off for another minute or two, I can get light for another half second. Repeat.

Fenix sent me some videos of maintentance:
http://www.fenixlight.com/rcwh.asp

No mention of the head though beyond some cleaning. Also, what is the best or other options for lubing the O-rings?

And then we get to... Just how bad is removing that head unit? From what little I gathered looking at one of the links in this thread, it looked like a pretty big pain... I went as far as sticking my small leatherman in there and trying to turn with a good bit of effort, but didn't get any movement I could tell...

I'll be darned... I tried to remove the pill with my hands and P4 Squirt Leatherman. Figured it was hopeless given what I'd seen mentioned in other threads. Well, it turned... Maybe a half turn... Not super hard to do that... but that was about it... Worked on it for about 10 minutes or so while my hands were hurting from trying to apply a lot of pressure in awkward positions/objects. Really didn't seem like it was going anywhere further. Screwed it back in. Cleaned out the metal I just scraped off with more alcohol...

It works...

Boggles my mind...
I'm used to mag lights where generally they either worked, or there's a bit of obvious rust on a spring and a bit of work with a file and they work again... And that's non-led models...

Should not LED's use considerably less power and therefore only be LESS sensitive to connections? Or did I just manage to get some invisible alkaline juice in there that gummed things up somehow? (I was enjoying it's circuit regulation and tossing all my oldest/deadest batteries in there, but I wouldn't have put something obviously leaking in).