Zebralight SC52 battery indicator

I have had my Zebralight SC52 for around a week now and I am pretty happy with it. However, it seems that the battery status indicator does not function as I would expect. When I test a freshly charged eneloop, I get 4 flashes. However, after only a little bit of use, I only get one flash.

I ran two tests with a SC52 and an h502d using two different eneloops (fresh off the charger) with the following results:



Are these results typical from other SC52 owners?

I'd be happy to try this later for you. One thing I can think of, perhaps let the cell recover a bit longer before taking a measurement.

Wiggle said:

I'd be happy to try this later for you. One thing I can think of, perhaps let the cell recover a bit longer before taking a measurement.

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Yeah, I've tried to let it sit for a while between measurements, too. But, the results are the same or very similar.

I have also noticed that sometimes when I put in a fresh cell and turn it on to H1, the light will flicker briefly. I am not sure what that is about.

I haven't tried this personally because I haven't run an Eneloop in mine but for as long as it took for my new 14500s to charge but I had read on CPF somewhere that the test wouldn't work properly on an eneloop compared to a lithium ion.

Take this with a grain of salt because I don't have any facts to back this secondhand statement up. If I give this a try I'll let you know what my results are.

I ran a stopwatch and stopped it at 7.5 minute increments (to be a little more precise than the first one without too much effort ha). Every interval I'd let the cell recover for 30 seconds and then did the battery check before starting it all again and resuming the stop watch. The low battery behavior is a bit different between the two cell types. The Li-ion steps down from full H1 to the M1 I believe, while the NiMH gradually drops from H1 into H2 and then towards the lower high setting just slightly brighter than the medium. The end times are the exact times I decided to call it 50% output or less purely based on my eyeball.

Finer increments may have been a little better but I think my samples showed that, for my cells, the battery meter is decently useful for both cell chemistries.

Wiggle said:

I ran a stopwatch and stopped it at 7.5 minute increments (to be a little more precise than the first one without too much effort ha). Every interval I'd let the cell recover for 30 seconds and then did the battery check before starting it all again and resuming the stop watch. The low battery behavior is a bit different between the two cell types. The Li-ion steps down from full H1 to the M1 I believe, while the NiMH gradually drops from H1 into H2 and then towards the lower high setting just slightly brighter than the medium. The end times are the exact times I decided to call it 50% output or less purely based on my eyeball.

Finer increments may have been a little better but I think my samples showed that, for my cells, the battery meter is decently useful for both cell chemistries.

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Hmm. Yeah your battery indicator is behaving as I would expect with your Duraloop cell. I am wondering if maybe my light is defective since it seems to go to 1 blink after 10 minutes (or sooner) on H1.

Edit: I put a freshly charged Eneloop cell in my SC52 last night and barley used it at all. Now, I just checked the battery indicator and I only get one flash!

2nd Edit: I take the battery out for a few seconds, put it back in and now 4 flashes! Hmmm.....

crazyk4952 said:

...

2nd Edit: I take the battery out for a few seconds, put it back in and now 4 flashes! Hmmm.....

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Probably poor electrical contact somewhere in the light...check if everything inside is clean, spring, the gold "ring" in the cap behind the spring and its contact point on the flashlight body - it shoudn't be anodized and should be clean. If you have deoxit gold or something like that try to apply it in that points.

stp said:

Probably poor electrical contact somewhere in the light...check if everything inside is clean, spring, the gold "ring" in the cap behind the spring and its contact point on the flashlight body - it shoudn't be anodized and should be clean. If you have deoxit gold or something like that try to apply it in that points.

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Everything looks clean. I am thinking that I should return the light for warranty repair. Is it best to contact Zebralight directly, or should I contact the seller that I bought the light from?

crazyk4952 said:

Everything looks clean. I am thinking that I should return the light for warranty repair. Is it best to contact Zebralight directly, or should I contact the seller that I bought the light from?

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I would still play with it a little. With things like that you may send it to warranty and they may find nothing wrong with it and send it back. But if you don't feel like that I can't help you because when we speak about warranty I don't know where you live and where you bought it.
Here in Europe we have very strong consumer protection forced on dealers so I would start with the dealer. In the US it's little different on one hand you have shops that ignore you after 30 days or so but there are also shops that care about their clients very well and for long without government forcing them to do that. I would probably still contact the seller first.

Make sure the tailcap is twisted on tightly. I was having this problem too but that fixed it.

revolver said:

Make sure the tailcap is twisted on tightly. I was having this problem too but that fixed it.

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Yeah, it is.

crazyk4952 said:

Everything looks clean. I am thinking that I should return the light for warranty repair. Is it best to contact Zebralight directly, or should I contact the seller that I bought the light from?

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I would recommend contacting the dealer first and give them a chance to make it right. In my experience returning to zebralight can be VERY frustrating.

Just another data point: I had a few minutes of H1 usage on my SC52 and the battery indicator showed 1 blink. I took the eneloop out and put it into the h502d and that battery indicator gave me 3 blinks.

I don't know if it is possible at all but if it is try to change the caps between SC52 and H502d and check then.

stp said:

I don't know if it is possible at all but if it is try to change the caps between SC52 and H502d and check then.

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Actually, I tried that. When I put the cap of the h502d on the SC52, it flashes briefly, then is on dimly (maybe on L1).

What happens when you do the other way?

stp said:

What happens when you do the other way?

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The h502 behaves normally when I put the cap from the SC52 on it.

crazyk4952 said:

The h502 behaves normally when I put the cap from the SC52 on it.

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Ok, so at last we know that everything is good with the cap.

Next step - you will need small piece of aluminium foil - the thin one used in kitchen.

-Get the SC52 with the battery inside and without the cap. Cover the opening with the foil and push it inside a litttle so the foil will make contact with the battery. It should also make contact with the unanodized edge of the light so don't push all inside because only edge is unanodized. We are just replacing the cap with other connector to check it its not problem with electrical connection between good cap and good body. The light should function like with the cap (no flickering - it there is flickering try again). Check the battery status. Do the same to the H502 (with the foil too - I'm not sure if the resistance of the foil will not impact the reading). Compare the readings.

Ok, I replaced the cap on the sc52 and h502 with foil and checked the battery: for the SC52, I get 1 flash. Using the same battery with the h502, I get 4 flashes.

crazyk4952 said:

Ok, I replaced the cap on the sc52 and h502 with foil and checked the battery: for the SC52, I get 1 flash. Using the same battery with the h502, I get 4 flashes.

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I'm sorry but I don't have more ideas...you could check the contact inside the tube but I wouldn't do there anything because at last in my H51 there is pcb with some IC's exposed and it would be easy to physically damage it and void warranty. I think that it's time to contact your seller or ZL. :shakehead