Questions on Eagletac UI

So I have an Eagletac D25LC2 with Nichia Emitter, and was quite saddened about the UI. The form factor is great, and the tint of the Nichia is nice (perhaps a little too warm of neutral), but I'm quite puzzled on the UI.

From my understanding, the light has two modes: one with max brightness and a tactical strobe, and one which starts at low, then goes to med and high when using soft presses on the tailswitch.

What puzzles me is that sometimes the max brightness and tactical strobe mode will be activated after the press of the switch, but other times it just stays on all the time even without a press of the switch, and can't be turned off, and I can't toggle between that and strobe. Sometimes if I lightly swing the light against the palm of my hand to give it a shock, it switches modes without even turning the head. Other times, I found that the light seems to have 3 positions on the head, where one is constant on, the other is the 'tactical' mode, and the other is normal mode.

Is this a normality with the Clicky series UI, or is there something wrong about my particular unit?

Edit: just now I've been playing with the light some more, and it seems like the tightness of the tailcap also affects whether or not the light stays in constant brightness or 'tactical' mode. I've never seen the Eagletac manual reference this. Is this how the light is intended to work?

I picked up the D25A clicky not long ago. Out of the box I could only access the strobe and turbo mode. I tried loosening the head to access the low-med-high, but got no results. I gave the threads a good cleaning and relubed then was able to access the other modes, but quite inconsistently.

I had the same issue with bumping the light or putting pressure on certain parts and it jumping into turbo mode. Sometimes all it took was setting the light down on a flat surface for the thing to flicker on and off.

I gave up the battle and sent mine back. I wanted it to work, but it just seemed a little skimpy on the craftsmanship. I picked up an L3 illuminations L10C instead and I'm quite happy with it.

Yea the whole switching between modes with just a bump of the light from time to time is annoying. I guess I figured it out, in that the tail-cap switch must be loose in addition of the head to be fully tightened to have the tactical mode work with on/off switching. Is this how it's supposed to work? I fail to see why Eagletac thought it would be convenient to have to rotate two different things in addition to the clicky to create an intuitive UI.

Something sounds wrong with your tailcap - it should always be tight. Loose/tight bezel UIs should to be ~ 1/2 turn unscrewed (head) to prevent any thread play from accidental mode switching (although my favorite UI "feature" happens to be when close the loose/tight bezel line, any sideways pressure to the head gives you a momentary Max from ON "switch" . Doesn't work well on D25s unfortunately).

I would test the head's functionality with the tailcap off, and use a piece of tinfoil to bridge the neg. batt terminal to bare tube edge as your switch.

I gave up on Eagletac and the whole push button, then twist a few times UI.
The D25 series I cannot go Lo/Med/Hi/Turbo in a simple progression.

wow the UI on the D25 series sounds awful. Was going to buy one but have 6 ET's already. Will wait for them to update it

I'm on my 3rd d25a clicky. First one threads were stripped. 2nd died completely after a 3 ft fall onto the tile floor. THIS ONE....leaked water into the head and fogged the lens after rinsing it off in the sink. Dried it out and still works but I obviously don't consider them to be well built. Others have had zero trouble so I guess you never know. I do like the UI however.


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Yikes! I love my 6 ET's but none of them are the small clicky ones sounds like ET's quality is in their larger lights

I think the UI of this is good enough, and it makes total sense. One mode grants you tactical use, with both max output and strobe, while the other lets you cycle through low, mid, high.

Just now I was playing around with the light again, and a random bump made it go from off to low mode, then I hit it again and it went back to off. I've since tried to replicate it, but can't seem to do so. Can anybody confirm that the tailcap is used as part of the clicky series UI?

@reppans, I'm not quite sure how to go about that method with the aluminum-foil? How exactly does it work?

I own several. You have to keep the threads clean clean. Lube them with Nyogel. It helps keeping it from random UI or not working at all. There are also some good videos on the UI. That help explain it a tad better. So far none of my lights have given any real problems. Other than dirty threads.

twistedraven said:

Just now I was playing around with the light again, and a random bump made it go from off to low mode, then I hit it again and it went back to off. I've since tried to replicate it, but can't seem to do so. Can anybody confirm that the tailcap is used as part of the clicky series UI?

@reppans, I'm not quite sure how to go about that method with the aluminum-foil? How exactly does it work?

Click to expand...

Mechanical tailcap clickies do nothing more than turn on/off, and on a reverse clicky, half presses are nothing more than a "momentary off". If light is properly cleaned and lubed, and a bump turns your light on/off, then something sounds wrong with the clicky.

The tinfoil bypass test just lets you test the head/body alone so you can zero the problem to either the head... or the tailcap. With the tailcap set aside, you simply connect the bare battery neg terminal to the battery tube edge to turn the light on.... the tinfoil becomes a "momentary switch." If light functions correctly (test all modes, loose/tight bezel) with the tinfoil as your tailcap switch, then you know the problem in the tailcap.

A tailcap problem could be as simple tightening the retaining disk (ring surrounding the spring with 2 dimples) with needle nosed pliers, but it could also be a problem under that disk (a metal burr, or conductive goop) where you simply disassemble the tailcap (unscrew the retaining disk) and clean underneath it.

Good luck

Ok, so I tried the aluminum foil test, and the flashlight seems to function as intended when I press down using the foil. I don't know how to go about tightening and/or cleaning underneath the retaining ring of the tailswitch though, because needle-nosed pliers don't have enough ti grip on to. I will try to get a q-tip and some alcohol to clean the threads inside the tailswitch on on the end of the tube.

Is it possible that the 18650 battery used in my Eagletac (Nitecore 3400mah) is a tad too long for the eagletac, making it so that when the tailcap is fully tightened, it's always in contact with the battery?

twistedraven said:

Ok, so I tried the aluminum foil test, and the flashlight seems to function as intended when I press down using the foil. I don't know how to go about tightening and/or cleaning underneath the retaining ring of the tailswitch though, because needle-nosed pliers don't have enough ti grip on to. I will try to get a q-tip and some alcohol to clean the threads inside the tailswitch on on the end of the tube.

Is it possible that the 18650 battery used in my Eagletac (Nitecore 3400mah) is a tad too long for the eagletac, making it so that when the tailcap is fully tightened, it's always in contact with the battery?

Click to expand...

I would try a different battery to be sure(shorter maybe). If that doesnt work, send it back for a replacement. Both my D25C Nichia 219 and D25A XM-L2 T6 NW work flawlessly and I like the UI myself.

Your battery is too long for the flashlight. Just checked the specs in 2 minutes. Eagletac lists 68.5mm as the max cell length and your Nitecore cell is 69.2mm. Problem solved:thumbsup:

Yeah, agree that a too long battery might be the answer to your issues. I don't own this particular light, but a look at the tailcap in Selfbuilt's review seems to show an elevated area surrounding the spring that might contact the battery terminal if the spring gets over compressed - if so, that would definitely turn it on and bypass the clicky.

Never seen that before, all my mechanical tailcap's are flat/flush around the spring so the battery insulation/wrap would prevent any metallic contact. Starting to see more and more folks having battery length issues as everyone pursues the highest mah possible.

Run 2 CR123s to test, get shorter 18650s, or stick some shim washers in as spacers. Heck you could probably even cut a ring of electrical tape to cover the elevated section... but be careful about tightening the tailcap too hard - you'll be putting pressure against the battery PCB and the circuit board in the d25's head.

It does seem to be the most logical answer, and I think that is truly the cause of the troubles. I think keeping the tailswitch loosened is a good enough solution. It's not like it's really loose, just about half a single turn alleviates the problem. I might not even keep this anyways, as it's currently in battle with my SC62D, and only one can win.

twistedraven said:

It does seem to be the most logical answer, and I think that is truly the cause of the troubles. I think keeping the tailswitch loosened is a good enough solution. It's not like it's really loose, just about half a single turn alleviates the problem. I might not even keep this anyways, as it's currently in battle with my SC62D, and only one can win.

Click to expand...

Dude, just order a battery that fits the light. I bet it will work perfectly. You cant expect a light to work properly when you blatantly go against the manufactures specs. The min/max battery specs are right in the manual. Your lucky you didnt burn out the light. Do you just guess if a new car takes gas or diesel too lol?

I cant tell you how many times I have fixed things for customers who didnt read the manual.