Making the Olight S10R More Reliable

andrewnewman

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Messages
411
Location
Connecticut, US
About a year ago I got an Olight S10R. I love almost everything about this light. The small size, UI, magnetic body, slightly luminescent bezel seal etc... Unfortunately my sample (and others I've read) wasn't very reliable. There were two persistent issues that, until recently, I thought were unrelated:

  • The charger would often blink red when I tried to charge the unit. At first I thought it was a faulty USB cable, then I thought I needed a 2.0A charger. I tried never using the accessory port superstitiously but nothing worked. Often I had to place and remove the light a dozen times before it would begin to charge successfully. Olight graciously sent me a new charger but the problems persisted.
  • Sometimes (usually fresh off the charger) the light would refuse to illuminate. I isolated this problem to the tailcap but tightening the retaining ring didn't make a difference. Once it failed while on a camping trip. After that I put it on the shelf and used other lights.

Recently I took another look at the light. Remembering that tailcap conductivity was at the root of problem #2 above I disassembled the tailcap. On the bottom of the PC board holding the spring is... another spring. This one drives a small aluminum pill that can be seen on the bottom of the light and makes contact with the charging post on the charger. The pill is surrounded by a small plastic insulting ring that it moves up and down in. Because part of the tailcap is magnetic, there were some small bits of ferrous filings from the manufacturing process stuck to the magetic part. This seems to be related to the problem. The filings introduce two problems (as far as I can tell). The first is that they prevent the insulating ring from fully disengaging the circuit to the driver during charging. The second is that they mechanically prevent the aluminum pill from reseating securely after the light is removed from the charger. I carefully cleaned all of the metal filings off of tailcap and related parts. I then put the smallest possible dot of lubricant on the inside of the insulating ring and reassembled the tailcap making sure to snug down the retaining ring fully.

Since I have done this, I have had absolutely no problems at all with reliability. The light is back in my rotation. If you think your light might be suffering similarly, take a look at the bottom of the tailcap and note if there are any very tiny metal filings stuck to the magnetic part (particularly around where the aluminum pill is seated.
 

monanza

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 1, 2002
Messages
1,311
Location
Santa Clara, Ca
Good thing to know that may apply to all magnetic tailcaps in rechargeable Olights. Thanks very much for sharing.
 

emarkd

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
1,193
Location
Georgia, USA
This is a known problem with that design. In fact all manner of things can get in there and prevent good contact, like pocket lint, fuzz, dirt, etc. Some of the new lights, like the S30R II, moved to a fixed contact point on the tailcap and made the pin on the charger springy, accomplishing the same basic principle but moving the mobile bits to the charger and solving the problem. However the new S10R II still works like the older design. You just have to keep it cleaned out on occasion.
 

andrewnewman

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Messages
411
Location
Connecticut, US
This is a known problem with that design. In fact all manner of things can get in there and prevent good contact, like pocket lint, fuzz, dirt, etc. Some of the new lights, like the S30R II, moved to a fixed contact point on the tailcap and made the pin on the charger springy, accomplishing the same basic principle but moving the mobile bits to the charger and solving the problem. However the new S10R II still works like the older design. You just have to keep it cleaned out on occasion.

You make an interesting point. I assumed the metal filings came from the manufacture. Perhaps I picked them up while using the light!
 

remzamora

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 12, 2020
Messages
3
About a year ago I got an Olight S10R. I love almost everything about this light. The small size, UI, magnetic body, slightly luminescent bezel seal etc... Unfortunately my sample (and others I've read) wasn't very reliable. There were two persistent issues that, until recently, I thought were unrelated:

  • The charger would often blink red when I tried to charge the unit. At first I thought it was a faulty USB cable, then I thought I needed a 2.0A charger. I tried never using the accessory port superstitiously but nothing worked. Often I had to place and remove the light a dozen times before it would begin to charge successfully. Olight graciously sent me a new charger but the problems persisted.
  • Sometimes (usually fresh off the charger) the light would refuse to illuminate. I isolated this problem to the tailcap but tightening the retaining ring didn't make a difference. Once it failed while on a camping trip. After that I put it on the shelf and used other lights.

Recently I took another look at the light. Remembering that tailcap conductivity was at the root of problem #2 above I disassembled the tailcap. On the bottom of the PC board holding the spring is... another spring. This one drives a small aluminum pill that can be seen on the bottom of the light and makes contact with the charging post on the charger. The pill is surrounded by a small plastic insulting ring that it moves up and down in. Because part of the tailcap is magnetic, there were some small bits of ferrous filings from the manufacturing process stuck to the magetic part. This seems to be related to the problem. The filings introduce two problems (as far as I can tell). The first is that they prevent the insulating ring from fully disengaging the circuit to the driver during charging. The second is that they mechanically prevent the aluminum pill from reseating securely after the light is removed from the charger. I carefully cleaned all of the metal filings off of tailcap and related parts. I then put the smallest possible dot of lubricant on the inside of the insulating ring and reassembled the tailcap making sure to snug down the retaining ring fully.

Since I have done this, I have had absolutely no problems at all with reliability. The light is back in my rotation. If you think your light might be suffering similarly, take a look at the bottom of the tailcap and note if there are any very tiny metal filings stuck to the magnetic part (particularly around where the aluminum pill is seated.
This is exactly the recurring experience I have with my s10rii. Has olight made any "recall" of sorts to replace the tailcap or we just need to continuously maintain the tailcap of this model?

Sent from my INE-LX2r using Tapatalk
 
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