How to change bulb in 4sevens Quark 123 mini and where to buy the bulb?

Okay I am not a dummy but when I unscrew the top cap to change out the battery there is no obvious way to change the bulb. How does one change the bulb in this flashlight or does the entire top containing the bulb need to be repurchased?

Uh... you do know that an LED flashlight doesn't actually have a bulb in it... right? :thinking::shrug:

You need to swap out the led. Not as simple as switching out a p60 drop-in

BKSinAZ said:

Okay I am not a dummy but when I unscrew the top cap to change out the battery there is no obvious way to change the bulb. How does one change the bulb in this flashlight or does the entire top containing the bulb need to be repurchased?

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Welcome to CPF! LED is solid state (for lack of better words) so there is no need to change anything. So your mini doesn't allow easy consumer access to the LED. Back in the day this was the most amazing thing to me about LED technology. The lifespan of the LED will most likely outlast the other parts of the light or the user (yea entropy sucks) within real world usage.

Yeah..... I smell a troll. Good one, though! :twothumbs

BKSinAZ said:

or does the entire top containing the bulb need to be repurchased?

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And that's no longer possible. Wait......change the bulb? You meant change the LED, right?

You just unscrew the old one & screw in a new one - done. I recommend 100w incandescent bulbs!!

Ok, I don't think leaving this open will be productive or useful at this point. OP is welcome to contact mods if this was, in fact, a legitimate inquiry.

My thread was closed because I accidently called a LED a bulb????

I am not a troll. My Quark Mini 123 will not light up. I tried multiple batteries, so I can only assume that it is the LED. There are no clear indications on how to change out the LED. Would somebody help me and explain? I do not want to throw away this flash light on account of just a LED.

Than you.

archimedes said:

Ok, I don't think leaving this open will be productive or useful at this point. OP is welcome to contact mods if this was, in fact, a legitimate inquiry.

Click to expand...

Unlocked, at OP request.

Sounds like the question is more troubleshooting a broken flashlight, than actually "changing a bulb"

Have you tried to clean the contacts?

Did you try cleaning the contacts etc etc. There is no changing the LED for all practical purpose. It's probably not the LED.

edit... dang someone beat me to it by 1 minute..... lol

Can't remember exactly how that particular flashlight is set up, but if practical, switch bypass testing may also be a useful troubleshooting maneuver ....

Also, what exact battery(s) are you using, and how have you verified that they have adequate remaining capacity ?

archimedes said:

Can't remember exactly how that particular flashlight is set up, but if practical, switch bypass testing may also be a useful troubleshooting maneuver ....

Also, what exact battery(s) are you using, and how have you verified that they have adequate remaining capacity ?

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I was thinking bypass but then remembered there is no tail cap in the mini. Odds are if cleaning the contacts and threads with alcohol doesn't work it might be dead. That's one thing I dislike about modern LED lights. Seems the ones which died on me just died without a discernible reason. I did save my PK 1XAAA by cleaning the threads. Too lube and pocket lint. I hope that works for the OP.

The body is the switch in loose terms, he could hold a cr123 cell in the head making contact with the positive nub and carefully short the negative end of the cell to the head with a jumper preferably bent into shape. I have done this with twisty based lights when measuring current.

I did have a flashlight once with threads that weren't properly masked off and got excessively anodized, which caused contact issues (unresponsive to cleaning, but fixed by removing a bit of the "overspray" coating)

We need to find out if the light is new or used.

Here is a summary. The problem could be one of 4 things as most on here have alluded to:
1) bad LED (very unlikely)
2) bad driver (more likely than a bad LED)
3) no or poor connection between the battery and the driver (hopefully that is all it is).
4) dead battery

Assuming that a known good battery is being used, that leaves the most likely problem as #2 or #3. The way to eliminate #3 is to do as Beam suggested and directly connect a known good battery to the head or use a power supply set to 3.2 volts. If still no results then most likely the driver has failed. If all else fails wait until the new owner of Foursevens emerges and see if they will warrant it. If not, then someone on Ebay or CPF would likely buy it in its existing condition.

A good suitable replacement would be the Jetbeam Jet II MK or Fenix E15.

Just some thoughts .

Are these polarity protected ?

Beamhead said:

The body is the switch in loose terms, he could hold a cr123 cell in the head making contact with the positive nub and carefully short the negative end of the cell to the head with a jumper preferably bent into shape. I have done this with twisty based lights when measuring current.

Click to expand...

Yeah, testing by shorting the battery without the tube is the first step - it'll tell you if the problem is in the head or body. I've fixed a number of twisty lights that developed corrosion under the spring which breaks the electrical contact.

However, the Mini's head is not part of the electrical path - like many twisties, you must reach the brass ring running around the circumference of the printed circuit board - this is the ring that would contact the tube edge when screwed tightly together.

Hard to reach the ring with a CR123 though. Fortunately the Minis are wide voltage (0.9-3v) so you can use a AA or AAA for this test. HERE is an illustration of the paperclip test.

Good luck