PAL problems

My beloved PAL Gold is acting up. When on the high setting the LED strobes at about 3-4 times per second. Tried a different battery, no change. Seriously bummed.

I have the PAL Gold, too, and you are describing normal operation of the unit, if you have three other light conditions.

Are you saying you have two different strobe settings?

Yup. Right now I have:
"off"
low
fast strobe
slow strobe

Fast, somewhat irregular, strobe has taken the place of the high setting.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RonM:
My beloved PAL Gold is acting up. When on the high setting the LED strobes at about 3-4 times per second. Tried a different battery, no change. Seriously bummed.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It sounds as though you are describing a thermal failure of the LED. The high setting was too much for it, and eventually thermal stresses caused one of the wirebonds to get pulled off the chip.

When the LED heats up, the parts inside expand and the connection breaks; then the LED cools, the parts contract slightly, and reestablish the connection.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

I think your Pal has seen better days, and it's time for it to go to flashlight heaven.
You can either return it, or attempt to replace the LED yourself; though there is only one source for that particular part, and that is buying directly from Nichia.

I think the part number is NSSW100BS, but I'm not 100% positive. Expect to pay $8.00 for the part, and another $8.25 for shipping.

Might be better off sending the whole flashlight back for replacement, whether it is under warranty or not.

Thanks Craig - Can always count on you for an well educated answer (or one involving toilets, but that's another story).

I'll have to check, but I think the PALs have a lifetime warranty. Fingers crossed.

Ron, if you do have to replace it and you don't ever use the real strobe, you might like the other model better. I have both, but the Onestar is more useful as a nightlight and for casual use around the house. I hope never, ever, to need a strobe
(on the Eternalight, either).

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Marc Veeneman:
Ron, if you do have to replace it and you don't ever use the real strobe, you might like the other model better. I have both, but the Onestar is more useful as a nightlight and for casual use around the house. I hope never, ever, to need a strobe
(on the Eternalight, either).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

My only complaint about an otherwise excellent light, the EternaLight Ergo, is all of the unnecessary 'special effects' modes. Is a preprogrammed SOS something the average consumer is going to use? To get attention, the 'dazzle' setting does a great job. I just wish the 'momentary on' was the first or second mode. You have to go through every other mode to get to the 'momentary on' mode.
OK, rant mode off.
I hope you get a replacement Pal light, which only seems like the right thing to do.
But not everyone runs Customer Service like Arc Flashlight does, unfortunately.

Unless they have changed, the owner of PAL could be a brother of ARC. They over compensated for my problems when I had them...big time. I was very pleased with the person doing customer support. One of the problems was my doing and they fixed it AND paid postage.

Of course...you could fix it yourself. It is real easy. I unsoldered the led and made an extention to the led and converted it to 4 C cells. I would classify myself a novice solderer. I did have a fresh tip on the iron and used low wattage.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
the owner of PAL could be a brother of ARC. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's interesting, especially since the ARC AAA and the PALight are my most used lights. It's curious that the innovation and usefulness of the products are somehow correlated with the caring nature of the founders.

I hope they both get rich but have very few customers so we few can benefit from their personal care.