Rubber Band Powered ARC AAA

andrewwynn

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Apr 28, 2004
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Racine, WI USA
Catchy title.

I have a neat cure for the crushed battery syndrome of the lights like the arc aaa.. i'm sure the AA has a similar issue.. anyhow the problem with these lights is there is no cushion in the landing of the switch so there is no give... if you notice.. the start of on to the 'i think i'll break something' tight is only like 10 degrees of rotation.. it's not a comfortable feeling.. and the force involved is somewhat amazing if you consider that tiny button that it's pushing on.

Anyhow.. my arc, i typically have to put something thin but conductive in the bottom to help things out, and today i came up with an astonishing improvement... a rubber band!

I took a piece of rubber band about 4-5mm square.. wrapped it in some foil (like aluminum foil but a little heavier.. al foil would work).. cut the al foil down to fit (of course only cutting the length.. i wrapped 1 1/2 times around.

I dropped the gizmo in the batt tube, shook a bit to get it flat and loaded in the battery..

Now i have a nice comfy 90 degree 'on' zone and it feels awesome because it never has the yucky crushing feeling as it goes on.. and since the contact is now made with a spring (rubber spring).. it's not as 'iffy'..

try it you'll like it.

I've modded all the lights in the house that have a twist-on connection and it's much nicer this way.

-awr
 

X33

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Jul 28, 2004
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UK
Why didn't I think of that? Will try it later.
 

2dim

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Sep 2, 2004
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Toronto, Can
"...today i came up with an astonishing improvement... a rubber band!"

Wow, you're always coming up with ASTONISHING improvements, Andrew, then immediately sharing them here. I continue to be impressed!
 

andrewwynn

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Apr 28, 2004
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Racine, WI USA
thanks for the feedback... yeah... my arc was acting up and i was about to kludge it with re-soldering, but it just delays the same problem. It's like that simple frosting the lens thing with scotch tape.. i only use my arc aaa for close up so it works soo muc nicer with the tape on the front.. simple solutions, great for sharing.. anybody can do it.
 

PhotonBoy

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Mar 11, 2003
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Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada http://tinyu
I just modded mine and it works great! The action is very smooth and what you'd expect when you pick up an AAA for the first time. It takes a while to cotton on to the fact that you can mash the solder blob if you're not careful. Makes it a lot easier to lend to a newbie and not worry about them strangling it to death.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanks.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/clap.gif
 

McShawn

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Apr 23, 2004
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Fayetteville AR
That is a great idea. While your at it andrewwynn, I have another Arc AAA problem that yall might be able to help me with. One of my AAA the battery spins in when you turn the head, I tried a small spring but it did not work that great. When you turn the head, only occassionally the battery spins, you can actually hear it. I will try the foil, rubber band trick, that sound nice
 

Mrd 74

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Sep 5, 2002
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Victoria BC
Just did mine and it works great.Thanks for sharing your great idea.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif
Mike
 

andrewwynn

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Apr 28, 2004
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Racine, WI USA
McShawn:

I suspect most ARC AAAs the battery spins... mine wore the label off the last battery. I didn't care too much other than it makes the head like 4x harder to turn since you are turning the whole battery not just the head.

The reason is the little foam donut that is keeping the battery from rattling.. the rubber has the 'grip of death' on the top of the battery.. it makes the head harder to turn and the battery 'shooosh' when turned.

This effect bothered me more than the rattle so i ripped off the foam.. voila! the head was like 5x easier to turn, and with the new fix was much nicer.

Step 2.. I happened to have some foam tape around.. that was softer than the foam arc used.. i cut a replacement foam donut.. and guess what.. doesn't have the 'grip of death' on the battery so apparently no more spinning..

Glad that the fix i came up with is simple to reproduce and people are getting benefit from it. Word of caution.. almost willing to bet $1 to anybody with the mod that it will fall out on the floor the next time they change the battery /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I recommend turning it on once 'good and hard' to squash the foil into the button on the back of the battery.. it'll make for more consistent on/off location in twisting. You can check out the foil afterwards.. it'll have a 'fingerprint' of the bottom of the battery it's stunning how much force is in there.

This trick would work great with the CMG infinity or arc AA.. anything that squashes the battery w/o a spring.

-awr
 

McShawn

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Apr 23, 2004
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Fayetteville AR
Thanks for the reply andrewwynn, I knew I could not be the only one with that concern. It only does it on two of my AAA, the others don't do it. Anyway, I'm going to try your fix tonight. Oh, and I agree with the $1 bet, in my AAA that I tried a spring to fix the battery turning, each time I opened it I almost always ended up chasing it across the floor. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
 

brightnorm

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Joined
Oct 13, 2001
Messages
7,160
Andrew,
Thanks for that excellent idea. So far I've been lucky with my ARC AAAs, only had trouble with one early model that flickered. I've given maybe 20 or 30 as gifts; no problems yet but if anything happens I'll remember your fix.

Brightnorm
 

andrewwynn

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Apr 28, 2004
Messages
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Location
Racine, WI USA
I recommend trying it.. mine was 'working fine' when i fixed it, now it works... as Mr. Burn would say... e x c e l l e n t..

Why be normul
 
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