AAA Problem

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Bravado

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I found one of my AAA's under my comp. desk with a magnet stuck to it and now the light won't come on even with a new battery installed in it. Does anyone know if magnets adversly affect LED's? It used to function flawlesly previous to me finding it with the mag. stuck to it.
Also any recommendations on what I can do with it?
Thanx
 

B@rt

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How long was the light there? You may just want to clean the contacts. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
Although disturbing the magnetic field dims the light, it shouldn't be a permanent thing.... The inductor core doesn't have a magnetic memory. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 

nrk

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I too have been having an Arc AAA problem.

I just received one from Ebay that claims to be a NIB light. I started using it yesterday and it intermittently fails to go on.

Symptoms are that every 3rd, 4th, or 5th time that i tighten to turn on the light it fails to go on. I usually can get it to turn on again by opening, taking out the battery, reinserting, and reclosing-- but not always. Once it works again it will then fail every few turns.

I've tried several batteries, tried cleaning the contact and still it does not turn every time.

Any suggestions would help. I'm stumped. It really doesn't feel like a contact or mechanical problem but i'm not sure. I did notice that the light makes a nice dent in the battery nipple on + end.

;-norm
 

paulr

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That's a known problem with certain batches of Arc AAA's. It's caused by a faulty chip on the circuit board. Unfortunately there's really nothing you can do about it short of using the light as a mod host. Think of it as a basically reliable car that sometimes takes a few tries to start in cold weather.

Actually one thing you could try is an Eveready L92 lithium AAA cell, which has slightly more voltage than an alkaline cell. I can't promise it will help. But I suggest it because my own AAA occasionally has a stalling problem when I use cheap zinc-carbon AAA cells, but almost never has it with alkaline cells.
 

nrk

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Thanks paulr,
I was hoping for a fix to the light that would make this go away. I'll give it a try though this is not the fix i was looking for. :-(

;-norm
 

nrk

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Thank you PhotonBoy,
Just read the thread and these are the exact symptoms i've been experiencing.

Perhaps there is some recourse with the seller since he is a flashlight person and this has been documented since at least march of 2004.

Regards. ;-norm
 

PhotonBoy

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Personally, I'd keep the light... it's the same as the one I have and the problem is tolerable -- a small price to pay for the best AAA keychain light around. No worse than having to turn the key on your car's ignition an extra time a couple of times a week.

The best the seller could do for you would be to reverse the sale; there's no easy technical solution that I'm aware of.
 

BlindTiger

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I'm surprised it took this long for this problem to show up with all those ebay sales.
Shouldn't the seller warn the buyer that there MAY be the intermittent chip problem in the arc for sale? I know I would.
Was yours the Black HAII's cases or the natural HAIII cases?
Granted both may be affected. Mine were.
 

GJW

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This intermittent chip problem was only the latest in a long line of Arc problems.
What made Arc was great was not that they were trouble-free -- it was that they took responsibility for their problems.

As far as I'm concerned, now that Arc is no more, EVERY Arc transaction should be classified as 'buyer beware'.
 

nrk

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Mine is an Arc AAA, AWS-NAT, White LED, Natural Finish.

My seller claims he had no knowledge of this defect. He says he bought a bunch of them from a distributer after Arc closed.

We had a discussion about the fact that the one I have occurred after the defect was discovered (I'm referring to the thread started in Mar '04).

And yes, as a newbie, all of this surprises me. Most of the ebay offerings I've seen advertise as "New in Box". I had no idea about "known defects".

To be honest, up until a month ago I thought a flashlight was one or two batteries and a bulb. Boy was I in for a culture shock.

As an aside, I just received my CPF LionHeart today. Now I can spend the next few days learning about the user interface. (User interface? In a flashlight? This can't be Kansas).

Thanks to all of you who responded. This newbie is getting an education.

;-norm
 

paulr

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It creates a dilemma for sellers too.

I have a spare Arc AAA that's still in its package and has never been opened. Of course there's no way to tell that, since the packages aren't sealed. But I bought it new and never had any reason to open it. I already had an EDC Arc AAA and the second one was just a spare I was keeping around.

With the insane ebay prices lately, I've thought about selling the spare. But how would I list it? Usually, unopened packages are desirable, so I wouldn't want to open it. But that means I don't know if it has the stalling problem or not. So I'd have to describe the stalling problem and say it MIGHT have the problem, I haven't tested because I want to leave the package unopened for collectors who care about that.

But we all know, "untested" is ebay-speak for "known to be broken". Maybe my best bet is just open the package, test the light, and put the test result in the description.

It's all theoretical though, I'm not really planning to sell it.
 

dad3and3

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I have been reading a bit on this as I was the seller of the light mentioned in one of the posts above. Worked fine when I tested it but am now told that there are problems. From what I have read Revision 3.3 corrected this problem, or is that incorrect?

I bought over 80 of these lights in the last few months and gave most away to Customers as a Chritmas gift. I ended up getting some too late and had to buy a bunch of Surefire lights to get everyone taken care on in time. Once the rest of the ARC's came in I had a few extra's, Rev. 3.3's that were left. I kept a few for myself and family and decided to sell the others.

Has anyone had this problem with 3.3 versions?

Thanks
 

nrk

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I must confess that having this intermittent problem drives me nuts. It feels like the light has a personality of its own. No matter what i try to do consistently I can't predict when the light will turn on or not. Sometimes it will turn on several times in a row and then at other times it will fail to turn on several times in a row.

I would expect that any mechanical problem having to do with bad contact (perhaps due to the foam donut) would have a more consistent patterm of failure.

It's hard to believe that this problem is not "electonic".

Is there a way to verify if, in fact, I do have a Rev. 3.3 light?
Do Rev. 3.3 lights have the "stalling problem"?
Is there any other explanation that makes sense?

Thanks guys. ;-norm
 

PhotonBoy

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Based on PG's description, it sounds like it's related to the startup voltage.... some kind of threshold voltage is not being met, possibly. I'd be tempted to try a new AAA lithium cell which I believe would have 1.7 volts nominal vs 1.5 nominal for an alkaline. Can anyone comment on this?

My light seems to fail to start about once every 4 or 5 times, not enough to bug me, since I know what's happening. It always fires up on the second attempt to turn it on.
 

nrk

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I ordered some AAA lithiums today to test out this theory -- though i must confess I am getting more and more frustrated. At times my failure rate is higher then once every 4 to 5 times and it does NOT always fire up on the second attempt.

In fact, i can find no such consistent pattern.

;-norm
 

BlindTiger

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I don't know but once every 4 or 5 tries sounds like a lot.
I would say in my experience it's just a random event except for one arc that would not light up after being on for over 12 hours during a blackout. this was a version 1 arc with o ring so this was an oldie.
Are these problems exclusive to the white LED's or does it affect other colors?
I'm using lithiums now on my turquiose aaa but this one never had the intermittent chip problem. (another version 1.x)
 

Bravado

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[ QUOTE ]
koala said:
MrAl mention before that operating an AAA with a magnet by side will increase or decrease brightness and also blow up the switching transistor in your AAA.

You can also try DIY Maintenance: The Arc-AAA Series.

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent link, thanks for the info guys! If I can't get this one to work on my own who can fix/mod it for me?
 
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