Arc blinking problem...

Hi,

My Arc flash light does somthing strange. I first noticed it when I went into the room at night where the light was hanging on my belt.

The light blinks very very faintly about every ten seconds.
During the day you have to look right at it to notice this happening.

I have tried resetting it by removeing the batteries.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Also I purchased this last year. I think it is an arc 3 maybe an arc 4. I just cannot remember right now.
Mark

Mark,

This is a 'feature ' mentioned several times.
If it annoys you, you could switch of the RDS sequence (look into the manual).
It is a capacitor discharging through the LED.

Some of the threads:
Arc4 slightly flashing

Ready For Service on Arc 4+

Arc 4+ in the COLD

Temperature related Arc4+ Phenomenon

Fvjr,

In order to ensure the Ready-for-service sequence works when enabled, the light turns on - very dimly every 3 seconds - when turned off. This forces the capacitors to discharge in a short period of time when a user is changing batteries - which forces the light to reset. This causes the flashlight to consume more power when the light is turned off - as is noted in the documentation for Ready-for-Service.

The dim flash can be turned off by turning off the Ready-for-Service feature.

Your light is an Acr4 and it should be labeled such on the exterior of the head.

Henry.

I was about to post the following when I saw this thread. Should it take more than two days for a capacitor to discharge this way? I'll try to turn off the RFS to see if that helps.

Flashing ARC 4???

One of my ARC 4's has developed and interesting characteristic, it flash's after being turned off! Now this isn't a flash one would easily see as it is probably 1/20th the intensity of the lowest setting. The flashing seems to have about a two second interval and sometimes is present and sometimes is not and its intensity varies from about 1/10th to 1/20 of the lowest setting. I have just noticed this and my trouble shooting has been to reset the light, installed a new cell, and turn various features on and off but the flashing is still there. Even with locator flash turned on it will give a dim flash before the first locator flash kicks in. The light otherwise works perfectly. I'm not sure if this has developed or has always been present as it is so dim that you literally have to put the light right to you eye in a dark room to see it. I thought that it might be a capacitor discharging but it continued to flash for over 2 days on one test. Any ideas as to what might be causing this, other things I can do to trouble shoot this or how to correct it?

Any input would be really appreciated as at this level of output this flashing will probably drain my battery after about 5 years

BTW after finishing writing this thread the flashing has now stopped , but I'm sure it will come back, sort of like having your car stop making that strange noise as soon as you arrive at the mechanics.

Thanks,

Matthew

Thanks everyone,

Can you direct me to the directions to turn this off?

I had one piece of paper come with my ARC4 along with the metal case. I did not get a manuel.

Thanks!

M_R,

The capacitor takes less than 10 seconds to discharge when RFS is enabled.

Fvjr,

The link was provided in my previous post, but here it is again:

Complete Arc4 User's Guide

Henry.