Damn reverse clickies!

Why is it a majority of the asian lights have reverse clickies instead of normal clickies like everyone wants??? You would think they would have gotten a clue by now that most people want a NORMAL clicky! It must be cheaper to manufacture or something?

Reverse clickies do seem counterintuitive. I can put up with the ones on my Quest lights, but it would drive me crazy on my EDC. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Hello Donovan,

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif I though Mag had legal rights to the normal clicky... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

Tom

The "clickie" mechanism is no more than the ball-point pen clickie and is not patentable as far as I know. Mag uses it, Streamlight uses it and Surefire uses it.

The reason lights such as the Q3 and some Streamlights (SL-20XP LED) use a reverse clickie because they are linked with some supporting or control circuitry. Must have something to do with what those circuits will tolerate for inputs.

Wilkey

I hate reverse clickies too. It takes away the momentary feature that normal clickies have. The only advantage with reverse ones that I can see is they won't accidentally turn on as easily when packed in a bag or something. But that doesn't make up for the loss of momentary on in my opinion.

I hope the reverse clickie folks stand up for their choice!

Agreed! Love that momentary...great advantage with small intense, but unfortunately short runtime, too.

I am guessing the non reverse clicky switch costs a nickle more to make than the cheaper reverse clicky. It would be nice to find a source of switches that you could replace bad switches with. I had a light that a switch went bad in and had to yank one out of another light to fix it and quality of the switches varies a lot in sub $5 lights. Almost every cheap plastic light has nearly identical switches in it.

I did find one light that has a non reverse clicky. The disney kids 2AA light for about $2.50 has one in it that works rather well. I got mine for $1.99 plus tax which is a decent price for a replacement switch if you need one.

Perhaps someone can find a supplier that sells the switches and get the price down to about 35 cents each plus shipping.

I have heard somewhere.. that normal click switch (with momentary) option have some contact problem... and the reverse click swich is a more and firm contact type switch...

i have a normal(Kroll) and reverse(QIII) click switch... the kroll.. flickers while making contact.. where as the QIII dosent !

Hate the damn things.

Hate them too. I don't know about the electronic reason's for a reverse click, I think there are number of light's that have them that have a lot of circuitry in volved. I would think it's either a normal common setup for imported light's,cheaper to make or as said better contact. VDG

The Dorcy incans that I'm familiar with all have reverse clickies. Certainly, given the choice between two flashlights with similar missions, I'll take the one with the forward clickie please.

73
dim

Now you are going to make me try to find the reverse click switch I replaced to see why it no workie. Perhaps you can modify reverse clickies into *forward* clickies.

IIRC the "normal" clickie with momentary isn't trivial to do ...
bernie

replacing the cheap clicky switches is not always easy for sure. I have to use tin snips to cut the tabs off the metal because the switch I replaced it with didn't have as wide a slot and getting it apart and back together without tearing it up and ruining the integrity was not a fun task. It took about 20-30 mins of fumbling to fix.

You can see the "guts" of a Q3 reverse clicky here.

Paul

This isn't the reverse clicky on most of the cheaper lights. The housing is more of a squarish oval shape with a tab coming out the long end with a hole in it that goes on a peg on the plastic case.

Double post..

[ QUOTE ]
chimo said:
You can see the "guts" of a Q3 reverse clicky here.

Paul

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks! Cool pictures.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Here's a shot I just took of a Coleman switch (reverse clicky). The spring is very firm.