What is up with my blue AAA?

Just picked up a blue AAA. O-Ring Black body Blue led. New condition, solder blob has a very very tiny mark. I was thrilled to add a vintage Arc to the collection. I pop in a battery, she comes on, and I'm noticing how similar the beam is to the turquoise models, when it started to flicker. Drag out the Arc service box, clean up the threads (which didn't need it) clean the – contact for good measure, lube her up. Still flickering, say 20 seconds later, nothing. Can't get anything from the led. FF to an hour later, come back in the room, and try again of course, no dice. Leave the head turned down onto the battery, say 2 minutes, it lights up!!!! Now I've seen the turquoise do this on a very low battery, it will not light up if you shut her down, but if you leave turned on, it'll power back up in a little while. What is going on!? I've repeated this a few times now, and never a good power up, but leave it on a while, and it powers up, but still seems to flicker like the contacts were dirty, but they're like new! Talk about get your attention when it decides to fire, kind of weirded me out the first time. I've rambled a bit here, but what is going on!?

Sounds like the famous faulty IC chip. My former EDC Arc AAA had a slight case of that with cheap batteries and did ok with Duracells. You might have better luck with an E92 lithium cell.

This one is from long before that, if I'm not mistaken. Its a 1.X version. I'm using duracells.

Hmm, try punching down the roll crimp, re-forming the solder blob, etc.? All the usual stuff.

Will do. Hadn't thought about the lack of the crimp. It's so strange to turn an Arc and not have it light up. My red AAA from the same time frame works like a champ, its my poking around the house at night light.

And I'd like to add please don't be discouraged by this anyone, my rev4 hasn't missed a beat.

Not "the" chip problem - way older than that. While it could be something faulty on the board (bad, cold or broken joint), the most likely problem would be the crimp or the negative contact. It's hard to see in the bottom of the tube. Try a different body that you know is clean and if it works, you know that it's the negative contact. Check the crimp and do the roll anyway.

Okay, I tried it on the red's body, same deal. Refinished the contact, no help. Now, on rolling the crimp down, I just "smash" the edge down all around the board? Its been a long time since I read that thread.

Arrr! I can't get it to work right! I put a lithium in, which was a bad idea! It came on full brightness, then went back to flickering, just showing me for a split second how bright it is!! I think the guts are fine, but I'm getting a bad contact somewhere. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Dub

Should I use a small drift to tap down the edge? Can I test if this is going to work, with a wire or something before I do it? If its not going to work right, I don't want to smash the edge down, because I'll mod it!

You can definitely try powering the head with a + lead to the blob, and the - lead to the ground plane of the circuit board (the part that would be grounded better with a roll crimp. If you want to mod it later, just put one ding on the edge instead of the full roll. You just need to have the edge of the (clean!) aluminum of the head contact the ground plane of the CB securley (somewhere). Those early units definitely had some grounding issues.

When you are done with all that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif, send me an email. We can't replace it of course (that model is no longer being made), but we might be able to fix it. No promises. We need to see the light in person to know if it can be fixed.

[email protected]

Peter

scrape the epoxy from the ground foil before roll crimping.
much better chance of success.

Thanks for your help everyone. I tried some leads from a AAA battery, but still can't get good contact. I think I'm going to send it off to meet its maker, but hopefully to be reborn!!! I'll drop you a line Peter, and thank you.

I hope that it can be repaired for you. I got a blue AAA a long time ago and really like it. The blue led is neat.

Me too. Its got a really good shade to it. It's not narrow like other blue led's I have, also.

The problem seems to be most apparent only with a new battery, if you put a run down battery in, it never flickers, so I'm almost sure it's a contact issue. I can't bring myself to smash the edge down, however.