Anyone Ever Have An Emitter Die And Then Come Back To Life?

I had the weirdest experience the other day. I was messing around with some stuff and one item was an old E1 head on an old E1 body that Tony, (Chop), made up for me years ago with an ecan/esink and a Q3J 1W emitter running at 500mA. I stupidly screwed the head on a 2X123 body that I didn't notice had 2X4.2V R123's in it, (over 8 volts), and the LED flashed for an instant and went out.

I tried it several more times with with a regular 123 and a R123 in it's original E1 body but to no avail. I finally gave up and put it aside, (not realizing it was switched on), and bummed that the old emitter I liked so much was gone. I continued messing with other stuff for a good while and suddenly, I saw the little light come to life! I couldn't believe it.

I was elated to say the least and other than a little scar inside the emitter's dome, it's back and functioning fine. Anyone have any ideas how it resurrected itself?

I'm surprised the circuit didnt blow. Well the scar you see is the bond wire probably melted open. Once it cooled, it made contact again. I doubt it will stay working reliably. It could fail after it warms up again, or start strobeing!

Isaac,
I thought you may have a good point so I let it run for over an hour and it's still going.

Well you may have lucked out. But don't bet on it to work perfect forever. And don't depend on it in an emergency!!

I think the little guy should be placed in a shrine.

It's kinda like surviving a lightening strike...

I know nothing about it technically but Isaacs theory seemed to make sense. I too wouoldn't like to have a 'suspect' light for emergency on its own. It's a miracle-light!!

Pila,
It's the "little engine that could". It's chugging along fine and I'll be damned if it isn't a miracle light!