42 led flashlight

This is where my review of the 42 led flashlight I posted about earlier but guess what ? IT DOESN"T *&^%$@#! WORK!!!!. The batteries are new (onlky 3 weeks old) and I checked the batteries position inside the carriers at least 5 times (I even took them out and put them back in again) I switched the carriers around about twenty times puttiing them into every configuration imaginable and still no love. Of cousre I could ship the execrable POS back to Hong Kong but it would cost at least $5 and he wouldn't even get it for a week at the earliest. I think it's time I left the Hong Kong merchants alone. I didn't spend much on this thing (about $2 I think) but that's beside the point.

You get what you pay for, I live by that. Thats why I buy expensive lights. Sorry about your loss.

-PSM

Words to live by. NO MORE CHEAP FLASHLIGHTS !!! Live and learn I guess.

Try contacting the seller and let him/her know what's going on. They may be able to help solve the problem.
With the carriers you have, do the batteries connect in parallel, or in series?

When you unscrew the tailcap off of the battery tube, is the bottom of the battery tube and the top of the tailcap anodized?

I think this might be parellell-series. two batteries go in negative end facing one direction and the third goes in with the negative end facing the opposite direction.

Anodized ?!?!?!? All the metal components at the end of the carriers are raw brass so far as I can tell and the metal parts inthe tailcap look like they're made out of aluminum ! Or maybe tin...The matal in the tail cap is very pliable.

Check the end of the battery tube (not the carriers) and tailcap. If these surfaces are anodized they will not allow any current to flow. Normally, the anodizing is machined off of the end of the battery tube and the face of the endcap where these two parts meet.

There's black anodizing all over the threads of both of them.

OK. That's normal for the threaded area. Thing is, the bottom end of the flashlight tube (with tailcap removed) must be free of any coating and the surface on the tailcap that comes into contact with the bottom of the flashlight tube also has to be free of any coating. Current flows from the small end of the tailcap spring into the tailcap itself. The tailcap has to conduct this current into the flashlight main tube and it does this by making physical metal to metal contact with the bottom surface of the main tube.

Those parts are all fine - no anodizing.

Is it possible that power from the top of the first carrier you slide into the main tube isn't somehow making contact with the circuit board the 42 leds are soldered to? If it's not this then I'd suspect the On/Off switch.

I have a 42 LED light and two things have kept it from working.
First is batteries not making good contact in carrier, test it with a multimeter
to see if you are getting in the range of 3.6-4.2v.
Second is bad connections, I unscrewed the head and reset it and then now
it works. If the bottom tailcap/switch is faulty shorting it out with a piece of
metal should make the light work.

Using logic and a pair of wires/clipleads and a meter you should be able to figure
out where the problem is.

My 7x7mm did not work when I got it. Finally figured the spring in the tailcap was too short. Stretched it and it works fine now.

the problem might be the different battery tit standard between China/Hong Kong and USA. USA batteries have shorter tit than China batteries do. I encountered that on 3W headlamps before, the problem was solved by replacing the batteries with longer tit.

I'll get one sample to investigate.

Dae.

I also tried swapping the battery carriers with the ones from two 32 led lights -still nothing. There's no spring in the tailcap just a metal strip.I tried bending it up and stretching the spring in the head and it still doesn't work. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

The batteries fit pretty tight inside the carriers - They have to be pried out.

Both battery carriers work fine in my 32 led light so it's either the tailcap (which I can't get apart) or the something inside the head (which I also can not get apart). Think it's time to feed the trash can..it looks hungry.

That's a shame.
Just curious, did you try bypassing the tailcap/clickie switch completely with a length of wire from the bottom of the battery carrier to the bottom rim of the flashlight tube?

If only the tailcap is a problem it may be the switch. I have taken switches out of dollar store lights and fixed bad switches in other lights. The tailcap in some of the lights usually has a black plastic oval thing with a spring coming out of it. Unscrewing that gets to the switch.