Gladius Quick-Fix

My Gladius, like some others, would turn off if the wings were rotated just right. The problem seems to be that the only point of continuity between the body and tailcap is the indexing nub on the cap with the sides of the groove in the body. The end of the barrel does not contact the base of the tailcap and if you rotate the wings Just Right it centers the indexing nub in the groove and the only contack is lost. Here's the fix: I formed a nearly complete ring of solid copper wire 1mm thick (18ga?) just a little smaller diameter than the inner tailcap and seated it to the bottom of the cap. (just get it down past the indexing nub, and screwing the cap on will finish it.) This allows the end of the light body to contact the end of the cap and it has worked flawlessly ever since. I have tried many, many times to make it fail and can not. BTW Night-Ops is sending a new tailcap with no hassle of any kind.

spokes,

Are you certain that the contact is only through that itty-bitty nub? That doesn't sound like a real robust way to establish contact. I know there are problems with some large contact areas, but that sounds a little iffy to me.

I'll be extremely curious to hear how (or if) your new cap differs.

Scott

I am pretty sure that that is what's happening, but I am sure it wasn't designed that way. I think the barrels are just a little short or one of the dimensions in the cap is too long or short (depending on whch surface you are talking about).

I am sure that the contact for the Gladius tailswitch is not only the little pin. The pin simply indexes the switch so it is oriented to the electronics and the position of the guts of the switch are the same relative to the body guts each time you put the switch on. Electrical contact is made when you tighten the pronged collar all of the way down, this sandwiches a full diameter flange against the flat surface on the end of the body. If you look up between the pronged collar and the gold inner component that holds the gold spring way up in there you can see this surface. You may need a flashlight.

I have one of the first-generation ceramic Gladius. I can pretty much loosen the tailcap to a point close to falling off the thread without losing contact. The way this thing is constructed, it looks as Sketchy's description is correct.

It might qualify as defect if your Gladius only makes contact through the nub. I doubt that you would get the same performace if this would be the case, though. It appears as a highly resistive path.

Sketchy said:

I am sure that the contact for the Gladius tailswitch is not only the little pin. The pin simply indexes the switch so it is oriented to the electronics and the position of the guts of the switch are the same relative to the body guts each time you put the switch on. Electrical contact is made when you tighten the pronged collar all of the way down, this sandwiches a full diameter flange against the flat surface on the end of the body. If you look up between the pronged collar and the gold inner component that holds the gold spring way up in there you can see this surface. You may need a flashlight.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is exactly my point. Mine does not make contact at the base that is what the wire that I described is for, to take up the difference and allow it to make contact. As further evidence, the pronged collar still screws down just a far with the wire spacer in place as it does without.

I just checked my Gladius; the tailcap unscrews almost completely before the flashlight turns off.