Joy of electronic flashlight very short lived

[pfrcom]

Yesterday I received new Niteye MSA20 flashlight, added a pair of recently charged Eneloop AAs, and it worked fine

That evening it would not turn on, appeared to be dead

I tried a different pair of Eneloop, new from the packet, same result

Also tried a new pair of Varta AA primary, you guessed it

I should know better than be an early adopter of one of the new breed of double-AA powered LED flashlights

But trying to work out what realistic options there are for rechargable CR123 equivalents is mind boggling (my mind anyway)

Tempted to pull apart the elaborate tailcap switch, but better wait to hear what the vendor and/or manufacturer has to say

[selldoor]

Re: Joy of electronic flashlight very short lived

Batterys in the right way round?
Can you test it without the tailcap switch.
Only thing then left would be the Bulb?
I think a RMA is in order.

[pfrcom]

Re: Joy of electronic flashlight very short lived

Batteries were in the right way around

And the tailcap isn't just a switch - it's got a little PCB inside, which presumably does the voltage shenanigans for the infinitely variable brightness

But boy is my face red - I thought once the tailcap was removed, the rest of the flashlight was one piece, and its sparse instruction leaflet says warranty void if head is disassembled

It's not one piece - once I unscrewed the head assembly, then re-tightened it to the body, everything worked again

And this, of course, was after I contacted the eBay vendor

Ah well, might help someone who stumbles across this thread after their MSA20 stops working

[selldoor]

Re: Joy of electronic flashlight very short lived

Hey - we've all been there and I like a good easy fix.

[kc8adu]

Re: Joy of electronic flashlight very short lived

bet the board retaining ring in the head is loose.
common in the cheap china lights.
put a tiny bit of soft loctite on it when you tighten it.
you can then easily open it back up for a led swap in the future.