LED light flickering

[iopturbo]

So I bought a cheap LED light on ebay and it is flickering and dimming badly. It is a Trustfire TR-J1. What could be causing this and is it repairable?

 

[paulw]

I have one doing the something similar, I can shake it of bang it in my hand and it works ok for a minute but then its back to on and off.

 

[divingtactics]

Ok, so it is easy for me to say, you get what you pay for but that's not very helpful to you.

It is most likely one of two things:
1. A bad LED driver circuit - solution is to throw it away.
2. A poor connection with the battery - try stretching the spring or putting some multiple folded tin foil on top of the battery to ensure it gets a good connection.

I got some cheap LED lights once and was inside a wreck when my primary light failed. I switched to elcheapo LED one and watched as the 7 leds went to six, then 5, then 3, then all out as it filled with water. I then switched to elcheapo LED number two and it wouldn't even turn on. My dive buddy turned around and when he saw me indicating all three lights were broken, he just shook his head and handed me one of his Heser LED backups and we exited the wreck and ended the dive. I then decided my life and comfort levels was not worth cheap gear, so got a new Halcyon 21-watt canister light as a primary and two of the Heser backups, I've never had a torch failure since. Link to the Hesers: Heser Tauchtechnik

 

[taligent]

I had a similar issue with the Trustfire - the light would periodically dim, and shaking the light would temporarily fix it.

Turned out to be a simple fix. Remove the battery and shake the light - if you hear anything rattling or moving, there's a loose component. In my case, it was the ring holding down the driver. Removing the head and tightening the ring cured the issue - otherwise the Trustfire has been a great, compact dive light (held up great on a recent trip doing 26 dives over 6 days with one dive down to 185ft).

 

[dfx]

I have a bunch of lights with a similar design as this one:



They all needed a bit of tightening of those front screws, the ones holding the plexiglass cover on. Otherwise they would flicker randomly.

 

[paulw]

I had a similar issue with the Trustfire - the light would periodically dim, and shaking the light would temporarily fix it.

Turned out to be a simple fix. Remove the battery and shake the light - if you hear anything rattling or moving, there's a loose component. In my case, it was the ring holding down the driver. Removing the head and tightening the ring cured the issue - otherwise the Trustfire has been a great, compact dive light (held up great on a recent trip doing 26 dives over 6 days with one dive down to 185ft).

Yep that was the issue with mine, its fixed thanks!

 

[Chilly_Dipper]

This may sound a little odd to people but I highly recommend you try a different set of batteries.

Allot of these lights are powered by lithium ion batteries that have protection circuitry in them to prevent them form exploding during charging and destructive discharge. This protection circuitry can kick in during when your light is drawing 'excessive' current causing the light to flicker.

Combine the fact that the quality control on battery manufacturers is well non existent for the cells you buy on ebay/deal extreme etc... and that companies are over driving their LEDs in order to get the maximum light out of them and you end up with a recipe for annoyance for end users.

 

[paulw]

This may sound a little odd to people but I highly recommend you try a different set of batteries.

Allot of these lights are powered by lithium ion batteries that have protection circuitry in them to prevent them form exploding during charging and destructive discharge. This protection circuitry can kick in during when your light is drawing 'excessive' current causing the light to flicker.

Combine the fact that the quality control on battery manufacturers is well non existent for the cells you buy on ebay/deal extreme etc... and that companies are over driving their LEDs in order to get the maximum light out of them and you end up with a recipe for annoyance for end users.

This could be an issue for some to try but I have three sets of batteries and using different batteries made no difference in my light but after tightning the inner locking ring (under the light reflector) that holds the driver in place my light stays on, as a matter of fact I used it for 2-1/2 hours yesterday.

 

[Daiika]

I also had this happen. After tightening the ring, the problem was fixed. Now, after 20 dives after 15 minutes into the dive, the light stays ON in the off position. Only high works. the Rest is a dim light. I've switched to new batteries too.

I had a similar issue with the Trustfire - the light would periodically dim, and shaking the light would temporarily fix it.

Turned out to be a simple fix. Remove the battery and shake the light - if you hear anything rattling or moving, there's a loose component. In my case, it was the ring holding down the driver. Removing the head and tightening the ring cured the issue - otherwise the Trustfire has been a great, compact dive light (held up great on a recent trip doing 26 dives over 6 days with one dive down to 185ft).