I have repaired similar switches in flashlights and it's usually a good idea to clean all the contacts with a pencil eraser followed by a spritz of alcohol to degrease them before reassembling. An Exacto knife with a dull blade is handy for prying the switch apart; instead of soldering it right back into the circuit, hook up an ohmmeter to test it first and check for the absence of contact resistance. Unfortunately the 2 solder terminals kind of float a little bit inside the switch body, and the wires tend to push or pull on the terminals, making the mechanical alignment a little different each time you activate the switch.
Good advice, I definitely should’ve cleaned the contacts. I didn’t think of it. What you say about the wires makes complete sense. If they’re loose and able to move in the case at all they are gonna tug on the ends of the terminals, and that could definitely cause the flickering that I was seeing. Something to remember next time :) do you think I was right about how the switch worked? With regards to how the teeth spin the internal part, so it in sits on top and then falls back into the grooves? It’s pretty clever in any case.
@@GerrysTech , The switches I've cleaned were in a similar white nylon housing and came apart the same way, but the spinning gear teeth inside your switch was a little different from what I am used to seeing. Many of the LED flashlights I have are not strictly on/off, they usually have 3 to 5 modes (high, medium, low, Morse code SOS, and flashing red) and so each touch of the switch, even momentarily, causes the flashlight to switch modes because there's an IC in there that controls voltage to the LED's. I would prefer to have a separate rotary switch that selects the mode so that every time you turn it on it comes in on in your preferred mode and you don't have to cycle through 3 to 5 options to get the brightness level or mode that you want. In theory those units that use an IC for switching might actually be on all the time and drawing a very small amount of current from the batteries even though the LED isn't lit..... But anyway, if I have to take one apart I always clean them with a pencil eraser or perhaps a fiberglass bristle scratch brush. It is also worth noting that another major failure point, especially on any Flashlight that uses a cylindrical plastic holder to hold 3 AAA batteries is that the springs are often loosely crimped or held in place by bent metal fingers that hold the spring to a metal thrust plate, and those points always oxidize and become intermittent unless you solder them. Once you get even the slightest bit of battery leakage and corrosion on the crimped connections to those springs it's almost impossible to fix that connection so that it's reliable. I always solder the springs to the thrust plate in advance.
I have repaired similar switches in flashlights and it's usually a good idea to clean all the contacts with a pencil eraser followed by a spritz of alcohol to degrease them before reassembling. An Exacto knife with a dull blade is handy for prying the switch apart; instead of soldering it right back into the circuit, hook up an ohmmeter to test it first and check for the absence of contact resistance. Unfortunately the 2 solder terminals kind of float a little bit inside the switch body, and the wires tend to push or pull on the terminals, making the mechanical alignment a little different each time you activate the switch.
Good advice, I definitely should’ve cleaned the contacts. I didn’t think of it. What you say about the wires makes complete sense. If they’re loose and able to move in the case at all they are gonna tug on the ends of the terminals, and that could definitely cause the flickering that I was seeing. Something to remember next time :) do you think I was right about how the switch worked? With regards to how the teeth spin the internal part, so it in sits on top and then falls back into the grooves? It’s pretty clever in any case.
@@GerrysTech , The switches I've cleaned were in a similar white nylon housing and came apart the same way, but the spinning gear teeth inside your switch was a little different from what I am used to seeing. Many of the LED flashlights I have are not strictly on/off, they usually have 3 to 5 modes (high, medium, low, Morse code SOS, and flashing red) and so each touch of the switch, even momentarily, causes the flashlight to switch modes because there's an IC in there that controls voltage to the LED's. I would prefer to have a separate rotary switch that selects the mode so that every time you turn it on it comes in on in your preferred mode and you don't have to cycle through 3 to 5 options to get the brightness level or mode that you want. In theory those units that use an IC for switching might actually be on all the time and drawing a very small amount of current from the batteries even though the LED isn't lit..... But anyway, if I have to take one apart I always clean them with a pencil eraser or perhaps a fiberglass bristle scratch brush. It is also worth noting that another major failure point, especially on any Flashlight that uses a cylindrical plastic holder to hold 3 AAA batteries is that the springs are often loosely crimped or held in place by bent metal fingers that hold the spring to a metal thrust plate, and those points always oxidize and become intermittent unless you solder them. Once you get even the slightest bit of battery leakage and corrosion on the crimped connections to those springs it's almost impossible to fix that connection so that it's reliable. I always solder the springs to the thrust plate in advance.