Flashlights unreliable in the datacenter?

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

My job requires me to go into datacenters from time to time. (For those unfamiliar with the term, these are basically warehouses for servers/computers/networking equipment.) An EDC style light is extremely useful in a place like this, as I often find myself fishing wires around in poor lighting.

I’ve tried two lights from my collection in the datacenter: a Convoy S2 and an Ultrafire wf-502b. Both lights work just fine around the house. But in the datacenter, they are unpredictable to the point of being almost worthless. In particular, they tend to act like they are on low battery, either automatically jumping down to a lower power mode, blinking periodically, or just shutting off.

Take the same light out of the datacenter, and the battery tests fine, and the light works as expected.

The only thing I can figure is the environment has a lot of EMI/EMF that is causing problems for the light. Anyone ever experience anything like this? If so, is there a solution?

2

Try a direct drive flashlight and see if that works.
If it doesn’t work well, it could be a li-ion battery issue???

Just guessing here…

3

Wow. Never heard of this problem.

Does sound like electromagnetic radiation is messing it up. Previous poster’s suggestion to try them on direct drive is a good one. Direct drive bypasses the driver electronics. That said, I suppose the LED itself and possibly the li-ion battery might also be affected.

There are probably EMF shielded flashlights available, but I don’t know where to get them. Might be an expensive specialty item.

Alternatively, you could build a Faraday cage around your flashlights. But that might make them very awkward to carry and use.

4

interesting… I’ll have to give that a try w/ my 502b.

5

If the EMF is strong enough to affect his flashlights, the torch isn’t the only thing I’d be building a faraday cage around…. :zipper_mouth_face:

I think a DD light is a good idea to try as well. Pop the 502’s pill open and just direct drive it. Scavenge a SMD resistor from another light [or buy one] and wire it inline to limit current to about an amp.

6

Could be messing with the voltage monitoring- wow weird. :stuck_out_tongue: The voltage is monitored through the mcu so direct drive won’t matter. But if you have a light that has no monitoring- you could try that and see if it works. Sounds funky though. Maybe something is causing the voltage to sag like your saying or EMP in the datacenter!

nm reading above post- yeah that would do it!

7

Seems like if your flashlights are having issued due to EMI/EMF, the DC would be having even bigger probs. That being said, the Soviets supposedly avoided transistors (favoring tubes) for decades about similar potential concerns. As advised above, maybe try having several direct drive AAA lights with different efficiencies or charge levels for different situations for starters.

Welcome to the forum and best wishes on solving the issue. Please keep up posted as this is interesting.

8

I had almost exactly the same problem, except I built my own “S2” as well as the P60 pills in my former-EDC 501b’s. Same symptoms, though; jumping to Low & giving the occasional “Low-Battery” blink & refusing to stay in Med or High (Nanjg-105c, 2.8A old style, 3-mode).

Worse, it began to be continued more-and-more outside the datacenters, IDFs, MDFs, AC (“Mains” across the pond) closets, etc., where I work, making troubleshooting a lot more difficult.

One thing I noticed was, a fresh battery would cure it temporarily, even though the “old” battery measured 4.xx volts during the failure!!

I also noticed that violently shaking them (i.e. slamming them against my hand in frustration) made them change modes & would actually make them “work right” briefly. I thought the weak tailcap springs might be the Root Cause, so I stretched them significantly & vowed to add 2nd springs in them to strengthen them, as soon as such a spring could be found. No joy.

Insight came when I killed my pet EDC, a yellow-camo 501b, which I made a habit of turning on & tossing it to the floor to show off my handiwork (and to hasten the demise of the worthless camo paint). It survived all the throwdowns but began failing as described. Since the cheap camo flaked off just from looking at it, this led me to EDC the “S2” clone, which turned out to be easier to carry & with the 2.8A driver, just as useful on the job, especially with a Momentary-On switch. And the 21mm OP reflector & plain glass lens made the same butt-ugly Cree-rainbow beam.

I pretty-much stopped EDC-ing my 501b, when I put the 60° Optics in my “S2” clones. FWIW, I love the even colored beam and the broad flood.

But the same thing fixed both.

While installing the Optic, I took the pill out & noticed the driver board had wee cracks where the solder bridges were supposed to connect it to Frame Ground. Sure enough, the 501b pill had cracks on the solder bridges as well.

When I smeared fresh solder over the bridges, re-establishing the Frame Ground connections, the problem went away.

I’m now on a jihad to resolder all grounding points on all the lights I own, as time and need dictates.

And committing to making better ground bridges on any new pills I build!!

So far, so good…

Dim

9

who needs shields and cages when a led lenser
can solve that problem? nyahahahaha!
by the way, are incan lights emp
proof? you can also use that with an eneloop.
incans are good for wires because of 100 cri

10

If there are so much interference inside the data centrethat flashlights are showing problems, then I would suggest that could be an indication that you have some equipment that really should be replaced or at least better shielded/enclosed, inside the data centre, to not cause problems with other equipment and consume unnecessary power and produce extra heat.

That said, you might try a Convoy S7, or some other flashlight made from stainless steel. The steel might work as a shield against whatever it is that is interfering with the other flashlights.

11

if there is that much emi/rfi in there that it messes up a flashlight then maybe you shouldnt be in there either.
none of mine act up in the near field of my 1.5kw hf transmitter or my 1kw vhf .
i even remember a test of an arc-aaa in a microwave that was uneffected.

12

Dimbo, “S2” clone? Where do you get them?

13

interesting, I am in and out of data center’s all day long and never had an issue with my light or my head lamp.

14

Maybe he should stick a chocolate bar in his pocket

15

Some suggestions-

  • Beef up all GND and other solder points with MINIMUM 4% silver bearing solder
  • AR lens. Look at the issues they had with that Bluetooth programmable ZY-T08 (whatever it was called), they had to switch to a thin plain glass lens to allow the BT signal to pas, AR does a good job blocking RF/EMI
  • line the inside of the tail cap boot with foil, even better silver or even lead foil.
  • do not dedome, use some intact emitters.

If all those fail

  • get some of that Al foil duct tape (the kind for HVAC) and tape the joints in the body

flashlight bodies are pretty much faraday cages anyway, these few changed should make the lights completely EMI proof, I honestly believe this should fix you up, no reason to give up modes/runtime converting to DD

16

I know there are stuff like mobile phone jammer to block cellphone in some places (opera?). Now we can come out with the “flashlight jammer” to prohibit people from using their flashlight for whatever reason it is. :bigsmile:

17

Dimbo The Blinky sounds like the voice of experience here. I don’t personally work in a DC, but a friend who works in a large DC regularly uses his Solarforce w/ Nanjg 105c dropin - no problems.

18

1. Taiwanese ghosts observers/recognition team members reported that only SureFire flashlights would function properly after reaching the suspected site, budget units from Mainland China shuts down automatically.

2. Anyone comes across likely UFO encounters would find electrical/electronic home appliances (HiFi, ovens, TVs, & computers etc) fail shortly.

3.My brother, a retired police officer, found his pre-LED incandescent torch shuts down when climbing inside ancient tombs populated around rural areas in Hong Kong. Strange was the torch functioned flawlessly when he was out the tomb.

19

The first was one of these 118mm x 23.5mm “Jaws Light” flashlights:

about the time of these threads, which was so underwhelming I barely got one battery through it then left it in a drawer for almost a year.

The 3C (or 3D?) XM-L and 2.8A Nanjg-105c upgrade made it very interesting; so, unable to find another, I bought this one:

https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002463/1198400-18650-diy-edc-led-flashlight-host-with-switch-refl

to build from scratch, at 115mm x 23.5mm. The threads are different, of course, so no “Lego”; and I like the second one better since it’s available, shorter and doesn’t have a friggin FISH silk-screened on it.

And as you can tell, they’re not truly “clones”, but merely the same roll-of-coins form factor as the S2, “and that’s close enough to perfect for me”… They’re closer to the S5, TBH, but I don’t see enough difference in the whole lot to be worth arguing over.

They both still had the ugly Cree color rings. Since the only “budget” TIRs I could find were 21mm, and this guy:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5PCS-x-60-Degree-21mm-Reflector-Collimator-LED-Lens-For-Cree-XML-XM-L-LED-/221175825976?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337f1b4638
listed them at 0.99, I popped on a set & installed them.

It’s not for “throw”, as I could throw one farther than it can throw light, but the beam is broad, all-white and awesome!! The 2.8A mode gets them quite hot, and that right soon, but they’re easy enough to step down to Medium, which is still quite bright.

Hope This Helps…

Dim

20

If I may be pardoned for one last nearly-OT ramble…

A friend of mine was a radio-dispatched HVAC repairman (no, he was not named Buttle nor Tuttle), & we “upgraded” his van radio… I think the statute of limitations has expired so I don’t have to worry about “Uncle Charlie” coming after me…

We tweaked him up to the point his rig would heterodyne the TV in the house! When he’d pull into the driveway for a visit, he wouldn’t ring the bell, he’d key up & holler “I’m here!”

Okay, that’s OT, but here’s where we get back on track:

We zip-stripped a fluorescent tube to his ladder rack and whenever he keyed up, the tube would light up & flicker to his modulation! THAT was awesome to see going down the road!

You could do that. Take a bare fluorescent tube into your transmitter room or put one (or six) on your tower somewhere for some real laughs. It’s not like you’re stealing power or anything, so you won’t hurt your coverage. You’re just using a natural side effect for … uh … keeping bats safe at night!! Yeah, that’s it. Bat safety!

At least it’s light-related, if inexcusably OT…

Thanks for the reminiscence…

Dim