Troubleshooting Solarforce P60 host

I got a Solarforce L2P host for my M61 fairly recently. It's my nightstand light so I need it to be dead reliable. I wrapped the dropin in tinfoil to ensure contact, and from there it worked as expected.

This week I noticed something going awry.

The light went dead in my hands, and came back on when I tapped it. And then the day after I noticed and ever so slight flicker (dim and bright) while in use.

This leads me to suspect the switch? I haven't been able to replicate it again, but I'm not overly confident in it anymore and am wondering what I can do to pinpoint and fix the potential issue?

Dead reliable?

Choose another host, perhaps? The one and only SolarForce I owned had flickering issues too. The several Elzetta and Surefire ones don't...

A lot of people have successfully wrapped P60 type modules for Solarforce hosts, but it's something that needs to be done perfectly to ensure proper contact and heat sinking. My first suspicion would be the tin foil, but we can't rule out the switch. Both problems can be solved with a different host. I'd recommend a Malkoff host for your M61.

Have you used the larger spring that fits on the base of the drop in? This usually helps sort any contact issue .

By this i mean like

Look at the tailcap. The switch might be loose. Might just need to tighten the switch.

As Ven suggested, the spring is a likely culprit. I had an M60 in a SF L2P that was 100% reliable.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with solarforce hosts. Surefires don't take 18mm batteries and they're just a tube of aluminium so no quality difference except thickness dues to capabilities of 18mm cells.... Anyway it's probably a loose switch. Just use some snap ring pliers and tighten it down. Otherwise it needs a negative spring from another p60 drop in to make contact

Here's what worked for me...


An o-ring between the lens and module.
It pushes the module back towards the battery and creates a more reliable circuit than adding the big spring or stretching the middle one.
Malkoff sells a Scout head adapter ring that also works well.

No more intermient operation using this method.

I use a larger spring taken from a cheap-o (but kinda good) XP-G1 R5 drop-in to make proper contact with a Solarforce host. I have gotta find a place to order just the springs as want to make a beater Solarforce/malkoff setup for a M61WL.

It works perfectly in this Solarforce host.

All good ideas that have worked for me in the past. I'd suggest trying a known good drop-in to test the switch. You could also remove the switch and bridge the body to the negative end of the battery. If the switch is bad try tightening it.... I suspect the switch is good, but the contact between the Malkoff drop-in and the host is not reliably conducting electricity. You could also try some copper foil in the place of aluminum. Replacing/bending the spring is also a good idea.... You'll get it working. I've spent many an hour hunched over a light with the same problem.... Good luck!

I used the makoff dropins on solarforce hots along with the adapter ring that came with the sportac driopins.
it Works very well!


http://www.fstoplights.com/sportac-...-hosts-for-surefire-specific-sportac-modules/

Thanks for all the replies. Seems I was too quick in dismissing my tinfoil-wrap job as the culprit.

I'll go tinker with it a bit more and see what I can come up with, and report back.

Okay, thanks to you guys I pinpointed the culprit as the foil wrapping. Have upped it now and it seems to be resolved.