Whats Wrong

[jedipadawan777]

I have got the LED to turn on some of the time, but its very inconsistent. Is the wiring correct?

[Tom Starkiller]

A picture of the wiring would probably help out here.

[jedipadawan777]

here it is

[jedipadawan777]

the pic won't show up ill try again

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

The wires twisted together and held with tape is your most likely culprit. Are you just testing it, or is this for keeps? You should solder your joints, and use shrink tubing on them. Tape has a tendency to slide around, and you might get bare wires hitting the inside of your hilt.

Also, you should clip off and insulate the yellow and gray wires too.

Other than that, everything looks to be in the right order.

[Lord Dottore Matto]

ODKG is right, solder those connections and it should work correctly assuming that your puck, switch and LED are all functional. [and trim those spare wires. COVER THE TIPS WITH HEATSHRINK (oops allcaps was an accident!)]. :p

[Logan Cade]

The basic wiring layout looks correct.

I’d like to see close-ups of your solder points at the LED and what’s under the black tape.

Stupid question time:

Are you using a latching or momentary switch?

What’s your battery voltage?…..can’t see the battery really well, is that just (2) 1.5 volt batteries?

[Lord Dottore Matto]

The basic wiring layout looks correct.

I’d like to see close-ups of your solder points at the LED and what’s under the black tape.

Stupid question time:

Are you using a latching or momentary switch?

What’s your battery voltage?…..can’t see the battery really well, is that just (2) 1.5 volt batteries?
By golly Logan Cade, you just may have it...is that only 3V???

How is the soldering at the LED terminus (where the wires attach to the LED)? Take a close up pix for us to see!!!!!

[jedipadawan777]

it is a 1.5v is that ok

[jedipadawan777]

heres some more

[jedipadawan777]

another

[Logan Cade]

You need a minimum of 5 volts to run an LED with a buck puck and that will equal to (4) 1.5 volt batteries run in series = 6 volts.

From what I can tell from the picture, I believe that battery holder only holds 2 batteries so you’re going to have to start there and get the proper battery holder and additional batteries.

If everything else is good, that should fix your problem.

Also, you might want to re-solder your LED. It looks like the wires are right next to each other on the star. While this will work, if you look at your heatsink, you have vertical grooves running down it 180 degrees from one another. This is where you want to run your wiring down on the heatsink, so soldering your wires on the star 180 degrees from one another allows you to use the heatsink the way it designed.

[Strydur]

Its a 4aa battery holder.

Make sure the yellow and grey wire are not touching/do not touch. Put some tape over each of them and see how it works then.

[jedipadawan777]

now it works every time, but only when I tap the led light. I don't wanna pay for another lux 3 kit, but Im afraid that I will have to because I already soldered the wires to the led. Any suggestions?

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

Did you get a momentary switch? Is it only lit when you are holding the switch in, and turns off when you let go?

If that's the case, you simply need to replace the switch with a latching one.

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you are saying, and you have an intermittent contact in the switch. I had one of the switches from here do that. Try removing the switch from the system, and putting the wires together securely. If the LED comes on and stays on steady, that's the problem.

[jedipadawan777]

When I put it in the blade holder, it lit up! It just had to be at an angle and the heatsinking and extra soldering helped too:) Thanks guys! Last question should I just place the connected lens and lens holder on the led or should I glue it?

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

Sounds like you still have an intermittent contact somewhere. Check that the wires aren't touching the metal heat sink near where they attach to the LED. If there is a bit of bare wire there, it could touch the metal and short out.

As for the lens assembly, it just sits on the LED, and is held in place by butting up to the lip in the blade holder. No glue needed.

[Lord Dottore Matto]

Yeah, be sure to check that there are no cuts in the wires (sometimes one gets smashed and the coating gets cut, so in essence there is an exposed wire that shorts when it touches metal. (look carefully the cuts can be small)