The lid safety switch failed, in the on position!
I had to disassemble the whole thing, without touching its touch sensitive activator thing or the electrodes, to desolder the negative battery wire.
Yes the thing was live the whole time, I got damn lucky I didn’t electrocute and burn the shit out of myself in the process!
I’ll be keeping the metal case and screws and pins in a separate bag and keep everything put up in a box for a rainy day repair, when/if ever I find a proper replacement button.
My mom had bought this for me as a 2023 Christmas present. I’ve already had to do maintenance, cleaning and repairs on it over 20 times since I got it, and they highly recommend you don’t ever open them up, exactly because of the risk of electrocution.
Generally it is actually safe to disassemble, as long as you don’t open the lid while servicing. But this was different, the lid safety switch got stuck on…
Sigh, it’s been a good run, it’s lasted me about 21 months, but I guess I’ll be going back to good old fashioned Bic lighters. ☹️
I can understand why the picture is blurry; you were shaking still from dissecting a live lighter!
LOL, you’re not exactly wrong, but my camera on my tablet sucks ass
I got one from a survival camping store and it claims to work while fully submerged in water, but I don’t want to test it. I’m pretty sure that claim is BS considering it’s an arc of electricity. Not that I could ever see why you’d need to start a fire underwater in the first place. 🤷♂️
Not that I could ever see why you’d need to start a fire underwater in the first place. 🤷♂️
Whoah, really? They claim underwater?
Shit, I’d totally test that shit, on video as safely as possible, for science! And also possible proof for a lawsuit or three somewhere out there.
I ain’t buying that waterproof shit at all. The best these lighters have going for them is they’re like halfway windproof.
Fixed it!
The board needed a good rubbing alcohol bath anyways, plus a couple other touchups…
Man these things are about a pain in the ass, even being experienced in electronic repair. I figure the average person would have just thrown it away after like 2 months when it first starts acting up and needs cleaning.
Sad to say, my lighter may as well be e-waste for the average person. Glad I’ve kept mine working this long. Wish me three more months use so it’ll at least make it past the 2 year line…
RIP
Rest In Parts, for now at least.
I don’t give up that easily though, I’ll get back to it and fix it again, when/if I get a good chance…
Love that attitude (and acronym).
Haha, I just fixed it, again!..
Yeah, apparently all I had to do was soak the board in rubbing alcohol, clean it and agitate the button a bit.
Well, plus some more unexpected resoldering, insulating a spot that really needed insulation from the factory but didn’t have it, and patching a burnt electrode.
Yes it’s slowly dying, it might only have 6 more months at this rate if I’m lucky, I can’t keep fixing it forever…
But for today, success!
That’s awesome. Thanks for the update. Keep us posted in 6 mo.
I’ll go ahead and give you the day after update…
After realizing that a potential failure mode is that it can get stuck in the ON mode, I redesigned some of the internals a bit, so now it’s easy to disassemble, no screws or pins anymore.
It clips together now, firmly enough for everyday carry and use, but easy enough to single handedly disassemble in less than a second, plus I added an emergency pull/snatch tab for the battery.
Like hell, even though the emergency pull tab thing will destroy the board if I ever need to actually pull it, I’d rather be safe than sorry, should this thing ever get stuck in the ON condition again when I’m not home with tools available.
I did also have to add a little Kapton tape between a couple electrodes, but as of right now it’s working almost like new again.
Just with an emergency kill option now. Hope I don’t have to use that though…
I envy your ability. There are some things I like to take apart and try to repair but don’t think this would have been one I would attempted.
Until maybe now.
If you consider trying to service such a thing, be very careful, I really don’t recommend anyone to even attempt to service a high voltage device like this without quite a bit of past experience.
I’ll go ahead and drop this link here though…
deleted by creator
Why didn’t you just let it run out of juice to reduce the risks?
You can’t run those things continuously, it’ll get way too hot and melt the electrode wires.
Now that it’s safe and disabled, later on I might try soaking the board in rubbing alcohol, cleaning it, and agitating the button a bit.
It’s probably just as simple as nicotine residue buildup inside the button.
Might be good [email protected] material.
Great rec.
Edit:
(but as always this post is still welcome here)
