Had an interesting observation tonite:
I just got a few more batteries from HL. I decided for some reason to check them in the hopper. But before doing so, checked the battery level in my UM20. They were all at least 97%. Fine.
So I screwed them in one at a time, and sonofabitch, one of the batteries (just one) wouldn't kick the hopper into any status. Dead. Take it out, check on the Nitecore, it says 97%. Put it back in, click it, and nothing!
Has this happened to anyone?!?
EDIT: Found out why... Looks like they may have some yield issues with the batteries, even if its only based on something as trivial as this! Guess which battery doesn't work?
Second thing:
- Whenever I install a battery in the TI, the lights turn on red briefly as the backend makes contact with the battery. This doesn't happen on the SS.
While trying to get the hopper to show some lights with the weirdly dead battery, I clicked on and off several times, losing track of which "position" is ON versus OFF, since the hopper was showing no sign of life. And then I thought, maybe it doesn't matter, but what I didn't want happening would be akin to replacing a lightbulb in a live socket, you know?
So I unscrewed the backend, took out the weird battery, and replaced it with a known good battery.
As I was beginning to screw in the backend, lining up the threads, etc, the hopper's red lights started flashing continuously. I got nervous after about 3 seconds and, rather than continue screwing (and I couldn't get leverage on the clicker to alternate its state mid-screwing) I reversed what I was doing and separated the two pieces again. Then I clicked the backend piece by itself, presumably setting the switch to its OFF position, and then screwed it together with no more flashing.
ONE other time in the past, I replaced a battery and, certain that the switch was in the OFF position, saw the brief red flash you describe, Green. It never happened again.
FWIW