Reed switches often have short unhappy lives

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

On Sun, 5 Aug 2007 20:38:47 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

(or anyone else familiar with IC circuits)

The LED flasher in my homemade MOB pole was scavenged from a bike light.
See first two pictures he

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/MOB.htm

I test it from time to time and it has started coming on as a steady light.
Sometime it will start flashing after about a minute. Usually if I turn it
off and back on again with the magnetic reed switch, it will start flashing.
Once flashing, it works properly until the next time.

Since these are LED's and the circuit board appeared to be all IC's, I don't
think this is the delay you sometimes see when mechanical flashers take a
few seconds to warm up.

The pole is probably just about as good with a steady light but I wouldn't
want a recovery confused by the light switching from steady to flashing. Of
more concern is the possibility that the circuit board is failing and the
light might not go on at all.

Any idea what could make a circuit like this act weird in this inconsistent
way? The reed switch is well separated from the circuit board so that isn't
a factor.

No chance of replacing these components. They were all embalmed in epoxy to
be sure water could never get in. I'll have to build a new pole section
next winter.