Percussive Maintenance of LED Flashlights

[Colt45ws]

This is a weird one.

I have a Maglite AA LED flashlight. Of course as the battery drains the light gets dimmer. Seems to be PWM based since if I point it at a fan or similar it gives a strobe effect. Something odd I have noticed is if the battery is low and I bang it against something, itll get brighter. Ive considered a bad connection, however it only occurs on low battery.
Any ideas?

 

[hate2work]

I've noticed something similar with the TV remote. If it stops working, I just take off the battery cover and spin the batteries, and it works again. I've always guessed that the connections have taken a "set" ( for lack of a better term that describes a slight bit of corrosion that impedes the flow of electricity ) and spinning the batteries breaks that set and it works again.

 

[mkIIIman089]

I had one of those with the exact same symptom, except for me it wasn't so much just getting brighter; it would appear to be totally dead, but when you give it a whack, it would come back to life.

No clue as to why it happens though...

 

[Papa Bear]

When I worked as an electronics tech, I found that a drop of WD-40 on a pencil eraser worked very well. Just rub the eraser over the contact area as if you were correcting a spelling mistake. The pencil also allowed you to get to battery contacts that weren't normally accessible, like in a digital camera compartment.
The WD-40 worked as well as most any contact cleaner and left a light coating on the metal that slowed down the tarnish in most cases.