For those of you who may have purchased one of these (the orange and
gray cased one which Maplin are selling for £30), I have found there is
a problem when using several different types of AA cells. The unit can
seem to work intermitantly, when the trigger is pressed.

This is due to the +ve post on the cell not quite making full contact
with the positive terminal of the unit. Basically - the terminal has
part of the case plastic on either side of it forming a bit of a
shoulder (to prevent reverse polarity insertion of the cells) and if
the +ve post of the AA cell doesn't protrude from the cell enough, the
unit become appears to be intermitant in operation.

AA Pro-cells are one example which cause the problem along with the
cells actually included with the unit at purchase. I actually took one
back to Maplin, thinking the units PCB had become intermitant. Maplins
tried some new cells with the same result and replaced it with a new
item.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk