Rapido Passenger Coach Lighting Wand

[D&J RailRoad]

I recently bought a few Rapido passenger coaches that have the interior lighting. Each one came with a "wand" to turn the lights on and off.
None of them respond to the wand. Instructions say nothing about installing batteries before use, just that Rapido is the only source of replacement batteries or you'll burn up your model. Before I open them up to find the problem, is there a particular way the wand must be waved over the car? Instructions say to wave it over the AC hatch. Yeah, OK. Does that mean one slow pass, one fast pass, multiple passes at various speeds, twirl the wand over the car or what? There are no YouTube videos illustrating just how this is supposed to be done.

 

[Rico]

Mine are kind of hit and miss, are you standing on one foot with a coat hanger in your left hand pointing towards a return heating duct?
I just tap the wand lightly over the hatch usually.
I think I had to install batteries on a couple of mine, theres always the possibility the batteries are installed but dead too.

 

[BigGRacing]

My buddy is hit and miss with his as well

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Yeah, tried the coat hanger, but it was a plastic one so it might not have the same effect.
Rapido doesn't list the batteries on their web site. The manual cautions against using anything other than the Rapido battery as sever damage may occur if something else is used. I don't think I would try my car battery on it but then, the battery is labeled LR41 which is a common battery sold by Batteries Plus. I think I might go rogue and buy a few from the Batteries Plus store in town rather than wait a couple months for Rapido to send em.