Interesting: NITECORE TIP Parasitic Drain Thread

If I have a fully charged TIP and I lock it out with no use whatsoever and 6 days later it is stone dead IT HAS A PROBLEM. It may have been dead at 4 or 5 days for all I know. But it DEFINITELY has a problem

I haven’t put it in lock out mode since full charged on Friday evening and so far it is fine. As long as it doesn’t come on accidentaly in my pocket I can live with it. But, lockout definitely has a PROBLEM.

OP, you’re not the only one complaining about this. One guy says “Can confirm. My TIP is dead in less than a week with no use and lockout on”

Reddit link to story

Bingo! Reddit has it pegged also. Something stinks at Nitecore.

Fact, at least on mine, and several other owners, the parasitic drain in lockout is much higher than when it’s in the standby mode from my limited test

I have no trouble believing this ‘Trevi lux’. :+1:
Three days, used little, sometimes locked out sometimes not. Battery still greater than 50%. (“3 blinkies”)
There are many variables in your report that makes it entirely believable.

  • Was it three whole days (72 hours) or just 49 hours or so?
  • How much is “used little”??
  • How much of the time was it actually in “Lock Out” and how much time was it not???

The above variables make it entirely believable that your report of battery still above 50…. is 100 accurate. :+1:

Just as the report below by ‘Streamer’ is entirely believable also.

  • Fully charged.
  • Locked out.
  • No use at all.
  • 6 days later… stone dead.

I mean “stone dead”, with zero use in Lock Out; is stone dead…. any way you slice the pie. :wink:


Nitecore TIP
Power Indication
Pressing the mode switch while the light is turned off to activate the built-in power
indicator, the number of flashes gives an approximation of battery level:
1… 3 flashes represent battery level above 50%.
2… 2 flashes represent battery level below 50%.
3… 1 flash represents battery level below 10%.

Somebody needs to take one apart, measure voltage when full and then again after a couple days in lockout. Or desolder the battery and measure the current draw, if it discharges within a week or less it has to consume around 2mA. Then we report this to Nitecore and everyone gets a free replacement with this problem fixed :slight_smile:

I’m still waiting for mine but I’m pretty sure this problem is on every single unit, sounds like a firmware bug rather than hardware defect.

So glad I have decided not to buy any Nitecore products anymore after checking their claim rails of D4 are made of “pure copper” yet no cope can be found there after my genuine D4 failed.
This type of light needs a long standby mode, there is only one smiley appropriate here :person_facepalming:

As I posted in another thread about this, it’s just super sloppy firmware writing. It’s trivial to have the same standby current in lockout as normal off. If they can’t figure out how to do that, they shouldn’t be putting MCU’s in their flashlights.

Nitecore wrote:

“The standby time for TIP in non-lockout mode is actually more than a year. The buttons have also been specially designed to prevent most accidental activation. The so called ”Lockout” function is only recommended to use when one requires absolutely no light output. However, the lockout is controlled by the microchip and consumes battery power. This reduces the standby time to no more than a week depending on the current battery level.“

Which implies Nitecore knows about this problem, and in fact was by design. Unbelievable. Especially when many are reporting the light turning on in their pockets in non-lockout mode.

If it was by design, as in intentional, they’ve got the most clueless people in the world writing firmware for them. The idea that the microcontroller has to stay awake while in lockout, but can only be put in a standby mode when off is laughable.

Totally agree, which leads me to believe they rushed the design, shoved it out the door knowing about it, and now issued the statement so people can’t return them. Had they stated this “design feature” on their website in the first place, nobody would have purchased them.

It’s not a bug it’s a feature! :person_facepalming:

Lol. truism… How hard would it have been to have a mechanical slider which kept the switch from being depressed? Especially if the “The standby time for TIP in non-lockout mode is actually more than a year”

I bet they still fix the “feature” on the next run of lights or make a v2 shortly.

They will fix this in the next gen TIPGT now with XP-L HI

Ok… you guys are NOT going to believe this… it is just plain STUPID!! No other word to describe this.

Got my Tip from AA today, ordered gray and got black, no big deal as it looks good to me. Turbo mode is impressive for this size and the light feels great overall. I like it. But that’s about it, because when I opened it up, unsoldered a battery lead and took measurements with my DMM, I got a nasty surprise.

Moonlight is nice and low as it should be… 4.34mA

But when you enter lockout… 6.49mA!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

Oh by the way… normal standby current draw? 0.00mA, so low my DMM doesn’t even read it. But I suppose it has to be around 0.1-0.5mA

Thank you for the Science Based info!:slight_smile:

So essentially, turning on lockout is like leaving the light turned on in moonlight mode nonstop? No wonder it’s dead after a few days.

Why are you complaining? That’s the new feature Nitecore was talking about! lol…Seriously, that’s completely unacceptable. I hope we all get replacements.

Nitecore site says the Tip can last up to 46 hours on Low of 1 lumen
Above photo shows 1 lumen draws 4.24mA
Lockout consumes 6.49mA, or 50% More than the Low mode, or as if the LED was producing 1.5 lumens of power drain.
Theoretically, Lockout should take 30 hours to drain the battery, but Ive seen reports of it lasting twice as long before going dead… :confounded: