“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.
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”
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
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:
this is actually Very Good Info!
I was wondering exactly that, whether the exposed buttons on the Tip were stiff enough to prevent premature activation…
Since There IS No Lockout…
That’s some good, (bad :person_facepalming: ); info will34! Your descriptive word pretty well sums it up too. :+1:
Reckon what they were thinking when they did that … Never mind, they weren’t thinking obviously……
I have a DMM just like yours too.
I read at other places where some TIP users said it turned on erroneously numerous times for them. But I don’t know if they were fumbling with it or what. Mine is on my keychain EDC…so far (6 days) it’s been 100%.
I measured 6.49mA for a solid 20 seconds, does it drop after a while? probably, it was tricky to mantain the DMM lead steady in that position. Maybe I’ll take it apart once more and solder wires for a longer measurement.
If I had to guess, it could have been them trying to rush the TIP to market, so proper and thorough testing wasn’t done. I remember there was confusion early on about the TIP CRI, whether it came in just one color temperature or two. It also could have been someone making a last second design change to the circuitry or whatever thinking it wouldn’t introduce any problems, so no thorough testing was done again.
But yeah, someone wasn’t thinking at Nitecore - they took a shortcut somewhere and ended up with a messed up lockout mode.