Skilhunt M150 Lock-Out Function Current Draw?

I recently bought a Skilhunt M150, nice little light. I set it to “Lock-Out” mode which flashes the red LED (1Hz) for locating in the dark, and put the flashlight on my nightstand, battery fully charged (800mAh). After several nights I noticed the LED had stopped flashing and the 14650 battery was discharged to 3.0v.

So it appears the current draw during Lock-Out is too high to use this mode for an extended time.
Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this or is able to measure current during Lock-Out?

This is a lamp malfunction, contact the manufacturer for repair. I have an M200, and it can be in this mode for a very long time. Even with the fact that the battery in the M150 is less capacious, this still should not be the case.

I would also check if the battery has self-discharge.

Yes, good idea, I’m starting to suspect that too.

If I remove the battery and power the light from USB, there is no measurable USB current draw in Lock-Out mode.

I am testing mine.
It is charged up to 3.68V, locked and with the beacon blinking.
I will check it tomorrow.

And then I will make the same without the lock up (blinking or not) activated. I have a feeling that this light, as my On The Road M3 Pro have a very high parasitic drain.

How do you test, by measuring change in battery capacity after 24 hours? I could also test that way with my MC3000 charger.

Thanks for your help.

Yes, I will do that !
I have a multimeter, but I am not that good at using it, so I will check the battery drain on the charger!

Only a few hours and the battery is not on 3.65V….
I will suspend the blinking now and check again when I wake up to see how’s the drain!

Some raw data: after all these hours with the flashlight locked but without blinking, I opened it and took the battery out and the voltage is still on 3.65V.

So… the blinking led has some draw at least in mine. Maybe yours behave the same way…

I normally don’t use the indicator led, but from now on I will be even more strict about that.

Another 10 hours passed, lockout enabled without led functioning and the voltage is still at 3.65V ! :+1:

I have some measured data now on current draw in Lock-Out mode, approximately 19mA.

I took a known good, fully charged Eneloop AA 2000mAh cell and ran it to depletion in Lock-Out mode. At approximately 108 hours the red LED stopped flashing and the cell read 1.09v when removed from the light.

I then fully charged it on an MC3000 charger to 1.45v and 2042mAh capacity. So 2042mAh/108h ≅ 19mA.

I didn’t test with a 14500 but the run time was about the same as the Eneloop.
Looks like Lock-Out mode is only useful for a day or two, not good for leaving the light locked out on a night stand.

Just read this thread and decided to do some measurements on mine.

Mine is a Skilhunt M150 with XP-L2 cool-white LED.

I used a Vapcell Gold 1000mAh 14500 in the flashlight when I did this measurement.

The 14500 battery voltage is 3.90v.

My multimeter for measuring mA and uA is probably not that accurate (Mastech brand), but here are my results:

  • when Not Locked-out: 13uA (13 microamps) standby drain (I've placed my 14500 inside the M150 for a few weeks now and the battery is still good)
  • when in Locked-out mode: 4mA (4 milliamps) pulsing to 7.6mA (when the indicator is blinking blue) (I haven't really tried lock-out mode until now..)

comment: 4mA (to 7.6mA pulse) seems to be high parasitic drain for lockout mode...

I have literally just noticed this with mine. Off to test the voltage now