Astrolux FT03 SST40 problem with decreasing power after few seconds

Ok, I did another test …

Flashlight with battery cooled in the fridge for over an hour. It had about 5-7 degrees. Turn it on, after 8 seconds it reduced the brightness … Well, I think battery too cold. I replace it with a charged one and at room temperature. The flashlight after 8 seconds reduces the brightness again…

I put the cold battery back in and turn on the flashlight. Guess how much time it worked in turbo mode … 25 minutes! Finally, I got bored and turned it off. It warmed up just to warm the hand well, but not to burn. And here I am very surprised. Battery already had 3.1V, so I puted a new one and there was no brightness difference. During these 25 minutes flashlight reduced the brightness just a little, if any…

And now I completely understand nothing. Because this length of time contradicts everything. Like if it did not work on real TURBO mode. But it’s impossible. It has an incomparably greater range than the Convoy C8 XPL HI.

Have you tried disabling the thermal stepdown mentioned by BaronVonEissler? I suggest to set that first, just to rule out other issues…

Then also check the contact points (battery tube, the springs). See if anything is loose.

I’ve just taken delivery of an FT03 XHP50.2 torch today, & it exhibits a similar problem,
when selecting turbo (double click) it runs for 5/6 seconds, flashes 3 times & steps down, the torch is cold to the touch.
I am using a 26650 battery from my Rofis MR70 fully charged.

Being totally new to this, I don’t understand how to use the config settings yet.

Finally.

I made a video about the problem and sent it to BG as a “dispute” or smth. They told me that it shouldn’t decrease power like this after just few seconds. They sent me a new one, that has not this problem anymore. I’m happy.

ADD INFO: Both flashlights DO NOT decrease power from turbo mode at all. I mean like after 3 minutes, because of hot. No, NOTHING. I tested both for about 10 minutes. It’s ok for me.

Dzien dobry!!!

I actually just received an FT03 that experienced similar problems. I found that the head side O-Ring seemed to have a “too fat” OD and became shredded into very fine bits and globbed up in there. Upon removing the head-side O-Ring and cleaning/re-greasing the threads it has performed flawlessly! Worth a shot?

in my case it stepped down within 20 seconds, removing the thermal stepdown solved this issue.

I can’t be too sure if it might be the reason. But I understand that the 26650 battery from Rofis MR70 is a protected battery.
When the FT03 XHP50.2 is set to Turbo mode, it can consume more power than the over-current protection of the Rofis MR70 26650 battery.

I have tested a protected 26650 from a different flashlight on the FT03 XHP50.2 and when I set to Turbo mode, it will flash and then shut down (overcurrent protection).

Been in touch with Bangood & sent a video as requested, but in the meantime I have ordered another battery to try, a GOLISI S43 26650 4300mAh 35A, will give another try when it arrives.

When first inserting the Rofis battery, sometimes the moonlight can be switched on, but no ramping, but if you loosen the head the light will ramp, it’s a bit intermittent.

thanks for the tip.

Test/review of Golisi IMR26650 4300mAh (Gold) HKJ

Golisi S43 arrived, (from witcheliquid_co_uk) eBay,
bar code checked out as genuine,
charged it & inserted it into FT03,
hey presto the FT03 worked fine,
must be something about the Rofis protected battery that the FT03 didn’t like.

Happy with the light now.

yes makes sense, the xhp50.2 u dont want a protected battery really.

Just having a little more play with the FT03 today, &

I found if I loosened the head off by 1/2 a turn the light worked fine with the Rofis 26650 ??

If I loosened the tail cap off instead of the head, it made no difference, even stranger???

So the issue I have found is that batteries over 65mm seem to cause a problem by pressing hard on the driver board, but if you loose the tube at the head it releases the pressure (but maintains electrical contact through the treads).

When using a 21700 (70mm) I loosen off the head by a full turn. The protected battery will be about 70mm long and cause the same issue.

On a related note, I am having a custom 21700 sized battery tube made for the FT03 and if successful hope to offer a group buy for them, it will be longer than the standard tube and the inside reduced to fit a 21700 nicely.

none of my 26650 batteries feel too tight, light was designed to take 26650, protected might be a problem, 21700 on the other hand seem a bit too long i dont want the spring too much compressed when using those. most unprotected 26650 should fit just fine.

got SST40+ XHP50 for review

1st one work flawlessly

XHP50 works with the same problem, turned out that thermal sensor counted +20 degrees to real temperature. i tried to set thermal stepdown threshold manually, this doesnt helped.

so i turned it and things worked.

wasted so much time on test....

FT03 SST40/XHP50.2 version runs NarsilM, so there doesn’t seem to be a way to calibrate it if the temperature reading (3-clicks from Off followed by 2 clicks) is Off by a lot…
Did you mean you just used the “Temperature” setting but manually configured until the flashlight felt hot?

i know that i cannot calibrate it like i may do in Anduril.

i mean that i tried to set treshold manually, find temperature that was barely tolerable for hands. i set stepdown point on it. that didnt helped, as these +20 degrees still seemed to work.

so i just turned down stepdown and that helped. i simply feel when i have to decrease turbo )

I had the same problem!

Disable thermal stepdown, try if it still behaves like that afterwards.

Probably the temperature calibration is way off.
The light does stepdown because it thinks its too hot.

Regarding disabling stepdown in Narsil’s temperature control setting — would it be “safe” for the flashlight electronics (LED, driver) for the FT03 with SST40 (how about with the FT03 with XHP50.2) — I understand it might get too hot to hold when temperature control is disabled.