Astrolux EC01 drains 80mA while off, killing the battery

Hello to all,

my EC01 kept discharging the battery (Molicel P42A) down to 0.3V even if I did not touch the flashlight for a couple of days. I blamed the cell and was about to buy a new one.

Today I found out that the flashlight drains 60-90 mA from the battery while its off with the button backlight being off as well. I tried my father’s EC01 with the same cell and it drains less than 1mA so it an issue with the flashlight.
The flashlight is useless now because it won’t let me charge the cell if it is so deeply discharged, damaging the cell as well.

Does any of have an idea how to repair the flashlight? I bought 5 of them for my family and this is the only one with such an issue.

Thank you very much, Ondrej

There have been some lights not necessarily this one where the led stays on super low thus draining the battery. Can you check if the led is on in the dark? Even a little. I think you will have to look very carefully.

If that is not the case, it may be the switch.

Can’t really tell you how to fix it.

It may also be a faulty battery.

Thank you.

The LED is 100% totally off.

I’ve tried two other cells with the same result. I will try to take the flashlight apart - 90mA is quite a lot, something has to heat up inside…

I have experienced the same problem with my FT03, i replaced the driver (I ordered another driver from AE after contacting mateminco)
The FT02 is known for this issue as well.

So I took it apart but I cannot locate a part that heats up. Something is still consuming 100mA, even with the main LED disconnected. Will give it a rinse in isopropyl tomorrow to see if it helps.

Curious if you have measured the current with the lighted switch on?

80 ma would be very visible if it were going through the LED
that is a LOT of ‘off current’
something is wrong with the driver

Yeah I’m wondering where it’s going. Some sort of very high resistance bridge to ground, like stray flux residue or something? I have really no idea - but was going to suggest cleaning the driver also.

Shame. They’re using Attiny85s with NarsilM or anduril on all those lights, which are typically great setups for minimal standby drain. Something definitely wrong with it.

If all else fails you’ll need a new driver.

The isopropyl bath did not help :frowning:

Yes, I tried to measure the current with the light switched on, don’t remember the value but the multimeter works if it is what you’re asking :slight_smile:

Don’t know what to try now. How about supplying more volts so that more current passes and some part (hopefully) heats up? How much can it handle? 4.5V? or more?

Isopropyl is rarely a solution to what is most likely an electrical problem. You can try taking it apart and putting it back together. Other that, you can consider getting a new one and leaving that one for parts.
Since you bought multiple units, spare parts can only be viewed as an asset.

The idea was that some water might got inside and form a bridge or something on the driver. Of course I rinsed the driver itself, not the whole flashlight.

I will have to buy a new driver somewhere :confused: