I just finished watching The_Flashaholic’s review in the original post of this thread.
My take on your review
- Good review. I really enjoy your video reviews and this one, while short, still showed off many features of the light. I hope you have a long future at BLF and continue doing reviews here.
- As others have mentioned, name-calling and personal insults are not helpful. First, they’re against the forum rules. Second, they detract from the message you’re trying to deliver. They make you seem biased. In this particular case It seemed very out-of-the-blue and uncalled for. Especially so for the handwritten note in your review that you posted before receiving any comments in this thread. I get that you were frustrated and disappointed upon receiving a defective light … as you should be. However, you should also realize that others who purchased this light might not have received defective copies and might be pleased with their light.
A bit of trouble-shooting on your light
- I do not believe that the problem you experienced with your light was because of your cells being too long for the light, because of the following:
- In a properly functioning FWAA, the LEDs should flash once the moment the battery tubes are screwed in enough to connect the battery. This occurs long before the tube is actually tightened enough for the switch-inner tube to make contact.
- However, this didn’t happen in your light. In yours, the light turned on at a low level the moment the tubes were connected enough to power the driver. And this low-level light stayed on no matter what you did with the light.
- With the 3rd battery you tried, the switch actually functioned. You demonstrated using it to turn up the light to higher power settings. For the switch to function at all means that both the inner and outer tube were pressed firmly enough against their respective pcbs to make connection. If the battery was too long, pressing the switch button would have done nothing.
Some possible causes of a light staying failing to turn off and staying in low power mode. I’ve had this same problem in lights I’ve modded. Two possible causes that could be the cause in your FWAA:
- Bad solder job between the LEDs and the star - too much solder might cause a short between one of the negative pads under an LED and the central heatsink pad. This would create a ground connection through the star, which could then travel through the screw that prevents the star from turning and into the head of the light, bypassing the driver. If the amount of solder bridging is minute there could be a lot of resistance in the connection resulting in the light staying on at a dim setting when it is supposed to be off. This can be fixed by reflowing the star and checking for excess solder.
- Bad 7135 chip - when 7135 regulator chips go bad they sometimes cause lights to stay on at very low settings when they should otherwise be completely off. This can be fixed by replacing the 7135 regulator chip.
In either event it means you got a defective light. That doesn’t bode well for Lumintop’s quality control. Hopefully they will get you fixed up with a replacement.