Mateminco MT35 miniS Osram NM1 red, 4110uA !!! parasitic drain

Contacted the aliexpress Mateminco official shop yesterday, where I bought it. No reply so far.

I don't have luck with Mateminco so far, I bought Mateminco MTY1 and the glass was rattling, if you shook the flashlight,
I fixed it. Had to flip the glass to the other side. And added some silicone grease to the o-ring between glass and reflector, after it stopped rattling, with flipped glass to the other side. I think the glass is different on one side. But again, the idea to screw the aluminium bezel directly to the glass, without an o-ring is just horrible. That shouldn't have got through a QC. How do I guess that the glass was on the wrong side, directly from manufacturer, and that it make a difference? I have a 0% faith in that water seal, going to buy some oring's, and try my luck with it.

But then again, bught 2 x Astrolux EC01, and 1 x hl01, and no problem with those.

This thread may help

The high parastic drain issue for the Astrolux FT03-Mini (which is the exact same flashlight as the Mateminco MT35-Mini-S) with Osram NM1 LED has been noted in some other thread before.

Note that this applies only to (all) the FT03-Mini with Osram NM1 LED (any color), likely due to the driver.

The FT03-Mini with SST40 and XHP50.2 use Anduril do not have this high parasitic drain (unless it’s a defect).

The EA01 also (with anduril) . Ft02 also. I think it had something to do with a leaky component in the charge circuit.



https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/63483?page=2

ehh, little 18650 killers.
MATEMINCO is not responding so far.

The MTY1 have around 90µA of parasitic drain (the one that I got), so it's good there.
HL01 is 78µA on low, and EC01 is 88µA on low, so it's good there too.
Sad I didn't reed about the Astrolux FT03-Mini, now i have 40$ paperweight, instead of flashlight.
Did somebody tried desoldering USB components or something?

Will have to make a thread about that MTY1 water seal, it's so bad.
Last MATEMINCO flashlights for me.

got reply from mateminco
"if the standby current is very high, you should unscrew it or not putting a battery inside if not using it

the switch LED of MT35mini-S NM1 can't be turned off"

no desire to fix it from them.

Pay Pal dispute next

In warranty? Return it.

If not, and this is a bit sneaky, so don’t anyone dogpile on me for it, but someone I know bought a box-store light (“popular” brand like Coast or LEDlenser or something like that), and asked me why it killed the batteries so fast. Same dealy, lots of parasitic drain. Never noticed the problem before because he actually used the light and would just top off every so often, before it would run down the cell to vapors.

No idea of the brand or if the problem is endemic or a one-off, so I couldn’t really suggest anything than to try to return it.

Nope, something like a week after the return-date printed on the receipt. Talk about lousy timing…

So he went back to the store, bought an identical light, swapped old/new right there in the parking lot, and returned the old one in the new box as “defective”. New one didn’t have that problem, so it was probably a one-off, or he just lucked out.

Tough kind of problem to check, as it’s not immediately apparent (DOA, “turbo doesn’t work”, shuts off after 2min, etc.), as this kind of problem only shows up after a few weeks of sitting unattended.

Sneaky? Yeah, but unless you check each light with a meter to determine parasitic drain (he’s not a tekky and doesn’t have a meter), you won’t discover any problem until you take it out of a drawer or closet and it’s totally dead. But the problem was there from day 1. So it’s a decision you have to make whether/not it’s “ethical” to do that.

“Doc, it hurts when I do this!”

“So don’t do that.”

Wow. That’s… bad.

Will just do a dispute on aliexpress (I didn't use Pay Pal to pay), bought it in China on their official store on aliexpress. The return package with tracking will cost me more than the flashlight. Because I have to use DHL or other courier service.

Yeah, they might offer you 5bux to make you go away. :weary:

Credit card dispute then.

It looks as the buyer protection expired a while ago (got this light on 27 may), but on aliexpress chat I presented that situation, and got something like "courtesy refund", that will be reviewed in one day.
We will se how it will go, well I got diamond aliexpress membership, so that probably helped me.

Well that was fast
"We are sincerely sorry for your unpleasant shopping experience on our platform. Now we have refunded 140.72PLN to you regarding of your order xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Normally you will receive the refund in 3-20 business days. Please check your account or contact with your bank to confirm the refund status."

Will confirm if/when I get the money back


It was normal bank transfer, so can't use it either

Why do you do it that way?

Definitely. That’d be nice if they’d do that.

:smiley:

They probably feel they better keep anyone happy that links their bank account.

Well that was fast, a little over 10 hours from ali chat, and the money was posted on my bank account by PayU

It's a shame that it's not mateminco, but aliexpress money. Hope they will charge them, or something.


I don't have my bank account linked to the aliexpress. I just use normal fast transfers as przelewy24, or payU.
I try not to use credit card for international shopping, because the exchange rate is usually worse on aliexpress, than on przelewy24, or payU. And If I make a mistake, and pay in dolars, then it's exchange 2 times, first to EURO, then to PLN. Not to mention exchange rate of my credit card, that is just garbage.
Once paid corsair to express exchange the keyboard around 170$, they give it back, but lost around 28$ on exchange rate from PLN to EUR to USD, and back from USB to EURO to PLN.

Do you get buyer protections doing it that way? I usually can find a card without transfer fee to link to Pay Pal.

There is one simple fix. Unscrew the tail cap a fraction of a turn until the illuminated side switch goes out. Parasitic drain is now gone. Fortunately they anodize the tail cap threads and that end of the body tube. Both are non-conductive. All that don’t have a physical switch on the tail all electronic switch flashlights get this treatment. Many areas of the parasitic drain; LED in switch, switch in stand by, bad design on charger and hated by the GODS.

Update

So the flashlight do have low voltage protection, at around 2.85V it shuts down (no switch led), and the parasitic drain go down to 10uA.
I did the discharge test too. I put in it fully charger 3000mAh 18650 VTC6 (well, 4.1V was laing in the box long after the charge), took exactly a month to discharge it to 2.85V just by sitting in flashlight.
30.06.2021 11:48 - 4,1V

30.06.2021 23:40 - 4,087V

01.07.2021 10:53 - 4,078V

02.07.2021 10:53 - 4,067V

12.07.2021 18:04 - 3,717V

26.07.2021 21:40 - 3,378V

02.08.2021 12:38 - 2,842V

so it probably won't kill the 18650, but it's not healthy too, if you forget to unscrew

The two identical VTC6 droped from 4.1V to 4.098, and from 4.099 to 4.098 in that time (control group laing in the box)
I chose the cells that was laing in the box long after the charge, so that they don't lose much charge by themselves.