My new flashlight has stopped working right after receiving it... (fasttech support......sigh)

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

Hey guys. Can someone help me figure out what’s wrong ?

I got this in the mail yesterday:

https://www.fasttech.com/p/1358902

Now it started having this issue right away where the light would turn itself off.

I thought it was the battery so I charged it with my nitecore i4 but it is was still doing the same thing. It would just randomly turn off.

It can’t be overheating since it would do this within 30s

Now it’s worse and won’t turn on at all. The emitter blinks VERY faintly and no light…

Any ideas ? I have started a support ticket with fasttech but no idea if they will ever reply. I also sent a PM to fasttech through this forum.

Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Worth noting the battery works flawlessly in my Skyray King

EDIT2: Reinserting the dropin didn’t help

EDIT3: Fasttech telling me to close the paypal dispute first before they help….

2

I’d first check that there are no loose connections.

Does the battery get hot? That would show a short. Be very careful if the battery is heating up.

You could remove the tailcap & bridge the battery negative to the bare un-anodized edge of flashlight tube. Rule out a loose connection in the tail.

3

Does the light work if you take off the tail cap and use as paperclip or something to connect the battery's negative and un-anodized part of the light (like the tail threads)?

4

Nope it isn’t heating up.

The emitter does blink (very very faintly) sometimes when I turn it on.

Seems to me like the driver or emitter is DOA

5

Helios- Wed, 12/25/2013 - 00:18 (new)
ImA4Wheelr Wed, 12/25/2013 - 00:18 (new)

I believe I was a half second faster. :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Good idea, just tried it to rule out tailcap button issue.

It does the same thing. The emitter blinks extremely faintly and that’s it.

7

I just fixed a friend new 501b. It had a faulty tail switch. Try removing the tail cap and shorting the negative terminal of the battery to the body. If it lights up, it’s the switch, if the issue persists, it’s the drop in.

**you guys are QUICK!

8

Hmm, sounds like its down to the drop in now. :frowning:
Do you have a soldering iron? You could pull off the led centering disk & just take a look at the led connections.

9

I do but I haven’t used it in ages and am not too good with it lol

I’ll just consider it DOA and have asked fasttech to give me a replacement or refund or store credit.

Let’s see how they respond. Gonna be funny if they tell me to ship it back since it will cost me more to ship it than the cost of this flashlight.

There is always PayPal escalation if it comes to that :slight_smile:

10

I believe fasttech has a return address somewhere in the US (Florida maybe?) if they ask you to send it back. I got a 502b from t-mart and within the first hour of use I managed to break it. Luckily for me it was just a faulty connection in the tail cap and I managed to fix it fairly easily.
Good luck getting it sorted out!

11

Good luck, you may encounter some challenges with the CS staff because service has gone down lately, so PP is your friend. :slight_smile:

12

Have you tried the brass pill that is screwed into the bottom of the dropin ?, it might just be loose.

13

It's a P60-based light, its entire reason for being is that the part that makes the light is easily replaceable. Keep it, get your refund or credit (or not, either way you haven't lost much since the drop-in was likely crap anyway), and just pick up a new drop-in from somebody here who builds them.

Before tossing the original drop-in, test it out of the light, sometimes they have problems with getting a good ground connection due to that stupid big outer spring they use in stock form. Hold the driver against the +, and with a piece of wire connect the battery - to the side of the brass pill.

Another thing is that if you're using a protected cell, it could be drawing more current than your cell can supply without tripping. Saying 'I know the battery is good because it works in another light' is completely irrelevant since two different lights are likely to have different current draws.

14

I think the 4x XML2 SRK has a higher current draw than this 500 lumen dropin. I tried doing the wire trick and same thing, very faint blip on the emitter and that’s it.

The thing is, this light was working when I got it but started having issues same day. From random turning off to not turning on at all now.

My guess the emitter or driver is dead :frowning:

Note to self, NEVER get anything with xxxfire now

15

XPG2 P60s are nice, best to stick to smaller lights with the Nichias.

16

try it with a half depleted cell to rule out the protection :wink: just shine for a while with the king and then try one of it’s batteries in this 501

17

Not necessarily so. Especially if you haven't checked these things with the meter. Real data has a nasty habit of making 'common sense'-based guesses look foolish.

18

Would one of these 2 dropins work in my 501B ?

http://goinggear.com/sportac-p60-cree-nichia-219-cri-92-1224-lumen-led-drop-in-for-p60-body-surefire-flashlights.html

I’m still confused why there are 2 different types of P60….

19

Tried it, no luck :frowning:

20

Hmm fasttech lists it as 1.5A output but lists tailcap @ 2A

What does that mean ? Where does the 0.5A go ? Eaten up by the driver as heat ?