Lumintop X9L - what am I missing?

LED Flashlights – General Info 21700 Flashlights
1

I’ve just received a Lumintop FW21 X9L but I’m having problems getting it to actually turn on.

Admittedly, I’ve only got an 18650 battery to hand right now, but as the X9L comes with a converter tube I’m assuming that’s okay as a stop gap.

When I insert the battery and replace the head, it blinks briefly, which the instructions say means that the light has power and is operational, but then I get nothing.

No combination of clicks or holds on the tail switch will turn the light on.

Am I missing something?

[edit - mistyped battery type, it’s an 18650]

2

It seems like the battery options are 21700 or 18650. What you are using may be too short.

3

Sorry, I mistyped that - it is an 18650

4

Maybe the switch is not making proper contact with the tube and driver, so power is connected to the driver but it’s like there is no switch connected. I don’t have one of these lights so I’m not very familiar with the construction, but I know people have had problems with the inner switch connection tube.

5

Trying to avoid stupid questions, but that would render the light defective and inoperable, right?

6

Sorry I meant that setup can be finicky not that the light is defective. There is an additional tube in the light which acts as a signal path for the switch. It as well as the main battery tube have to make contact at both ends for the switch to work. Look at FW3A threads; that light has a similar switch system which people have had problems with.

7

Thanks @EasyB, I’ll see what I can find in those FW3A threads.

8

Is battery you use protected, maybe protection kicked in?
Try this cell in another light if it still works, may be locked.

9

Thanks everyone, I found an answer in one of the FW3A threads, as @EasyB suggested. The problem was that the tail cap was not super tight, which is a little surprising given that it came direct from the factory, but at least it was an easy fix.

10

I’ve had a a few different FW-series lights, and a number of them have a similar issue as the one you mentioned — light flickers or won’t go to High/Turbo mode properly, and mainly it’s the tailcap that needs to be tightened properly to solve the issue.

However, I do have 1 FW3A that, no matter how much I tighten it — I’ve also viewed M4DM4X’s video on disassembly / reassembly of the tailcap — and followed the same procedure, this particular FW3A’s tailcap just won’t work properly (there is a blink, but the light won’t turn on maybe 95% of the time), swapping the tailcap with another unit will make it work, so there are indeed some units that do have a tailcap problem that can’t be fixed even with tightening/aligning the parts… Maybe there’s something that can be done to fix, but I just am not skilled to find out how to make that particular unit’s tailcap work…