Anyone U.K. based that can reflash a TS10 for me?

I have one that played up from new, then ran fine for a bit, and is now stuck in muggle mode again as well as displaying some other odd behaviours.

It won’t lock out, 4 clicks sets it to pulsing auxiliaries, it won’t do anything on the 10 clicks or 10 clicks hold.

Anyone in the UK who could reflash the firmware for me?

Before anyone asks, I have cleaned, tightened, fiddled, to no avail. There is a thread here somewhere about it and Wurkkos sent me a replacement.

Were I in the UK or anywhere near, I’d do it for you in a jiffy.

Being actually quite a bit away, I can at least try and offer some advice: have you tried unscrewing the head, then screwing it back in while pressing the switch until its main LED does a big flash (standard hardware reset procedure)? Then try the 10H sequence to enter advanced mode, and test with 3C: if you’re actually in advanced mode, the voltage-blink sequence repeats until you press the switch, while in simple mode it plays only once.

Another piece of advice: timing is somewhat critical in those long sequences, so you may try counting to yourself while clicking and in groups of 3, like that for 10H:

1-2-3
1-2-3
1-2-3
HOLD!

This trick actually helps me a lot when I have to click a large sequence myself.

Hope that helps!

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Thanks, yes I’ve done the full reset and then the battery check to see if I’m in simple or advanced UI. Then the 10C to try and set it into advanced. But it won’t have it.

4 clicks from off to put it in lockout results in the aux doing the pulsing mode, doesn’t lock out.

I can’t find it at the moment, which is probably a good thing as then I can put it out of mind. In looking for it I turned up 2 Ti Eagletacs, a D25A with Nichia and a D25C, a BLF Kronos, my Nano GT with 10440 tube, and a CR2 Quark Mini. I’ve really got too many lights!

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Sorry to hear it didn’t solve the issue :frowning:

4 clicks from off to put it in lockout results in the aux doing the pulsing mode, doesn’t lock out.

This is definitely very weird!

Just checking one more thing: you are doing all that with a fully charged, known-good battery, right? (sorry if it’s obvious, but better to check just in case).

One more battery-related thing that could be happening is if you have a too-long battery that might be preventing the head from screwing all the way into the tube or, if forced, actually causing the battery to crush/crack the MCPCB. I haven’t seen any of that happen with my TS10 (thanks Dog), but I’ve seen multiple reports of that happening with other folks, specially with button top batteries; you might want to inspect the MCPCB by peering carefully ‘up the skirt’ into the head and see if it isn’t cracked or showing some other sign of damage. If the MCPCB looks fine, you could then try with a shorter battery (like a flat-top) and see if the light stops acting crazy.

If it’s not a battery problem (or a damaged head caused by one), then I would think it could be a failing/unreliable switch, ie one failing to properly register the clicks: you feel the click but the signal isn’t being properly sent to the circuit. Is your TS10 switch firm, or does it show any ‘looseness’? If it does, try and click it at its exact center, again I haven’t seen that with mine, but I’ve heard reports.

If all that fails, then you’re right, a reflash could help; perhaps it was badly flashed at the factory, or something happened to corrupt the flash’s contents (never heard of that, but it’s definitely not impossible). If the reflash also fails to correct for the weird behavior you have been observing, then I would contact Wurkkos and activate the warranty, as your light is almost surely damaged.

Please keep us posted about how it goes – now I’m curious and would very much like to see the end (hopefully a happy one) of that.

I’ve tried an Acebeam with the charge port, the Wurkkos it came with, and a couple of Vapcells. There is no change in behaviour.

When I find the thing I’ll get a short vid and run it through YouTube. We moved fairly recently, a lot of stuff has been put away (read ‘hidden’) by my dear wife.

No idea where you’re based, but it pretty worthless to me as it is. I don’t mind chucking it in the mail.

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Sorry to hear you tried multiple batteries and none solved the issue :frowning:

Thanks for the offer of the flashlight, but I’m going on a years-long road-trip through the Panamericana, and currently in Chile – not the best place to receive stuff from the UK or wherever :slight_smile:

Re: moving, a wise man once said that every two moves equal one house fire :wink: and speaking from experience, just my last move was equal to a full house fire :slight_smile: , so I understand perfectly where you’re coming from.

And thanks for offering to record it in video! If you can please post it and then send us the link, I think it will benefit not only me (this issue got me curious) but also anyone with the same issue, be it here from BLF or outsiders who come a-googling, at least to see they are not alone and also to see what steps were already attempted to no avail.

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So it turned up a few days ago and I said I’d illustrate with some video if possible. Prepare to waste about 5 minutes of your life :rofl:…… I checked the Vapcell and screwed it back in, the odd behaviour continued. 3 clicks initiated battery check and it didn’t cycle, indicating the light is in simple UI.

4 clicks from off should have put it in lockout, instead the blue aux lights entered pulse mode. This is the same odd behaviour as before.

Unscrewed the head and held the switch, the light began its build up flickering until the flash, so reset complete.

4 clicks from off, back to the aux pulse again.

So, here is where things changed. I take out the Vapcell and put in the Wurkkos branded battery. Check the UI again and the battery check indicates simple UI. So I try 10H and it enters advanced UI and then behaves completely normally, 4 clicks to lockout, all good.

So I try the Vapcell again, back to the odd behaviour.

Back to the Wurkkos cell, and I do the reset as I screw it up. It enters turbo mode and button presses do nothing at all so I unscrew it. Replace the head, nothing. One completely dead light, kaput!

So, I clean the threads again, nothing. Then I try another factory reset, and it flickers up and enters simple UI. Try 4 clicks from off, back to aux pulse (Wurkkos cell).

Reset attempts are now going one of two ways. Either the light flickers and then becomes stuck in full turbo. Or it flickers up and gets stuck in the brighter of the static auxiliary modes. Only removing the head stops it.

Last one, it’s pretty obviously not working :thinking: But…for just a few minutes back then, it behaved absolutely perfectly, locking out, going into advanced UI, then back to the errors. It’s strange, but I’m getting bored :yawning_face:

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So it temporarily worked properly on the Wurkkos cell.
Is the Vapcell cell longer than the Wurkkos?

I’m not the sure the tailcap is meant to be removeable on these.
The TS10 uses a signal tube to connect the e-switch to the driver, sometimes lights with this design can become eccentric when the tube isn’t making a proper connection.

On other lights with this design it became known that when inserting the battery via the tail it could be hard to screw the tailcap on tightly enough to maintain a good connection with the tube, so it became recommended practice to insert/remove the battery by removing the head.

I asked about the Vapcell length compared to the Wurkkos because i’m wondering if there’s extra length there that’s showing up a slightly loose connection.

If it is a connection issue the the solution is straightforward:
Remove the head and battery (i don’t think the signal tube is removable).
Then tighten the tailcap as tightly as you can.
Then, insert the battery and connect the head.

Give this a go. You may need to do a factory reset after tightening the tailcap, i needed to on an Emisar KR4 that had become eccentric for this reason, works peachy now.

Nice find, some select lights there. I ran a D25A for years as my main EDC, and the Kronos and Quark Mini are blasts from the past!
I reckon you’ve come out on top even if the TS10 is kaput :smiley:

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Apologies, meant the head, you can see in the vid I don’t try the tailcap, I’ll go edit, thanks for pointing it out.

There’s enough confusion without me making any more :roll_eyes:

For clarity, I have 2 other TS10s and both behave as they should with the Vapcells. I’m pretty sure others here also use them without problems. Acebeam also, the ones with the charge port work fine in both my others. Somewhere here in one of the long TS10 threads are my original observations and Wurkkos offering a replacement, which I accepted only to suddenly find the silver one working fine again.

Just occasionally it has a good day, but then reverts to malfunction. I’m not bothered with it anymore, it’s just @dmenezes asked if I would post up a video as he’s curious, and originally I started the thread not so much to solve it because I’d already tried much of what was suggested, but to see if anyone in the U.K. had a flashing kit.

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Lol, well that makes my previous post irrelevant :smiley:
(Actually, almost. It may be that the tail wasn’t tightened enough at the factory and is causing signal issues. Dunno how you would release it to tighten it though.)

The videos are interesting to see, i’m not convinced a reflash would solve it though.

If you were bothered enough i’d suggest getting it working with the Wurkkos cell and leaving it in there to see whether the firmware is stable.
But you’re not so i won’t :smile:

I have to agree, it was great to find the other lights. The Quark MiNi CR2 is a brilliant little EDC, and I’ve just turned up another D25A black anodised version. The titanium Nichia version has become my daily for the time being, I had it splash anodised in purples, greens and blues, it’s cleaned up beautifully. :slight_smile:

I think you’re right about the connection of the tail cap. The only time during my messing about last night it behaved normally was after wiping the threads. On the head, obviously. :wink:

at the end of the last video, the blinking aux is normal default for lockout

it is normal for Aux to be in blink mode when in lockout

during lockout you can use 7C to cycle through the 4 aux blinky modes, for lockout

The Manual says:
There is one aux LED mode for the regular Off mode (default is bright, I change it to dim), and another aux LED mode for Lockout mode (default is blinking). This allows the user to see at a glance whether the light is locked.

suggestion how to reset a TS10:

use 13H for factory reset… the press hold reset does not work well with the double body tube design because sometimes the head moves sideways and breaks contact w one of the tubes, causing the reset to fail

possible pitfall multiclic:
5C puts the light in momentary and requires removing the head to get out

5C can happen by mistake, when trying to use 4C to get to lockout

Hi Jon, once in the pulsing blue aux mode, that’s it, it can’t be changed by the 7 clicks.

I’ve got two other TS10s, and they certainly don’t have anything in common with this one’s UI.

I can easily shift them from simple to advanced UI, but the silver one can’t be changed. This is the same light we discussed a long while back, occasionally it has a period of working as I’d expect, and then reverts to its malfunctioning.

ok, I hope you find someone to reflash it for you… cheers :beer:

Sorry for the delay in responding, going though a lot IRL and was out of BLF for quite a few days, only now seeing this.

@RichH thanks for the greatly detailed report. I think I can offer a few pointers:

  • I see that at least sometimes, your problematic TS10 worked with the Wurkkos cell, but only rarely (or never) with the Vapcell. I have both of these cells and while they both work great on my older TS10 (an aluminum from the very first generation, bought back in August 2022) only the Wurkkos cells works in my newest TS10 (A Titanium one I just purchased). There have been other people reporting this and the consensus seems to be the Vapcells are just a fraction of a millimeter longer than the Wurkkoses, and this causes the battery tube to not make perfect contact with the head and the light to operate unreliably. The newer (ie, not first-generation) TS10 seems to be more prone to that problem, due to tighter tolerances maybe.

  • Anyway, whatever the cause may be, I would classify that behavior as a defect deserving of in-warranty factory replacement; Have you tried contacting Wurkkos for a new light? Wurkkos after-sale support has always been there for me, albeit I haven’t needed a replacement yet, so I think you’d not be wasting your time by trying – and please let us know how it goes. I’m tagging our man @Wurkkos_Terry here so he can keep an eye on it too (Terry does fantastic after-sale CS for Wurkkos here on BLF and at other forums).

I hope that helps! and again, please keep us posted.

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need to be specific about which Vapcel… The Vapcel L10 and H10 Button tops are a problem, because they are 52mm and that is a NoGo length…

the flat top L10, 49mm long, does work in my TS10, the flat top H10 is 49.4mm and also works, but I dont recommend it due to the 10A discharge rate being known to burn out TS10 LEDs

The stock Wurkkos button top is 49.9mm long. and Wurkks :wink:

Vapcel L10 and H10 flat tops and F12 Flat top 48.7mm (shortest and highest capacity) are all shorter than the stock Wurkkos battery, and they work great in a TiTS10, and also in the Original TS10 (that RichH has). the Button top F12 is 51.35mm and some people claim it works in the TS10 also.

fyi, RichH already got a warranty replacement… he is just trying to the revive the non working TS10 he did not need to return.

here are some batteries and their lengths, that work in a TS10:
Imgur

here is a thread about TS10 batteries, that revisits what Ive posted above

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The TS10 has a double tube, just like the FW3A.
That’s why I treat my TS10 the same way as I treat my FW3A.
Despite it says in the manual you can lock it out at the tailcap side, I lock it out at the head side.
After carefully re-assembling the tailcap part of the light, I only touch the switch. Nothing else.

My hunch is that a (slightly) longer 14500 cell causes the tail PCB to loose contact with the inner tube.

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The FWAA switch is wired differently than the TS10… and the FWAA has no Aux… so, you can lock out the FWAA by unscrewing the head, but not the TS10

when we unscrew the TS10 head, it turns off the Aux but leaves the switch powered. Pressing the TS10 switch with the head loose, causes factory reset…

bottom line, FWAA can be physically locked out. TS10 can NOT be physically locked out.

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I assumed it worked just like the FWxx series too, didn’t give it much thought, but sure enough I see what you’re describing. Thanks for sharing… Feels like a fairly considerable design issue, at least Anduril 2 has the auto-lock timer feature to somewhat save the day

I do not find it necessary to use electronic lockout on the TS10 because the switch button is much firmer than the FWAA. The TS10 button requires double the pressure of the FWAA button.

For me, the FWAA button benefits from the O ring mod, to make it as firm as the stock TS10 button.

I have both a FWAA and a TS10. I prefer to carry the TS10.

For my carry styles, (either clipped to, or in, a dedicated pocket by itself) I do not find lockout necessary for the TS10… this is primarily because I disable Turbo, so an accidental activation is not as likely to burn a hole in a pocket. Plus the stock TS10 button is not as easy to turn on by accident, as the stock FWAA button.