I just received my FT03 which came with unglued bezel and perfectly centered LED…
Then everything went wrong very quickly.
I threw in a Samsung 40T 21700 and turned it on. It responded fine and I ramped it up to the top of the ramp. From my eyes it appeared brighter than expected. I double clicked for Turbo and…
The light shut off. The switch was blinking (I didn’t count how many blinks)
I tried to turn back on and no still off no response. I unscrewed/rescrewed the tail cap and it again responded to the battery offering a blink (extremely dim). I clicked and held for ramp and it does indeed ramp up and down but it’s now only putting out about 10 lumens on the top of ramp and the bottom is unbelievably low.
I switched out my 40T and threw in an LG HG2 and it does the same thing.
If I go to the top of the ramp and double click for turbo (either cell) it blinks but doesn’t change output. If I double click for strobe after turbo it blinks again but doesn’t strobe.
It clearly looks like something fried the second I tried to put it into turbo. I double checked this thread and saw that Tom E did some testing with 40T’s and didn’t experience this issue.
Any ideas? Things I can check?
I tried a factory reset through the UI and it did nothing
also unscrewed the battery tube and tail cap, checked for debris or dust and re-screwed firmly no change
Tom E and Th558 (and others): Please disregard my comment above about not being able to turn the switch light off by turning the tail cap. I was wrong. Thanks to the comment made by Th558 immediately following TomE’s, I rechecked what I was doing. I was twisting the whole handle, not the tail cap. The tail cap was screwed on very tight. After loosening it and tightening it a few times it is now easier to unscrew than the whole handle. It disconnects power just like it should.
Here is why I am in the habit of loosening the tail caps to disconnect all power: I live in Alaska. Alaska really is The Land of the Midnight Sun. From early May to late August I won’t be using a flashlight. So to prevent parasitic draw over those months, I loosen the tail cap when I put away a light. It’s habit now.
TomE: As I said in my review above, I love your NarsilM v1.3. It really makes the FT03 a pleasure to use. I compared it last night to my Acebeam T27 which is in many ways similar to this light (similar format, size, beam). Your UI makes the FT03 is easier to use for most of what I will use either of the two lights for. Thanks again.
So I just changed it from Ramping UI to Mode-Set UI and here’s the results:
click - turn on very low
click 2 - increases brightness
click 3 - increases brightness
click 4 - no change
click 5 - no change
click 6 - turns off
does that mean whatever driver set-up is running the light beyond like 0-15% output is fried?
I doubt that you broke it its fairly well protected like there is even an insulation disc around the positive battery terminal. Is it a temp or battery issue with the UI?
Weird so the driver is working fine for the most part. I don’t think you would have damage only the Mosfet and nothing else unless it was shorted out some how.
This looks like a 5 level mode set with moon mode enabled, where the 3 highest levels are on the FET, and the FET isn't working. Normally "click 6" would be 100% FET with no 7135 output. We found max FET and max 7135 actually is lower output than just pure 100% FET.
Hhmm. Not sure but could very well be the 5 level mode set is the default mode set, and of course moon mode is enabled by default.
So, it does sound like the FET is dead - pretty sure I've seen these sort of failures before. You should see a similar behavior with ramping - ramps up initially then stays at the same level for the last part of the ramping. If you double click, the main LED won't come on at all - is that what you see in ramping?
Update: Crap! Just read your first post on the issue - yes, sounds like the FET failed. These are SIR800DP fake FET's, so, maybe not the most reliable FET around. I really haven't seen FET's fail after usage, but sometimes it was either dead or failed as soon as I tried it, sort of like what you saw. The true non-fake SIR800DP's have been reliable. Richard at MtnE uses and sells them for example. They were our first high powered, cool running FET. Since then, I prfere a couple of the SIR series ones, like the SIR404DP or SIRA20DP, but the Infineons are generally what we all use now.
Even with a dead FET he should still be in the ~150 lumen range with a single 7135. If it is only a few lumens, it seems like a dead LED, although if it is a bond wire then it should not work at all.
Yea, I was assuming by 10 lumens he meant very roughly - you could be right.
When you are hitting 9 amps or above, one LED might fail, another might be ok - hard to say. I measured 9.3 amps on my NW at the highest. I could retry the 30T or 40T on the light I added the driver spring bypass to, and see what I can measure. Also there's always variation of max amps from unit to unit.
I thought I recall on some old LED's, one bond wire would still work but much lower output -- not sure though.
one click turns on the light and the green switch LED click & hold ramps up to a certain output (to my eye seems like ~75 lumens) then stays at that output but continues “trying” to ramp and eventually blinks both the led and green switch led to indicate it’s reached the top of the ramp click & hold “tries” to ramp down for a second or two then finally catches up with the actual output and does ramp down to moonlight and blinks both the led and green switch led to indicate it’s reached the bottom of the ramp
It’s acting extremely strange when trying to access turbo:
I can see better what it’s doing when I ramp down to moonlight (now memorized mode):
double click - light blinks and comes back on at it’s highest output
double click again - light blinks and goes back to moonlight (no way to access strobe that I’ve found)
Ohh, so dbl click to turbo does actually come on bright? Hhmm... Maybe the 7135 and FET are just not playing nicely together... Oh boy, not sure I can explain all this. Could be the FET doesn't like our high rate PWM's... ?
Yes, it’s hard to tell by eye exactly how bright something is but it’s definitely brighter than 10 lumens.
I would suggest it’s likely possible it’s putting out 150 lumens. My only EDC on me to compare is a ramping E07 but I just got an H30 in the mail. once it’s charged I’ll compare it’s low setting of 120 lumens directly
If you put your image link in both the “Image URL” and “(OPTIONAL) Link to URL” boxes, people can click the image to open the full-size version, assuming that you used the width and height adjustments to reduce it.
I love everyone’s images and I appreciate having them scaled down in the posts, but it’s also great to have the option of enlarging them if I want to see your beautiful light collection or whatever .
Yes, and I made a post to the “fraud” thread HERE as I believe this is a genuine store. There remains some question as to whether the “real” LiitoKala is truly trustworthy, but I did my homework and took my chances.
Nope, not working for me. If a stay in simple mode, think it works, but clicking on the image takes you to Photobucket ?? Doesn't work at all in Advanced mode and Advanced is all I ever use.
It's been bugging me big time - links don't work from images in Advanced - think that's the rule?
My third FT03 arrived today … DOA. I loaded a fresh 26650 and the switch lit up and when I pressed the switch … there was a momentary flash and now the light will only illuminate in firefly mode. Must have cooked something. I have contacted Banggood … we shall see what they have to say. My first two NW versions are working great.
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Must have cooked something. I have contacted Banggood … we shall see what they have to say. My first two NW versions are working great.
