Lumintop Tool AA 2.0 flashlight

moderator007 · 2020-07-17T00:45:35.000Z

Yokiamy:

Another important thing to mention, the lighted tailcap (only works with 14500) has a high parasitic drain of 8,5 mA
It will eventually drain your cell (i removed the LED’s in the lighted tail)

Mathematically speaking that’s only about 100 hours using a 850mah cell.
A little over 4 days and the battery is dead. Is that about what everyone experienced?
I changed my current limiting resisitors to a higher value right after I received, so I dont know how it was factory.

gchart · 2020-07-17T01:19:49.000Z

I can’t remember how high mine have been, but yes, it was right along those lines. I was dumbfounded.

moderator007 · 2020-07-19T04:46:12.000Z

gchart:

I can’t remember how high mine have been, but yes, it was right along those lines. I was dumbfounded.

The EE must have been out that day the resistor value was chosen. :person_facepalming:

d_t_a · 2020-08-01T10:59:01.000Z

I think the Tool AA 2.0 may not have LVP, so maybe a protected battery is suggested?

Yokiamy · 2020-08-01T22:16:32.000Z

It has LVP set at 3V

nobody · 2020-08-01T22:38:57.000Z

So what if you don’t want the battery drain from the LED tail but you still want to use 14500 batteries? Is there a simple solution?

BOO5TED · 2020-08-01T23:19:55.000Z

Turn the head 1/4 turn to break contact.

nobody · 2020-08-02T00:27:33.000Z

LOL — don’t like doing that. Is there another simple option?

jon_slider · 2020-08-02T00:34:29.000Z

Yokiamy:

It has LVP set at 3V

Yokiamy, can you please share the source of your information? because I dont know who to believe:

bilakos10:

Nev:

Just be aware that it doesn’t have LVP , I always use protected cells in the tool AA , I once ran down a 14500 to under 2 volts.

Indeed there is no LVP. To my knowledge, it quite a common practice on flashlights that use a boost/fet driver and accept both NiMH and LiION cells.

BOO5TED · 2020-08-02T00:57:33.000Z

nobody:

LOL — don’t like doing that. Is there another simple option?

If you want to keep the tail light and use 14500, nope.

nobody · 2020-08-02T01:01:16.000Z

BOO5TED:

nobody:

LOL — don’t like doing that. Is there another simple option?

If you want to keep the tail light and use 14500, nope.

Don’t really need the tail light. Does that open up any other solutions?

BOO5TED · 2020-08-02T01:05:37.000Z

Yeah, just remove the leds so no lights at all on the tail.

nobody · 2020-08-02T01:10:57.000Z

I'll take a look at that and see if it is something I can do with my lack of skills. Thanks

BOO5TED · 2020-08-02T01:19:43.000Z

If you can take the tail switch apart, you can remove the leds imo.

jon_slider · 2020-08-02T01:47:44.000Z

more AA Tool on 14500, LED tail discussion here:

gchart:

Yes, removing either the LEDs, the resistors, or all of them (should be two of each) would remove the drain.

I swapped mine for a custom LED tailcap and am only getting 0.08 mA drain, which on a 900mAh battery translates to 15+ months of standby… much more acceptable.

moderator007 · 2020-08-02T03:26:28.000Z

When the light is turned on the driver is running with the firmware, checking for LVP. When you turn it off, the driver is off (switch breaks connection) and not checking a thing. The lighted tail switch is working in backwards polarity compared to the driver. No power to driver, lighted tailcap power is on and no LVP. The lighted tailcap will drain your battery dry while the driver is sleeping .

Yokiamy · 2020-08-02T06:47:30.000Z

jon_slider:

Yokiamy:

It has LVP set at 3V

Yokiamy, can you please share the source of your information? because I dont know who to believe:

bilakos10:

Nev:

Just be aware that it doesn’t have LVP , I always use protected cells in the tool AA , I once ran down a 14500 to under 2 volts.

Indeed there is no LVP. To my knowledge, it quite a common practice on flashlights that use a boost/fet driver and accept both NiMH and LiION cells.

My own
I only have three, a Ti, an upgraded Ti and a Cu.

jon_slider · 2020-08-02T14:35:51.000Z

thanks for the info Yokiamy
I see moderator007 also says there is LVP on LiIon…

is this a complete Low Voltage Shutoff at 3v?

or just a Low Voltage Warning that only blinks or somesuch, and then continues to drain…?

moderator007 · 2020-08-02T15:08:09.000Z

I haven’t checked mine to be sure, but I assume if the light is on and hits the low voltage to trip LVP the driver goes to sleep or continues to check voltage to know when to wake back up. Either one I would think would be a very low power consumption. After LVP kicks and you turn the light off then the vampire lighted tail cap would kick in again.
To solve this defect, you would either need to change the lighted tail pcb out for something like gchart has done or change the current limiting resistors out to a higher value (something up in the 100k range) but the tail cap will be pretty dim then and only be seen when its dark (switch boot is not very transparent). Then there’s always the option of just removing any of the components that make up the lighted tail cap pcb (leds or resistors) but then you have no lighted tail cap.
.
Maybe Yokiamy can answer the question on weither it blinks or shuts off with LVP.

jon_slider · 2020-08-02T15:17:24.000Z

> After LVP kicks and you turn the light off then the vampire lighted tail cap would kick in again.

I was impressed at the level of detail in your comments about the tail vampire… I gave the CuTool AA to a good friend, that only speaks Alkaleak… so no concern over the tail LEDs

but yes, on LiIon, the lighted tail would be a non starter in stock form… I agree an interventioni would be required to drive a stake through the vampires heart… LOL