I sold my Fandyfire Rook a few days ago. I used it only for about 2-3 minutes. Ity it with one AA, with 3 AA and after this with one 14500 and at the end with 3x 14500. Everything works fine.I put in three 4,19V 14500, use it for a few seconds and left them in the flashlight for 14 hours. After this, each battery has 4,16V.
Then I recharge the 14500, put them in a batterybox and send everything to the buyer. The batteries are brand new and charged only 2 times. They are protected Trustfire, like in the selfbuilt review.
The buyer informed me now, that he has some problems:
He puts the 14500 batteries into the Rook, played 30 seconds (was impressed about the brightness), switch it off (battery left inside the Rook) and the next day it was really dim. Each 14500 has only 2,9V.
It doesn’t work with normal AA batteries 1,5volt or rechargeable AA batteries with 1,2 anymore. Has anyone a solution or an idea, which could be the problem or does anybody read about a similar problem in another forum?
The had the Rook since 15. Jan 2013 (bought from FT) and use it only for a few minutes.
Smells to me like driver failure(probably because it couldn’t handle freshly charged 14500 for a longer period of time (like couple of minutes or so)).
People have said that this light has what is called parasitic drain. This means that if the batteries are left in the light they soon go dead. This happens with the light turned off. When I am not using mine I unscrew the top until it will not turn on. I don’t know if mine even has this problem because I use it or unscrew it.
It shouldn’t have an effect on it working with regular AA batteries though. My guess would be that the AA batteries they are using are no good or have only a very small charge left in them.
I would suggest they charge the 14500’s completely and try again. Also they should try again with new high quality AA batteries. I don’t think that the light has a damaged driver or LED’s because if it did it wouldn’t be working with the 14500’s.
I love my rook, it’s one of my favorite lights. I hope this helps with the problem. If it doesn’t you should contact fast tech and let them know.
I had an situation where AA/14500 light worked fine with AA, then I inserted 14500 worked excelent but only couple of minutes, then went really dim, didn’t work on AA anymore and with 14500 was very dim… I had to replace the driver…
I have read about the parasitic drain, but the wrote, that it isn’t really much. The same wrote a reviewer on CPF and I teste it for about 14 hours and lost only 0,03V (and it run for a few seconds), so the parasitic drain is less.
18sixfifty:
Could you please test this with your Rook: First you put in 3x 14500, use it a few seconds. Then put 3x AA inside and tell me, if it works without any problem.
My acquaintance had black shadow queen.
It had similar problem compare to yours.
His queen’s standby current was about 250mA.(it killed some 16340s)
He recived a replacement for that.
The new one wasted only 50uA in standby mode.
So I think your Rook has problem.
sorry for my bad english.
I wonder if eneloops can do 2-3A current… Then why have this lamp only 200lm at high? If XM-L get 2.6A, should be 800lm… Voltage is OK, 3.6v, current, too, so I don’t understand. Limit of the circuit?
Quick question. Is there a single reason why you would want to own this over a EA4? I only ask because it’s rated popular on Fasttech and some people seem to think it’s great. But it seems like it has quite a few drawbacks. I like the look but it seems like the EA4 does it all better for $10ish more.
I suppose it depends a lot on what batteries you prefer. I have a boatload of 14500’s and they are great in the rook. I actually really like the rook I have about 25 lights right now and it’s in the top three for ones that I actually use. It’s small yet it has a great beam, smooth flood nice throw too. I suppose if I had a bunch of eneloops around I might have gone for the EA4 instead. I don’t really see any drawbacks with this light. I guess it is supposed to have parasitic drain but I have had mine for a while and I don’t notice it. But then again I use it all the time. I suppose if I was going to set in on the shelf and not use it I would have to take the batteries out.
So basically the reason is: it’s the best value in a multi 14500 set-up, right? Because the EA4 is still a bit brighter. I mean I use a few 14500s, but it’s mainly for my sipiks that I use for work.
I got my Rook for 28 (26? Not sure now) wanna say it was before the EA4 came along…… definitely before fasttech sold it.
The current Rook & EA4 pricing would make me think hard about the EA4. When the EA4 was cheaper it would be a no brainer compared to current Rook price.
Still like my Rook though. I use it inside with eneloops.
Well for me that is the reason. Although I only paid $26 for mine so at that time it was half of what the EA4 would cost. Actually less because Fast tech didn’t have the EA4 then and other sites were more.
Given the two at today’s price and if I had good eneloops around I would probably go for the EA4.
Fair enough. I have the EA4 and love it, but when I browse Fasttech the Rook is always near the top of the list- and wondered if I was missing something. It makes way more sense if it’s around $25 though instead of the current price. Thanks for the quick responses.