I didn’t think of that. The body tube looks perfectly symmetrical to my eye, and flipping it around has no effect. Still requires at least 1/2 turn, sometimes 3/4 turn to lock it out.
I bought it use as an EDC. If I can’t carry it without worrying about burning a hole in my pants, it’s useless.
Good for you. That’s completely worthless to me in the winter when I’m wearing mittens, or spring and fall with gloves. A summer-only, or never-carry light isn’t exactly what I wanted.
Hope you figure it out or get it replaced. As long as you don’t need much throw it is an amazingly good EDC. Have carried it some in jeans pocket and must say that I was surprised just how well it worked. Did not seem obtrusive at all to me. However, I would not trust it not to come on in your pocket so I completely understand the frustration when it takes so much to lock it out. As stated, I believe a non-defective model will lock out with ease as you are used to and you should be able to work this out one way or another.
When I did carry mine in the pocket I didn’t worry about it coming on as I keep mine at a lower level in memory. Doesn’t seem too prone to accidental activation but certainly can not be trusted not to. When it did come on once I noticed the light and just backed the cap off a touch. Seemed good enough to me that I didn’t bother backing the cap off or using lockout — was just aware that it could happen.
I added a ring of 16 guage wire to my switch. Sanded the bottom flat and glued it on with E6800. Haven’t had any accidental activations.
That’s a really good idea. It’s a very protruding switch.
Received the ts21 with anduril 2 yesterday, great flashlight.
I was just wondering why the button led sometimes turns into purple for a short time and back to amber after using it?
It is a combo of the amber and blue light. Ignore the blue light. It seems to be random.
Final response from Wurkkos:
After a video, photos, and over a week of back-and-forth, a short twist to lock the light is clearly not something they guarantee, or even support.
Caveat emptor
Wellp, you pays yer money and you takes yer chances.
Most of those KL03s I bought, the foam insert that pushes the cell away from the rear contact (it’s a twisty) just collapse over time (as in minutes), and it turns on randomly and will drain the cell dry. Loosen it more, the foam collapses more and again it turns on. Gets to the point where I need to completely unscrew the tailcap entirely to keep it from turning on.
Annoying, and probably easy to fix with a fat O-ring instead of the foam doughnut, but I just accepted that it’s not something I’d be carrying on a zipper-pull or anything.
Granted, it’s not a solution to your problem, but the light’s not “useless”, either, that you’d need to, say, give it a full turn to lock out. All too many lights from all over, you can “lock it out” but just pushing down on the tailcap lights it up. And you’d need a full turn anyway just to make sure. And ano does wear, and thread-on-thread rubbing will eventually leave bare spots where it’ll still be in contact vs locked out.
Me, I’d just keep it as a nightstand light or similar, and EDC a different light.
I know the risks of ordering from China, and overall I’m still way ahead of where I’d be if I had stuck to Streamlights and Surefires. It’s still frustrating when you get a dud for something so highly regarded here. The TS21 is really popular in the “faves of 2021” thread.
Wurkkos CS tried to convince me that this behavior that showed up straight out of the box on 24 Dec (the day I got it) was because I wore out the ano from twisting the tailcap too much. I’m pretty sure they still believe that.
And it’s a terrible nightstand light, too. After the switch leds flashed, changed colors, and tried to signal me with morse code for a while, I gave the tail cap 2 turns and put it in the drawer. I may try to train myself to twist the head to lock it out, I dunno. The head is really stiff.
Yes, the normal switch light is orange, and when charging or Sudden voltage change will activate blue indicator, such as auto step down, strobe, turbo, so
when blue light one, it will mix to purple color. blue color will show 30 seconds and off auto
Since the switch has only one light port, different colors will appear mixed
Thanks for that explanation. Blue light seems quite random to me but now I can see where it is not as random as it appears. Glad to know the 30 seconds thing is part of it. Would be terrible if the blue light stayed on or came on when off. Will try to pay more attention tonight when I play with it to see how long it takes to go into auto step down. Current temp here is 5 degrees F with –1F wind chill. Light definitely takes a while to step down and is much harder to see the changes than in warmer temps. Will look for the blue and see if that comes on.
To completely solve this problem, only to change the structure and appearance of the switch,however It looks ugly after the change
IMO, that looks better and if it was the original design, would have given your primary model line a more uniform, consistent aesthetic, especially with the blue retaining ring on the black bodies. The blue ring and ribbed knurling are signature design cues that make it easier to identify a Wurkkos light.
Granted, Olight does the same, and did it before, but other grumblings about their lights aside, their design and aesthetics have always been good, so it’s not a negative association, even if made in error.
Colorful lights have now become more the norm, so blue trim isn’t always going to coordinate, but when black was the only option, black with blue trim gave them a little flair, and stronger identity to both brands.
I have Jinba-made lights with both types of switches, and from a functional standpoint, the larger rubber covered switch has a better, crisper action than the metal-buttoned switches, which are mushy, and can feel loose (such as on the SP35). That makes the former type of switch better suited to lights with the Anduril UI, where the button has to be repeatedly pressed in specific sequences, and the larger lit area much easier to read than the tiny light-pipe window, which was envisioned as a momentary indicator, not as a beacon or illuminated switch.
Fix the bugs, change the switch, stick with hi-CRI only emitters, and the TS21 would become much more attractive, IMNSHO. Give it a regulated driver, on top, and it would be a very hard to beat package.
Actually, I always liked those switches. :laughing:
I’d still prefer whichever is more waterproof, but if they’re about equal, the rubber-boot switches seem easier to find in the dark and by feel.
I could go either way on the switch. On my TS21 I am happy for the fact that I can use it, check voltage and temperature, while wearing winter gloves, and now understand that there is nothing wrong or random about that crazy blue light that bugged me compared to the V1 version.
Just back from a walk with the pooches. Started my test with the temp of 250 from inside my coat pocket! Voltage was at 3.8 vs 3.9 warm. Ran it for probably less than a minute at regulated current then went to turbo. After a minute or so I brought it back to turbo and didn’t notice a difference. Did that a couple of more times and did notice a difference one time but still no blue light. After a solid 5 minutes (based on the songs I was listening to) the blue light finally came one. As quick as I could get a reading the temp was 54. Within about 30 seconds the temp was in the 30s.
The other time I thought the blue light was random was likely when I was using a protected 18650 with the tube from an IF22A. Sudden voltage change would be much more likely than random.
They also have a lower profile, sit more flush to the body, and are less likely to be unintentionally actuated.
Now, the real question is whether Wurkkos is actually considering a design update, or just showing a discarded prototype?
Oh. I thought it’d be a bit more bulbous, which for a table-light would be better.
Would be great if the caps could be switched (haha) between flush and proud, the latter being a taller button with longer stump inside.
I still think the blue light is a bug. Sometimes mine will start flashing. One time it would not stop flashing rather than terminate charging. Just now I tried varying output to make the blue light come on and it started flashing. The power bank function may be the cause someone speculated.
I have little doubt it is a bug - it's not as intended. The blue LED is controlled by the charging controller, not the MCU, so it's not a bug in the firmware. It can be explained how it functions, and Wurkkos has done that, but I can't believe Wurkkos wanted it to work this way.
Overall though, with the high parasitic drain, also caused by the charging circuit/controller, and the blue LED coming and going, many feel it's still a decent product. Myself, I find it still to be a usable product and wouldn't trash it or not use it as long as we understand the issues the light has. For me I'll stay away from the high setting for the switch LED, then the parasitic is reasonable, a bit high, but ok, and just ignoring the blue LED because it will go off in a few seconds anyway.
The very high parasitic drain with the switch LED on hi is caused by Wurkkos using a very low resistor value -- this very high drain is not caused by the charging circuit, rather using a much too low value resistor for the switch LED.