EDIT2:The Autolock on IF19 can not be disabled, despite hopes
EDIT: To disable the IF19 1-minute autolock ‘feature’: - disconnect the battery for 30 seconds + Reconnect the battery and immediately (when the battery level indicator is still on): - rapidly click 4 times - v. briefly pause for double blink - rapidly click 3 more times (2 and 4 clicks seem to also work) - briefly pause for the light to turn on - click one more time to turn the light off (before the battery level indicator goes off).
There are reports that the auto lock can be deactivated (somebody mentioned 5 clicks, but that doesn’t seem to work). Here is a report that it has been deactivated, but the user is not sure how:
Not working for me. I’ve tried all sorts of clicks -5, 6, 7. When locked, when unlocked, just after inserting the battery. Wait a couple minutes… try it and same two flashes, just teasing me. Autolocked every time.
Update: it worked! I think the problem was I didn’t wait long enough after removing the battery (actually I just loosen the body enough to break contact). I waited about 15 seconds, tightened it up, then 7 clicks. No more autolock!
I store this light mechanically locked out by lossening the body. I was worried autolock would return. After disabling it, I loosened the body and waited 2 minutes. I then turned it on and off, waited 2 more minutes, and still no autolock!
Edit again, I appear to be mistaken. Autolock returned after removing the battery for some time (which I suppose makes sense). But disabling it wasn’t difficult.
Have you tried 7 clicks right after inserting a battery? I suspect this manoeuvre works if you do not wait too long for the first auto-lock to engage after about 1 minute.
This is so weird. Like, why is that a thing but not mentioned in the manual? Only this one guy on the German forum figured it out by accident and now we are here copying him.
Why would Sofirn themselves not know of features someone on the dev team must have deliberately added?
Anyway, huge thanks @mcjtom - the auto lockout pretty much killed this light for me. It is so much better now. I would never have found this post without you.
Btw, you can still manually lock/unlock it, auto lockout apparently only reenables when you remove the battery.
I can’t find my manual right now, but I believe there might have been somthing in there about disabling it. I recall trying to disable it when I first got it but didn’t have any luck.
Same here. With how I use a light like this, the autolock ruined it. I have three other lights with a similar TIR and form factor. Of the four, I like the ergonomics of this one the best. Swapping out the SST40 was easy but I was stuck with the autolock, so I never used the light.
Also a somewhat related question: the light can be mechanically locked by turning the head or the cap about half turn, I take it. The manual and also some posts here talk specifically about using the head not the cap for that purpose. Why not the cap?
I’m having trouble getting a clear recipe for disabling the auto lock - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I thought it might depend on the state (auto-locked?) when you disconnect the battery, but I’m not sure anymore. When it works, the 7 clicks should not do anything other than disabling the auto-lock, but I often end up locking the light with 4 clicks and then unlocking it with the next 3…
Sigh, I don’t know. And maybe I’m going crazy, but it seems autolock turned itself back on after some amount of time. I thought I turned it off the other day and then checked in the morning and it was locked.
@ebastler ? Sofirn’s curse? I’m trying to figure it out: maybe waiting time? maybe the speed of clicking? maybe the state before disconnecting the battery? maybe the 5 sec of battery indicator after inserting the battery?
I’m almost sure the 7 clicks went in clean, without blinking when it worked.
I seem to be consistently disabling it by disconnecting the battery, waiting about 30 seconds, then reconnecting and immediately doing 7 clicks.
It’s disabled right now and sitting next to me. I’ll check after two hours. Then I’ll check again after about four hours. Then I’ll check one last time tomorrow after about 20 hours.
Edit: I did the 2 hour test and it was still unlocked. I forgot the 4 hour test. I tested the next morning, so 20 hours later without me touching it, and still unlocked.
How fast are you doing them and when you click, does the light stay silent until the last click or it blinks as you click? Are you on ramp? Is the lamp locked manually, unlocked, or autolocked when you disconnect the battery?
I do the clicks fairly quickly. For the first few the light seems to be processing the clicks and doing nothing, then it turns on and off (trying to remember here) almost like it’s just funtioning normally.
I’m on stepped mode but I think I’ve disabled it while on ramped mode (accidentally got to ramped mode while I was doing all this clicking nonsense once).
I dont know about locked state. Probably a variety of circumstances.
