Wurkkos FC13 Turbo mode crashes

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Just received my Wurkkos FC13 today and quite like it. Tested all the functions such as charging, reverse charging, Aux LED, various Anduril 2 functions and modes, etc. All working good. I have a Sofirn SP10 pro for a few years and so I’m very familiar with the UI. I then took out the factory 18650 battery and put in a Panasonic NCR19650B battery and tested the FC13 again. However, as soon as I entered the turbo mode, the light would enter the turbo mode for a split second and turn off. It becomes irresponsive, the AUX LED would also turn off. Button does nothing. If I unscrew the cap and put it back in, it would seem to work fine, but as soon as I enter the Turbo mode it would crash again. I have tried a few other batteries, and noticed that some would cause this problem and some would not.

However, after trying a few batteries, the UI would become completely haywire. At one point, all ramp functions is gone, if you simply click the power button it immediately enters turbo and the flashlight head immediately becomes very hot. Pushing the power button again would not turn it off, and I had to unscrew the cap. When I took out the battery and put back the Wurkkos battery it would have the same problem. I have factory reset it a few times and tried various things and eventually I would end up having the same problem.

It is a bit concerning but I wanted to see if anybody have any knowledge of this or similar problems? What would be the cause of this? I bought this off Aliexpress so a return may be difficult.

2

The flashlight needs unprotected batteries. When you use protected batteries, the protection circuit will trigger and disable the battery output.

It is possible that the sudden power loss corrupts the memory of the microcontroller (although unlikely). If it works again after a reset and using a suitable battery, then there is nothing wrong with the flashlight.

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3

That’s interesting. Didn’t know that. So it sounds like when the current draw is too high, a protected battery would cut power then. Is that the case?

4

Yes.

5

That Panasonic NCR19650B battery is rated for 5 amp continuous drain. Your light is probably pulling 13.48 amps on turbo according to this review Wurkkos FC13 Flashlight Review - ZeroAir Reviews Highest amp protected cell I’ve come across trips at 10.

6

Totally make sense. I overlooked this fact. Haven’t dealt with amp draws for a while so I forgot about this aspect.

7

Same here. Last night I was modding a 26650 light that I haven’t used in years. Put in a 6V 8A driver and would only get a single flash before it cuts out. After some frustration I realized the batteries are protected (my only 26650 light so I haven’t looked at the batteries in years either). Put in an unprotected 21700 and it works fine.

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