Armytek Wizard/Pro Thread

[SubLGT]

• My main complaint is that it is not an easy task to remove the light from the silicon holder. Aquick release function would make the light convenient to use as a handheld light with pocket clip. If they can add this feature without compromising the 360 rotation design, this light would easily become my EDC…………………….

A quick release function would be a great feature. I would buy another Wizard only if it had that feature, and if they stopped using the ridiculously stiff switch. Only a 180lb orangutan, with its tremendous hand strength, can love the Wizard switch.

 

[blah9]

Hi all,
I have a Wizard pro Warm and am a big fan, love the UI, beam, tint, ergonomics etc. Except that on a recent trip to Norway it started to misbehave in the cold (-10 C or so), with the button flashing red and the light blinking. It did this when I changed the battery, and when I kept it warm before exposing it to the cold.
This is somewhat disappointing as I have had no issues in warmer climes and it is a firm favourite.

I have had it for 6 months or so, I believe it to be from the batch following the initial run that had some issues. Has anyone else had similar issues?

Yes, I have some trouble in the cold as well. At around freezing or a little bit colder my light also blinks sometimes. It usually seems to do it when I first go to a new mode or first put in the batteries, and then I seem to be able to leave it in that mode for a while without much trouble. Maybe it will blink once in a while again on me after that, but it's not all the time. I usually just leave it set to whatever mode I want at that point and then just keep walking (I often use it for hiking/camping lately), and then it doesn't bother me too much. I guess the voltage sags in the cold?

I'm a huge fan of the tint and beam characteristics as well (I also have the Warm), so I am not too disappointed. It hasn't failed on me or anything like that in the cold so far. It can be annoying to see where you're going if you're in the middle of scrambling down some rocks when it starts to blink though.

 

[Led Astray]

thanks for the feedback blah9. It isn't a showstopper for me either, I doubt I will get down to those sort of temperatures again and I have alternatives that work just fine. I didn't really try too many options to see if the problem got worse or disappeared - I seem to remember that it stopped blinking one one occasion and started again on another, but I was busy trying to see the northern lights at the time so didn't pay too much attention.

It may be the voltage sags but I tried with a warm light & battery with the same result, and with no such problem with my SC600. Possibly the temperature sensor is not well calibrated for lower temperatures. Anyway, in normal everyday use I have no such issues.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one to experience this and that it hasn't failed on you.

 

[blah9]

Do your other alternatives also take an 18650? I'm just curious.

And that's a good point about the temperature sensor maybe not being calibrated properly. Maybe that is what's going on. In my case sometimes I take the headlamp out of my jacket and other times I leave it on my head before turning it on, so I'm not sure in which situations in particular the light has this behavior. But yes, I have used it many times out in the cold and it seems to hold up.

I think one time it did blink even more often when it was even colder, but again it held up just fine for the few hours I spent outside shoveling snow that time.

 

[soul347]

Is it possible to turn off state indicator flashes completely, or just for off/firefly 1 mode?

Lastly, I have foolishly selected CR123A or RCR123 when I have only 18650s, and locked myself out. The indicator light works, but I can't switch battery types. Any ideas or do I need to give up go buy some other batteries? Seems odd to make it possible to lock yourself out of the flashlight with the wrong clicks, but maybe it's necessary for some reason or it didn't occur to them that anyone would be so foolish.

It's quite easy to turn off the state indicator:

1. While light is off, unscrew the tailcap by 1/4
2. Press and hold the button
3. While the button is pressed, tighten the tail cap again
4. Unscrew the tailcap again by 1/4, ensuring you are still holding down the button.
5. Repeat steps to turn it back on

Also you can change your battery selection anytime. The light should work perfectly fine even if you have indicated the wrong kind of battery. But the battery state indicator will probably be inaccurate in telling you the correct voltage of your battery. Follow the instructions in your manual on how to select the correct battery type. I myself use 18650's and think it would make no sense to use anything else with this headlamp.

 

[Beacon of Light]

In either this thread or another one, someone posted these exact same steps but it was for turning the tactical interface on/off. Which is it?

It's quite easy to turn off the state indicator:

1. While light is off, unscrew the tailcap by 1/4
2. Press and hold the button
3. While the button is pressed, tighten the tail cap again
4. Unscrew the tailcap again by 1/4, ensuring you are still holding down the button.
5. Repeat steps to turn it back on

Also you can change your battery selection anytime. The light should work perfectly fine even if you have indicated the wrong kind of battery. But the battery state indicator will probably be inaccurate in telling you the correct voltage of your battery. Follow the instructions in your manual on how to select the correct battery type. I myself use 18650's and think it would make no sense to use anything else with this headlamp.

 

[soul347]

In either this thread or another one, someone posted these exact same steps but it was for turning the tactical interface on/off. Which is it?

There is a slight difference. Omit step 4 in order to turn on tactical mode, and just unscrew the tail cap again to turn it off. Add step 4 to turn on/off state indicator.

 

[nihilistnarwhal]

It's quite easy to turn off the state indicator:

1. While light is off, unscrew the tailcap by 1/4
2. Press and hold the button
3. While the button is pressed, tighten the tail cap again
4. Unscrew the tailcap again by 1/4, ensuring you are still holding down the button.
5. Repeat steps to turn it back on

Also you can change your battery selection anytime. The light should work perfectly fine even if you have indicated the wrong kind of battery. But the battery state indicator will probably be inaccurate in telling you the correct voltage of your battery. Follow the instructions in your manual on how to select the correct battery type. I myself use 18650's and think it would make no sense to use anything else with this headlamp.

Sounds like I may have a faulty light then. After turning off the state indicator mine was still blinking every 5 seconds in Firefly 2/3, main and maximum modes, but not OFF or Firefly 1 mode. I could turn it back on and it would flash in all modes. After selecting RCR123 battery type, only my indicator light works (red) when I press the switch, and sometimes it blinks by itself. When tightening the tailcap sometimes the main LED will flash once, and sometimes the indicator may flash green or red with it. It seems to change when I press the switch different ways, but it's inconsistent in doing so. Another thing, when playing around with it working correctly it seemed to enter "tactical" mode without me unscrewing it, but it happened only twice and I was unable to replicate it.

4 different protected NCR18650B batteries, all charged and working fine in another light.

 

[Led Astray]

Do your other alternatives also take an 18650? I'm just curious.

And that's a good point about the temperature sensor maybe not being calibrated properly. Maybe that is what's going on. In my case sometimes I take the headlamp out of my jacket and other times I leave it on my head before turning it on, so I'm not sure in which situations in particular the light has this behavior. But yes, I have used it many times out in the cold and it seems to hold up.

I think one time it did blink even more often when it was even colder, but again it held up just fine for the few hours I spent outside shoveling snow that time.

Yes, I took my full arsenal of 'good' lights. One was a Zebralight SC600 MKii (neutral, not overly keen on cool white) in which I have an unprotected Panasonic ncr18650b 3400mAh, which I swapped with the protected Olight 18650 3400 mAh which normally resides in the Wizard, and had the same issue. The Zebralight functioned perfectly in the cold with both batteries.

So that would seem to rule out the battery being the issue, and also negates the possibility of the protection circuit on the Olight battery being the cause. I started to think it could be voltage sag as you original mentioned, if the Wizard is overly sensitive to a small drop induced by the cold, but logically then it would show the same behaviour when the battery is partly depleted and I haven't had this. I am inclined to think it is the temperature sensor.

As an aside I think I read somewhere that NiMH batteries (i.e. Eneloops) are less affected by cold than other chemistries so I also took along a couple of lights powered by these which I handed out to my kids and they functioned perfectly too.

 

[blah9]

Yes, I took my full arsenal of 'good' lights. One was a Zebralight SC600 MKii (neutral, not overly keen on cool white) in which I have an unprotected Panasonic ncr18650b 3400mAh, which I swapped with the protected Olight 18650 3400 mAh which normally resides in the Wizard, and had the same issue. The Zebralight functioned perfectly in the cold with both batteries.

So that would seem to rule out the battery being the issue, and also negates the possibility of the protection circuit on the Olight battery being the cause. I started to think it could be voltage sag as you original mentioned, if the Wizard is overly sensitive to a small drop induced by the cold, but logically then it would show the same behaviour when the battery is partly depleted and I haven't had this. I am inclined to think it is the temperature sensor.

As an aside I think I read somewhere that NiMH batteries (i.e. Eneloops) are less affected by cold than other chemistries so I also took along a couple of lights powered by these which I handed out to my kids and they functioned perfectly too.

Ah, thank you for all that information. I don't have any other headlamps that would be out in the cold like the Wizard (and wouldn't go back in my pocket to warm up like my handheld lights), so I had nothing to compare it with. I'm glad to hear that the batteries perform fine in that weather in other lights because I was afraid that they were the problem.

Well, that is a disappointment about the Wizard then, but at least it does seem to keep functioning just fine. My wife's Armytek Tiara using an Eneloop seemed to work just fine the whole time without blinking now that I think about it, so that also follows your experience.

 

[chadvone]

14 Lumen firefly is a fail to me. Long press from off= firefly. Press hold in firefly to change firefly , your hit with 14 lemens

Edit- I have no issues with the 14 lumen level in the firefly loop. Light cycles slow enough, I always have time to stop on lower level.

 

[D6859]

A quick release function would be a great feature. I would buy another Wizard only if it had that feature, and if they stopped using the ridiculously stiff switch. Only a 180lb orangutan, with its tremendous hand strength, can love the Wizard switch.

Then I must be a 180lb orangutan (actually 170lb). But then again, I like climbing.

 

[D6859]

Hi all,
I have a Wizard pro Warm and am a big fan, love the UI, beam, tint, ergonomics etc. Except that on a recent trip to Norway it started to misbehave in the cold (-10 C or so), with the button flashing red and the light blinking. It did this when I changed the battery, and when I kept it warm before exposing it to the cold.

I have v1.5 (or so it was sold to me). I just returned from a skiing trip in northern Finland. I went 4 days with a single 18650 (3200 or 3400 mAh Keeppower). I had no problems using it in the cold (from -1 C to -12 C) and neither had my girlfriend using Tiara A1 powered by a single 14500 (900 mAh Keeppower or 800 mAh Eagtac).

 

[Henrik]

I am looking at the Wizard Pro v.2 Warm to replace a BD ReVolt (the PWM and interface finally got to me) for Search & Rescue and have been trying to confirm whether the Wizard Pro is current controlled on all levels. ArmyTek customer service says all levels are current controlled, but I've seen posts here on CPF indicating the Wizard uses PWM at least in the Firefly modes. Can anyone confirm?
Of course the posts here about malfunction in the cold has me a bit concerned - that'd be a deal breaker.

 

[soul347]

14 Lumen firefly is a fail to me. Long press from off= firefly. Press hold in firefly to change firefly , your hit with 14 lemens

Not sure what you're referring to here? The first firefly mode is 0.2 lumens. On my wizard pro, it is super dim you can barely see unless it is almost pitch black.

 

[soul347]

I am looking at the Wizard Pro v.2 Warm to replace a BD ReVolt (the PWM and interface finally got to me) for Search & Rescue and have been trying to confirm whether the Wizard Pro is current controlled on all levels. ArmyTek customer service says all levels are current controlled, but I've seen posts here on CPF indicating the Wizard uses PWM at least in the Firefly modes. Can anyone confirm?
Of course the posts here about malfunction in the cold has me a bit concerned - that'd be a deal breaker.

I have no tools to measure this, but I can say with confidence that each mode looks exactly the same whether my battery is full or nearly empty. However when my battery is low, it no longer allows me to use the turbo mode and starts blinking to indicate that it will lower the output. I still have yet to test mine in sub zero temperatures. Perhaps I'll try throwing it in the freezer for a bit then using it then.

 

[Henrik]

I have no tools to measure this, but I can say with confidence that each mode looks exactly the same whether my battery is full or nearly empty. However when my battery is low, it no longer allows me to use the turbo mode and starts blinking to indicate that it will lower the output. I still have yet to test mine in sub zero temperatures. Perhaps I'll try throwing it in the freezer for a bit then using it then.

Thanks Soul; my only "instrument" for testing for PWM is a ceiling fan in a dark room Any freezer test results will be appreciated.

 

[D6859]

Thanks Soul; my only "instrument" for testing for PWM is a ceiling fan in a dark room Any freezer test results will be appreciated.

I just remembered I froze mine in a freezer when I got the headlamp to check if it started blinking or anything. I had no problems. I have v1.5, I think.

 

[soul347]

Did the freezer test. Left my wizard in there for a solid 20+ minutes. It was very cold to the touch when it came out. What I discovered is that every mode works properly and consistently except turbo/highest mode. When on the highest mode, it starts blinking and lowers output. Every other mode works completely fine. After using the light for 2 minutes or so, the light warms up and the problem goes away.

On the way home I got out to a park in sub zero temperatures here in Canada and ran around a bit with the wizard pro. I had no issues even on turbo. This is probably because I started using the wizard at room temperature, and having the light on was able to keep it warm.

I'm not too bothered by these results, because I don't often use turbo mode, but armytek definitely has to fix this issue in a future model. My guess is it isn't the battery, but the temperature sensor that the wizard uses to protect against high temperatures, but for whatever reason it also freaks out at lower temperatures as well.

 

[Henrik]

I just remembered I froze mine in a freezer when I got the headlamp to check if it started blinking or anything. I had no problems. I have v1.5, I think.

Thanks D6859 - from what I remember reading the issue seems to be with v.2

Did the freezer test. ...

Thank you Soul. Sorry to hear the bug exists, but happy that it may be manageable. Issue for me could be using it for SAR, where we're out for many hours in freezing temps. Realistically though, I won't be using Turbo much.