Lumintop FWAA Vampirism

[Feamane]

I have a Lumintop FWAA with 3x Nichia 219C. It's an awesome little light. Well, except for the horrifying vampiric drain. Way worse than mere parasitic drain. For example: four days ago I put in a Vapcell H10 1000mAh cell charged to 3.85v. It has sat on my desk since then, unused. Just tried turning it on with no response. Pulled the cell and it is reading 1.88v! I have tried several other cells with similar result.

Is this normal for the FWAA? I have also noticed that I have to almost completely unscrew the head AND tailcap to stop the drain. It's not like it has a lit switch or something. Am I doing something wrong with the Anduril 2 config? Or is this thing defective? Seems kinda useless as an EDC if it drains 0.5v every day.

Thanks,
DJ

 

[vadimax]

I have a Lumintop FWAA with 3x Nichia 219C. It's an awesome little light. Well, except for the horrifying vampiric drain. Way worse than mere parasitic drain. For example: four days ago I put in a Vapcell H10 1000mAh cell charged to 3.85v. It has sat on my desk since then, unused. Just tried turning it on with no response. Pulled the cell and it is reading 1.88v! I have tried several other cells with similar result.

Is this normal for the FWAA? I have also noticed that I have to almost completely unscrew the head AND tailcap to stop the drain. It's not like it has a lit switch or something. Am I doing something wrong with the Anduril 2 config? Or is this thing defective? Seems kinda useless as an EDC if it drains 0.5v every day.

Thanks,
DJ

Nope. Most likely a lemon (a light or a battery). I own a copper Nichia version and it is perfect.

Not long ago I had a quickly discharging AA battery. I was ready to blame a light for extremely high drain not even being used. But then I used a metering charger on the battery in question and understood that the light is OK -- the battery suffered huge internal resistance. It was "new", but could not neither charge normally nor hold the charge. It was discharging even laying alone.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

3.85v for a 14500 is not very well charged at all if you don't charge a lithium ion battery to 4v or so it won't have anywhere near full capacity and if you want the max 4.2v is optimal, most tool batteries are charged to a little more than 4V per cell at 3.6v no load a battery is about depleted. If you have a VOM I would try and measure the current that the light is drawing when "off" and consult with the specs as you could have a dud also and need to get it replaced.

 

[DoctorMemory]

I have a Lumintop FWAA with 3x Nichia 219C. It's an awesome little light. Well, except for the horrifying vampiric drain. Way worse than mere parasitic drain. For example: four days ago I put in a Vapcell H10 1000mAh cell charged to 3.85v. It has sat on my desk since then, unused. Just tried turning it on with no response. Pulled the cell and it is reading 1.88v! I have tried several other cells with similar result.

Is this normal for the FWAA? I have also noticed that I have to almost completely unscrew the head AND tailcap to stop the drain. It's not like it has a lit switch or something. Am I doing something wrong with the Anduril 2 config? Or is this thing defective? Seems kinda useless as an EDC if it drains 0.5v every day.

Thanks,
DJ

I have a full set on the shelf, they are still good after months. I'd bet on a bad cell.

 

[aznsx]

"I have tried several other cells with similar result."