NiteCore D10 and AW protected 14500

[bagman]

The D10 was on my bedside, off and set to minimum, when it started strobing on its own, the only way I could get it to switch off was by unscrewing the head and body.

When I checked it out the next day the light still works of a fashion in that it produces light but acts like a disco light, not keeping to any set level and not working with switch presses.

The battery read 0v but when I read another post here about the protection circuit kicking in, I charged it and it now seems fine.

The inside of the lens has a frosting on it as if water has got in and condensed but it is permanent.

I have been in contact with 4sevens who are going to look at it but their take seemed to be that it was probably the battery that had caused the problem then it would not be covered under warranty.

Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen and is it not much more likely that the torch has caused the battery to discharge not the other way round?

 

[ltiu]

Has anyone else had this sort of thing happen and is it not much more likely that the torch has caused the battery to discharge not the other way round?

Is it a rechargeable battery you used or alkaline?

 

[bagman]

Is it a rechargeable battery you used or alkaline?

It was a 3.7v protected li-ion, specifically one of AW's button top 14500's

 

[zipplet]

Can you provide any pictures please? It would be nice to have a picture of the front (window), inside of the head, inside of the battery tube and battery.

 

[bagman]

Can you provide any pictures please? It would be nice to have a picture of the front (window), inside of the head, inside of the battery tube and battery.

I can try and take a piccy of the window later but the rest are all perfectly normal. There is nothing wrong in the battery tube or the inside of the head and once the battery was recharged it also has been working great. It is in another D10 in my pocket as I type?

 

[TooManyGizmos]

bagman, sidenote : (Anyone else in your house that could have gotten it wet - without your knowledge ?)

It's possible you did the same thing I did a week ago .
I was very distracted and put it down in the daylight while still burning on low. Sometimes I mistakenly hold the button too long which does not turn it off , but instead ramps it up one notch.The lows on the D10 are so low it's easy to leave "on" in ambient light.

I was using a nonprotected 14500 which drained to 0v so I had to throw it away. But it did not vent or cause any clouding of the lens.

Don't discount that it could have been left "on". I'm sure it has happened to at least 76% of us. It could have started "Strobing" just before the battery protection kicked in , as some LED lights do, to signal low voltage and the boost circuit goes wacky & blinks .

 

[bagman]

I am sure as I can be that it was not left on as it was on the bedside cabinet when I went to bed and in a dark room I would have noticed if it was on?

The kids have used it in the bath in the past but I dont think its that, the clouding is still there after a couple of weeks. If it was water I would have thought it would have dried out long before now as it was apart for several days.

 

[TooManyGizmos]

If the kids used it in the bath , it could have gotten wet inside and caused a circuit malfunction.
They could have even un-screwed it , without your knowledge.

Too many variables to accurately diagnose after knowing those details . (IMO)

 

[CNR]

I saw this thread as i was looking to find an info page about Li-ion cells' behavior for a very similar reason, and i was quite surprised,
so, let me add to the mystery :

I have a Liteflux LF5XT, which i use everyday, yesterday, after charging and reinstalling a protected Ultrafire 14500, i placed it turned off on my desk, to answer to my mobile, so as i was on the phone, i saw flashes coming from my desk, the light was flashing a few times, then stop for minutes then again, that happened 3-4 times.

Trying to figure out what was that, i found out that when i was shaking up&down hard the light, eventually it would turn on either on max or in strange modes (blinking-strobing, going from max to lower and back, and more) and it wouldn't turn off unless i was cutting the cirquit by unscrewing the head.

I cleaned all threads, took out and reinstalled the button and everything, and all seemed to be normal again, but this afternoon i found the battery dead (0.05V or so)

My best guess is that it turned itself on into my pocket and partied untill prot.cirquit kicked in, but it's really strange.

Somehow i have the feeling that that was caused by the battery, but i can't explain it. :shrug:


Edit: There is no way that the (reccesed) button was pushed in that pocket, now i have another fully charged 14500 in, to see what happens.

 

[45/70]

I own both the D10 and LF5XT.

If the kids used it in the bath , it could have gotten wet inside and caused a circuit malfunction.
They could have even un-screwed it , without your knowledge.

I'm with TMG on this one. I'd speculate that there's a 99.44% (I grew up near Cincinnati) chance that the bathing experience is to blame for your problem.


CNR,

There is no way that the (reccesed) button was pushed in that pocket, now i have another fully charged 14500 in, to see what happens.

I know you say this, but with the light doing what you say it did, it sounds like somehow, it did get "switched" on.

..... i placed it turned off on my desk, to answer to my mobile, so as i was on the phone, i saw flashes coming from my desk, the light was flashing a few times, then stop for minutes then again, that happened 3-4 times.

I'm guessing what happened here, from some of my own experience with the LF5XT. I know you say you put a freshly charged cell in the light. Are you sure about that? The cycling you describe sounds like when the under voltage protection of the LF5XT kicks in. One thing about this feature, is that once it is activated, as I remember, it can not be stopped (except by breaking the circuit by unscrewing the head, or tail). If you try to turn the light off for example, it won't turn off. The only way to turn it off, is to wait until the warning cycle has completed, then it will act normally and you can turn it off. I think this came into play when you thought you turned your light off and set it down to answer your mobile.

..... when i was shaking up&down hard the light, eventually it would turn on either on max or in strange modes (blinking-strobing, going from max to lower and back, and more) and it wouldn't turn off unless i was cutting the cirquit by unscrewing the head.

This sounds like possibly a combination of the under voltage protection warning kicking in, and the LF5XT in "Demo Mode". By shaking the light, it is possible that you sent the proper number of signals (battery contact interruptions) to activate the demo mode (Of course, you would have to have had the demo mode as one of your "preset" modes for this to happen). In either event, the light wouldn't turn off until, (a) you let the under voltage warning cycle finish, or (b) you cycled the UI out of demo mode. The only way you could override either of these events (or both, if they were actually running at the same time), would be to break the circuit, as you did.

Hope this helps.

I will say, owning both the D10 and the LF5XT, the LF5XT (mine is one of the original R2's) wins in every category except simplicity, as you have found out on your own.

Dave

 

[CNR]

No, wish it would be that simple, but it isn't :

I took out and charged the battery, it read 4.17V on DMM, right after it was done (i always check voltage right after charging), put it in the light, turned it on on 50% brightness (my most used preset), turned it off again (for sure) and placed it on my desk, after a few minutes it started doing what i described, when i was trying to find out what was going on, among other things, i took out and rechecked the batt. with the DMM, and was reading 4.12-4.13V, which is not strange.

Now,
The LF5's low voltage warning signal, is a pulsing variation on brightness and not an on-off flashing, unless there was current draw for some reason when the light was off, and it's cirquit considered it was on, so it gave a low voltage warning, variating brightness from the current one, (which was zero). But even so, why give a low V warning when the batt. out of the light measured 4.13V ?
Anyway, after it was over and put it in my jacket's pocket again, i insist there's no way that the button would be pushed in that soft pocket (and i don't bungee jumping on my way to/from work )

PS: the "Demo mode" you mentioned is something i've never seen in my LF2, nor it is mentioned anywhere in the manual, and certainly isn't one of my presets, also, i only have one more 14500, but it's stored into my drawer, so they wasn't any other 14500 on my desk.


BL is, i wouldn't bet an arm on what happened while in my pocket, but i am more than sure of what happened when on my desk.

 

[TooManyGizmos]

bagman ,

Sounds like you need to send that D10 back to where you got it .... for a replacement .

Loose battery contact issues and software upgrade needed.

Wasn't there an issue on these when new , about turning OFF if they were dropped on the tail , causing batt. to loose contact ? or was that some other light ? Was it the D10 or the LF5XT .... or another ?
Got so many now - I get em all confused !
.

 

[45/70]

PS: the "Demo mode" you mentioned is something i've never seen in my LF2, nor it is mentioned anywhere in the manual, and certainly isn't one of my presets.....

Sorry CNR, you're right. The LF5XT doesn't even have a "Demo Mode"!

I'm suffering a bit as TMG does, except, I only have two LiteFlux lights, an LF2 and the LF5XT. Truth is, I change the programing of either one so rarely I forgot, I guess.:candle: I do have two MJP Extreme III's that have the same basic UI, so 3 out of the 4 do have the demo mode. Perhaps I can use that as an excuse?

The only other thing I can think of is that you say you are using a protected UltraFire 14500. I don't have any of those, but I am aware that some protected cells are a lot longer than they should be (because of the added circuit). I have also noticed that with cells that are somewhat longer than others, both the D10 and LF5XT have very short piston movement. It takes hardly any movement with the longer cells to activate the switching function. Could this possibly play into the problem?

Wasn't there an issue on these when new , about turning OFF if they were dropped on the tail , causing batt. to loose contact ? or was that some other light ? Was it the D10 or the LF5XT .... or another ?

That was, in fact, the LF5XT.

My apologies to bagman for basically taking his thread off topic. I saw what I thought, was an opportunity to help CNR, and have failed miserably, sorry.

Dave

 

[CNR]

@ 45/70 : You really don't need an excuse for not remembering something correctly, do you ? i hope not... otherwise there are so many excuses i owe .

About the LF5XT, this specific batt. is a bit of a snug fit in the light (where the other, of the same type fits fine, go figure :shrug: ) so, maybe it was just barely made contact at one end (being snug and not moving freely by the springs), making the cirquit go crazy, who knows.
If i find out anything more and it has to do with the battery, i'll post.

Thanks for the effort anyway

 

[alfreddajero]

I would still send the light back as i think the battery is not the cause....i have run the battery down many times when the power goes out and where i live it seems to be going out a lot lately....especially during bad storms or when its really windy. When the circuit kicks in the light should just turn off without any disco strobing. Have you checked your o-rings for nicks....moisture might have gotten in there.