Nitecore P12 Battery Indicator Inquiry

I recently purchased the 2015 version of the P12. Seeming to be an odd man out these days, I still use CR123A's and do so with the aforementioned flashlight. The issue I am having is that with brand new batteries, the battery indicator LED (the blue one) will always blink every 2 seconds when in the High (Max) level. Not so with the other levels. When switching from High to the subsequent level, which is the ~1 lumen level, the blue LED will blink a random number of times between 1 and 4, maybe 5. Are these behaviours normal or abnormal?

[My apologies if discussed elsewhere; this was a difficult search criteria and there is a lot of discussion on this light.] TIA

What kind of batteries are you using? How old? Date on side? It sounds like maybe high is making the batteries voltage sag enough to give a false reading. Try using Surefire, Rayovac, or another trusted high drain lipo and see if you get the same results. If you do, I would call/email about warranty/replacement.

Maybe someone will chime in that has a new P12 but, it doesn't sound normal to me and if it is, I would be looking at another brand myself. Nitecore doesn't have the best reputation/reliability in general imo.

Used Surefire w/ 10-2023 date AND Duracell Ultra w/ MAR-2023 date. I'll try some others out of a different batch but intuition tells me I won't see different results. I, too, suspect voltage sag but like to know if others are seeing the same.

It my second foray into the Nitecore brand. The other light is their MT21A which I quite like. Otherwise I'm a Surefire and Olight man with a few Fenix's thrown in. Obviously, the jury is still out on the P12 and thus, it's maker.

Yeah those are good batteries, I doubt its the batteries as long as their new. I would look at having it warrantied.

I sort of wanted an inkling if this issue was "the nature of the beast" before I went through the trouble of a warranty claim. As of now, the problem is only the inconvenience of being distracted by a blue blinking LED for the first 2-3 minutes on "High" before the circuit steps down. Perhaps I can trouble the vendor to see if he/she can replicate the conditions; I've bought a few things from them

All in all, with the thought I've been having to give this, I've come to the realization that the P12 was not the right light for my intended use. I mean, using primary batteries in a light that gives a non-silencing warning at 50% capacity. What was I thinking? That about 3 hours of the blue distraction on "Mid" mode (I know it's not exactly linear but...). Or I can change out the batteries and find a use for half-capacity batteries. Perhaps this is a sign to delve into 18650's. At any rate, shear inventory numbers suggest that I am a collector. So add the P12 to my collection and let the current favorites enjoy their reign.

All that said, I am still interested in any information that can be shared concerning my original post. And, again, thanks.

i just bought my p12 and was playing with edison bright 3volts 1500 maH x2 mine does the same thing but i was checking voltage on it ...what i did was put volt meter on battery's cold @ 5.61volts in 5min. on high pulled out and tested again immediately @4.81volts waited for 6mins.tested again and it was back @5.4volts.
now this test was on a nitecore 3.7v 18650 3400mah battery...................................................................................................................................................................... [email protected] in 5min.....................................................immediately@4.05....................6min....................................back @4.07volts
now this test was on a olight3.7/3.6v 18650 3400mah battery .....................................................................................................................................................................cold 4.15volts in 5min........................................................immediately@4.05....................6mins..................................back @4.07volts


so this test i keep review that review that nite core got the best circuit board in to keep a steady pull ... well the result show it #1nite core #2 olight #3non rechargeable edison bright ...... the large amount of pull of energy and heat pulls rapidly on the edison nite core is avoids more stable so i guess one this amount to is the nite core p12 was design around the nite core rechargeable battery ..... hope this help !!!!!

gixxerguy,

:welcome:

Thank you for the information. It was interesting and supports my theory.

Also of note, I did call the vendor from whom I bought my P12 and was going to ask if they could try to replicate these conditions. I didn't have to say much; they were already aware of this issue using primary 123A's and had an inquiry in to Nitecore. They have had no response yet.

I have an older model (not 2015 ver) and it does the same thing on high with 2x123 (blue flash every 2 sec), depending on the battery, not immediately when bran new (some do some don't). Mine does not blink multiple times when going from high to low, it does blink once.

I am guessing this is just a fail of how they designed the battery notification, on high its drawing like 3 amps (at least at first start then drops down), which I think is max recommended for for a cr123, (I could be wrong) so drawing those kinds of amps causes the voltage drop like you mentioned. So even though the battery is not 'dead' it thinks it is and starts the blue flashing,if it was in a lower mode (less amp draw) it would be more depleted at those voltages and need the notification. So for it to work correctly in high, they would have to use a different voltage reading to trigger the blue button flashing. Or something like that. If that makes any sense.

I rarely use cr123 primaries, usually running 18650 or 16650's, but for what it's worth if I was going to be using cr123 cells, especially if wanting to use high mode a lot, I would stick with the quality made in the USA cells, seems they would be less apt to have issues. I am sure that is debatable but I that is my logic...

I know this is an old thread but still quite relevant. There is a design flaw in the voltage sensors in most Nitecore lights that have a voltage indicator. I have the SRT6, SRT7, 2xP12's. The voltage sensors in all of these lights just was not designed to sense 3 volt CR123's. The sensors cannot tell the difference between fresh 3 volt CR123's and totally depleted RCR123's/18650's. I know Nitecore says you can power the lights with CR123's and you can you will just have the low voltage LED going crazy the whole time which is annoying as hell and is a massive failure of Nitecore marketing/engineering. I believe the voltage sensor circuit was made like this on purpose most likely to cut costs I mean how could one of the biggest high end LED manufacturers "miss" something so obvious?