You're probably right, maybe I'm just expecting too much...
My flask is doing some weird stuff. It's randomly switching to kanthal mode and I have to take the atty off and put it back on, sometimes several time, to get it back... It also will not fire out of locked mode if it sets too long, after five clicks to unlock it immediately displays "TEMPERATURE PROTECTION"... I think it's probably going back...
I have never had these experiences on my Waidea. I have issues with it detecting Kanthal
coils as Nickel -
vaping them in TC mode for several seconds before it realises and changes to volts - but I haven't had a Nickel coil regularly drop out of TC mode. I think it did happen once or twice, but that was on my Lemo 1 before I fixed the 510 pin when it was very unreliable for TC. Other attys always stay in TC fine.
Are you still only using the STM or are you getting this on many attys?
Re the unlock mode, the Waidea doesn't actually stay locked for a long time. That's one of the downsides of the non-Infinite Flasks, Kangxin and Waidea. So if you lock it then go away for X minutes (30? 60? can't remember) it will no longer be locked. Instead it will basically have reset - or it will reset when you press fire. You press fire, it says "
dna 40", then it shows 0.00 resistance and you have to press fire to get it to read the resistance, then you can vape. This is the "double tap from sleep" issue that people talk about, and is the number one problem/deficiency of the Kangxin/Waidea flasks.
So you pressing fire five times after leaving it would count as: one click to turn it on, another click to read resistance, and then three fires. So probably you're firing three times in a row, though I'm not quite sure why that should trigger an immediate TEMP PROTECT . Unless this is another symptom of your first issue - a dodgy atty or connection to atty, with wavering resistances.
In these situations have you verified, after coming back to it after a long while, that it is in fact locked? You press fire once to wake it up and you see the CLICK 5xLOCKED message on screen?
I agree with
@ThunderDan that at this stage it's far from certain that it is broken. It might be. Or all your problems might step from not understanding some of its quirks, and unstable resistances in your atty(s).
More info is needed to diagnose.
And that is also why Focal want a video. They don't want to pay $20 for you to ship back a product that's not broken. Besides which, it's also probably mostly out of their hands. Waidea insists on these steps and the Chinese vendors seem to usually do what the Chinese manufacturers/distributors demand. At least that was my identical experience with 3FVape and my Waidea, when it was initially DOA.
FastTech is the exception because of their own no-quibble 45 day guarantee - though they will charge shipping both ways if you're returning it when it's not actually faulty. I don't know if they ask for videos up front or just issue the RMA, but if you were to RMA and it wasn't faulty I am sure they would then charge you shipping costs.
Try several attys and see if the TC detection improves. Check the lock-after-sleep. If you can't figure it out still, I would suggest you do make a video. Show it to us first, maybe we can identify things you're misunderstanding or can improve. If not, and it really does seem faulty, then you'll already have a video ready to show Focal.