Exploding Niteye/Jetbeam Ec-R16 ?

Hello all,

i bought a niteye EC-R16 a few months ago.

The light is great, good UI, nice size, but today i found this link:

EC-R16

I was planning to use the light during my holydays, but now i’m a bit worried, i would not like and explosion in my hotel room…

So, has any owner of this flashlight already had problems with it ?
Can i trust the internal charging ?

It’s a bit sad, cause it’s a nice function when you’re travelling, but i’m not sure i can trust it…

What do you think ?

I read it for the first time, and it’s pretty sad how Jetbeam replied. To me it seems that the charging function of the light was defective. And I see no reason why Jetbeam has done something in the meantime, or whether you have received a revised model. I would buy a tiny single bay Xtar charger. Not only is Xtar reputable, but you can also monitor the battery’s temperature better. It is always advised in general to attend when charging Litium ion. Cheers :wink:

+1 I was shocked Jetbeam blamed him for not using the supplied USB cable. That’s a bunch of BS. USB cables supply the 5 volts from the power supply, that’s it. Unless the USB cable was wired wrong from the factory (reversed polarity)? We know that’s more than likely not the case.

The “U” of “USB” stands for universal. Jetbeam made a bad move with that post. The only reason Jetbeam tried to solve the problem is damage control.

Edit:

I do wonder if it is possible that the cable was faulty; a short in the cable resulting in heat generation near the battery? The battery was protected (over charging and short circuit) so how is this possible?

Agreed. But they caused more damage by saying that. It’s either a defective flashlight, or worse, a defective design.

Responding to your edit: If it was a short in the USB cable, it would cause issues on the charger side, not with the flashlight

Well it could easily of been the usb cable that caused the fire. Also remember all usb cables allow different amps with a minimum of 500 milliamp for usb type 2. Unless some one pulled the light apart no one would know? Most likely a cable got to hot and caught on fire.

damn, i also have this light but i never used the internal charging function. Its a super nice light, very small and bright. I like the elegant smooth ramping trough the different modes, i hope you know what i mean. Now you scared me with this post but i prefer external chargers for any light i own.

I completely disagree. The amount of current being drawn is dictated by the device, not the cable. If the Jetbeam relies on a proprietary cable with built-in resistance to current limit, then they are not using USB standards which should be included in their manual in big bold fonts.

One other thing, if there was a problem with the cable, it would have done something to the power supply, not the flashlight.

I can’t believe that got so little attention, especially on cpf. They just carried on scheduled programming.

I use micro-usb chargers in lights, but never while I’m sleeping and never without testing the charger first.

so was the cause found?
or is it time for me to make a mod for gta5?
put it in the store next to the note 7.

Yes the amount of current is dictated by the charging device to a certain degree. Some cables can not physically allow a lot of current through! I have cables that supply my phone with 800 milliamp max and others that do 2 amps fast charge. Plus the usb charging device could have malfunctioned and caused a short which would have made a cable get hot and burn.

True, but lesser quality cables will current limit on their own which is safer for the device being charged. Less current= less heat. That fact is, the Jetbeam is defective. Hopefully it’s not a common problem

https://empireherald.com/texas-woman-electrocuted-in-her-sleep-from-wearing-earbuds-while-iphone-was-charging/

I really do not trust any charging device.
Although usb are low power still more enough energy to cause harm. But this should be a lesson about charging any thing. Take the Samsung problem now.

I hear you my friend. I always monitor my batteries while charging. I take temperature readings during the charging cycle to make sure nothing’s getting too hot. Thankfully, I haven’t had a battery get above 35 degrees C while charging. I use a Fluke Mini 62 to take my measurements

My guess is, the battery was the problem. Since JB doesn’t make batteries, there may have been a faulty protection circuit, or the cell was re-wrapped wrong or sloppy. The user could also have damaged the cell in some way by mishandling.

That still doesn’t excuse the JB rep’s first post where he gave a snarky smart-ass analogy of how the user was at fault. I think the rep realized his stupid post, and quickly became helpful by offering a free replacement.

Not sure how wise it is to be charging a lithium Ion cell in a sealed air-tight tube anyway.

Very possible the battery was at fault. Scary to think about. I’m still thinking this guy got one with a defective charging circuit

I think this is not possible. The reason that it’s called a universal serial bus, is because it is universal. If older (low power) cable would cause a safety issue with newer USB variants, then the whole standardisation would be a failure. Newer USB variants exist, because it is universal with older generations.
A flaw in the cable is nevertheless still a possible cause in my opinion, at this moment.

Having a closer look at the pictures, here is my thought on the technical aspect of this fiasco:

Picture #1: The dark grey stuff that you can see on the white plug of the cable seemed to have been spewed out from the inside (the battery) via the port, which is the only way out, since the light is sealed. IF the cable was faulty at the plug, and generated a lot of heat triggering a bad effect of the battery, then I suspect you would see the plastic white plug deformed due to the heat. This is not the case. I believe you do need a lot, really a lot of heat for the battery to go poof, so I find it hard to believe the cable could have been faulty. The potential heat caused by a faulty cable would also not be in direct contact with the battery, as there is the driver/charger in between. So to me it seems unlikely that the cable was faulty.

I’m more than sure the USB cable wasn’t the cause of the problem, more likely it was the internal charge circuit or the battery. The cable supplied by jetbeam is cheaply built and not special by any mean, the guy was using a PISEN branded cable which is a good quality one.

It amazes me how little attention he got, people just ignored him, like it was the users fault.

I agree. If the cable was at fault, the housing on the connector would have shown distortion from overheating instead of just soot.