Just received my XP-G3 version from the Banggood pre-order and it's DOA. The length of the battery tube seems to be slightly off and I managed to damage (flatten the negative end) of a Nitecore 18350 trying to tighten it fully (hope the battery is still safe to keep around!) The battery + spring in the head is soldered off-center and somewhat "crunched"; I managed to expand the coils slightly with a screwdriver so that it pops up more properly; unfortunately it does not make it work. Have just filled out the form on the Banggood web site; awaiting response.
Both the S1 and the S41 use springs at both ends, using the same battery tubes as the S42, and can accommodate a wide variety of batteries without continuity problems or damaging batteries through compression. It seems the real issue is the distance between the threads and the metal bezel inside the cap. Too bad that, in cheapening the fabrication to meet a cost point, they eliminated the screwable brass retainer rings in the tailcap and pill end.
I'm going to try to shim the tail cap to see if the added length can compensate for the design that renders the battery tubes too short.
Still have to prepare my YouTube video for Banggood CS to prove to them that I actually have the flashlight and that it does not work...
Could do the shim method, but since I would bypass the driver spring anyways, might as well just replace it with a button. I'll only be using IMR cells, flat tops. Got a bunch of the Aspire 18650's on the way, but also have EFEST's now.
Eventually I'll swap the driver for NarsilM, just no time right now.
Aha, no brass retainer ring on the driver side, so it’s some 2.5mm too short inside…
I guess just remove the driver spring (and put a subtle solder blob there) will solve the problem.
Any battery rattle or anything with the fix? Does it still want to crush the negative side?
Horrible with this lights regular price that this has been overlooked to begin with
Oh boy, definitely no rattle. Crushing the Batt- end? Well, maybe... It's darn tight in there. These are older EFEST cells, so might have been already some crushing. But it you see the cell sitting in the tube, just a little under the end, and knowing the tail spring has to completely collapse down to ~2 mm maybe, it doesn't look good.