Problems with Everybuying/Utorch UT01

Anyone can claim a light is not working, so they request you to show what’s wrong with it.
Sounds reasonable to me.

By a video showing you press the switch?

Yes. You show what’s wrong, you show you use a charged battery too.
Usually someone goes back to the shop where the item was purchased when it’s not working properly, and then you can show what’s wrong.
Do you think you can go back to a flashlight shop with a picture?
Or would you say “Close your eyes” to them? :slight_smile:
You choose to buy cheap from abroad, so you’ll have to produce some reasonable evidence for a problem the item may have, if you want a replacement or a refund.
Otherwise folks could just claim away as they please and receive a 2nd item for free.
And i bet many people try that trick too.
How would you feel about that if you were the seller?
It’s common sense that you have to produce evidence of the problems when they ask you to show what’s wrong.
I think Paypal will agree with that too.

Well, I didn’t have to provide a pic or vid. They just emailed me the resolution; keep the light and they’re going to refund the full price to my PP. Acceptable. Shame it didn’t work though.

I’m figuring it’s the driver that’s the problem? As I mentioned, the 30 seconds it did work, it didn’t go through all of the modes (no turbo). Then nothing at all. Maybe the switch, but I’m thinking driver? I don’t know off hand what size or kind of driver it takes. Any thoughts on that are welcome. Don’t know anything about changing a switch though.

Well, that’s nice of them (i.m.h.o.)
Maybe this topic helped a little too.

it could be the switch, but sounds more like the driver is faulty.

Maybe…this is similar to what my first UT01 did. I ran it through the UI cycle once or twice without a real problem if memory serves me. Then the short clicks started not changing anything. After a few more minutes only long clicks would work and even then I was pushing in different directions just to get “contact” on the long clicks. The last long click turned the light on but I ended up having to unscrew the tailcap because it wouldn’t turn off again no matter how I pushed on the switch. There are dozens of similar stories on the UT01 thread from last year. There was even a suggested replacement switch but I don’t think I read where anyone made the change and no tear down that I’ve seen so far.

That said, big fat guess on my part that’s worth nada without seeing the OP’s light. :slight_smile:

Well, I did a search back through that 8 page UT01 thread. So many faulty switches got me curious. I put another alky battery in the UT01 and using my thumb nail I really pressed down into the switch…it worked…mostly. What I mean is that it did work, but not consistently. Not something I would rely on as an EDC light. I’ve done some light modding as far as replacing stars and drivers but have no experience with switches. I took the boot cover off and see the little button down inside. I took a small screwdriver and I’m able to cycle through the modes. I’m trying to figure out something that I can place into the housing, over the small button and then replace the boot cover to see if it can be made consistent. Trying to figure out what is small enough that I can give it a try.

I found out the switch is a TL 3340 if I need to replace. Does anyone have a good source for this switch? And does anyone know of a good video that would guide me through replacing the switch? I’ll try the jury rig first, but would still like to know where I can get a replacement switch and good instruction on how to replace it if possible and if needed.

Thank you :slight_smile:

I got mine 2 days ago and I has tha same problem that the switch is faulty. It only do something when Ipress harder. If not I can click it all day long and doing nothing.
I writed this to gearbest. I will wait for their reply. If I got a replacement light or refund I will buy a switch and make some photos or video of the replacing. I can do soldering well so I think it is doable. I think to get the driver out you need to remove bezel, reflector. Unsolder led wires. Remove body tube and then pull out driver. When I remove the tube the driver is moving a little so no glue or any hard stuff holding it in just the wires and the tube.

Edit:
The Nokia 6120 classic phone I think has the same switch for volume control and I found some on aliexpress. I’m not 100% sure but for this price I will give it a try and order 3 buttons.

@Jerommel,

I refuse to do that for a $4.49 flashlight, for example.
Doesn’t honesty count anymore?

Well, the juries still out…

However, I showed the switch to my wife with the boot cover removed. She makes jewelry so I figured she might have something small enough to place over the switch that would allow the boot cover to have a better connection. She had a very small bead that was flat on both sides that fit pretty much perfectly on top of the switch but was wide enough that it shouldn’t shift too much. I replaced the boot and it now works as it’s suppose to work. I say the jury is out as I want to use it for a while to make sure this simple fix is actually a long term solution. The boot is no longer flat on top, it is slightly raised in the center, but not that much really. I don’t ‘think’ that it’s going to cause any issues with accidentally being activated but the proof is in actually carrying and using it. So we’ll see…

Is it not just a problem that the switch has moved somehow? A lack of support behind it?

Mine is brand new. It has this behaviour since first power on.

Did you try to center the switch? Evidently it can come off-centered causing issues like the one you’re experiencing. It’s covered in this thread. This is the fix per post #518.

————— snipped from post #518 ————————
T18
Offline
Last seen: 9 hours 5 min ago
Joined: 02/14/2016 - 12:29
Posts: 737
Send PM
OK, fixed my switch issue.
What was happening was the switch boot nub was catching on that flat ledge around the switch contact pad.
So all you have to do is remove the switch boot, very easy to do.
Check the switch by directly pressing on the switch contact and go through all your modes and on/off, check double click, check everything and if all your modes are working fine then it’s probably not centered and catching on that ledge, you should be able to notice easy enough.
So being that the driver, switch and MCPCB are all one piece, just get some very fine tweezers and inside the positive end of the driver take the tweezers like you where going to remove a regular retainer ring, and just slightly turn the complete driver assembly one way or the other until it looks centered and put the boot back in, it’s very easy to put in since that retainer isn’t really pressed down hard onto the lip of the boot.
And done,
Hope that helps someone, these are really great lights no matter what.

Thank You George, what’s next ??

Edit: By the way the reflector is threaded and mine had a small dap of glue on it, might be wise to remove reflector prior to twisting on the driver end…

Looking inside the assembly, the switch looked like it was dead center.

Too bad in a way as that would be an easy fix :frowning:

There was also speculation that, even with a well centered switch, the material the switch boot was made of was too soft to make consistent contact. This really made me curious about how the “bead fix” might pan out.

So far so good. I’m playing around with it throughout the day to put some ‘reps’ on it. May just be the ticket I hope. Just had to find the right sized object to fit between the switch button and the boot.

Yeah. I bought a ~25buk green laser from FT. DOA. Reported it, “take video”, got replacement (my choice, vs refund). Another DOA. Same dealy, video, but refunded no problem. Sent back both, got credited the postage both times. Yay, FT! No grief, no haggling, no “how’bout 5bux and you keep the DOA laser”, nothing. Full refund for the cost and 2× postage.

I’m thinking now that some lasers require the cell to be installed backwards, ie, pointy end of the cell towards the tail, not towards the head. Never described anywhere, didn’t want to pop the driver (or cell) if something would short out if reverse-polarised, so never tried that. But never even knew of that possibility back when I bought it.

Anyhoo, the video showed me (one-handed!) dropping an 18350 into the tube, thumb’n’forefinger trying to screw on the tailcap, then aiming the laser at a white napkin and repeatedly clicking it to show no output. 30sec or so.

(One-handed ’cause I had to hold the phone-camera with my other hand. :stuck_out_tongue: )

Well I got my PP refund today, full refund. The bead fix still seems to be taking care of the problem.

I got the new switches from aliexpress and also got full refund from gearbest.
Now I write down the switch replacement.
This is the switch I used.
First you need to remove the battery tube.

After that remove the bezel. No glue anywhere.

The reflector has a thread to twist in the head. It may came off with bezel.

Then remove centering ring. Mine was cracked. And unsolder led wires with a pointy soldering iron.

The thermal paste was completely dry and the led MCPCB does not has any so the shelf does not touched the MCPCB.

The driver came out towards battery. and you can see the switch.

I was worked in a Nokia factory as a product technican and we used this type of switch as volume buttons in Nokia 6120 Classics.
It is easy to melt and because there are 3 bottom pads it can easily peel off pads from PCB. So one way is to use hot air soldering to remove and not care about melting the bad one or I used soldering wick to remove solder and cutted the front legs with pliers. Then it came off but almost peeled off the center pad from board.


You can see the removed switch place on the right. One bottom leg is very hard to unsolder or resolder because a component is too close to reach wirt soldering tip.

Two of the bottom pads are connected together. The first with the third one. So I soldered the fromt support legs more and the bottom third pad I left unsoldered. It works that way too and strong enough. Then reassembled and added a good amount of thermal paste. Now it is perfect.
If somebody want to replace and not sure in his soldering skills try something else first. This is not the easiest job.