I decided to go for the XHP35 HI too. Iām living at the country side and prefer throw over flood. I hope the color is CW or NW.
Please be careful, and donāt hold the MT09R too close to your wings when flying. This light can get hot and melt the wax, and you knowā¦ youāve been there beforeā¦ The fall was not so nice I thinkā¦ You donāt want to do that again rightā¦? 
Congratulations Icarus! :partying_face:
Well, you couldnāt know but Iāve chosen this nickname with a reason. :person_facepalming:
Lightbringer and me were the winners of this giveaway but until now we didnāt get our lights. 
I sent Dale a message more than a week ago but didnāt get a reply yet. If the lights were sent as promised even with the slow boat from China they should have been here by now.
Hey Icarus. Another member just posted on the group buy thread that tracking showed progress. It seems a lot of lights were stuck in China during Chinese New Year, so maybe yours and Lightbringerās lights are finally on your way.
Good to know. Thanks for the info! :+1: I hope our lights will still show up one day. :person_facepalming:
Woohoo!
Is that the āDepartment of Happinessā(!!) message I just saw? Kewl if so.
Might there be any tracking numbers? I could get a āNiner Countdownā going.
Yep thatās the one. Tracking numberā¦ pfffā¦ donāt count on it Iād say. Dale seems to be not so responsive. After the Chinese New Year, I would not be surprised if heās flooded with mails. Also due to issues with these lights heās probably up to his neck figuring out what is going on.
Eh, thatās fine. If I get it, Iāll consider myself ahead of the game.
Two more weeks gone byā¦ā¦ā¦ no lightā¦ā¦ā¦ no reply from Daleā¦ā¦ā¦. no tracking number ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ this giveaway is one big jokeā¦. I donāt believe anymore our lights were sent! :rage:
Do you know if they were sent? I hadnāt heard anything either way.
I emailed him a while ago, but all the talk of CNY, all the hoo-ha about how many lumens, lights just flashing a few times when the tailcapād be screwed on, āDude, Whereās My Charger?ā, an errant Mystery Capacitor, etc., I kinda let it slip.
Wow, yeah, this is like from back in Decemberā¦ ouch.
Dale sent me a message regarding shipping address and my mobile number on 28th December. He said he would declare the light low value but didnāt give a shipping date. If he really shipped the light letās say early January it should have been here now. Since Dale doesnāt reply my messages (I sent 2 in the meantime) I doubt our lights shipped.
Ugh, thatās not happy news.
The Zen way of looking at it is that Iām getting what I paid for, but itās still a letdown.
Wonder what happened to Dale? With the charlie foxtrot going on, did he pop a coupla beers and slide down the emergency chute or something?
:partying_face: ā¦ :disappointed: ā¦ :zipper_mouth_face:
Several interpretations are possible, but one of them is that the fail rate of all the lights that were sent out is 100%. All the 35 perform well below advertised, and all (maybe) lights have a component (capacitor) on the driver that seemingly no one knows what purpose it has, and probably only causes (potential) problems.
So, Haikelite is probably trying to retrieve all lights and mod them, while cancelling current order of flawed drivers, etc. The mass production of the SC26 seems to be delayed as well, and so is the charger/power bank.
Organisation wise itās like a few people trip at the end of an escalator in a mall for example. The escalator keeps feeding new people who will trip over the tripped etc. The mess accumulates.
Itās just going to take timeā¦ I really donāt want to give false hope, but my guess is that you will eventually receive your lights.
The first group buy from Haikelite was with the MT07 and MT03. That was one big disaster, but eventually things were (somehow) resolved (from what Iāve read) even though it took several months for some to receive a new driver.
Iāve got both MT09R and MT07S next to me as I type, and cannot think how desperately I want Haikelite to succeed. But I also have my limits, so Iāll wait some more.
Communication, is the keyword here but it seems like Chinese companies just donāt get thisā¦
I honestly like their light designs and do hope for them to succeed with the business. However their lack communication or rectifying the issues is just bad business Im afraid :person_facepalming:
To me personally this was my biggest complaint of the first group buy that went sour. Back then they were really new in the business, so I can understand how things went terribly wrong. But then they just disappeared, there was no communication whatsoever to the community, zero, nada, nul. And it appears this is happening all over again.
Thatās what Iām hoping, too. Forget the giveaway, even, just by not getting people lights that, well, work, would be a huge black eye for HL.
I get the whole āget āem out the door asapā idea, but stillā¦
OT questionā¦
That whole deal with lights-for-donations after that hurricane kinda killed Texas and the surrounding area, remember when Lumintop was offering a bunch of Tools, and there was lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth when they never materialised?
Did any of those lights ever ship?
Just curious if there was ever any fallout about that.