I received an email from Dale yesterday saying that a complete NEW driver should be ready next week, hopefully this will fix the problems for those of us that have lights that do not work at all.
Sold my MT09R XHP35 today. It was working fine, but the beam profile was just not my taste in real world usage. Nothing the light could be blamed for, it was an experiment for me. I think im just more a floody guy.
Wish you all the best, im gonna read whats going on here and how this story developes.
MT03 is a massive flood light..
You mean MT03 II that gets to 12000lumens according to Haikelite spec, right?
No that would be according to my own testing that I can easily show right now.
There was never a light called the MT03 II from Haikelite. They just upgraded the driver from one year to the next. Retailers are who called it the MT03 II.
And most of the time it actually goes well past 12k lumen.
The company has been aware of this same issue for about 2 weeks prior to your post. Now I can't actually speak for why your email was not answered I can pretty well guess that if you happen to have sent the email at any time around Friday afternoon please keep in mind that is would be the very early morning hours where the factory in China is and once it was late enough in the morning for the sun to be up it would then be Saturday in China.
For instances right now it is 12:36 PM Sunday where the factory in China is.
Another reason would be that Dale has 1 person answering all of those emails and that is himself. He gets probably 700 or 800 emails a day and he honestly may not have gotten to it.
Myself and Haikelite have been working for a solution to this issue and should have it resolved sometime in the next couple of weeks. I will need to ask Dale for an official date. That I am aware if he has not announced even an approximate time when the solution will be complete.
I can however promise you and everyone else that has experienced these issues that if you will all just remain patient just a little longer I really think you will all find that the solution will be well worth the wait. Probably worth more than the wait.
Either he or I will post the details of what the final decision is and when that will be ready.
Thank you
Thanks for your tip Terry, but the MT03 has not enough range for my taste. I need above 500m with a floody beam profile. Currently im trying the DX80 from Imalent…Beast of a light but in a different weight class than the MT09R…So ill definately keep an eye on the MT09R 70.2, maybe its next driver revisions get me back into the game, cause i liked the light itself and the UI, just ordered the wrong version i guess 
…
I also like floody beams in general. In terms of beam and output, the MT09R truly is a dream. I personally love the beam profile of optics, like that of the Meteor M43 and MF01. But I also feel that with a 10000+ lumen light I want to invest some lumuns of the spill in throw. And this is exactly what the MT09R does. Very wide beam, but the beam is not blinding bright right in front of me; it gradually increases in brightness. There is no defined hotspot, instead you have a very homogeneous profile. With a thrower you have light only in front of you and not laterally. With a flood light you have a lot of light horizontally, but no too much in front of you at a distance. The MT09R really nails it and gives you both.
Edit: The MT09R I’m talking about is the 70.2 version
If I can throw in my opinion, the original MT07 Buffalo (not the MT07s) has the best spill and throw. It was originally listed as 5,000 lumens but that group buy also ran into problems with the driver when they turned out to be 3500 lumens. Even then I think it’s the best bang for your money even in comparison with the MT09R in it’s current faulty driver state. It’s the reason why I gave this group buy a try because I do hope Haikelite succeeds. Give that model a look, the price to performance is hard to beat.
Trust me when I tell you guys that the driver issue will be handled. This I can promise you.
For right now that is all I can say about it.
You are dead on about range... It really is all flood.
I have fully functional. MTO9R 70.2 lights mow.
When Haikelite makes a final decision and announcment about whatever the driver plans are I will of course be shipped those drivers and will swap them out.
How many of the lights you received had the same problem that some of us are experiencing? Is removing the capacitor a long term fix or just a band aid? Dale says new driver next week but I wonder how long it will take to actually get the new driver to us or you???
15000 lumens at 90kcd is very good flood and throw. I can imagine that. 
I also agree the MT09R 70.2 version has on of the most practical beam profile of any flashlight. Great flood to enable you to clearly see your surrounding and also very good throw so you can get a good view far into the distance. The beam profile is extremely fun to play with both indoors and out doors. I added DC-Fix on mine to further smooth out the hotspot and right now the beam is buttery smooth and I don’t think the throw is reduced. I love this flashlight especially with the 80+ CRI!
The only thing about what they are working on for sure is that they plan to test and test so be sure it is as close to perfect as they can get it.
The Capacitor removal seems to be working fine. I have a couple here that I test constantly and so far they work without any issue. But do just be careful of the heat. The 70.2 really heats up fast on turbo. To my knowledge this will be addressed as well.
If it is the decision of the Haikelite partners to make another driver then I am guessing that if you already have this issue you will be shipped a corrected driver. Again I say if that is their decision.
Almost forgot.. I didn't post it here on BLF but I have put the SC02 on a pretty decent sale for any of you that may be interested.
By looking at how Haikelite solved MT03 II issues with new driver, I think Haikelite is for sure working hard to solve MT09R driver issue right now. Most likely they already have the solution and performing more thorough test now.
Haikelite has the willing to improve their design and product. But I just don’t understand why they want to keep boasting their light candela number and then rush their product out to market with problem and solve it later. Make me think that they are racing with some competitor product in their fantasy that has 300kcd 6000lumens performance.
Now after a month of waiting, I got a response to my question from Dale.
And now the tracking works.
I think he sent out the flashlight yesterday and not before CNY.
Now I get tracking results:
17.03.2018 Beijing (China) Beijing (China) Received by China EMS Shipment received
Thats very disapointing.
A month ago I asked dale for a refund if the flashligt is still in their warehouse. But no respond.
And now after my next question, he answered and I think he shipped it out some days before.
I want to get honest explanation about the drivers and shipping status and when they shipped which flashligt.
They told us all flashlights were shipped before CNY, but that could be impossible the truth.
I want Dale to expain something here.
This groupbuy came with special color and tint selection. I don’t know for sure you can just cancel order like that.
If the light is built according to your custom selection, although it was not shipped due to CNY holiday or whatever reason, it will be tough to cancel that.
Of course, sellers don’t like order canceled, so they will use whatever method to avoid your cancellation. Even it is hard to cancel order with GearBest sometimes.