[Resolved] Defective Rofis MR30 / Rofis + Banggood refuse to resolve the situation

Started noticing very slight stepdowns at 3.67 V. And what I mean by that is:

Double click, goes to turbo and after about 5 seconds it drops to what looks like 1100 - 1200 lumens. And at the 1min mark, it drops to the 750 lumens high mode which I can clearly see.

I guess the closer the cell will get to 3.5 V the bigger the output drop will be from turbo after a few seconds before returning to the 750 lumens high mode.

Make sure your springs, battery terminals and the connections where the tube and tale cap meets are clean. I have found the grease on the threads goes very runny when the light gets hot, and then ends up going on the end of the tube because I loosen the tail cap to lockout the light. I clean it regularly to avoid extra circuit resistance….

Your light might be defective though. My 1st MR30 had a switch failure within the 1st 12 days of usage but Banggood replaced it. As for the MR70 I only get about 7 - 8 turbo runs before it starts with the same throttling effect in turbo. I am almost convinced it is voltage sag that is causing this. I am still looking for a 26650 for the lowest possible voltage sag to prove this. And I wonder how other single 26650 XHP70/70.2 lights perform, like the Lumintop ODF30 and Olight R50 Pro Seeker??

Any ideas what to do with my other MR30 shelf ornament? :arrow_right:

MR30 driver images

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7GuJvaaAfckRbV1S7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vwND1exGX52frkuf8

Your flashlight is 100% defective. I was out and tested. I repeatedly turned on the turbo mode. Many minutes until shutdown. The torch was very hot. After removal, the battery was 3.7 volts. Voltage without load. When the turbo power was drawn, the voltage had to drop a lot. For a moment I waited until the voltage stood at 3.75 volts. The torch was in the turbo mode again. I believe that up to a voltage of 3.5 volts at load, the turbo mode is working. If your lamp turns off at 3.85 volts, it is defective.

Mine MR50 has probably the same issue. Turbo drops immediately even with full battery, there must be something with the driver.

Thank you guys for your feedback! I'm glad I was proven right with my assumption.

I asked my friend again and he says it was the resting voltage when he took out the battery and measured its voltage before activating the turbo again. BTW, his MR30 is - after maybe two weeks of usage - dead now as the side switch will not work anymore. It's still clicking and the battery indicator still works but the flashlight cannot be turned on anymore.

Exactly what happened to my 1st unit. Let him claim it from Banggood. He will have to submit a video… I believe it’s a problem on a lot of MR30 lights and Rofis has to own up for their defective products. I certainly won’t buy another light from them again.

Yeah, that's what he's doing right now. Rofis did not help him either only asking for more videos that prove that the MR30 cannot be turned on anymore. In the end they probably refuse to help him just as they did with me. If this is what they call customer service they can K.M.A..

Thanks for sharing those pictures! FWIW, my driver spring looks very much different to yours.

Contacting Rofis directly is a dead end. I also tried that. They don’t want to help because they are probably afraid to admit their products are defective. Banggood will sort them out! I’m selling mu other Rofis lights and will replace them with Olights. At least they have proper customer service and quality.

I totally agree with you Kevin. I hope that this subject here will draw enough attention to warn other potential customers before buying the MR30 and maybe to have Rofis reconsider their miserable attitude towards its customers. I will keep you guys updated if and how this subject will be resolved by Banggood's customer service.

Supplemental:

Not in direkt conjunction with my actual problem here but maybe worthwhile to know:

On TLF (German flashlight forum) I have now heard of 3 members having a "dead switch" with their MR30. Maybe more incidents are yet to arise.

I have now uploaded those two videos for further proof and informed Banggood's customer service to resolve my case.

1) My MR30 with the original protected Rofis 21700 battery at 3.86V resting voltage.

2) My MR30 with a standard size 21700 battery from Efest at 3.76V resting voltage.

I just tested mine with 2 different 18650’s.
Protected Sanyo NCR18650GA - Can run turbo, no problem.
Samsung 30Q INR - Too short to make contact with both springs.

If the cell voltage is too low to sustain turbo it should just go to high mode if you double click for turbo. It just bombs out completey.

Are you sure the unprotected 21700 makes contact with both springs? Maybe your springs are shorter than mine. I’m asking because the protected 21700 looks like a protection circuit that trips when the current increases due to the lower voltage.

FWIW, the unprotected Efest battery did work sometimes in the beginning but in most cases it did not. I cannot tell for sure how this is possible but your assumption sounds realistic, i.e. springs might be too short or too compressed to use unprotected cells. 18650s with adapter never worked no matter if they were protected or not. With the Rofis battery the turbo did work until the voltage was about 4.0V. It then stepped down right to the low level after about 3 seconds. I don't think the protection circuit was triggered when I doubleclicked the switch as the same happened with the unprotected Efest battery on those rare occasions when it had contact.

Okay, so check it out and let me know. I have seen in the past many differences from the same model light, like springs, retaining rings, MCPCB’s, glass lenses and even reflectors. My 1st MR30, for example, didn’t have a screw to hold the MCPCB in place. The new one has. And different glue was used on the threads.

Banggood has now asked me to check if the (unprotected?) battery can be charged inside the MR30 via USB charging. I am going to test it tonight.

Have you tried putting a spacer in with the unprotected 21700 cell to see if the light switches on?

Unfortunately, I don’t have an appropriate (big enough) spacer/magnet here and I don’t want to risk any shorts by fiddling with a small size magnet on the negative pole. Don’t get me wrong but I don’t think that using spacers is an acceptable permanent solution. If no one else is having these issues with unprotected 21700 batteries it must be a faulty item.

It’s not a solution, it’s fault finding. And in your case the only way to test the operation of the light, charging and discharging, is by using a spacer with that unprotected cell.

I just don’t see how an unprotected cell can cause the driver not to work, unless it doesn’t make contact (obviously).

The pcb on the Rofis 21700 should handle more current than what the driver can pull on the primary side, to supply the LED with enough current on the secondary side to emit 1600 lumens (without tripping). And it seems like yours trips the pcb indicating to a possible faulty cell protection circuit.

Lights that were designed to be used with a protected cell will always have more pressure on the cell, and in turn better contact, and have less total circuit resistance compared to when you use an unprotected cell with little to nou pressure on the cell. Some lights just have short springs with little compression but high tension.

Use coins as spacers on the negative side of the unprotected 21700.

Also bypass the spring if possible.

Boost drivers want as low of a resistance as possible.

With phosphor bronze springs/BeCu springs, it is not a problem at all at 5-6A.

But with steel springs, it can mean a 0,3V drop accross the spring, which is huge already, and as it heats up significantly, resistance will rise again, making the boost driver pull even more current.

TLDR: Bypass the spring and see if it helps with your problem.

@KevinZA1988: I will try your hint with the coin later on and see what happens. Thanks a lot for your support.

@BlueSwordM: Thanks for the advice. I guess that would require soldering skills /-equipment (that I don't have unfortunately) and it might void Rofis' (worthless) warranty as well as Banggood's promise to resolve the problem.

No you don’t have to. If you can let the one end of the copper braid/wire sit between the cell and the spacer, and try and wedge the other point where the tube meets the retaining ring of the spring.

Other thing you can try as to short out the battery negative and the tube end with the wire using one hand, and turn on the light using the other hand. It’s a bit fiddly with the unprotected cell end sitting deep in the tube, but it’s possible. That will be a direct bypass.