[Available again! - BLF special edition light] new Sofirn AAA twisty high CRI 5mm LED

My order placed Nov 10. Not received yet, but did get an email today that my purchase protection has been extended til Dec 27. Havenā€™t heard anybody else report that yet. Guess they expect a delay on my package. Heard here that those who ordered first end up on the bottom of the warehouse HEAP !! Lolā€¦and that means they ship lastā€¦.LOLā€¦.Oh well. Wait or Wait I canā€™t decideā€¦ :laughing:

same order date, same purchase protection email

then I used the tracking number and selected USPS and it shows my lights are one post office away from me.

will be here before Xmas :wink:

Yeh, I have them tracked by USPS already for couple weeksā€¦but tracking still indicating sender preparing shipment. LoLā€¦ nuttin here as of yet. No problema. Wait or Wait. :laughing:

I would like to correct myself. The high CRI does makes a big impact! :beer:

I got that email too, same order date.

checks tracking number for the millionth time

THE SLOW BOAT MADE IT TO CHICAGO!

Hang in there, your tracking number might not get updated until itā€™s in the country.

Edit: Also, the tracker on Aliā€™s site has not updated my tracking, it may not have updated yours either. Try Universal Parcel Tracking - Global Package Tracking

Very good!! :+1:

I ordered on the 10th as well. Ali, USPS, and ParcelsApp all have the last update on November 24, 2018, 11:05 am:
Processed Through Facility
GUANGZHOU EMS, CHINA

:frowning:

There is also this 2015 BLF thread on where to buy tritium vials.

I got that same update Nov. 24, 6:07 AM. Itā€™s possible your info never got updated.

The few other times I ordered from China through Gearbest, the updates were more frequent and detailed than this time, which did make this time a little more worrisome.

Magnet size: diameter 5mm; height of magnet 3mm. Also see the C01 specifications page.
N52 is the highest magnetic strength available.

I found 5x3mm size magnets in N52 strength on BangGood.com and in N50 strength on FastTech.com.

Edit: I added the links to several products pages for tritium vials and magnets with the right sizes to the C01 specifications post.

I wonder if thereā€™s a magnet thatā€™s the size of the tritium slot for those of us who want MORE POWER!!!

For the sake of safety: for anyone with young children (age < 6 years), please be very carefull with these little rare-earth magnets, and carefully store them out of reach in childproof closed containers. If your child swallows more than 1 magnet, this can cause serious tissue damage and possibly even cause death. For example see this.

Great point. Animals as well.

My last update was on 28th November, showing it is/was in Guangzhou (International dispatch).
As weā€™ve been having some strikes in Portugal (customs and stevedore), I am not sure if the delay has to do with that or with the shipping process in China.

My purchase protection will end in 23 daysā€¦I hope the flashlights arrive here before thatā€¦ :zipper_mouth_face:

A fix while it ainā€™t broken.

A possible failure point of the production C01 is that the contact flats on the driver that get twisted against the battery tube actually have very little contact area, less than the prototype because the brass is not extended fully to the very edge of the circuit board. It is one of these things that chinese manufacturers change without notice while unaware of the consequences.

So also because this afternoon I found a little piece of 0.1mm brass foil in my metal goodies drawer, I did this fix:

1) scraped away some more solder mask

2) cut two pieces of brass sheet to size, and tinned both the driver and the brass flakes with solder

3) soldered the brass pieces in place, as flat as possible squeezing excess solder out.

4) sanding away excess solder

5) after 50 or so twisting actions you can see where the contact area is now, it has more than doubled compared to stock, and the .1mm of brass takes very long to wear through.

Bad news, and good news.

1. I managed to kill a Sofirn C01 by applying a lot of heat with a paint stripper to it. :person_facepalming:

2. The potting with thermal epoxy fills the complete cavity surrounding the PCB and LED. :+1:

When I tried to remove the PCB with a sharp knive from its housing, the PCB got separated from the thermal epoxy. You can also see how the coil broke of. The Yuji LED was killed as well :cry:

The driver below is the PCB of a Gerber Infinity Ultra. In the upper left corner you can see Gerber only selectively applied conformal coating to the coil (yellow blob).

Edit 1: perhaps I should offer testing services to flashlight companies to see if their products are FOOLPROOF FULLPROOF. First I managed to break the pocket clips of the C01 prototype, and this time I completely killed a C01ā€¦

Edit 2: For anyone wondering about my obsession with stuff that is robust, there might be a relation with this post :innocent:

Thanks for catching that, and documenting how to fix it.

I noticed another corner cut. After half a day in my pocket with keys and change, the black paint is flaking off the pocket clip and the tailcap. Thereā€™s visible rust on the metal of the pocket clip where the paint flaked off, looks like it was painted without prepping the metal.

I wonder sometimes how Chinaā€™s going to survive the next century, if all their civil and military manufacturing is done to the same donā€™t-give-a-damn carelesness about specification. Things fall apart when theyā€™re built in slapdash fashion. How long does it take to learn that?

As the old saying goes:
Good, cheap, fast ā€” you pick which two.
Or maybe pick which one ā€¦.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-ab&q=chinese+"close+enough"

But I still like the flashlight so far. As U. Utah Phillips says in his story: Itā€™s good though.
Better than I could make myself.

Tracking just put my package in Chicago.

Hank, and here i thought my light paint peeled off due to our gov irradition of packages from Asia lol. Closer examination does show metal in rusted condition! Clip is in garbage can, light will soon to follow!

edit:

I just canā€™t imagine anybody having to solder on brass foil contacts for inadequate factory ones. :smiling_imp: Is the C01 turning out to be a POS (less than adequate) before it even debuts :question: