[♛ FreemeGB] Fireflies E07 7* Nichia/ SST20/ XP-L HI Emitters 21700 Flashlight Group Buy -【 New Copper+Titanium 】

Yes, high performance thermal paste should be used, especially on a less thermally conductive material such as a titanium-aluminium alloy.

Meh. Ti is just fancy and copper body flashlights are not my thing. I wish they would do color matching aux button lights. It’s strange than the button aux comes in purple only.

Fake 40t’s? How do you know this or is this just speculation?

  1. FF has already applied more thermal paste for their E07 base on customers' feedback.
  2. You mean they supplied fake 40T batteries to their buyers? Sorry, i am not aware about it. I am sure buyers will get refund for them.
  3. Regarding the broken TIR "leg", I was told that they were intentionally removed.
  4. Battery tube will be extended to about 1mm to support/ prevent damaging longer 21700. Anything longer than 1mm, it might affect the operation of 18650 setup.

Jacky did send lights to maukka and TK previously. Not sure why he didn't do it this time. I really wish i could spend more time work on E07 with FF in Dec. Nevertheless, FF is working hard assisting buyers who are facing issue(s) with their light.

Just digging themselves a deeper hole… Intentionally removed?! Of course it was intentional, they had to finish [incorrectly] assembling the lights after they got the screw holes wrong in the first place. Cheaper to break a piece of plastic off than it is to actually fix the real issue.

What’s sad is the didn’t just own it; “yea we did it wrong, sorry, here’s how we can fix this”. Nope instead they try to play it off as part of the design.

I suppose the machining error lip that keeps the MCPCB from sitting flush on the shelf is an error intentional design as well?

(Ti/copper lights are not for me, too heavy)

Pity, I hoped that “premium” meant “fixed the problems”.

Btw, applying more thermal paste (to some extend) fixes the sympton (overheating leds), it is not fixing the cause, they should have made the ledboard fit better so that it sits flat on the shelf, their minimal amount of thermal paste could have been perfect then.

I agree that their answer to the broken off optic leg is not encouraging. I’m not happy with Emisar that they did it on the D4 either, I believe that it reduces the impact-resistance of the flashlight.

Postponing buying a E07 in the hope that FF really fixes the design. I really hope that they do that, this is such a nice light!

Sorry, I wouldn’t buy a “premium” flashlight from a company that hasn’t even fixed and shipped issue-free “non-premium” flashlights.

That’s an excessive amount of heat paste and just putting tons of heat paste in there does not solve the issue: Bevel/Clean-Up the edges of the MCPCB so that it can sit flush and put a little more heat paste in there as you originally had. It’s not that hard.

  • Yes, Fireflies apparently might have sent out fake 40T batteries to customers. See Fireflies E07 preview - #983 by klrman and the next couple of posts. No statement from Fireflies yet.
  • And of course they clipped of the leg intentionally. Because they made a mistake with the holes in the flashlight’s body. So they screwed the screw for the MCPCB in the wrong hole. In the hole the leg would have gone if it would have been assembled correctly. So they had to break that leg to make it somehow fit.
  • Fireflies also managed to send out the wrong LEDs or the wrong tint multiple times. There are reports here and in the german TLF about that.
  • Also multiple cases broken auxillary LEDs.
  • A light in the german TLF arrived with a blob of solder on a main LED.
  • Oh and nobody mentioned the LEDs self-destructing if you put in high-ampere batteries? I already described Fireflies “fantastic” reaction to this here: E07 or D4S? - #20 by kanton They just said “yeah, btw that happens”.
  • Another issue that happened in the german TLF is that Fireflies just completely forgot to install the front o-ring, resulting in the lens loosely moving around in the head.
  • Problems with the width and length of the battery tube.

The list goes on and on and with the exception of the battery tube I haven’t read or heard a single statement from Fireflies or an apology.
I am gonna be honest: I bought the light because I am a sucker for dragster lights. It’s still on its way to me. But so far Fireflies has left quite a negative impression and I have never had such a bad feeling after purchasing a light.

This is the third model by FireFlies. They should be experienced enough to properly design, build a light by now. Or how not to confuse the lights they send out.

1. That’s not excessive. It’s been proven by many PC tech channels that there isn’t really such a thing as too much thermal paste:

2. Yes.

3. Huh, didn’t know.

4. Ok.

5. How exactly does that actually happen? A blob of solder on an LED? How?

6. I haven’t had any problems with my SST-20 Fireflies PL47 using an NCR20700A 30A cell, at all. The warning is probably for the 219B version since it’s not a durable LED like the 219C, but with the same extremely low VF. Now that the 219B has been phased out, it’s not a problem… if they can fix the thermal paste issue.

7. Battery tube issues will be fixed.

While they certainly have some quality-control issues, I don’t think the situation is nearly as bad as you think:

  • Excessively sharp heat sink fins - FIXED. FF fixed this issue by chamfering the fins in the latest E07 builds (clear anodize).
  • Too short battery tube - REPORTEDLY BEING FIXED. FF has indicated they heard the feedback and are increasing the length of the battery tube by 1mm on future runs.
  • Improper heat path from star to head - FF is trying to address this. Their advice from their supplier was use a “thin” layer of thermal compound on 2 flat surfaces. That’s what they did, but unfortunately their inexperience showed. They failed to take into account that the edges of the pill around the star weren’t completely flat and were causing an air gap underneath the star. The best way to fix this is probably to make future stars 1mm less in diameter so the edges don’t touch corners. Alternatively, they could bevel the lower edges of the star. They should also check any holes drilled into the shelf to make sure the upper edges don’t stick up, and after installing heatsink paste they should check to make sure a layer of paste is evenly distributed on both the star and the shelf proving good thermal contact.

FF has clearly heard the feedback and is trying to address this. They’ve massively upped the amount of thermal compound on the shelf. If it gets rid of the air gap this should be a vast improvement over the original build, but still isn’t as good as having a completely flat connection with a thin layer of compound.

My take on this issue: FF’s heart is in the right place and they are trying. But their inexperience clearly caused a problem.

  • Fake 40T batteries - not confirmed. Yes, the batteries have an imprinted ring on the bottom, but I’ve yet to see definitive confirmation these are fake. The “fake” battery still seems to work pretty well. In any event, I hope FF is looking into it and will provide us an answer. If they are indeed fake, hopefully FF will ship is the correct cells for free and consider changing battery suppliers.
  • Clipping leg of optic - irrelevant. This doesn’t affect functioning of the light in any way so why does it matter? Other lights like the D4 come with 2 legs clipped intentionally and nobody complains. It may offend the “purists” that the assembly house made a mistake in drilling holes and “fixed” it by snapping a leg off the optic…. but from a user perspective it does not matter as it does not affect the look or function of the light.
  • Wrong LEDs or wrong tint - agreed this is a problem. FF needs to beef up their ordering process so that people get what they ordered. My E07 came with purple aux LEDs instead of the blue I ordered. I’m happy with it. Now that I’ve got the purple I think they look better than blue would have looked. But still… I should have gotten what I ordered.
  • Broken aux LEDs - poor assembly. This shouldn’t happen. FF needs to beef-up their QA in their assembly department. Still… most customers seemed to have received EO7s with fully functioning aux LEDs.
  • Stripped screws in head - poor assembly due to improper use of electric screwdriver. This shouldn’t happen and FF should address it in future runs. However, this is less of an issue as only die-hard enthusiasts will actually open up and disassemble their light. The average user won’t even notice this issue and it doesn’t affect the form or function of the light.
  • LEDs self-destructing due to excessive heat - plausible given the thermal compound issues, but I’d have to see more than one post on this thread stating it for confirmation that this is happening.
  • Blob of solder on LED - Nobody on BLF has complained about this, but supposedly there is one complaint on TLF. While this clearly shouldn’t happen and suggests problems with QA and management in their assembly house, a single report isn’t enough to show that this is a problem.

And despite the problems let’s also consider what Fireflies DID give us:

  • A superbly designed pocket rocket that feels and looks great, has a great UI, and an absolutely exceptional feature set at a relatively inexpensive price: Anduril UI, Lexel’s Aux LEDs, 1 cm thick shelf, 6mm deep heat sink fins, copper star, 7 emitters, 21700 support, etc.
  • Good build quality of all parts.
  • For most people it works fine out of the box
  • The average user won’t even notice most or even all of the issues mentioned in this thread.
  • Most people are getting what they ordered and it works out of the box

Fireflies took the time to make an innovative, exceptional light that every flashaholic should have. However, they are a new company and their inexperience might be showing. But fortunately, they appear to be listening to feedback and addressing concerns as they come up. This is the kind of attitude we like manufacturers to have.

If a flashlight manufacturer makes a mistake I do not care if they apologize. What I want is for them to fix the problems …. and this is what Fireflies seems to be doing.

Well the guy is complaining and hasnt even received his light! I have used mine a lot since I got it some time ago and love it. My battery fitted without a problem, my aux LEDs are fine, the FL is not too sharp IMHO and the missing optic leg is so stupid that nobody ever notices without actually trying to.

From the various design issues that I hope FF will fix, the two things that I can not easily address myself is a clipped-off optic-leg and a short battery tube. I hope that at least those will be improved, and the improved version announced in a way that I can be sure that I will receive the improved design instead of old stock.

If the clipped off optic leg really bothers you, you could try making a replacement.

  • obtain a replacement optic leg, either by cutting one from another similar-sized optic or by making a new one from epoxy.
  • Use a pin-vise drill to drill a small hole partway into the remaining optic and into the top of the new leg.
  • Insert a short piece of small paperclip into the holes you drilled at the top of the new leg and in the bottom of the optic to hold the new leg in place.

Also, the too-short battery tube is also easy to fix:

  • Order copper washers (there’s a link to the correct size in this thread somewhere); or
  • take a piece of sheet copper or aluminum, cut it into a narrow strip, then bend the strip into a ring shape and insert in the tailcap.

Thanks Firelight2 for the suggestions :slight_smile:

Hmm, I’m not afraid of some modding, and would certainly fix the light if it has issues, but I’d rather have the light done right by the factory, not even because I think they should (I do think that they do themselves a favour if they do the fixes :slight_smile: ), but because my fixes always look worse than what the manufacturer can do with a simple design change.

Once my 2nd E07 arrives I guess I’ll try and fixing the thermal paste issue. It looks like some tiny delicate soldering. Definitely not gonna be purchasing any “premium” models :smiley: In fact I’m not going to purchase anything else till there are many improvements. I would dread attempting any actual warranty work from them. I’m still on honeymoon with my raw aluminum XPL HI 5000k E07 and wowing my coworkers :sunglasses: The 40t that came with my light has the suspicious ring around the neg side. I’ve ordered extra from IMR to compare.

1. The whole point of the video you linked is described at minute 16:20. The cooler tightening down pushing out any excessive paste, meaning that the layer of paste will always be as thin as it can get. From what it sounds like this would not happen in the E07 unless the MCPCB gets bevelled because it does not touch the surface beneath it.

5. I don’t know but there are images of it here: Fireflies E07 | Taschenlampen Forum It’s also a light with broken aux LEDs which is the reason he opened it up in the first place.

6. Nope. SST-20: Fireflies E07 preview - #801 by DB_Custom And Fireflies said that high-drain batteries should not be used with SST-20 and the Nichias. In comment #901: Fireflies E07 preview - #886 by FireFlies “* For E07 SST20 / Nichia version , we only recommend max 20A battery , 20A battery can reach max power for E07 SST20/Nichia version. With a 30T battery on SST20 or Nichia the turbo will go blue no matter how much paste used.”

There are just too many things going wrong imho. Many of which might be small issues or even non-issues for some, but there are just too many things wrong to wave it off. I did not compile the list of issues already found to nitpick on each and every detail but to express my concerns with Fireflies QC and their responses. Most of the issues aren’t even adressed. So why do a “premium edition”?

I hope so too and I hope we are both right. And I agree with that the 40Ts being fake is not confirmed yet. I will adjust that statement in my post above. But at this point with all the open issues and unanswered questions, doing a “premium model” seems kinda counter-intuitive.

But Fireflies already admitted that (and not due to excessive heat, apparently). See quote at point 6. again: “For E07 SST20 / Nichia version , we only recommend max 20A battery , 20A battery can reach max power for E07 SST20/Nichia version. With a 30T battery on SST20 or Nichia the turbo will go blue no matter how much paste used.” I have not found this recommendation anywhere. Does it come with the instructions maybe?

Edit/P.S.: I don’t want to give the impression that FireFlies is the devil himself. Far from it. They produced a fabulous looking light. They listened to us when we demanded a clear anodized version. (Which is the version I ordered) I just can’t wrap my head around all those tiny details they are lacking. That are sometimes so obviously wrong. Like the PL47 headband. I am really looking forward to their future.

It shows on there website now not to use over 20a batteries on the sst20 emitters. Not much mention about the nichia leds, they must be out.

It may be that the Nichia or SST20 just can’t take the current and that’s why they are going blue. If that’s the case, then no amount of improving the heatsink path at the star-pill interface will help. The problem is the peak output of the light is too high for the emitter when used with a full cell.

I still don’t see an explicit warning (all I see is “For SST20 version, around 20A discharge rate needed, LS 20A 21700 recommended”) but it’s good that they now have better recommendations online… I guess I will try mine with the 30Q to get to know how sst-20 look like before attempting the emitter swap to Samsung.

For something completely different: I have seen people with a mixed blue/purple aux-LED setup. I would have ordered that but I couldn’t find it anywhere so I went with just purple. Are those custom modded or would FireFlies have done that if I had asked?
Edit: Here is a sample image on Neals page (but apparently those are the generic FireFlies product images):

Are we really believing that any 21700 cells are outputting a constant 49A?! That’s about the point SST-20s die at (x7 emitters).

I’ll buy the Ti version if there is it’s all Ti and no copper etc to ruin the look.