For the past few days, I’ve occasionally been hearing a ‘ping’ sound, and today I determined that it came from my FT03 after I had played around with it. I realised that it’s the same sound that I hear when I tap the lens with my fingernail, so I was wondering whether it’s the result of the glass contracting when the light cools down. That led me to turn on the light in turbo mode for a bit longer than usual to try and replicate the effect, and alas - after about 20-30 seconds on turbo it made the same pinging sound! I shook the light (gently) and noticed that the lens rattles, so I unscrewed the bezel - which was very easy to do - to check whether the o-ring between lens and the bezel is missing. At first I thought that was indeed the case, but then I noticed the silicone o-ring inside the bezel.
Now I’m wondering whether this happens to other owners of the FT03, or whether I am dealing with some kind of manufacturing defect?
I’ve not got a problem with the sound per se, but I’m wondering whether it could be due to some inaccuracies in the manufacturing process that might affect the light’s waterproofness.
Ping is normal expansion, but you say you have a loose lens? Maybe tighten up the bezel more, but the rattle is usually the plastic insulator by the driver spring…remove battery tube a check by shaking, if it rattles, hold it and shake again… see if something else is ratteling?
Wow - I actually thought that I had already tightened the bezel to the max, but it turned out that I was able to give it another quarter turn or so, and now the rattling has become considerably less. It hasn’t disappeared completely, but in order to tighten the bezel even more I’d probably have to use the kind of grips that I’ve seen people use to remove the bezel from their BLF GT. But I guess it’s good enough now, especially after I’ve turned it on and off a few times, and I can no longer replicate the pinging sound of metal hitting glass (or vice versa)…
does 21700 even fit this light? i think they are too long tried with samsung 40t and vapcell neither i want try screw tailcap because battery sticks out too much, 26650 is the best to use anyways.
I haven’t been checking recently, but just noticed that Banggood has entirely removed the button for the 5000K emitter, so it appears that 6500K and 5700K are the only options going forward. Those of us with 5000K’s should take care of our emitters as exact replacements may not be available.
They also have the light on sale for $29.99 through July 15, which is about the same price as most of us paid during the pre-order.
The Mateminco version on AliExpress still offers only the Cool White option and has a grayed out Neutral White button, so they are apparently not selling the 5700K tint.
The dark purple 4200? That might be an iJoy or Aspire high drain cell. A less powerful battery is definitely recommended. I don’t think anybody has actually burned out an LED yet, have they? It also might depend on whether you use it for short bursts or continuously. I would try to run something less high drain just to be on the safe side.
Even though this flashlight is designed to work with different size batteries, do you think it will run brighter/better with a 21700 instead of a shorter 26/18650 cell with similar performance, due to the higher spring compression, which should supposedly lead to a lower voltage drop? Or maybe this is not the case with these heavy duty dual springs?
And just for the record, I’m running my FT03 with a Samsung INR21700-48G in it right now and it’s working great.
I figure it will measure brighter since it’s a very high drain battery, but I wouldn’t think you’d see the difference with your eyes - compared to a decent high capacity cell like the Shockli 5500/Keeppower 6000.
Battery length/spring compression should not have a noticable effect. Pretty minimal. The dual spring design makes it minimal. If it were a single spring then compressing the coils until they touch acts like a wire bypass and reduces resistance.
Frankly, I would not concern myself with pushing the amperage higher on this light (like with high drain cells). It’s pretty close to the limit as is.
I looked at HKJ’s comparator at the Efest 4200. The 2016 model looks like this and is pretty comparable to the Ijoy high drain.
The 2017 version looks like this and is a bit weaker. I think Efest has stayed with this for 2018 as well (HKJ has not tested a 2018 version)
So I don’t think your running a super high drain battery, just a regular high drain. It’s not putting out the big voltage at a 10A load like the Ijoy, Aspire or Golisi. So it’s probably fine.
Still, the SST-40 is a pretty new led so we don’t know how long it will handle these maxed out levels. Might be fine in the long run or might burn out. No one knows.
