Thanks. Well now I’m pissed. It’s definitely one piece of plastic. No glass. What the hell took 1.5 months to get to me?
Yeah, the head is actually two pieces. The bezel is at the far front, and if it is tight it can look like only one piece, but it’s actually two. Be careful not to spin the optic when you are screwing the bezel on or off.
The new optic isn’t much worse, it’s just a little floodier. If you don’t compare them side by side, you won’t really notice. You can also buy a Carlco optic for real cheap and replace it, but then you need a glass lens. Neal has sapphire ones for sale, but I haven’t seen any regular glass anywhere in the right size. To be honest, I’d probably just use it like it is. The difference is very small.
“The Slow Boat”
Every light I have ordered from China has taken me forever to get… and I wear out my refresh button on the package tracking sites while I wait. Amazon Prime 2 day shipping (and occasionally 1 day) has really spoiled me.
I think Neal also was behind on stock for a bit as well… I ordered the FW3C on June 16th, and asked for it to ship with the new optic and a glass lens (I have several Carlco lenses) so I could get it sooner. It “shipped” on the 17th of this month, and my light just got to the US today (if I understand the cryptic DHL eCommerce tracking updates). I think it is in NJ, so MAYBE I’ll get it by next week.
Lumintop is selling these through Neal, Illumn, Banggood, and others… he might have been kept waiting while they stocked other sellers.
I don’t mind the wait. What I mind is that I ordered on June 13, before there was any message on his website about the optic. I didn’t even know about it until I had emailed for a shipping update 3 weeks after ordering and got no reply for the 3rd time. Someone suggested opening a PayPal dispute to get his attention, which I did and it did. He then emailed me with “Like it says on the website, Wait for the correct optic, Ship now with the newer optic and wait for a 2nd shipment, or cancel. I chose to wait, but I asked him how long, and why someone who had ordered on June 26th on Reddit already had his light with the original 10511/glass while I was still waiting. No reply.
TL:DR There was no delay notice posted when I ordered. I waited and waited and didn’t get the 10511/glass optics anyway. Lame operation.
That sounds frustrating. Waiting a long time to get something other than what you asked for is no fun.
His shop is certainly smaller than what most of us are used to over here. I haven’t had any real trouble with any of my orders, but I have experienced the long wait times for replies to any communication. The consensus around here seems to be that he is slow to communicate, but will eventually make it right if you let him know.
This project was anticipated by thousands for something like 3 years and then the light was initially only available through Neal, who I think has somewhere between 1 and 0 employees. To top it all off, his child was born in the middle of all of this, and he was still working on getting orders out to everybody. You have a functional light (albeit with a different option from what you ordered/requested), so I’d say enjoy it as is for now and shoot Neal a short PM on here (most reliable form of communication I’ve used to get in touch with him) to let him know you didn’t receive the Carlco as requested. He will most likely ship you one or work something out.
EDIT: minor spelling and grammar mistakes
Just be sure you don’t have a piece of glass in your packaging somewhere. I chose to wait also. Then Neal said he could ship it immediately with a Carclo 10507. I choose that when he offered. Weeks later when the light arrived, I actually received the plastic. However I also got the glass lens, so I can switch out to a Carclo if I want. At this point though, I’m kinda digging the plastic one. Might change it later. Options are good.
I feel your pain too. Just went through the same ordeal trying to get a light and other items and not wanting to wait for the new optic but by time he actually responded it had already been several weeks and the new optics were in. I’m curious now to see if mine will actually have the correct optic or not even though he said it would. Def not the greatest way to handle a business. I understand he may be busy and over loaded but if he’s that overloaded he should’ve suspended ordering till he got back in order.
Nobody has a good point. Check in the little plastic bag that contains o rings. There may be a lens in there.
[quote=f0xx]
I wish that were true haha. I also ordered a Nitecore UMS2 charger and 2 Sony 14350s and the charger doesn’t seem to recognize the batteries at all. 2 hours seated in the charger and nothing. Buttons don’t work either. Screen is active but otherwise apparently DOA.
[quote=mcdj]
Do you have a DMM (volt meter)?
If yes, what do the cells show when you measure them?
It’s probably more likely that the charger is to blame if the buttons don’t do anything… but another test would be using a different cell (if you’ve got one) and see what that does.
Thanks but no DMM, no other cells. This is my first foray into 14350 lights and batteries.
Some cells are shipped with clear protective plastic insulators that’s sometimes difficult to see.
If you haven’t checked it, it might help.
Thanks, confirmed no protectors. 
Just curious, do you mean 18650 cells?
14350 wouldn’t fit in this light… just making sure.
If you have a friend who vapes, they might be willing to let you try their charger or one of their cells in your charger to figure out which is faulty.
I’m old. Any friends I have either gave up smoking altogether or never did.
Yes, oops they are Sony VTC6, 18650.
It was a long shot, but worth a suggestion as some aren’t aware of the overlap in cell usage.
Good luck friend!
Is it possible the batteries were so flat upon arrival that they would need like 5 hours to even register 1% charge?
Well what do you know, there was a glass disc hiding in the box! So I dropped it into the front of the unscrewed head, but now the head doesn’t screw all the way down. There are also 2 O-rings…am I supposed to install those somewhere too? If it’s just glass pressing against the optic, not sure how that makes it waterproof.
You have to replace the optic with a carclo one in order to use the glass lense. It won’t work with the lumintop optic.