I just received mines today. Mine is not waterproof. Water gets in from the head, goes behind the reflector, and into the electronics.
Anyone got theirs wet? I think mine might be missing an o-ring around the reflector. There’s an o-ring between the reflector and lens only. Is there supposed to be another around the reflector between those grooves?
The O-ring should be in that groove around the reflector, and be thick enough for the lens to squish out when the bezel tightens the lens down. It should be like this, but it sounds like it is not. Use isopropyl alcohol 90% to dry the electronics out, a small sprayer and shake it out, the alcohol should pull the water out and dry it with some heat (hairdryer, radiator, etc). Take the battery out first of course…
@awes- I am not aware of any changes to anything for a 2016 model. Could just be eBay advertising by the seller…
I had to tighten up the steel crown down with a spanner wrench, until it was almost flush with the body, took the light in the shower and sprayed it from all possible sides also left it in about 2 inches of water and no water got inside the light at all.
Maybe the Oring is not seated properly or is dirty, I would open up, inspect, lightly lube and reinstall.
Thanks. So just one o-ring? If that’s the case, I think my bezel ring is just not getting tight enough. My bezel ring does not have those notches to tighten down.
I think I’ll have to ask for a replacement.
That is odd with no grooves to tighten down… Try using a silicone gripper for opening jars, place it on a flat surface and place the light face down on it to tighten it… I would see if they can send you another bezel and o ring at least (ask for spares…).
You can take pictures of your head? Maybe they inserted the ring overthrown?
I also wanted to buy the flashlight, but now I have doubts
I’ll get some pictures soon.
looks like I got Lemon. I noticed that Low is way too bright. Seemed like 100+ lumens. So I took my clamp meter, and Low1 is 330ma, and med1 is 630ma.
Both same in normal and advanced mode.
As long as they take care of you and get you a new light, that is good…
This is the first one I have heard that had these issues…
That low is way too high, it should be 30-40 lumen range, those numbers indicate around 150 lumen…
2nd picture shows the bezel ring removed. Look how small (diameter) the lens is. Not sure if this is normal.
3rd picture is without the lens. Look how big of a gap between the o-oring and body. This is why water is getting in.
4th and 5th, look how barely the o-ring is above the reflector. It was mentioned earlier that the o-ring should be big enough to squish and spread out when tightening the bezel. There’s nothing to squish here.
I received my light from Fasttech (from the 20% off sale) and it also does not have notches in the bezel to tighten it down. When it arrived the bezel was a little loose, but with a gripper I was able to get it tightish. The geometry of the head prevents it from being tight enough without notches. Haven’t checked water resistance yet, but with the charging port I do not expect it to be submersible.
I will say this has some of the smoothest anodizing I have ever felt.
Not sure what to think, but maybe, to satisfy the orders, they have accelerated the production, skipping the step of processing of the bezel. hopefully it will be the only problem.
Also the diameter thickness of the o-ring does not convince me; in that context it should be 2mm.
The retaining ring on mine is counter sunk in the back. The lens fits in the counter sink. Don’t recall if the countersink is deep enough to touch the o-ring, but I can say I wouldn’t want a bigger O-ring. I had to tap the light enough to get the reflector to come out. I would not like to have to pry out the reflector with tools.
Thanks for all the pictures and everything. Do you think you’ll have a chance to make that emitter swap tutorial? I’d like this light even more with a better emitter, but I’m not really sure how that would work.
AHHH, nuts… I did forget to show that. The basics are to get the board out like I showed, then to remove the old LED and put the new one back on. There are a couple of videos that I watched to learn to do this.
”
OLD LUMENS”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0IbGDyeHZ4
The hardest part is knowing when to take the heat off… and using enough flux. Make sure you clean the board and LED with 90% Isopropyl alcohol afterwards…
I do not have time right now to do a full tutorial, the main thing is getting the board out and in this light it was pretty easy.
No worries! Thanks for the links and for the advice.
So, quite possibly these are very dumb questions. Figured I’d ask them anyway.
Is there enough play in the wires on the MCPCB that you can remove and replace the stock emitter without disconnecting the board from the driver? Or is that just a dumb idea? If you try to reflow an emitter on a board with wires attached, are you likely to inadvertently desolder the wires?
There’s one video that uses a soldering iron to reflow the emitter, and one that uses a lighter (and I saw another that appears to use a small butane torch)—what heat source did you use? And what would you recommend? Could you go totally crazy and use a candle? (I get that, at a minimum, you’d have to clean some soot off the board before putting it back in…)
I use a cheap (harbor freight $3) plug in iron for my reflow. It gets way too hot with N regulation, so a 20-30 second press on the bottom of a board is all I need to get the old emitter off. To put the new one on, it is about the same time.
As for the emitter wires, yes, they would desolder themselves. It is best to take the board out first and put it into one of this helping hands thingies (harbor freight $7).
I like the soldering iron method, the torches are hotter, and I like the slower soldering iron way, gives me time…
Not dumb questions…
Thanks for the replies.
I’ve ordered the equipment and tools I should need, I’ll post how it goes once I get a chance! Plenty more tutorial videos and such to watch in the meantime…
One other option: I reflow my stuff, including my mods to this light, on my stove top. If you’ve got a glass-top stove that isn’t inductive then you’re set, just do it right on the “eye”. If you’ve got electric coils or gas you can do it in an uncoated frying pan or on top of a chunk of steel plate.
Just drop the mcpcb (or any other single-sided board) on the surface, turn heat to 8ish, almost all the way on, and watch it heat up. If youre doing an emitter swap the new one should be close to the heat so its kinda getting slightly preheated, but not directly over the heat. When you see the solder liquify again, do the swap. Carefully drag your mcpcb off of the hottest parts, turn off the stove and walk away. Let it cool normally. 10 minutes later put it back in the light.
Please keep in mind that most solders melt at about 200C, not a kind thing to do to a dry pan. A coated pan would be outgassing some nasty stuff at that point, and a thin pan could warp. So don’t use your best kitchenware for modding.
Huh, that’s an interesting suggestion too.
I’ve got some cast iron I could use for that, a pan that may be thoroughly ruined already but at a minimum needs to be reseasoned.