Appreciate the trick! Iāll definitely try that tonight and see how it goes.
If you remove the retaining ring you can fold some aluminum foil into a circular shape and place it over the switch. Just make sure you donāt have it touching the spring. Then reinstall the retaining ring and see if it lights up. If not make the aluminum foil thicker until the flashlight works properly. The times Iāve had to do this I used spare computer wire and squished it as flat as I could with pliers. But anything that conducts electricity works and since itās under the ring itās not going anywhere.
To remove the ring you can use tweezers or needle nose pliers. But in some cases where the rings were really tight I just drove 2 nails through a piece of wood and bent them until they were the right distance apart for the holes in the ring.
For me itās a better solution than using a paper clip since the clip will fall out when you remove the tail cap. Plus the paper clip is not aesthetically pleasing 
Once youāve shimmed up the ring nobody will ever know itās there. Since it lights up when you torque the tail cap down you likely donāt need to shim it much.
I say give it a tryā¦I bet youāll get it to work properly in only few minutes. And flashlights are far from precision instruments so itās not as if you can cause any major damage.
Ok, that doesnāt sound too bad. Iāll give that a shot and see how it goes! You are right, paper clip might be a quick and dirty way to fix it, but then yeah, not aesthetically pleasing plus it will always fall out and just be a general nuisance.
Thanks for giving more detail to this flashlight newbie!
Itās too bad you guys are having these issues. I edc my one of my original gb blf a6 lights and Iām still in love with it. JakeDjanitor I would be willing to bet a spring bypass would help a lot. If the wire thatās used in the bypass sucks in any solder during the mod it would help stiffen the springs. Also guys donāt forget to check out the very first post in this thread! I canāt even remember everything in it but it should still help out even with future lights you get. 
Stiffening the spring would make it harder to make a connection.
Is modding required with the A6 GB?
The A6 prototype samples were great, indistinguishable from the original EE version. Unfortunately, the production units were significantly lower-quality. 
I hear the Astrolux version of it may have returned the quality to what the samples had, but I donāt have any so I canāt verify it.
Meanwhile, Convoy has maintained high quality hosts since the company first started, aside from a couple hiccups which got quickly fixed.
At this point one can put together a Convoy S2 host, Banggood blf driver, and xml-2/xp-l on a noctigon board for around $20 so thatās the route I would take rather than buying an Astrolux. Actually Iād go with the MTN-17DDm driver and itās still less than $30.
Better quality and the pride of self-assembly
But a āblfāpainted on doesnāt mean itās well made now.
So go to MtnElectronics for a quality driver.
Iāve assembled several lights with both drivers and to be honest I donāt noticed any difference in performance. Now Iām not saying that there isnāt a performance or quality difference but my Mark 1 eyeball and volt meter donāt show any noticeable differences. Both look the same on a side-by-side visual comparison and draw about the same amps on my meter.
I just assembled a new version Convoy M1 host with the blf driver and also put a Mtn one into a spare M1 (old version with pill). Both with xml-2ās from Mtn on noctigon boards. Running Samsung 30Qās in both I could only see that the Mtn version had 1) a lower low (good), and 2) the bike flasher mode barely functioned (almost a constant beam but a very brief and barely noticeable blip every 5 seconds or so). Since iām not planning on riding a bike at night #2 is a non-issue.
I also dropped the blf version into other lights and they worked as expected.
Donāt get me wrong here, Iām definitely not saying that the blf driver is better than the Mtn one. And I have no doubt that the quality control on the Mtn driver surpassed Banggoodās.
But for someone on a budget the blf driver isnāt a terrible choice.
> I donāt noticed any difference
Yep. Just saying, the observed pattern ā widely reported here and elsewhere ā
is that products look good at the beginning then get worse as time goes on as corners get cut.
Many here have made that observation.
So I think itās worth pointing out suppliers like RMM who consistently get us the same quality time after time.
This matters for people who may read this thread next month or next year.
āTrust, but verify.ā
I have the Astrolux version of the A6 and Iām using it as my edc with the short tube. Itās a great light, and Iām happy with the quality, only issue was the short tube had anodizing on one end that I had to file off. I now have an Al set of X5/X6 and will hopefully have a Cometa soon. I ordered a Mtn driver with the Bistro firmware for the A6 - at that point Iāll have a 4 light Bistro set! Of course, that assumes I will figure out how to swap the drivers (will be my first flashlight mod, hopefully not too much of a stretch!).
My other planned mod is to swap the tailcap resistor on my X5, I like the lighted tailcap but it is too bright and Iād prefer a longer shelf life with the tailcap on, otherwise it is an awesome light (still debating whether to use it as my edc instead of my A6). Fingers crossed on the mods!
Bistro firmware is only in the X5/X6 and not in the A6. So you will have 3 light Bistro set.
At The A6 or S1 you can only cange 4 or 7 brightness levels and you dont have a temperature sensor.
That could be, as Iām very new to the flashlight addiction. But I ordered the following driver from MTN: FET + 7135 Driver - 17mm - MTN-17DDm
I was planning to use it to replace the driver in my Astrolux S1 (not 100% sure that will work, but I thought so). Then I would have Bistro on that light. If not, let me know, I really like the light and donāt want to ruin itā¦
Modding is required always! :sunglasses: All joking asideā¦. Djanitor had mentioned that the light flickered. Iām under the impression that he got the crappier(is that a word?) springs in his light. (The ones that sag after use of turbo.) Therefore adding a spring bypass especially the type I had done when I first started made the springs stronger. (I used old speaker wire that is not very flexible.) Also this would help the weak spring by taking some of the amperage. Stretch out those springs, stiffen emā up and viola! No more flicker. Unless heās having a tailcap issueā¦.
Hi,
Going a little insane trying to debug (have read and tried most tips I can find) a new BLF A6 from Banggood, hoping to get some tips for anything left to try.
- initially didnāt turn on at all
- has fully charged 18650 battery (Protected Mi (masterinstruments?) TB-18650IC31 model), in it, battery separately reads about 4.2 V on multimeter. Negative end of battery is at the tail end of the light.
- using a knife to short the negative battery with the tubing I was able to very occasionally get a brief light flicker maybe 4 or 5 times over a few hours of debugging. Not very repeatable.
- same connecting negative battery whilst in tubing to the tubing via a paperclip, get a very hard to repeat brief bright flash of light
- tubing is around the right way, longer thread part is at the tail end
- if I take the light housing off and read the positive and negative terminals on the (driver???) board (the red board on the front of the light), when clicking the tail end switch I get a reading of 0 volts alternating with either 0.18 volts, ~0.3 volts or ~1.8 volts. Nothing appears to light up in any of these cases.
- using a multimeter Iāve checked both retaining rings, they both appear to have good contacts with whatās below them
- have tried rolled paperclips at both ends, no joy
- if I connective the negative battery end (while battery is in the tubing) to the tubing at the tail end via a multimeter, I get a reading of about 4.2 V.
Any ideas - it seems a āspecialā case given I did get a few very brief light ups using the knife short trick, and given that when switching the button I do get some voltage reading across the driver board.
Any help for things to try much appreciated before I go back to Banggood.
Thanks,
Michael
Depends on how far your willing to dig into it. Pics of the driver would probably help. You can to get to the driver by removing the upper retaining ring.
That sounds like a bad driverā¦ You should contact Banggood for a replacement light. Be prepared to play some customer service games, but send them pics and a video to show them it doesnāt work.
Your troubleshooting sounds as thorough as it needs to be. There was some talk about the tail switch having the lit tailcap PCB for the K6/X6, so maybe check by removing the tail cap retaining ring and removing the switchā¦ If you see components next to the actual switch body on the PCB, post some pics and we can see what to doā¦
Should I cancel my order? This thread makes me want to do that. I ordered one just today, but I have no intention of dealing with whines or modding. Is it worth it?
I would say this light is worth it. I have both group buy and the lights that came out after. Think of it this wayā¦ People arenāt coming to this thread to praise this light. They are coming here to ask questions. My friends and I have 7 of these between us with zero issues.
Try the paper clip under the driver retaining ring. One occasional issue was the threading for the retaining ring not being cut far enough into the head. This means the driver only has contact on one dude and isnāt clamped. The driver is press fit so it doesnāt feel loose even when contact is poor. The driver needs to press bare metal on both faces or it might behave this way.