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.
Its really no different from using a laboratory hot plate, which is a perfectly acceptable way of reflow soldering, except you have a lot less heat control with your stovetop so you have to pay a lot closer attention. It works very well though.
Can anybody owning a Manker U11 confirm that there is a noticeable difference from low1 to low2 and low3 ? Same on the mid levels ?
I have got a ZL 62w and there is a obvious difference among those levels.
I do not have a ZL, but the U11 I have does show three separate levels on the pro mode when setting the levels. If I recall, they also showed difference on the clamp on meter. The levels are not giant steps between L1- L2-L3 or M1-M2-M3, but they are visually different.
Hope this helps
I’ve got a U11 and some Zebras. Yes I can definitely tell the difference in all the sublevels on the U11, but my recollection is that they’re not as significantly different as with a Zebra. The Zebra has wider spacing. It’s almost like the U11 modes are “clumped” together and the zebras are more linearly spaced.
But that’s just my recollection. I’m not near my lights to check at the moment.