I recently ordered a Solarforce XM-L T6 dropin 3-6V from solarforce-sales. I am running it with 2xCR123a's.
The beam is a bit floodier than the XP-G R5 dropin I have from them, but the brightness doesn't seem all that much more intense. In fact, I took them outside and shined them against my house at night, and I couldn't notice much difference in brightness between the two, though the XM-L light appeared to cover a wider area.
Does anyone know, from their own experience/testing perhaps, if this drop-in actually delivers anything close to the advertised 820 lumens?
Is this a typical performance when compared to the XP-G R5? Could it be that the wider beam at about the same intensity = more lumens?
Additionally, I am concerned because the driver in this particular XM-L drop-in is installed in the brass pill rather crappily, and the driver appears damaged at one of the solder joints. I wonder if this has anything to do with the perceived under-performance. Observe:
I already talked to Jo at Solarforce and she says they will replace it, but of course that means I have to ship a $17 item to HK at about the cost of the item itself. I could try getting another one, I guess, but I don't want to have the same thing happen again.
Sucks they are making you pay shipping, that really bothers me as one of their customers. Bad customer service for sure.
I've never really seen anything bad on here about the Sf drop ins. Do you have a multimeter to take current readings? That might tell something about the drop in.
You bought that at Solarforce sales\ ITC shop? I have had such great customer service from them in the past that I cant believe they wouldn't send a replacement out right away after seeing that picture. No way should you have to send it back, you would end up with a $30 dropin.
or send them the link of this thread so they know a lot of folks here are watching. I think they will do it right for you. Worst case you have to ship back the drop-in but they should ship you another drop-in asap. I can't imagine how their QC let this happen
Was the package damaged? Because the driver board is broken at the joint I guess it could be a shipping problem. The envelopes that SF Sales use are kind of thin and might not show much damage.
That is easily repaired you should see if they will refund you at some money and fix it yourself instead of shipping it back. If you take an x-acto knife or razor knife and cut the other solder joint off and then reposition the driver and resolder the 2 joints you should be good. Since the solder is already on there you only need to reheat the old solder to reflow it.
A nicely driven XPG should have a corona just as bright as the XMLs only not as big.
I don't see your location but if you are in the States and want to ship it to me I will fix it for you for just the cost of shipping.
I've never seen such a POS before. Someone knowingly and carelessly installed that driver and soldered it that way...such piss poor QC. Pictures of it should help your cause because there is no way they should ever make you pay another cent to get a replacement. I just bought my first host from them and if they don't do right by you I will never spend another dollar on one of their products and do my best to make sure no one else does either. I sure hope they do the right thing for you and am sure they will after they see what they shipped you.
The the OP the beam output you are describing sounds normal. The driver board is just poorly done and I'll want to get that corrected but it's not going to change the output.
Wow ... solorforce is known for there quality products/CS that drop in must have been missed during QC. Nevertheless, they have no excuse not to replace it free of charge with shipping covered.
I have 2 Solarforce drop-ins and they are perfect. The one pictured looks like it was dropped on the floor before it was packed for shipping. No excuse for not replacing it without having to return the damaged one..
