ALright, looks like mine is a complete dud then! The difference between your L6 and your MT03 was what I was expecting when I purchased this light. I’m gonna contact Haikelite and try to either get a replacment or a return
On the mode 2 & 3 thing -
When looking at a reflection of a reflection off semi-glossy surfaces of the three emitters, it looks to me that in mode 2, 1 LED is really bright, and in mode 3 2 LEDs are really bright. Mode 4 is all 3 really bright, and mode 5 they’re all brighter still. Sometimes, though, the LEDs are lit evenly and mode 3 is just set much too close to mode 2, as the 3-4 jump in brightness is huge.
Sometimes it seems like the driver cannot regulate output to all three LEDs evenly. I even see flickering occasionally. Note that I’m using 4x Samsung 30Bs which aren’t as good as 25Rs or 30Qs for driving high loads, but the cells are running at 4.35V.
I wonder, is it possible that a component on the driver is flaky or badly soldered, and a reflow would fix it? And has anyone figured out the sense resistors?
NB - the other one I have is glued, is there a way to break the glue on the driver retaining ring?
First time I read about the driver retaining ring being glued…
I think it is - there’s some schmutz around the edge, and the unglued retaining ring came out very easy in the other light. The normal way for Haikelite is to glue the ring I thought, as I asked for unglued.
edit — False alarm! I just had to put a fair amount of effort into the other one. 
Aha. The only unglued option I’m aware of is the ring around the button, which is a press fit.
Has anyone commenced a PP dispute over these lights yet?
I am considering sending one more PM to Alva at Haike today totaling 3 PMs since noticing the first issues on day of arrival, but with a warning of if no action to resolve my issues with both lights and a refund of the money still owed me for the batteries that weren’t sent, that I will commence a PayPal dispute on Friday AM the 6th of January,
I don’t want to jump the gun but it has been since the 15th of Dec since I first messaged Alva about not getting batteries, but then it just kept getting worse.
I have had to start one of these PP disputes only once before against Banggood over that Cometa light, and it only starts with an automated message to the vendor that a dispute has been started and to contact the customer. Then after that you can escalate the situation I guess if still there’s no remedy to the problems.
I’ve had it with Alva personally and I think giving him a week longer to do something is reasonable. Sure wouldn’t mind some thoughts on this,
I really do hate this stuff and that Alva did seem like such a nice guy but when I re-read that GB message about making no profit and only doing this GB so more nice people know of a NEW brand of light, well OK I know of a new brand now and it sucks, so please give me at least 50% of my money back or new lights and I’ll look at the other 50 loss as just being stupid…
Hey T18,
Did you received $20 refund for 4 batteries? Did you ask for it? I received a refund from them (contacted Alva via private message) within 24 hours, it was $5 refund for not printing a custom message on the light. I asked for refund.
No, no refund, but didn’t ask outright, mainly due to Alva making some comments about sending me new lights when the improvements are completed and so I stupidly, I suppose, offered to send a little more funds along with his applying the $20 owed me to cover some of his expenses, trying to act in some kind of good faith I guess, but after one more recent inquiry as to what is the status of the improved lights I haven’t heard anything back.
So I’m not sure what to do at this point short of the PP thing, I do know I want nothing more to do with HaikeLite now regardless of new lights and or improvements or not,
Edit: I did send a PM to Haike today requesting my $20 back at least and mentioned that on Friday I will file a PP dispute, not expecting to hear anything though, maybe I’ll be surprised, maybe more than I already am.?
Sort of glad my wife is not alive today or I’d be beaten over the head with two flashlights, I can hear her now, you sent how much to some guy in China for these?? Smack… She was a mean one, at times, I usually had it coming though and really sending money to China is a gamble I guess.
I don’t think that any woman would found anything bad about these lights (except the price ) since we males are more picky about technical stuff and want it to be perfect. I think you should start to like your flashlights if they are producing expected amount of light. I like mine even if it is not perfect. I would not be happy if it is making a low amount of light compared to some other flashlights like somebody noted. I believe it is possible to fix it somehow easily, by checking battery contacts and other things.
I had just submitted a PP dispute opting for a 50% refund at 50% of my lost since sending the light back to Alva will cost another 50%. Sent 3 PM to Alva and no reply for the past few days. I’m not sure if the GB PM Alva send to every individual are the same but Alva didn’t not state anything about not making any profit and want us to get to know more about the light, only payment method and price of each light, and Alva didn’t not say anything about sending me or us a new light to compensate for the current flaw, but than again Alva does not reply to PM or post anything here.
One thing i noticed after fixing the light on dead on arrival, when i first power on the light, it’s noticeably brighter than my L6 (battery voltage is at around 3.5V). After charging them to full capacity the output on turbo seems to drop to approximately 5000 lumens, which to my eye is slightly brighter than the L6. As for the mode 2 and 3 spacing, the first power up after fixing the realignment is very obvious, i would say maybe about 30% brighter comparing mode 3 to mode 2. But now the mode spacing is about 100~ lumen brighter. Maybe is just my imagination.
PS: Alva has been online for quite awhile, but still didn’t not receive any PM or post from him/her.
I’m a male and i really like this light, the build quality is screaming good. But the QC team/Assembly team really screw this up badly. I just can’t get over the fact that the light delivered has 40% drop in performance. Which is quite significant if you factor in the weight and the amount of batteries used that does not justify the output performance. I’m new in flashlight modding and the only thing i have done so far is to replace a new driver (with the new firmware) from my convoy S2+ so to my knowledge i don’t know why the light performance will drop so much as compared to the light fellow forum member here bought from BG or GB.
I would gladly get the updated version if Alva does not ignore our PM or did not bother addressing the issue on this thread. Its a very good light, but bad QC and bad communication screw everything up.
Mine finally made it to the US, supposed to be at my door next Monday. Here’s hoping it’s not a dud.
My order arrived today. Wowser, both are things of beauty. Wife really likes her MT03. I do too. I'd guesstimate lumen output to be around 7K and 4K for the MT03 and MT07, respectively. Using fairly healthy 30Q's, I could be off, but think I'm close The MT03 puts out so much flood that I think its deceptive how much light is actually being output. Pulling the battery tube from the MT03 to remove the isolation rings from the positive battery pads revealed numerous contact points that electrons must cross to get from the cells to the driver. Any dirt or grease on these surfaces would adversely impact performance. These contact points are what make this light easy to mod. Fortunately, that also make reach all these points easy without any modding skills. The contact ring that goes between the top battery plate and the driver retaining ring has a raised bumpy patch that is certainly limiting the contact. I don't know what is under the bumps, but I intend to lap the ring to make it flat and see what is in the bumps. Should only take a few minutes with some wet sandpaper on a flat surface.
I will hopefully get a chance to go through the light to work on the potential resistance points and the LED "one screw" issue this weekend. I'll try to post more specific details after that. It's late and I need to crash.
Glad to hear that you receive light without any flaw. Can i check with you, the output from mode 2 to 3 is it significantly higher? i noticed that when i first power up the light using high drain battery the mode spacing is quite high and on turbo the output is significantly higher than my L6. But the contact is not that good, so i took out the plastic ring inside the battery tube and charge up my battery to do another test, this is when my mode spacing from 2 to 3 looks almost identical and my turbo output seems lower. I’m not sure if i’m imagining things. Later i go home i will try to remove the plastic ring from the tail cap and maybe use alcohol to clean the battery contact inside the battery tube and try again.
Several including mine have the 2nd and 3rd mode being the same.
I read with immense interest of this fiasco with HaikeLite.
Initially I was really bummed that I missed out on the group buy, but now I’m thinking it was a blessing in disguise.
Do we know how many people had defects with their lights?
Or, is it worth running a poll to see who’s truly happy with their lights, or unhappy due to mode issues, DOA etc?
Hi,
could you please explain what you mean exactly with the “battery tube”? In my MT03 I open the tailcap and put in 4 18650´s in 2p2s order, but I don´t see a way to pull out the whole battery compartment. Or did you simply mean the rotating disc in the tailcap that is connecting the 4 batteries?!? Sorry if I sound confused.
Btw, did you or any other MT03 NW owner by chance take any LUX measurements of the MT03 in Turbo mode, preferably in 1 m distance? Would be nice to compare samples on a lux basis, I think many flashoholics own luxmeters but not lumen measurement spheres…
K.
Glad, I only lurked this thread. I almost jumped in, but figured I already had enough “Shelf Lights”. Even though these have a great look and the initial specs and reviews looked very good, I knew something wasn’t right. One thing that raised another Red Flag was the cell fitment.
For those that are new to GB’s and or New manufactures:
Over the years, I have learned that sending a few samples out to impress is fairly easy. As compared to a new “company” organizing & delivering several dozen properly spec’d and working lights worldwide on budget in a timely fashion. <<<——This is more difficult than you think.
I hope HaikeLite makes everyone whole. Even though it seems this situation has almost spiraled out of control. I feel confident, there is still time for them to salvage things. But, once again, in my experience, when the communication slows or ceases, it is time to file a PP dispute. Don’t let hope & excuses run the cash clock out. I have seen that too many times. Think about it, you held up to your end of the deal by sending your money in a timely fashion, with no excuses. Now, they must likewise reciprocate with the product.
After you file your claim, if they want to square the deal and get their money?? Then reverse the deal. Send me the light, I make sure it is correct, then I send the money. Fair is fair.
Also, IMHO, those that say it is because they are in or from China and that is part of the problem, you are stereotyping and being very short sighted. This kind of poor business practice can occur with anyone from anywhere. I know several American & European folks that have screwed members of this and other flashlight & knife forums. So it is only fair that we be cognizant of those facts and not blame poor business ethics & practices on ones local.
Good luck everyone.
I will write some new opinions and conclusions for Mt03 CW 2p2s with sanyo 18650ga:
- Levels 2 and 3 are different like it should be
- Last time I reported 860lux measured with windows phone and luxometer app, it was tested with not charged batteries, 3.34V each…… 77lux fake skyray king, 340lux for cfl light bulb (around 25w)
- It’s getting 1630lux with charged batteries and rising to 1700 in 10 seconds
- 340lux cfl light bulb vs 1700lux mt03 is not different a lot, it is brighter but you would never say it’s several times brighter (measured in a room)
- Mt03 CW version is more yellow than other CWs for my opinion
- The light is getting hot in seconds, more than human body temperature after 10 seconds
- Blue button led is working as it should
- Not sure if it’s tempered glass but it has a purple shade
- all three leds (dome) has a different blurriness, from clear to blurred (turned off)
I don’t like the silicone button and how it work on this flashlight, i think it will break in year or two
Regarding all problems that you mentioned in earlier posts, is it possible that it is only with 4s version?
Additionally, I got this result by converting lux to lumens
I know my smartphone is not reliable to measure lux but it’s interesting how I got expected value.
Converter (external link) - (https://www.ledrise.com/shop_content.php?coID=19)
Personally, I'm very happy with my purchase. I'm not concerned about the light output not quite meeting spec because all the ingredients are in place to make this light to achieve them:
- Great body that has excellent machining and finish.
- Great lens, reflector and emitters.
- Design that will facilitate easy upgrades to emitters and drivers as time passes.
- Driver that appears to be very good quality.
I understand if some have samples that are bad enough to require at least some degree of refund, but I certainly hope that HaikeLite is not driven out of business by this GB. I think they are genuinely trying to provide us what we want at very reasonable prices. That is worth some degree of forgiveness to me.
So, I'm more than happy to clean up the contact points and fix my "one screw on MCPCB" issue myself. There are a couple things I would like to change about the lights, but they are design changes. Not QC issues.