I just finished my XP-G3 90+ CRI mixed tint light and I love it. I would like to get another one but if they are glued then there is no point.
The tint is amazing, rich colors everywhere and output is impressive as well. Even with the stock driver it is making over 3600 lumens (with a fresh battery should be a bit higher). Toss in a better driver and I think it could hit 4000 lumens if I really wanted although it would be pointless since on turbo it gets too hot to hold within a minute or 2 already lol.
It is an amazing pocket rocket. Even with an 18350 it was making close to 3000 lumens IIRC (didn’t test it since replacing a dedomed emitter).
Sucks they had to glue the head, guess it is a lesson is not complaining about things or they will be taken away.
I bought a whole new light, S41S, after the head re-design. It was not glued. Its now a quad 4000K R90 219c on a mtnelec tiny25 Bistro driver. Much better.
Not sure how outdated you are… Here is a quick sum up: a lot of the original SS heads where faulty, mainly because the optics was pushing onto the leds, damaging them. BG acknowledged the issue and got a new head designed and sent back to customers that got faulty ones. Now this ‘new’ head is available as a stand alone replacement and is part of the actual S41S batch. It’s bezel is not glued anymore.
Short version is all I’ve got since I didn’t really follow it very closely myself, but as I understand it the original design for the head left the optic loose somehow, so that when the bezel was torqued down the optic was prone to twisting and shearing off domes. Maybe the factory knew this and that’s why they were glued originally? I don’t know - that’s speculation.
Regardless enough folks had damaged emitters at delivery that they redesigned the head to hold the optic still (and also sit lower I think) so that the bezel won’t cause it to twist. And now they’re no longer glued.
At least that’s my understanding. But I never ordered one of the earlier run lights and just barely followed the whole saga myself. Maybe someone else can correct me if I’ve misrepresented something.
I just got my S14S, the LEDs and lens are 100% okay. No flaws from what I can see. Only minor complaints at all is the knurling is quite aggressive and it pinches the bottom o-ring just a little.
At this point I think its a buy. I waited for the issues to get ironed out myself and the light I received a few weeks ago has no issues to speak of. I’ve seen others post the same sentiment, but as always ymmv.
Well, i bought mine early december when it was around $ 33.
I think that’s a bargain for a stainless steel quad light with a pure copper head.
It’s the latest version without glue, so i can do what i want with it to improve / adapt it.
My only complaints are that the O ring in the bezel is too thin so the lens can move a little (even after putting a piece of diffuser sheet between optic and lens), the clip is pretty useless and cheap looking, the knurling is so sharp you can use it as a file, and i’m not sure if it should step down a mode after only 37 seconds in turbo mode.
For the rest, i love it and i would certainly buy it again for that price.
The 37 seconds (supposed to be 40) are a feature of the used BLF-A6 driver, which was developed for the BLF-A6 that needed about that timing to prevent overheating. Banggood just used that driver without adapting anything for the S41 (I’m not sure if they even have the knowledge to mess with firmware) , that with its copper chunk could use a bit longer stepdown timing.
I hate to be one of those people, but the best way to “fix” the driver (assuming you consider it inadequate) on this light is to dump it for a better one. I was actually pretty surprised (aka disappointed) to see that they had just wholesale copied over the A6 driver for this light. Mine immediately came out and was replaced by one of MtnElec’s Bistro drivers — more programmable, temp regulation instead of stepdown, and a great thru-board bypass. Reflowed 4 219cs to make the upgrade complete and it became a much better light altogether. I think the host is worth doing the upgrades.