New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

I tried multiple things, of-course it stays stuck in one mode. Nothing on the reflector side that can make a short, I even tried without the reflector. So I unscrewed the retention ring to see the driver on the other side but the cable are too short to be pulled -of the head so I can’t solder a new driver and now the driver is stuck in moonlight mode…

The driver is the same from the official Convoy website but mine is written ‘’convoy’’ instead of ‘’fx-12’’.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/7135x3-7135x4-7135x6-7135x8-with-new-firmware/330416_32734523412.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.BcDGXw

Be careful of overheating the LED since the reflector is what presses the LED down to the flashlight body for heat transfer. Just a quick 1 second power on to see if it changes is all that’s recommended. Several seconds on turbo might damage it.

Have you ever swapped a driver before? You just have to unsolder the 2 wires on the LED star and then you can pull the driver out.

Is it now one mode on moonlight only?

That’s really odd. I better let others suggest something. If you can’t get it working I’m sure Convoy/Simon would send you a replacement driver.

Just a thought, maybe it’s the tail switch. You could remove tailcap and apply a jumper from battery to end of flashlight body, then try successively tapping wire to body to change modes.

Yes its on one mode moonlight only now… I already changed drivers on flashlight but its tricky since there is no removable pill. Its not the switch either sadly. I purchased it from Gearbest so it might be second grade quality.

Did you try 15 fast half presses from the on position to get into the config menu?

It may just be a faulty driver. With gearbest you can open a claim with them and they will probably ask you to make a short video showing that there is a problem. Once they feel it’s a valid claim they will probably ask you whether you would like to send the light back or they will offer you half the purchase price back. I got half my money back and then ordered a replacement driver from the manufacturer. It took another 2 weeks to get the replacement driver, but I installed it and everything was fine.

I have heard that some people will argue for a full refund, but I don’t know if they will do that. Maybe.

Omega, try this… click it on then bump like you’re changing modes 10 - 12 times, it SHOULD give you a quick blink, tap it like a mode shift at this point, it should then blink once, pause, twice, pause, three times and so forth… try clicking on one of those like say the place where it blinks 3 times bump it or turn it off, see if it takes that setting.

Biscotti, which is what your C8 driver should have, has this interface….

The interface is as follows:

While off:

- Fully click and release to turn the light on. It will go to the first mode or the last-used mode, depending on whether you enabled mode memory.

While on:

- Short tap: Do a short (less than 0.5s) half-press to go forward to the next mode.

- Long tap: Do a long (longer than 0.5s) half-press to reset to the first mode (if mode memory is turned off).

- Fully click and release to turn the light off.

  • Short tap a bunch of times (10+ taps, or until the light stops turning on) to enter config mode.

Blinky modes:

- Some mode groups have blinky modes. They are not hidden, but if you leave mode memory off you can skip them with a long press.

Blinky modes include:

- Tactical strobe (~10 Hz)

- Biking flasher (2-level stutter beacon, 1 Hz)

- Battery check / beacon mode Each blink represents about 25% battery charge, so 1 is a low battery and 4 blinks is full. 5 blinks means it’s over-charged.

  • SOS

Configuration options:

The config mode has several options. It will blink out a number to show which option is active, then “buzz” or “stutter” for a bit.
Click during the “buzz” to select that option. Some options may enter a secondary config mode after the light turns back on.

Options include:

1. Mode group.

After clicking, the light should come on in a special group-select mode. In this mode, it slowly blinks out numbers from 1 to N, where N is the number of mode groups, then repeats. Turn the light off after N blinks to select mode group N.

Do not leave the light in config mode for long periods of time, because it will wear out the driver’s memory faster.

The mode groups are: (output is approximate)

1. 0.1, 1, 10, 35, 100%, strobe, biking, battery-check
2. 0.1, 1, 10, 35, 100%
3. 100, 35, 10, 1, 0.1%
4. 1, 20, 100%, strobe, biking, battery-check, SOS
5. 1, 20, 100%
6. 100, 20, 1%
7. 0.1, 1, 10, 50, strobe, biking, battery-check, SOS
8. 0.1, 1, 10, 50
9. 50, 10, 1, 0.1
10. 1, 10, 35, 100
11. 100, 20, strobe
12. 100% only

Example: To select group 5 (low-med-high), let it blink until it counts out five, then click the button.

2. Mode memory. Off or on.

Yes I already tried many times but it doesn’t work and there is no firefly only mode configuration so it must be the chip that is faulty. I have the BLF A6 and Astrolux S41 and I can easily access the config mode.

Shame you’re overseas, I’d fix that driver or set you up with a new one…

Contact Simon at his AliExpress site and he’ll take care of you. You’ll have to be able to solder the wires on the mcpcb at the emitter to make the swap, not difficult really, I mean, I do it so it can’t be all THAT hard. :wink:

I once had a driver that was stuck in single mode after I flashed it with Biscotti. After I flashed it again it was fine and the best thing was that I didn’t have to unsolder the wires to the emitter since there was enough room to get the clip onto the Atiny after removing the retaining ring.

He purchased through Gearbest, so I definitely think he should just buy a new driver right now to get it on the way. Then deal with GB to get his partial refund since it may take a week or so to get the actual money back into his account.

The problem might have been an incomplete or currupted flash of the mcu or maybe a defective component on the circuit board. Maybe something didn’t get soldered correctly. It’s rare, but sometimes happens.

The manufacturer holds the warranty, not the seller. Some seller’s will replace defective merchandise no questions asked, but the warranty is still through the company that made it. Many warranty cards implicitly say to Not Contact the Distributor.

In the end, whatever works. Simon made it, Simon will stand by it, regardless of where it was actually purchased. (At least, every issue I’ve heard about Simon stood behind his product.)

Yeah, like Dale said, Simon stands by his work. Omega_17 I would contact Simon through his Ali store even though you purchased it through GB. It will certainly be much less hassle. Just explain the situation and ask if he could send you a replacement driver. I’m sure he will make it right.

Minor bit of feedback on Biscotti: I’ve had the M1 with it for about a week now, and it works beautifully. Except sometimes, typically if I’ve had it on for a while, I half-press and it goes into the initial config mode without me pressing the required 10 times. No idea why, but no skin off my nose, I just let it roll until it sets back on “regular operation”.

Take it with a grain of salt, aside from setting mode group to 8 (and 2 twice for testing purposes) and mode memory to ON, which I did within 2 minutes of popping in the battery, I haven’t played with it more than I needed to :smiley: Still, it’s a surprisingly intuitive UI once you get used to its “tells”, and mode group details notwithstanding, I felt I wouldn’t need more than half an hour mucking around to know the ins and outs of the firmware. So great job, Selene, Jared and Simon, you guys really took Convoy far above and beyond the “budget light” label with this :+1:

Weird. Is that an old driver which runs at double speed, or a new driver?

I wouldn’t know how to tell, this is my first Biscotti torch. If it helps any, when I’m in mode selection the intervals between the end of a set of blinks and the start of the following one is about a full second.

Jack, my Convoy BD06 with the Biscotti driver does the same thing every once in a while. I wonder what’s going on with it?

Thanks. That looks like it’s probably the old one running at double speed, since the code has two full-second delays between those groups. Another way to tell is in biking mode… it should stutter roughly once per second, but the older ones did it every half-second or so.

It’s probably just acting weird occasionally due to being the first batch. As far as I’m aware, all that weirdness got fixed in the second batch. I don’t have any second-batch units for testing though; just a few first-batch ones.

Doesn’t really matter, TK. I’m more than fine with this double-speed UI - if you ask me, it could be the standard. (Though I know not everybody has my kind of sense of timing.)

Now take the compliment already! :stuck_out_tongue:

The link to buy this nice little light in post 1 does not work at the moment for me.

Does this link need updating or what?

I just checked it and it’s working fine. I’ve noticed BLF seems to be glitching a bit today. I couldn’t reach the site at all for maybe 5 minutes earlier. The link should work now though. Try it again and let us know.