Quote:

No.
Lumintop tried to reduce the resistance in the springs by tighten them. They made the aluminium base thicker and shortened the rods.
But protected batteries won’t fit any more.
(Protected are recommended for safty and legal reasons: Remember you have 8 chances to put a battery wrong into a cartier. If you use unprotected you should know what you are doing)

Voltage stays the same

I´ve ordered only the Conversion Kit and also two new battery carriers.

At the moment I´m using my Imalent MRB-186P30 in my BLF GT (XHP35 Hi Version).
It the rods are shorter and protected batteries won´t fit any more…

…I have to use my Sony VTC6…

lichtpfadfinder wrote:

beastlykings wrote:

Then I got some strap wrenches, and tried putting one on the head and one on the body, that was a no go, almost broke the smaller of the two wrenches.

I actually broke my wrench when I tried to open the GT. Thing I have to give up the conversion to GT70 now… probably will just break the vice of my Grandfather if I try again to open this Monster

Rxich wrote:

Actually came off with only a 5 minute fight. I had him on the ground, and I was pummeling his head with a large Craftsman strap wrench(the rubber straps are new and nice and tacky). I uttered a few vulgarities and put him in a half Nelson. He groaned for mercy, I cursed again, threw all my weight upon his neck, gave a loud yell, and ripped his head off. Not a mark on him, but he was broken, in just the 2 pieces I needed.

Do we actually need new battery carriers for the conversion ? PossiblyDue to some voltage change?

Nice! My wrenches were brand new Craftsman as well, Amazon, they’re very nice. I foresee oil changes being easier lol

I noticed when I leave it in turbo mode for a few minutes, I hear expansion ding sounds coming from the head. Anyone else notice it?

Mine will never touch oil. I learned the hard way, I keep mine dry and sealed in a ziplock bag, lest they dry out and become brittle and slippery, and not very useful. My oil filter wrench has rotating iron fingers, that the harder you turn the harder they squeeze the filter.
4 bucks at walmart( hyper tough brand) works great

atbglenn wrote:

I noticed when I leave it in turbo mode for a few minutes, I hear expansion ding sounds coming from the head. Anyone else notice it?

Yeah, this is very common.

Texas_Ace wrote:

atbglenn wrote:

I noticed when I leave it in turbo mode for a few minutes, I hear expansion ding sounds coming from the head. Anyone else notice it?

Yeah, this is very common.

I’m ok with it as long as it’s normal. Thanks Texas!

With the change in the carrier design would it be a bad idea to use one new design and one old design in a light at the same time? Not that I would ever want to but how worried do I need to be in case they ever got mixed up or if one broke and replaced with the other type?

atbglenn wrote:

Texas_Ace wrote:

atbglenn wrote:

I noticed when I leave it in turbo mode for a few minutes, I hear expansion ding sounds coming from the head. Anyone else notice it?

Yeah, this is very common.

I’m ok with it as long as it’s normal. Thanks Texas!

I get the same thing with my MF02 and MF02S as well

anyone get confirmation of order or tracking#?

purchased my conversion kit on 9/13/18 but have not heard anything back.

Thanks for help beforehand.

species8472 wrote:

With the change in the carrier design would it be a bad idea to use one new design and one old design in a light at the same time? Not that I would ever want to but how worried do I need to be in case they ever got mixed up or if one broke and replaced with the other type?

JasonWW wrote:

species8472 wrote:

With the change in the carrier design would it be a bad idea to use one new design and one old design in a light at the same time? Not that I would ever want to but how worried do I need to be in case they ever got mixed up or if one broke and replaced with the other type?

Mixing and matching carriers is fine. The external dimensions, such as overall length and diameter, are exactly the same. It's only the distance where the battery sits that has changed.

That sounds great JasonWW, thank you.

KawiBoy1428 wrote:

but then I found this kit… with the S3 D32 D24….5 pack of Hakko tips on Amazon. Pretty good deal and you get the 2 Conical tips for like free…

Can you guys that have snug fitting Hakko tips look to see if Hakko uses a liner in them?

So far these look like junk. No snug fit = no good heat transfer. I’ll be returning these.

I think I’ll take my iron down to a Frys Electronics store and look at their Hakko tips next week when I have a day off. They are not too expensive at $6-$7 each, but the drive is pretty far.

My OEM Hakko tips have an inserts as well, but they fit with minimal play. Maybe yours are fakes?

atbglenn wrote:

My OEM Hakko tips have an inserts as well, but they fit with minimal play. Maybe yours are fakes?

Yep.. looks like a sleeve/liner in all of mine. Your packaging looks a bit different though…

There is a U.S. patent number on mine, and the warning is in English?

I’m still waiting for mine as well. Tracking still says “Wait for Shipping” I’d imagine they will ship soon. Hopefully next week.

troisanh wrote:

anyone get confirmation of order or tracking#?

purchased my conversion kit on 9/13/18 but have not heard anything back.

Thanks for help beforehand.

The NW lights are being packed this week, I got a picture of that effort yesterday. I assume that the conversion kits are also being worked on but I know they are in a time crunch before China shuts down next week for a holiday. We will see what all makes it out before that happens.

KawiBoy1428 wrote:

Yep.. looks like a sleeve/liner in all of mine. Your packaging looks a bit different though…

There is a U.S. patent number on mine, and the warning is in English?

Strange indeed, his might indeed be fakes.

Although I would recommend trying at least one of them out first. While the fitment is a big part of it, I wrapped my old china tips with copper foil to give them a snug fit and while the solder station did read that the temperature increased faster it only soldered slightly better. The insides of the tip are simply not very good.

Even with a looser fit with my hakko tip compared to the foil wrapped china tip, the Hakko tip is night and day better.

KawiBoy1428 wrote:

Yep.. looks like a sleeve/liner in all of mine. Your packaging looks a bit different though…

There is a U.S. patent number on mine, and the warning is in English?

I wish I still had the rappers for mine so I can compare them with yours. I purchased extra tips from Home Depot. They all get up to temp. BTW, I have a fake Hakko FG100 and 191 temperature sensor. They both are within a couple of degrees of each other.

Texas_Ace wrote:

KawiBoy1428 wrote:

Yep.. looks like a sleeve/liner in all of mine. Your packaging looks a bit different though…

There is a U.S. patent number on mine, and the warning is in English?

Strange indeed, his might indeed be fakes.

Although I would recommend trying at least one of them out first. While the fitment is a big part of it, I wrapped my old china tips with copper foil to give them a snug fit and while the solder station did read that the temperature increased faster it only soldered slightly better. The insides of the tip are simply not very good.

Even with a looser fit with my hakko tip compared to the foil wrapped china tip, the Hakko tip is night and day better.

The reason cheap tips will never heat up well is because copper foil will only tighten the gap between the heater and sleeve. The problem is the air gap between the inner sleeve and the tip. I did a video on it here.
https://youtu.be/B54A4xD17XA

Searching online I found that Hakko heating elements should be 4.86-4.88 in diameter. I also read that they should not have a snug fit so as to allow for expansion. I don’t know if that is true or not.

I decided to go ahead and try one of the tips on the very light that the cheap tip could not melt. The big 30mm copper dtp xhp70.2 mcpcb in the ODF30. Maxed at 480°C the cheap tip (largest size) just could not melt it. It heated the head instead.

With this new Amazon Hakko tip I set the temperature to 450°C and it had no problems liquefying it (using a medium sized tip on top of all that). I was able to wick away all the original solder and put some fresh lead-free in and then reassemble the light. I was also able to do some spring bypasses at either 330° or 360°C (I forget). So even though the fit between the tip and the element is not snug, it seems to be working a whole lot better than those cheap tips I had.

Next time I have it out I’ll switch to the biggest tip and do some solder blobs on my 26650 cells and see how it does. The old tips took a good 5 seconds to melt the blob, when it should be more like 2 seconds.

So for now, I’m satisfied.

I get 3.99-4.0 on all tips and 3.86-3.88 on the element. None of my sleeves pull out…checked my brand new spare back up Hakko iron the heating element is the same diameter. Bought all this about 4 years ago… Checked with another member and his is the same.

While I find the discussion about soldering tips interesting, could we move the off-topic discussion to it’s own thread?

Any word if they managed to ship out the NW orders before shutting down for the week?

This waiting has been brutal

flashycali wrote:

Any word if they managed to ship out the NW orders before shutting down for the week?

This waiting has been brutal

Nothing yet, I might here from them this weekend, I might not. It is always iffy on the weekends getting in contact with them.

Texas_Ace wrote:

flashycali wrote:

Any word if they managed to ship out the NW orders before shutting down for the week?

This waiting has been brutal

Nothing yet, I might here from them this weekend, I might not. It is always iffy on the weekends getting in contact with them.

Thanks for staying on top on this and all that you have done for the us

Ok, just got the final word before the holiday.

The good news is that almost all of the NW GT70’s were shipped out!

Leo stayed late and did a lot of the work getting these out the door all by himself to get as many as possible shipped before the holiday.

The delayed news is that the conversion kits were not able to be shipped before the holiday. They will ship out after they return.

So expect arrivals to start happening over the coming 1-2 weeks assuming they make it out of china before it completely shuts down.

Leo said he is going to try to get the tracking numbers sent out if he gets them before the holiday.

Texas_Ace wrote:

Ok, just got the final word before the holiday.

The good news is that almost all of the NW GT70’s were shipped out!

Leo stayed late and did a lot of the work getting these out the door all by himself to get as many as possible shipped before the holiday.

The delayed news is that the conversion kits were not able to be shipped before the holiday. They will ship out after they return.

So expect arrivals to start happening over the coming 1-2 weeks assuming they make it out of china before it completely shuts down.

Leo said he is going to try to get the tracking numbers sent out if he gets them before the holiday.

Thanks for the bit of good news with shipping, fingers crossed that the shipping forwarders work on weekends…..especially during a weekend before a holiday Monday, I know I would have been gone on the Friday before, I’m lazy like that

Texas_Ace wrote:

Ok, just got the final word before the holiday.

The good news is that almost all of the NW GT70’s were shipped out!

Leo stayed late and did a lot of the work getting these out the door all by himself to get as many as possible shipped before the holiday.

The delayed news is that the conversion kits were not able to be shipped before the holiday. They will ship out after they return.

So expect arrivals to start happening over the coming 1-2 weeks assuming they make it out of china before it completely shuts down.

Leo said he is going to try to get the tracking numbers sent out if he gets them before the holiday.

Thanks for the update. China national holiday starts oct 1 – oct 7.. so we might see shipping notice in 2 days.

Thanks for the update TA.

And a big ‘Thank You’ to Leo for going above & beyond!!!

No problem about the Conversion Kits either. It is what it is… we’ll get them soon enough.