I wonder if there’s a magnet that’s the size of the tritium slot for those of us who want MORE POWER!!!

slowtechstef wrote:

For the sake of safety: for anyone with young children (age < 6 years), please be very carefull with these little rare-earth magnets, and carefully store them out of reach in childproof closed containers. If your child swallows more than 1 magnet, this can cause serious tissue damage and possibly even cause death. For example see this.

Great point. Animals as well.

My last update was on 28th November, showing it is/was in Guangzhou (International dispatch).
As we’ve been having some strikes in Portugal (customs and stevedore), I am not sure if the delay has to do with that or with the shipping process in China.

My purchase protection will end in 23 days…I hope the flashlights arrive here before that…

A fix while it ain’t broken.

A possible failure point of the production C01 is that the contact flats on the driver that get twisted against the battery tube actually have very little contact area, less than the prototype because the brass is not extended fully to the very edge of the circuit board. It is one of these things that chinese manufacturers change without notice while unaware of the consequences.

So also because this afternoon I found a little piece of 0.1mm brass foil in my metal goodies drawer, I did this fix:

1) scraped away some more solder mask

2) cut two pieces of brass sheet to size, and tinned both the driver and the brass flakes with solder

3) soldered the brass pieces in place, as flat as possible squeezing excess solder out.

4) sanding away excess solder

5) after 50 or so twisting actions you can see where the contact area is now, it has more than doubled compared to stock, and the .1mm of brass takes very long to wear through.

Quote:

brass is not extended fully to the very edge of the circuit board. It is one of these things that chinese manufacturers change without notice while unaware of the consequences.

Thanks for catching that, and documenting how to fix it.

I noticed another corner cut. After half a day in my pocket with keys and change, the black paint is flaking off the pocket clip and the tailcap. There’s visible rust on the metal of the pocket clip where the paint flaked off, looks like it was painted without prepping the metal.

I wonder sometimes how China’s going to survive the next century, if all their civil and military manufacturing is done to the same don’t-give-a-damn carelesness about specification. Things fall apart when they’re built in slapdash fashion. How long does it take to learn that?

Quote:

“My time in China has taught me the pleasure and value of craftsmanship, simply because it’s so rare. To see somebody doing a job well, not just for its own reward, but for the satisfaction of good work, thrills my heart …. the prevailing attitude is chabuduo, or ‘close enough’. It’s a phrase you’ll hear with grating regularity, one that speaks to a job 70 per cent done, a plan sketched out but never completed, a gauge unchecked or a socket put in the wrong size. Chabuduo is the corrosive opposite of the impulse towards craftmanship”
https://aeon.co/essays/what-chinese-corner-cutting-reveals-about-modernity

As the old saying goes:
Good, cheap, fast — you pick which two.
Or maybe pick which one ….

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-ab&q=chinese+%22close+e...

But I still like the flashlight so far. As U. Utah Phillips says in his story: It’s good though.
Better than I could make myself.

Tracking just put my package in Chicago.

Hank, and here i thought my light paint peeled off due to our gov irradition of packages from Asia lol. Closer examination does show metal in rusted condition! Clip is in garbage can, light will soon to follow!

edit:

I just can’t imagine anybody having to solder on brass foil contacts for inadequate factory ones. Is the C01 turning out to be a POS (less than adequate) before it even debuts

Streamer wrote:

I just can’t imagine anybody having to solder on brass foil contacts for inadequate factory oness. Is the C01 turning out to be a POS before it even debuts

If it ain’t broke…don’t fix it. Let the new released torch cut its teeth without interference. It needs to be seen what it is not what it can be made to be. So far, it’s chasing the ghost of the Fenix E01. I ordered C01’s just like everybody else in thread did. Give it a chance as is from Sofirn.

Received mine today. Great light but not much people mention that it has a tunnel vision beam, no spills. Like a zoomie profile.

Maybe everyone knows but me. Lol

edit:

BTW…I wan’t calling it a POS (less than adequate)…I was asking if it was turning out to be a POS (less than adequate)….all directly from your input djozz.

Let’s hope not so.

my two C01’s arrived …

Not even a single speck of worries here.. Excluding the 4 submitted in the interest list, so far I’ve ordered another 8 because this specfic model is the perfect startup high CRI light for my loved ones as coming festive gifts..:) It’s within my budget.Using this to educate and get them started with. Many thanks for those and Sofirn who made this happen..:) High CRI ftw!

Quote:

in garbage can, light

no, no, send it to me instead of tossing it, if you’re not kidding.

Like I said, “moose turd pie” is better than what I could make myself. So I like it.

If anything, this should be a learning experience for Sofirn about meeting specs, not changing specs, and checking every piece they get from subcontractors for qa/qc.

And making sure to have a qa/qc program, of course. Those are defined terms and if Sofirn learns to adopt a quality production process they will stand out markedly different from the average manufacturer in industries around them.

I ranted about this in an earlier thread:
http://budgetlightforum.com/comment/704501#comment-704501
http://budgetlightforum.com/comment/704556#comment-704556

Quote:

Personally, I think China needs something the USA had for a while and lost — unions. They weren’t/aren’t near perfect. But training and competence rested with the workers decades ago. “Union Made” on something you bought said the workers who made the thing likely knew what they were doing.

That’s why I asked who owns Sofirn, a while back. If the workers own it, well, pride’s something that develops.
If outsiders own it, that’s less likely.

GreenLights wrote:

I ordered on the 10th as well. Ali, USPS, and ParcelsApp all have the last update on November 24, 2018, 11:05 am:
Processed Through Facility
GUANGZHOU EMS, CHINA

Ordered on the 28th, 10 days later and this update:
December 8, 2018
Processed Through Facility
GUANGZHOU EMS, CHINA

Im a bit lost
was unable to find the photo of the fenix contact area, I know its here somewhere..

found these..
but still dont know what that last pic is, and what the production contacts look like, before being sanded and soldered over..

djozz wrote:

The 3200K C01 sample…

not sure if this is just art:

djozz wrote:

can someone give me a pictorial sequence.. Fenix contacts, and Sofirn current production contacts, unmodified?

When I look down the battery tube past the threads, I see a shiny metal shelf — I assume that’s what the contacts on the head are supposed to reach. Maybe a dab of conductive lube would keep the contacts from wearing out.

An interesting parallel — one design problem of the Arc AAA was that the circuit board was held to the head by a metal collar just crimped tight that eventually loosened up or flaked off due to metal fatigue. Arc covered that under warranty for the owner’s lifetime; I’ve had several fixed over the years.

But ya know, there’s an argument in favor of using a threaded retaining ring to hold the bits in place.

I received mine yesterday and this is how it looks like –

cyclops wrote:

I received mine yesterday and this is how it looks like –

thanks
here is my Fenix E01

now, what is the problem?

jon_slider wrote:

cyclops wrote:

I received mine yesterday and this is how it looks like –

thanks
here is my Fenix E01

now, what is the problem?

Streamer had a legitimate question too about it being a dud from the beginning.

But, from reading it all several times… …. my take is this:

“I think” djozz was identifying/speculating what ‘might’ be a weak spot in the unit and could possibly cause problems sometime in the future.

He then illustrated a ‘fix’ that would correct the problem ‘should’ it occur.
The same ‘fix’ would prevent it from happening in the first place.

Anyway…. that is my take on it. There is no problem at this point. …

This issue needs a good pic I see now.

Left my Fenix E01. You can see that the copper is extending to the edge and that the contact area is ok, not great IMO but this light has proven over the years that it is adequate.

Middle is one of the C01 prototypes. I see now that the copper here also does not extend to the side, but that the contact area is only good because the circuitry is not overly well centered on the board, so that one side makes for a very good contact area, the other side much less. Btw, at the time of the prototype I did warn Barry to pay attention to good contact points.

Right is the production C01. The circuitry is even a bit further from the edge of the board compared to the prototype, not much of a contact area leftover.

But it works and maybe for a very long time, again mind that there is no hard data at all at this moment that this is a failure point at all, we are speculating based on what we see. It will not help for this production run but I will confront Barry with this picture.

(in the picture not all boards seem the same size, this is distortion of my phone camera, in reality the boards are all the same size)

I like to have one of this in my collection

Thank for explaining THIS further djozz.

Glad you cautioned them about this in advance, a shame they apparently ignored you.