First Impressions Nitecore EX10 Ti and EX11.2

You can always get a small bag of the expanding foam with some spacers between the lights. Close up a box and let the foam do its thing! I always save EPP foam, too. That is good stuff for cutting.

Mine came today. Nifty little bugger. Does fine with an Olight protected 16340 - haven’t even bothered popping my spare Vapcell in it. I do wish the shortcuts from off were to low and high, rather than strobe/SOS. Will just have to remember to turn it off in low. Then it’s easy.
I guess the next step is to see about flashing it and/or replacing the MCU.
Oh, and I found a short Jetbeam clip from a dead DDA10.

sadly, not in my experience,
they fit and they work, but
I only recommend primaries, for output stability
and
they are shorter than protected LiIon, so the button is easier to operate.

sometimes the light will not turn off after it is heated up by LiIon use, it goes to low instead
after that when I repeat the attempt to turn off, the light goes into lockout

I spend a lot of time fiddling with the button to get the light to function as requested when I use LiIon

the output is ridiculously unstable when the light warms up

those issues disappear when I do not use LiIon

max on LiIon is over 250 lumens with a 0.1 low,
max on Primaries is about 125 lumens, with a 0.01 low

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fwiw, about LVP in LiIon cells:
Did a test to run down a protected 16340 in an EX11.2
When output had dropped to 100 lumens, the light went dark.
The protection tripped at 3.2volts

Did a test to run down a CR123 in EX11.2:
When the output had dropped to 50 lumens, the battery was at 2.5volts.
A few minutes later, output dropped to 5 lumens, at which point the battery had dropped to 2.2 volts.

would avoid using unprotected cells, unless you can monitor voltage or brightness, to prevent overdischarge

Noted.

I won’t try the unprotected vapcell in it then. The Olight is a pretty weak cell, and protected - I will have to see how it does on longer runs at maximum brightness. If the light isn’t usable at max on LiIon, I will have to figure something else out for it - possibly an entirely new driver… Wouldn’t that be something.

My wife caught me getting another.

Aaaannd already blew it up. 3 seconds on, died. Some board component is toast. Edit: The seller is sending me a new one so all is well. Probably just the left side of the bathtub curve for electronic failures. Bookmarked the seller. Can’t say I won’t want another. The only thing really holding me back is the possibility of battery selection getting worse for 16340. Maybe that is just being paranoid though. This light is a good balance of output and size and I really love the Piston feel.

I forgot to mention: Mine came in with Andrew & Amanda on the return address label, despite being sold by “flashlight_scope_outdoors” on eBay

Same here. I bookmarked their site now. Their prices look decent and the shipping to me is pretty quick. Easy to work with also.

Double D10 Models

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D10, EX11.2:

Update on my experience using a couple of my Winter Edition EX11.2 for a few days

I stopped using 16340 and am testing with CR123.

I am still finding the light ON at minimum mode, when I thought I had turned it off.

It has happened to me with both CR123 and LiIon.

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anyone else notice their EX11.2 light on minimum, instead of off?

I have not had that issue with Version 10… both D10 and EX10 seem easier for me to get predictable button response than V11.2 lights.

I attribute the issue to the stiffer battery spring in the 11.2 models. Requires more firm and deliberate pressure when using the switch.

YepYep been chasing it for 2 days… like a double tap, from High/Turbo level, drops you back down to Low but with a single Tap as if to turn it off….

Maybe the driver thinks you are double tapping instead of a single? Try taking it apart and doing a good cleaning. An intermittent connection might be tricking the uC. If the head is loose enough the wiggling can make it jump to momentary mode and back. When it does jump back it will resume the last brightness. If you pocket carry I would make sure it is not near the point where it can toggle back and forth. But I would start with a good cleaning too since it won’t hurt.

thanks for confirming

I have seen the switch refuse to turn off, 3 times in a row, producing only lowest mode, over and over. I thought it was due to some part inside being warm from using maximum

but Im getting similar off click acts like double click, with CR123. And I have read reports of the light not turning off and going to low in old threads…

all that to say, 11.2 is no my first choice
I would rather use V10 drivers…

I still hope its just a stiff spring syndrome with the v11.2 lights
but unless I can find a softer spring… the 11.2 lights are imo, entertaining, but not predictable (thats PC talk for unreliable), hate to say it… but, a spade is a spade

correct, the stiff spring lights, which are all v11.2, confuse a single tap as a command to go to minimum… the only way to avoid it is to press deliberately, firmly, and not too fast, afaict

otoh, the softer spring models, all v10, are a joy to operate, and predictable…

my lights are clean and new, not in my pocket, just toyed with on my desk.

I bet they sacrificed a debounce capacitor for the sake of board space. You can get away with that but you need to account for it with extra uC code. Still not as good as a capacitor though IMO.

Yep clean it is… I didn’t like how hard it was to actuate and how gritty it felt when doing so…. I set out to improve this and maybe solve the problem … but it was very clean out of the box I was impressed.

The pill was taken apart and completely polished before re-flowing new LED. Even the spring was polished inside and out on/with the buffing wheel and the sharp ends of the spring de-burred. ( relieve mechanical friction).

. The inside of the spring was polished using a Leather wheel and then a buffing wheel on a Air Pencil die grinder.

. Of course the Piston and Bezel ring got polished also, bling mostly :wink:

. The contact ring was de-burred (the edges were sharp/burred and the split gap too) with a rubber diamond embedded hand hone/stone if you will. Maybe the contact ring was hanging up? It is a split ring.

. It actuates buttery smooth now…even tried out different piston springs…

. I found I could turn the driver/pill/ reflector assembly by twisting the driver, also I could push/pull the driver/reflector assembly when assembled in the head. I added a thicker o-ring to the Lens/ reflector assembly to tighten it all up, thought maybe the axial slop might of had something to do with it when actuating the piston? Nope…

. maybe a glitch in the driver/mcu…like a timing issue? I noticed sometimes the ramping takes some time or hesitates to start to ramp up or down and sometimes it takes several hit’s to shut off…

TBC…

beautiful work
my guess is the bottom of the contact ring hanging up is a likely cause for the light reading a double tap from an intended single press to off

making the contact ring travel smoothly without hanging up seems like an priority focus.

so, I pulled the battery out of my ex11.2 and just pumped the button a few hundred times while watching a movie… its much smoother now, and does not hang up…

Im hopeful not to see any more unintended failures to switch off, going to low instead by mistake… thumbs crossed

the v11.2 driver has a lower low and a lower parasitic drain than V10, but uses more parts and has three added features that work from OFF

I have never had a v10 fail to turn off, nor mistake a sigle press for a request for lowest mode, the way my v11.2 lights have done.

I suspect there is a component on the V11.2 driver that gets confused, in a way the V10 does not… unconfirmed…

I believe the springs on the contact ring are also softer on V10 than v11.2… possibly allowing a less ambiguous single contact signal, when pressing once for off

speculation
I note the EX piston has a longer travel before the contact ring is fully compressed than my D10. this suggests the D10 pistons are slightly longer, and there is a smaller gap between the end of the piston and the contact ring.

Funny never had a failure to feed… I mean turn on… if it was mechanical you should have failures to feed… the LED…

from off
I get failure to feed reliably if I dont press the EX piston down deep enough
I also get momentary on and off if I dont hold the EX piston down long enough

from on
I get failure to turn off, and I get low instead
I suspect caused by my switch press and release timing being too fast

that sounds like a good way to also move the contact ring closer to the piston edges

So there is a shallower travel to make contact… I think that is a good thing… imo the EX piston travel is longer than necessary for a crisp switch action

the EX piston travel is longer, more like a DAO trigger
the D piston feels shorter, more like a SA trigger

Never had a failure to turn ON from OFF …OR

. Turn ON after setting the ramp to any Level….

. OR after a battery change where it turns on in LOW then I ramp up…

. I have had it making contact to ramp, it would dwell for a bit, then start to ramp…

. Never a failure to turn ON… just OFF

. Got any pics of the other side of these drivers… I had mine out but forgot to take pics…

no, I have not figured out how to pull the driver out of the pill
any tips welcome

I used a skinny pin punch and went thru one of the anti rotate holes where the reflector centering device locates into on the pill….low level light and magnifying visor recommended :wink:

. More or Less what I’m seeing is not a mechanical contact issue… like the split ring is missing the signal ring on the driver… in my case it is NOT, or else it would or should have failures to turn on… and it should not take 2-3-4 hits before the light turns off in any mode… imho…