SP10s Fix

That’s unfortunate, I’ve dropped mine often and had no problems.

I believe the light has glued bezel, driver. Definitely a faulty contact. I’d contact Sofirn. They purposely seal everything and so assume any responsibility for misgivings. Check the store page description. If it has a mention of a 1-meter drop test, they should offer a replacement.

If you had some technical abilities, and after contacting Sofirn for replacement, the light can be dismantled. Need strap wrenches (very small size) and some heat as stripping air gun for the bezel. Then the driver can be poked out thru one of the wire holes in the shelf. It’s not an easy fix - like the Apple products. It just isn’t meant to be fixed.

Addendum:

Even after opening the light, you would have to resolder the electronic components - sounds hard but actually re-heating the whole thing above 200ºC and less than, say 240ºC. Any loose connection should resolder by capillary action.

I wouldn’t bother.

EDIT #2:

I presume you verified the spring in the tail end is tight against the cap?

My early sp10 had a poorly soldered emitter. Sofirn replaced it without a hassle. Luckily mine was not glued and I took the opportunity to reflow my first LED. If you can open the bezel, lightly press on the LED and see if that causes it to flicker. If so, buy some solder flux, watch a video or two and warm up your frying pan.

You’re right. I will contact sofirn for now. As in the manual it’s rated 1 meter drop. I hope they could offer some solution for the replacement.

i think mine is not glued. So i supposed to detach the cable first then push the driver out of barrel ? if i want to reflow the led, will solder do the job ? air gun seems more expensive than buying a new flashllight. and i see some white plastic ring around the led. What is that ring ?

You’re opening a can of worms. There is much about the technical as there is about the art.

Unsoldering the wires is not easy if you don’t have the experience. The LED sits on a thermal (copper) ‘star’ and your soldering iron may not be able to get enough heat for proper detaching. And then to push out the driver, whatever you use as a tool will most probably damage some component, that you’ll have to replace. And again, the glue Sofirn uses is very tenacious. I usually heat the driver and head assembly, but hot enough to soften any solder.
The plastic ring is a centering gasket. As the name implies, it centers the reflector about the emitter. It also acts as an isolator from the “star” (Metal Clad Printed Circuit Board - MCPCB for short).

Get a new light from Sofirn. Then you can experiment with this faulty unit. It’s rare for SP10s to go bad. You just happen to have one that may be solder-shy. Mine I’ve tortured - in my pocket over a year and dropped, wetted, rolled about and survived rolled over by a car. It’s my workhorse as I have poor vision. Still keeps going strong.

How high was the table though….some are higher than 1 meter. Also sometimes it’s not a straight drop but with a bit of force behind it.

Well… if you say so… its likely i will damage it while repairing it. So the sofirn from AE just replied me, they’re thinking it’s the driver become loose. and their web customer service told that will be hard to repair. Is there anyway i can push out the whole driver and led without unsolder it. I just want to check it first without damaging it. Meanwhile, i’m trying to ask sofirn AE if they could repair it for me.

Yeah, it’s just unfortunate for me. First flashlight and it’s broken already in one use. But for now i will buy from another brand beside sofirn. I’m waiting for my lumintop tool AA and skilhunt e3a to arrived this week. Is there any recomendation for cheap AA flashllight with 50 lumens using nimh battery ? I’m interested in skihunt m150 and manker e3h ii, but twice the price and 2meter impact rate. But for cheap one, maybe convoy t2 or maybe just another tool aa.

Dining table around 75cm. My kid wanted to see it and it got knocked out off the table.

The SP10S driver is glued in so you’ll need to get it quite hot and push it out through the wire holes after desoldering them off the led mcpcb board.

Just ask for another to be resent, don’t ask them for a repair, to messy having to ship it back.

The new 14500/AA Convoy T2 is a very good choice. Get it in Nichia 4000K.

I know I’m pretty late with my response, sorry for that.

When a light has only one mode left, be it max or turbo, that’s usually because there is a short between the black lead (between driver and leadboard) and the body of the light. Maybe the driver is a bit shifted, and the solderblob of the black lead is touching the body. Maybe the short is on the other end, between the solder blob of the black lead on the leadbord, and the reflector.

The last type of short is easy to check, removing the reflector ends the short.
The first type of short has all the “challenges” written down in previous posts, not suited for novices.

Yea, i’m doing sweet talk to them. Hope they could help replace a new one. Thanks funtastic. btw, which one has better cri for rendering material colours in construction work, nichia 4000k /5700k or samsung lh351d 4000k/5000k . Convoy had both of them. I think i need more floody beam too.

i just tried remove the reflector. it doesn’t work. Haha… i guess i’ll just need to wait for sofirn response first before i’m doing anything to this flashlight. Thanks for your response Henk

So sofirn just reached to me that they can’t help because it’s user fault. Well then, i will try to sell this one cheap as spare parts or i might try to open it. Either way this one is already useless and i’m buying a new one and never again will buy one from sofirn. Lucky me, i was paying this one not for the full price.

Is there any non destructive way beside try punching the driver out of the tube ?

Edit : It seem sofirn sell the sp10s driver only.

Not SP10S, but I had 1 SP10A and 1 SP10B damaged from a short fall. It guess the internal pression in some components and wires makes it “damage” from short falls. The light is not potted, the wires are short and almost twisted to fit due to the driver shape.

So…I would say that you may ask Sofirn to sell you a spare driver and replace that one. Been there, done that,twice. And…after one of the lights felt again, I have only one functioning now…

I’m thinking to buy either sp10s again just for the sake to use the old one for spare emitter or buy convoy t2. Is convoy t2 easy to fixed and more durable than this sp10 series ? Hearing from your experience , seems it’s not good to buy another sp10s.

I was not saying that the SP10 isn’t worth it, but it needed to be potted or have and internally different structure to be more solid.
As for the T2, yes, it is much easier to fix in case the driver or the emitter are damaged! And it is more durable, the walls ate thicker it can handlea beat better than the SP10 lights.

I’d park the SP10 for a while and maybe try the Convoy. Then… when Sofirn has a cool new light you want later down the line, you can add the SP10 driver for the free shipping, get a new light and fix the SP10 later. I’ve done this with a few lights over the last few years (and Sofirn was pretty good at finding non-listed parts for me a time or two, too).

I have about 5 SP10s- dropped a few but knock on wood- never had one fail and I’ve put them through some paces. But if you need a 14500 right away I concur with the Convoy. Simon makes super good lights (inside and out) and keeps them simple and durable and the T2 is probably the more durable (and easier to repair- like my Chevy’s)! :smiley:

Quite a lot of manufacturers won’t give a warranty for damage incurred by the user. If you think about it, if Apple says their iPhone model has a 2m waterproof rating and it gets water damage by any measure, the warranty is void. Same for any phone manufacturer. Same for drop damage etc

Letting something like this put you off an entire brand is a bit much. If you want something that’ll take a beating, then get a brand that pots their drivers. Something like the expensive Elzetta brand

Every single brand that’s not potted won’t be durable like you’re wanting. The SP10S driver most likely has had a component shift from the drop and that’s just what happens to solder. The prices you’re wanting to pay, you can’t expect a whole lot more tbh. Most have had an SP10S take a beating and function fine, others not, but that’s like every single product that exists, some have faults etc.

So you’re saying if the SP10S had thicker walls it would have survived? I don’t think so.

As for fixing, the T2 is much easier but you still need to know how to solder

Nop, I was saying that the T2 is more durable and has thicker walls, but I wasn’t comparing walls thickness with the SP10S.
I was also saying that the internal structure of the flashlight (driver shape, shelf, wires bending, etc) has a negative “impact” when the light falls to the ground.
On a T2, a “regular” 17mm driver can be used, un/soldering wires and it stays put and has no other elements affecting it negatively if it suffers impacts on the floor.

Well and for this kind of replacement and fixing you’ll always need to know how to solder and have the tools, but it is way easier to replace a driver or fix something in a T2 than in a SP10 light :wink:

One of the best things about Convoy is their lights never use glue, it’s fantastic for modding

Convoy is my best selling brand

I know a little basic knowledge about soldering. I used to fix / remove mechanical keyboard switches. But flashlight pcb is much smaller and it seems i dont have tools like heatgun to remove the glue. And also removing the driver seems hard without damaging the driver in sp10s.

I will try use the hair dryer to heat the glue. I better buy another flashlight than buying a heatgun.

Glad to hear that convoy is much easier to fixed. Gonna pick one with lh315d 4000k. Already order nichia 219c in tool aa. I think zappaman is right, i will wait until sofirn make sp10 with anduril which everyone are waiting for and order sp10s driver along with it.

You could use a hairdrier and solder a bit of wire to the driver and try giving it a tug, this is how a couple members do it. You first need to unsolder the wires off the led though.