SP10s Fix

But this is getting away from the liability that Sofirn has a product, a $15 light, that they care not to cover. It is rather cheap and scrupulous of them.

As a merchant, you have rights and obligations. I understand that. In your understanding of the warranty, it is according to New Zealand law. I have a different view from a more socialist environment. But you didn’t sell the light to Timber, and I can’t vouch for his rights.

But if he purchased it directly off AliExpress or Sofirnlight.com then he’s not covered by any consumer rights in his country.

In New Zealand we have a platform called Trade Me and all overseas sellers are under the CGA, but if I was to purchase directly from say their China website, I have no cover whatsoever.

As I’ve said above, all companies will say the same for impact and liquid damage.

I find impact damage hard to give a warranty for, as many people lie about the height and also many times it’s not just an idle drop, but with some force. I had a customer slip and “drop” his FT03 but as he slipped he threw his light to the ground, claimed it was a straight drop to start with. Mateminco/Astrolux said no warranty cover and I had to pay for new parts. Luckily upon inspection it was just a crooked tail cap preventing a connection.

Geez, a $15 light and Sorirn tarnishes their name from a tabletop drop! And other makers are just as reluctant, or outright deniers of such requests?

Can’t believe we’ve gotten so low to let companies deny their own claims.
The burden of proof of a forceful impact lies on the company.

Sidney is right by consumer perception (marketing)… BUT a lot of manufacturers DO state the “oh, not really” part in the fine print (sadly). It’s wrong, but it’s the “new marketing” in the world we live in today.

Caveat Emptor

I feel if I dropped a Sofirn light after a month or two that they would be more apt to replace it Vs. a year later. Thankfully, I have not had to test that theory… but if I did, and any manufacturer making that claim didn’t do SOMETHING for me— then I’d probably not buy (as much stuff or any) from them going forward. Way it works (and here at BLF is where we share problems we have so others can understand risks involved).

I own a lot of Sofirn lights and I’ve developed a relationship with them buying direct from the Sofirnlight.com site (and I do believe Barry and Lan are sincerely good guys trying to make an honest buck) and so it’s a hard call on the most budget of lights they sell. Hopefully they keep up the good work they have so far… while we also continue to understand how this market evolves.

I emailed and contact them by whatsapp. They said the aliexpress store is on different division from them.

Yeah, certainly try get in touch with someone else. You even have the option in open a dispute but disputes don’t always end in our favor

I’m not sure if open a dispute will get any result. I understand that many electronic manufacturer won’t cover drop / impact accident, they even sell seperate warranty cover for water damage and drop accident. I respect for whatever response from sofirn as i know there’s no clear stated in the manual that it’s gonna be covered by warranty. But knowing sofirn flashlight quality, i won’t buying anything from them again unless they made that anduril sp10s.

I understand that but it’s not like it came faulty and they refused though…

There’s a lot of great lights out their but Sofirn make some sweet lights for cheap. If you want cheap and a lot of output then it’s a great option. If you want top durability then go for a brand that pots their drivers.

So the next time a light goes pearshape, don’t be too honest and tell them exactly what happened. Sellers are prone to think the buyer is telling only half the truth. So they multiply the height of the drop by two and deny the warranty (of course this isn’t math, it’s more like emotion).
If the light has no damage from the fall, show it to them, just tell them it suddenly stopped working. Won’t be the first time that happens. Lot of threads where a light stopped working after a mild bump.
Is that lying? Maybe, but you won’t get what you payed for when you are telling the truth.

I used to lie a little with banggood due to how hard it is to get a replacement. If it was a fault hard to show on camera, I’d unsolder a wire and show it not working at all.

As a dealer for Sofirn I don’t have to tell them the fault anymore, I just say I need a replacement X model and they send it. Mateminco isn’t that good, they’ll still ask me for videos etc which is annoying

Had a customer complain “my light is faulty, it’s stuck on low and blinking” messages back a few minutes later “sorry, it was just low battery” lol.

You are right. I have a little regret for telling them about the accident :smiley:

so they can sell me the driver for 5$ with free shipping. Is it worth the hassle with opening the flashight as a newbie ? i could get convoy t2 for 12$ include shipping. and sell the sps10s as emitter sparepart for 3-5$

If you’ve not modded lights before (and don’t want to spend a few hours possibly breaking the light you are trying to fix… hey, it happens!), then I’d go with the plan above.

Sometimes you have to give-up on a project when it’s just not worth the hassle, time and risk. That said, this is also a hobby… and so $5 isn’t a lot to spend if you WANT to torture yourself like so many of us here DO :person_facepalming:

I almost always spent more money on my modded lights than if I bought them new. More guys here would also help you out with some stuff like flashing Anduril, etc. but shipping is painfully expensive today for sending back and forth.

If I had both of these lights to choose from today, I’d buy the Conyoy. IF Sofirn makes the UI better (Anduril) then I MIGHT choose it instead (depending on the price).

Good luck!

Go for the Convoy and drop the SP10s.

Sofirns’ lights are not easy to work with (glued) and for a newbie, quite small with much attention to detail. Need too many tools to work these lights.

I agree with this!

I agree with this too!

But, I don’t agree with this completely, and unless something has changed from the SP10A/B versions to that SP10S version, it is not completely accurate.

These smaller lights of them work(ed) with a screwed in but not glued bezel, a screwed but not glued in reatining ring and a fit it driver. SO, glue was not involved.

Therefore, the only tools you’d probably need to mod this light would be: pointy tweezers or pointy pliers to remove the retaining ring and then put it back in place, and soldering iron + solder to unsolder/solder the driver’s wires onto the led PCB. If you don’t remover the led PCB, you don’t even need thermal paste!!!

HOWEVER, this said, if you don’t have the know-how or the tools to make the replacement operation, and don’t want / can’t experiment doing the replacement, to give youself that hassle and jump into the Convoy T2!


EDITED: See Sidney Stratyon reply below!

Just looking over my SP10S and the driver is glued. As for the bezel, I may have broken the seal. I often do to test various filters and lens. Also, I don’t have the ‘B’ version but the SF14v2.0 is also glued. You are correct the “A” version has a retaining ring.

Sofirn glues everything as of late. I ordered a SD01 with the intention to replace the SST-40s with KW CULPM1.TGs. I’ll be challenged…

Ooops, so…something really changed from the initial versions, and not for the best… :person_facepalming:
I will “erase” what I said above, ’cause it seems I’m still living in the past :zipper_mouth_face:

Sorry for the glue and for my - hopefully not - misleading assumption!

Glue increases the reliability of the light since there’s no parts that’ll come loose. I hate glue though since it’s always a mission to repair for my customers. Thankfully Sofirn send out replacements instead of requesting a return and repair like Skilhunt and Mateminco. It’s either I get sent parts or I have to return it, even if its brand new.

The SP40 is glued and no amount of heat would budge the driver, ended up smashing a nail through the driver and using a screw to pull it out. Well, that didn’t work either, upon inspecting, the driver has another board soldered to it which extends up and is soldered to the switch board.

Now awaiting a replacement switch board since I destroyed it

Very late post here, but I am curious as to why anyone would attempt repair of a sub 20 dollar light. I would just buy another one, if I had not already bought 6…2 initially, and 4 more after finding out how much I like this little light. I mean the last 4 I ordered were $61.96 for all 4 with free shipping. That is $15.49 each. IMO that is just too inexpensive to be worth the hassle of fixing it, even if I can…which is likely…having worked as an electrician at a factory.

Because we can… and it is fun to mod them at that point.