I think the battery hammering on the bottom of PCB’s during head down drops flexes the PCB and can crack solder joints. Drivers with springs on them are better protected from this, but space and cost are reasons for not putting a spring on the head side of a light like this.
My Sunwayman R01A (unpotted) died from a head-down fall from about 5 feet.
for future, the C01 w 5mm 670nm Red LED can be scuffed up without removing it from the light, since there is no glass lens.
imo, the C01 Red is pretty useless, has a low output, and terrible beam… scuffing just makes it dimmer
I do not recommend the single mode C01 Red 5mm 670nm LED,
otoh
I Highly recommend the C01R xpe/sst 660nm red LED, it has a great beam, with 3 well spaced modes.
===
sorry to hear the light is broken
would have thought djozz son would have managed to break the unpotted C01 he tested…
Either your light was destined to fail, or your kids have more destructive skills than djozz’s boy
sad… maybe it can be repaired, if its a solder joint failure…
gchart’s failure sounds like a broken component, not just a solder joint… not sure
fwiw, the body colors of the 2020 C01 w 5mm 3400k High CRI Sophia LED that are potted are the :
**black ** and **green ** models
Yeah, the ferrite broke in half. I’ll likely pick up a new inductor on my next Mouser order. Too bad, I just placed an order like 2 days ago.
I agree but using the diffuser makes C01 670nm much more sexy.
wow… your kids have skills… LOL
the good news is, since its not potted, it will be easier to fix :partying_face:
I dropped an NiMH AAA cell into one of my C01s lights, thinking to see how well it worked, with the idea of saving a little on cells. It lights up, but only on low. I’m guessing the 1.2v is just too low to power the high mode. It will work great if all you are interested in is using the low for nighttime navigation around the house.
The C01S works fine with NiMH. No problems with high.
Yes I use mine with only NiMH rechargables. I use the C01S daily and if the high mode starts to dim very fast after I put the light in high I just put in a new NiMH battery and recharge the old one. The light maybe doesn’t get as bright or works as long compared to non-rechargeable batteries but that’s fine by me. I always got some spares in my backpack anyway.
NiMH batteries have better performance than alkaline.
Do you know if this broke with the light off or on?
The djozz torture video has the light switched on, if I remember - with the light switched off, the cell can then move inside the tube and act like a hammer, perhaps what happened with your light?
Pretty amazing that that happened with such a small and shallow inductor. But children have special talents for these things 
OK, I did my test with a cell straight from the package, so the voltage may have been down a little. I’ll throw the cells in the charger for a while, then test again.
I am embarrassed to admit this, but it wasn’t a C01S, it was just a C01. No wonder it would only have one output level! Dropped a NiMH into a real C01S and it works fine.
No need to be embarrassed. Thanks for clarification :+1:
Any more folks had their C01 fail sofar? For any reason?
Wanted to post a C01 mod I did recently. A few weeks ago I came into possession of some 5mm lights from Peak LED Solutions. They have these neat little auto cycling RGB 5mm emitters. Did some googling and found new color changing 5mm emitters and made modern versions with the C01. Here’s a video, there’s two versions, the left is a standard 5mm package, while the right is a shorter, straw-hat style package. They’re pointless really, but fairly mesmerizing to look at.
That is friggin’ kewl!!!
Wow!
that would make a fun camp marker… 
Nice mod, dk21291! 
I found several listings for RGB cycling 5mm LEDs on Amazon.
The listing specifies 3 to 3.2 Vf. This page says the Yuji 5mm LEDs from the first run C01 are 2.7 to 3.1 Vf. A quick search indicates the Sophia 5mm LEDs from later models are 3 Vf.
Seems like these RGB emitters would do fine in both versions.
Thanks! Those are the ones I used, actually