Convoy / Aliexpress

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I would say that after placing the order - WITHOUT PAYING - contact Simon via the “contact seller” option and ask him to check the shipping fees of your order (send him the order number), and it will eventually decrease! It has happened to me in other stores and that was how I proceeded.

Yes, you can ask the discount to Simon, mention you’re from BLF.

About the driver, you’re right, there is no way to choose from the options in the website.

When you are placing the order, write a note there for which version you’ll want (6 or 8*7135 chips).

You can contact Simon via AliExpress chat, he usually replies in a day or so, you can ask him directly and he’ll usually be very helpful. If you place an order remember to add any instructions or request before paying. If possible talk to him before placing the order.
Nice choice going with his store, it’s one of the few stores I trust in AliExpress.

If you use debit card on AE you can’t buy anything without paying it. That works only with Paypal.

You can do it by lowering your credit card limit under the value of the order but I don’t think you need to do this, just talk to Simon using the chat before you make the purchase

With every store I’ve experienced so far, Ali will automatically combine and reduce shipping costs when you have multiple shipping fees like that. Works in Simon’s store, too. I haven’t figured out exactly how they calculate it but sometimes it’s merely the most expensive full shipping fee/item shown and sometimes it’s something just slightly higher than the average if those fees vary and you have several items including free shipping ones. You can select the items from the seller, click “buy from this seller” or whatever, and you’ll see the final shipping cost (and taxes)…you’re not paying just yet so there’s no risk to you, just a way to see the actual shipping. If you don’t like what they came up with, then yeah, you can message the sellers and try to work out a deal.

One example…recently ordered a whole bunch of screws in individual sizes. Each one showed a shipping fee (ridiculous) of like $2.20 and I had I think sixteen of them. On checkout, the actual shipping fee was something like $3.30 or thereabouts.

Also, if you happen to order from more than one seller/store at the same time, Ali is often combining shipments into one package (like Amazon will often do). This is new. I had two of those this summer. Didn’t seem to slow down the shipping at all, surprisingly.

Nice, I didn’t know that!

Interesting that it didn’t lower the shipping for you this time…I wonder if that might be because of the included lithium batteries, or maybe something to do with Canada? Once you’ve reached this screen, the order is recorded even if you haven’t paid. If you exit out it will show in your order list and they will pester you about it with emails until you either cancel it or follow through with payment. I’ve never done all that with asking Simon to adjust payments or the forum discount, but I think this is where you’d message him (should be able to do that most conveniently if you click the “contact seller” button from that order screen, or in the box for that order on your order list…that should tie the order/order number to the message that Simon will see).

Not sure what’s up with all of the stock outages but likely either labor or chip shortages, fallout from covid still.

8x driver is fine, just going to get hotter on high mode compared to the 6x. That’s less than 3 amps so pretty much any battery will handle that just fine. Not sure about those Nichia emitters but with others if you leave the 8x running on high unattended for awhile you may want to pick up the light near the body/tail end when you go to turn it off…not skin-searing hot usually, but dang hot, just so you’re not surprised. It’s ok…just hot. :slight_smile: With Simon’s lights he usually still plays conservative compared to what enthusiasts and a few companies will create, but he allows more amps/performance than many companies do (meaning that many lights out there just don’t put out the lumens that they potentially could if the companies would allow a little more juice to flow…they do that in favor of “never hot” and battery run time usually). Convoy usually in a happy middleground.

It’ll work about the same (assuming a normal battery isn’t poor quality or well-used to where it has more internal resistance and such). The driver will limit the current so a high drain battery in this case isn’t going to do more or less. Where high drain batteries can really deliver is in FET drivers that allow full current flow…then those high drain can let it all loose while normal batteries will reach their limit (getting warmer or hot, and in a protected battery it may trip the circuit if the amps asked are more than the circuit allows (usually 6a or 8a these days)).

Drivers and emitters are usually paired well enough in lights that you buy so normally you’re not going to cook anything…generally it’s drivers that will fail in some way, heat-related or otherwise (usually otherwise).

Most lights….normal batteries are fine. If you get a FET design, that’s when you’ll likely want a higher drain battery that can deliver more current and be happy about it. Power tools, vacuums, etc….those generally use high drain cells. With higher current drain, you usually have to sacrifice some mAh capacity but some these days are much better there (like the Sony VTC6 and LG MJ1…managed to increase the capacity in their magic sauce while still delivering higher current).

Don’t worry…you’re fine and learning more about this. And Convoy lights are still safe and perform great, no worries. Generally Simon will choose sensible driver current for the emitters and supplies decent batteries that will match the light’s needs.

Yes if you place your order here with red button they will charge your card. I have virtual visa and can charge it without money. If your card is empty your order will be active but not proceed and waiting for payment.

I just received a Convoy FL (from Simon’s store) and some automotive parts from an entirely different store on Aliexpress. Ali combined the shipping cost and the packages into one. And only took 15 days to arrive. They also sent updated shipping notifications, and actually emailed me saying my package was delivered (which it was). Not sure how they manage to do that, but it was a welcome surprise from past experiences with them. They also take paypal now built into their checkout.

They really seem to have ramped up the emails. The combined shipping thing is new. Really surprised me the first time because I’d already gotten ship notices and individual tracking numbers for the different orders. Then a day or three later I got another email about shipping, but that didn’t mention combining the orders…saw that when looking at my orders/tracking numbers later. Not sure how I feel about it because sometimes I’d prefer items to ship separately. For one, if the combined package gets lost, there goes all of it instead of maybe one of three. For another, with the usually piss-poor packaging they do, if they combine fragile items with heavier items like they did with the second one for me, cross your fingers and hope nothing is bashed badly enough to be damaged. I only do desktop with Ali but it’s still pretty wonky with weird errors and things that don’t quite make sense, but I learned it so it feels weirdly natural now. :slight_smile:

Apparently not all stores can do Paypal…it’s all I will use for Ali and I haven’t run across an order yet that I couldn’t choose it, but I’ve heard that sometimes it’s not an option for certain stores (maybe certain countries, too?). I guess some stores can lose Paypal and then get it back at some point…probably an issue with too many disputes/refunds or something but I don’t know if Ali would impose that or Paypal or who.

Generally, no….but there’s a possibility there, like if a very poorly designed driver was matched with a sensitive emitter that can’t handle much current. Mostly the drivers (along with inherent resistance to flow from things like the springs and switch and wires, etc) will limit the current. I know almost nothing about Manker lights but looking at the specs for that one on their site it sounds like it probably has a buck/boost driver…meaning it will work magic to try and keep the amps flowing at a constant rate. In that case, a higher drain battery is probably a good choice even if the driver is set so that it doesn’t really deliver high amperage. Make sense? The circuitry is calling the shots, the battery is dumb…it’s just that if the shot being called wants extra hard work on a hot summer day from a warehouse worker, the worker with high drain will do it better and suffer less than the worker with less ability to answer that call. In your case, a decent high drain battery would be great in both the KR4 and the Manker. (For what it’s worth, usually the concern for drain/current delivery is the other way around….when low quality cells (cheapie china cells or fakes or ancient laptop pulls, etc) are asked to do more work than they are capable of, when a driver design wants to let it all hang out. In that case the light may not reach full lumen potential and the battery is going to get warm or even hot, and then if really overworked past what it’s happy with then one or more types of protection may kick in, cutting off the flow. That can be temperature sensors, the added circuit in a protected battery, low voltage cutoff sensors on the driver, etc.)

Also, sometimes companies will state that a “high quality high drain battery be used” but that may just be a reference to not using junk batteries as opposed to good basic big-name manufacturer cells….so the light needs five amps or something and junk batteries won’t cut it, but pretty much any normal Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sanyo, etc cell will be just fine even if they are standard/not high drain. This is where reviews help sometimes when they might show actual current drain in graphs and such. But generally, no worries. If you’re buying a hotrod that you know is super bright and is milking an emitter for all it’s worth, then you probably want a higher drain battery for that. A more simple design with less demand like most Convoys and the S2 drivers, pretty much any good battery is fine regardless of current delivery ability.

I would recommend using basic English with correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. In the case they are translating your messages, this will make them much easier to comprehend and give you a better reply.

Hey, you’re totally welcome! I can sure throw out a lot of alphabet soup but I try to remember that it might be overwhelming…but I figure you’re catching on and as much as there is to learn, you’re getting it and it will all fall into place soon enough. No worries about hounding or delays….it’s a forum. :slight_smile:

Sometimes Simon hasn’t responded to all of an inquiry….his English and fluency is great, so I figure he’s just really busy. Might try following up with just a single shorter question and he always responds. I’ve never done the BLF discount with him - it used to be a really convoluted process because of restrictions on ali, but I guess he’s embraced the coupon codes now and can make that work. He does so much for us and tries to keep the prices low while still putting together stuff we like, I don’t mind paying the full price and letting him enjoy it. I do hate paying for shipping because I know how subsidized it is, but…oh well. lol

Good deal. Now let the wait begin…!

They have to look at it, see if the package contains what it describes. Should not be a problem unless it gets held for multiple days.

Not likely to have an import fee unless price is declared as very high or very false, both unlikely

Oooo, you’re a happy camper now! :smiley: