Convoy support expectations?

My S21D has one LED that’s clearly different in brightness and color temp:

I’ve asked Convoy (in alibaba message chat) to send me a replacement “pill” as I lack the equipment or ability to fix the left LED. Reasonable?

It seems to me like the problem is not with the LED but with the position of the LED in the lens.
You can try open it and see if something prevent from the optics to be placed correctly.
Anyway, if it is a new light, it is defective and they should replace it.

You can also message Simon directly on BLF, but include the order number.

I got the party pack of 4 different optics and tried them but it’s definitely the LED, not the placement. Tthe color and reflectiveness (refractiveness?) of that one LED is different:

Convoy has offered to replace the board with LEDs installed. I think. Working it out in chat takes a bit with the timezone and language difference. What’s the tool called to unscrew the board via the little divots in the copper ring? I should probably buy one of those anyway.

Snap ring pliers

You shouldn’t need to remove the driver to replace the led mcpcb. Just a soldering iron.

Between asking the seller and using the customer service of the CC you used, I doubt you will lose a nickel.

And some thermal compound for the new MCPCB.

Too bad the LED on the opposite side isn’t the same, then you would’ve had a nice balanced CCT mixed quad flashlight!

You could try to just peel off the 519A domes on the LED and the opposite LED and see how it looks then. The tint should significantly improve (negative DUV), but the CCT will be lower. You may actually like it better than the replacement board!

Convoy has responded:

“The head of the flashlight is integrated.You can only remove the LED or the driver separately.If you don’t have the relevant tools and experience, then I will refund you.”

I don’t understand and they seem to only answer chat once per day so thought I’d ask here. I was hoping I could just unscrew the whole “contents” of the head as a single piece and Convoy would replace that. Am I wrong? I’m not comfortable soldering. Never done that before and I’m certain I would destroy it.

He is saying he will refund you if you are not comfortable doing the repair suggested.

This light isn’t like the S2 and many older hosts. Those have a pill where the led board and the driver are both attached to it and the whole thing can unscrew as a unit. This light has an “integrated shelf” where the head of the light is not totally hollow. There’s a solid aluminum shelf left over and the led board is mounted to the front side while the driver sits against a lip on the other side but further down toward the battery tube. Like if you took the head piece and bored it out from both directions but stopped at a point on either side to leave a section intact. This helps significantly to improve heat dissipation compared to threaded pills because heat from the led junction and mcpcb can take a direct path to the host metal without having to go through a hunk of brass first and less efficiency transfering from pill threads to host threads and then the outer surface.

It’s actually a little easier to change parts this way as long as you don’t have issues with fitting an iron into the diameter of the head. Just desolder the wires at their pads, remove a screw or two if necessary, and lift out the led board. But soldering is the only way to go about it and for a parts swap without any soldering he’d have to send you the entire head assembly. Offering to refund you is a nice gesture and if you want you could just turn around and reorder the same light…so you’re not out any money, just waiting time for shipping.

Soldering isn’t hard but it does take a little investment in tools and some practice. If you ever want to do that it’s a mighty handy skill to have especially with budget lights for repairs, or if you just want to get into modding different emitters and drivers. Also, in cases like this, it could simply be a poor reflow of that one emitter while the other three are fine. If you have the led board removed you could just heat the whole thing up (correctly) and see if that secondary reflow would fix the wonky emitter. Sometimes just a poor mechanical connection with solder is all that is happening and the components themselves are just fine.

For most lights some 5” snap ring pliers will take care of everything…larger lights you may need a 7” pair where the tips will spread farther apart. You can get them in “internal” or “external” and that’s just how the spring in the pliers works. And you can get straight tips or bent tips (90° or 45°-ish). 5” external bent tips are what I use the most. They usually have smaller tip size than the larger ones, and higher quality tools will have smaller tips because they use better steel that can handle stress…the cheapie pliers usually have larger tips on them that you may need to reduce with a file or whatever so they fit the holes in the retaining rings. The length of the tips at the bend is generally sufficient to reach inside heads and tailcaps but sometimes the 7” is needed, or you can use a straight pair and twist more like a screwdriver. The ones from Laoa or Gearwrench are very good, not terribly expensive (Laoa made in Taiwan, seems like you have to order them from Aliexpress since they don’t stock that line on Amazon yet). There’s an outfit called Speedwox on Amazon that has ok ones, too, tad cheaper. Lots and lots of lower quality ones under a hundred brand names at differing price levels (for the same stuff). Sometimes there are really good deals on Knipex or Gedore, too. There are some all-in-one jobbies that will do both internal and external, and have swappable tips for straight/angled/different tip sizes…those are fine too. Harbor Freight has a pair I think for $14 or so, similar on Amazon for the same or less, and some nicer ones from Lang or Channellock.

Excellent. Thanks for the info. I really don’t want to solder so I suggested a $20 refund (on a ~$36 item w/tax) and I will order a replacement. Convoy agreed. Seems fair since it’s damaged but works. Or I can use it for parts. Or experimentation. Muhahahaha.