Hi from SoCal

I was just checking out Maeerxu….decided against buying. What happened?

I’ve joined up again on a mission to bring attention to a recent regrettable purchase of a Maeerxu DF01, which I bought from the manufacturer. They sent me a 18650 model when I had paid for the 21700 version, and I had specified a polished finish and they sent me one with a stone finish. I had specified the 5700k Nichia 519A, which seems to be what I got, with close to the spec’d 4000 lm on turbo. I confess I was drawn to the (appropriated, evidently) design and the fancy aux lights options, which are burdened with a ridiculously difficult UI of frustrating half presses on the clicky tail switch. Once I mastered the settings, the frustration didn’t end because bumping, jarring or even sometimes just moving the light changes the mode. I have remove the battery and put in storage. I’ve contacted Maeerxu through FB Messenger, their preferred method of messaging, and expressed my concerns, asking to return the light for a refund (it shipped from an address in California after coming from China). The have responded “Hello and thanks for getting in touch with us! What can we help you with today?” multiple times. I have given up.

Thanks for signing up, DBradPS!

I’m not a fan of leveraging buyer protection too quickly like some people are, but this might be a great time to try a PayPal dispute and get a full refund. Assuming you paid with that method. They’ll have to reply there. Just state the case of wrong item received and no response from the seller after you attempted contact several times, add a screenshot or two of the messages if possible. Before doing that, if this was recent, remember that most people are on extended holiday for chinese new year and it’s possible that they could use an automated reply system right now or perhaps someone who isn’t fluent in english and is throwing canned responses out. Hopefully they aren’t ghosting you on purpose.

Welcome to BLF DBradPS!

The DF0 looks like a great flashlight despite the issues you are having with Maeerxu.

It’s also still the Chinese New Year, so that may be why you haven’t heard back from them yet.

Ah. Thanks. I had thought of that but now that you mention it, I think I will try a PayPal dispute if I don’t hear from them tomorrow after the end of the holiday.

I found out that holiday actually starts today and goes for a week, so I initiated a PayPal dispute to make sure it gets seen eventually. PayPal gives them a month to settle the dispute, so that should be plenty of time.

Good luck with it, hopefully it works out in your favor as it should. They’ve been present on BLF from time to time…didn’t seem particularly shady but who knows. Actually…you might search those older threads here and try PMing their reps, see if they reply…they did interact a bit with us.

This is what’s stated on the Convoy website:

The Maeerxu website had no messages about the holiday when I ordered the light on Jan 5, and there’s nothing there now. I did get an email from Anny Li, who seems to run the company, when it shipped out on the 11th.

Yesterday, I took the light out of the place I had put it in frustration the day after I had gotten it and tried it again. Nothing. Completely dead. This time no wriggling or jostling or removing and reattaching the head would get it to light. I have not mistreated it at any time. The Samsung 30Q I used works in other lights. It had oddly come on and seemed to switch modes upon initially touching the head to the battery in the body tube and tightening it down when I first got it, which tells me there might be a short somewhere. I don’t see any flaws at either end inside. Unlike other lights I have ever owned, there’s a spring at the pill in the head as well as the tail. I hope they are able to address my issues, but despite the frustrating UI, the complete malfunction of a brand new light (it was vacuum sealed when I got it), doesn’t bode well for a company making lights costing this much.

I was looking at photos on their site and here….can you access the switch? Could be that some debris or dust from machining is shorting the switch somewhere…would be an easy thing to clean up if you can get to it. From what I can see they’re using pretty traditional construction everywhere, so maybe disassemble and have a look, see if you can clean anything or discover solder splatter and such that could be easily fixed. Couple things up top that I would look for are shorts on the led/aux wires where they pass through the board, like if the insulation were burned back (or just trimmed too long) and touching the bare metal there. I don’t know if solder from the nearby joints touching those board screws would do anything, but that are looks tight like it could possibly happen. I think I’d check the switch first since you saw a flash on + contact.

I’ve been hedging on ordering a 14500 from them. They’re pretty chunky but they do look so nice and it looks like they’ve put together a nice firmware that would be interesting to toy with. A comment in their aliexpress reviews suggests they may be exploring Anduril, too.

Hello from one SoCaler to another.

So last night I finally got a message from Anny Li, after I had sent him one telling him about my postings here and my PayPal dispute and saying I was willing to wait for a resolution until after the New Year holidays. He asked me to tell him what happened, and then said to hold off shipping the DF01 18650 back until I receive the DF01 21700 after shipping resumes on Feb 2. I am quite relieved and am resuming my anticipation for a cool new light. I hope it works.

The light’s construction looks good and the only solder points visible look clean, but here’s no tail cap, the body of the light is all one piece of metal that screws into the head. There’s no wires visible coming through the board in the head, and only a solder point connecting the spring, which looks solid. Next to the spring, there’s what looks like a row of 5 contact points for flashing the firmware. The tail spring assembly consists of a gold plated spring attached to another board and a brass retaining ring which I see no way of removing, especially so deep in the body.

The light is indeed chunky. The walls of the body are so thick- 2 mm at the thinnest and 4 mm in places- that a 21700 would fit with the dual spring construction if the walls were thinner.

The thing is, I liked the light while it worked. I really wanted the 21700 version, but the packaging, the light’s construction and design are good. Tail stand is a bit wobbly since it rests on the button which isn’t quite fully recessed in the tail. The beam and output were very good. But it was the aux lights’ programming which was the killer feature for me. They could display in a multitude of modes, including a fixed color, for which you could choose the color and brightness, a ‘mood light’ setting so the colors change smoothly, a breathing color changing setting, a monochromatic cycle of colors switching from one to the next, or one of three chasing modes where the lights cycle in a sort of whirlpool around the front of the light, forward or revers in the chosen color and brightness, or all colors chasing clockwise simultaneously, which is called non-chromatic cycle, and which produces a pretty light show. Unfortunately the UI for this, half-pressing the clicky switch 10 times, then counting flashes for other menu items and half pressing to enter the settings for the ‘Custom gear’ mode, then counting more flashes and half pressing when reaching the desired configuration, was way frustrating. The difference in pressure between achieving a half press and clicking was way too subtle, and often required many attempts, with errors and failures along the way to get the desired results. There are 15 options of output level combinations and # of steps for the stepped ramping mode. Turbo but no moon mode. No lockout mode since a full click’s only function is to turn on and off the light, but nothing to keep it from coming on if something accidentally presses it to a full click in your bag. It remains to be seen how many turns of the head will fully disengage the battery, since the one I got seemed to be faulty here. Stepless dimming, battery voltage reading, temperature control setting, strobe, SOS, and beacon. Factory reset is 15 half presses! With time, I hope I can get the feel for the half presses. I would much prefer it if the menu items were accessed through full clicks, which would make it a breeze. I don’t see a way for the cool aux lights programming to work without some alteration of Anduril 2, which I would welcome if I could get my Emisar and Wurkkos lights’ aux’s to do these things.

Good, I’m glad they’ll take care of you (well, hopefully). fwiw, I think Anny is a girl…https://www.facebook.com/maeerxu.annyli

Those aux lights are something else, impressive and they packed a lot into the firmware, all on a clicky switch. I watched a video on the firmware (posted on their facebook page) and while complex like Anduril it looks like it’s very similar with a lot of shared user features. That’s nice because some people who don’t like side switches and haven’t been fond of the inner-tube designs for e-tail-switches might have another option now, possibly. The half-presses definitely aren’t as easy as full clicks, though but lots of us are used to that with Simon’s Biscotti mode setting procedure. Maybe a different switch would help but it sounds like a special tool would be helpful to get at the retaining ring in this one, which would be a little challenging to make. Switch is important and not being able to swap it is kind of a deal killer if it’s really not something that can be removed by us average joes.

I missed the no lockout part…that would be hard to get used to. What really caught my eye was the tri-color voltage readout (seems a little excessive-but-impressive to have it read in hundreths), and the temp cutoff choice option. I think I read that it comes set at 55°C and it looks like the stepdowns for most levels are pretty quick and harsh….bumping to 60°C probably doesn’t help much. I don’t see the mode/time charts on their website product pages but they have them on ali and a photo of one on facebook.

Dunno…I may buy one.

I’ve finally received the Maeerxu DF01-21700 light I ordered, and I’m very pleased with it. It could use a lockout mode and direct access to moonlight but the options for the aux lights are extensive and fun. I’m getting used to the clicky firmware interface and am now able to navigate it more fluidly. The build quality looks top notch. Overall, I love this light because the beautiful sculptural design and the pretty light shows of the auxiliary lights.
Feb-13-2023 14-11-03

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How is the weight? I like a little heft to the light.

That’s one nice looking light.

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How is the weight, is it light or hefty?

It’s quite heavy for it’s size. The walls of the battery tube are thick, and there’s plenty of extra metal in the tail as well.