Keygos KE-5

Another confirmed rumor of under-driven Keygos’.

My, my.

That sooooo shouldn’t be that way. My Keygos is still one of the most impressive XM-Ls I own. It matches my 980L, and nearly, my Trustfire X8.

hi, i thought it was on low the first time a switched it on…… it was actually on high!! im not very good at taking beam shots but wish id have tried when i went into the back garden with the ke-5 and the xtar wk26…… that little xtar absolutely made the keygos look like an old aa mag light. But what can be done to sort this out? iv had a look at the driver and someone said its an ok one, but if it were shouldnt this thing be bright as hell!! also heard the clicky switch can be an issue with resistance. hmmmmm
Ps… iv never changed a driver over or anything like that but for a £14 light im willing to risk busting this thing in an attempt to fix this light.

Get some tail cap current readings for starters, just to get an idea of what the situation is.

I would take it apart and check for loose connections/shorts.

My KE-5 is a great light.

I had another XM-L light that was very dim, like yours, when I first tried it. I thought I had a dud, but yesterday I dismantled it and found the pill was loose and not making good contact. Tightened it a bit and tried it again, now its on a par with my other XM-L’s

This was a poorly made light compare to the KE-5 though.

Worth a try anyway

Your Keygos should be brighter than your M3X. If you have another C8-style light, switch tailcaps and see if it makes a difference. If you bought it on ebay, I’d contact the seller and demand a refund. No way it should perform like this.

hi, thanks for the replys, iv checked for loose connections and all that, dont ‘currently’ have a multimeter (BOOM BOOM :bigsmile: ) but ill get one to see what its running at. i got it direct from keygos so thinking maybe i should send them an email… waited a month for this just to be dissapointed!!

It does happen. I have had one (an X2000) where I never could get it to bring up more than 40 lumens. Some are just duds.

Buy the Keygos KE-5 from cwtco on ebay for $19.99 shipped. He sells the good ones. And so does redleg or redlog or it’s one of those.

I had to buy 4 of them before I finally got a good one, and Keygos sent me one you would think it would of been a good one but it wasn’t. I don’t understand why they don’t use the same parts in each light. My last one came from cwtco and finally got a bright one. It is one of the brightest XM-L’s you can buy for the money but Keygos needs to get their act together and make them all the same.

so should i be emailing them and asking for a replacement?? whats the chances of this happening??

The problem with ALL cheapo xm-l’s is that they’re direct draw so output is entirely dependent on emitter Vf and resistive loses in the light. Taking everything apart and screwing back tight is a good idea. Maybe replace the switch/spring since that’s probably the weak link in most of these.

KEYGOS HAVE JUST BEEN IN TOUCH AND SAID THEY WILL SEND A BRAND NEW REPLACEMENT FREE OFF CHARGE :bigsmile:

congrats!!!

thanks :slight_smile: just hoping its a good one now…. if it is ill be doing a couple of beam shots to compare the two and then i may try do something with the one thats very dim.

To eliminate the tail cap as a problem, take it off, get some 1.5mmsq or bigger cable and use that as you would a meter, ie one side pressed hard against the threads, one side pressed fairly hard on the battery.

If it makes a difference then some attention to the tail cap may net two good lights, if it does not, you know the tail cap is fine and can look elsewhere for the problem.

already done that one and it was exactly the same…. what else could it be???

Bum driver? Bad solder joint somewhere? Poor led?, from here I’m not sure tbh. Do you get to keep the 1st ke-5 or do they want it back?

they said keep it, people say driver should be ok but something is definatly wrong with the light… iv no idea how to get it apart without damaging it though

How good are your soldering skills? I’ve just built my first pill today, ok I’ve been using an iron at work for 16 years and used to solder 36 pin d sockets for the machines I made, so I’m in practice, but I found the build fairly easy, although I did order a blank brass pill which made the 0v links easier. Assuming the driver is 17mm there are a few good ones available, but it may just be a dry joint somewhere, most of the time you can see them as a dull grey joint rather than a more shiny one (crap description, but if you ever see one, you’ll see what I mean). If you have access to an iron or someone who knows what their up too, I’d be tempted to play the iron over all the joints and see if that made a difference, if it didn’t, I’d be considering a driver swap and possibly a u2 emitter to make the most of the driver. The stock one I think, is supposed to be direct drive on hi, going off reviews and the other lights I’ve read about that seem to use the same driver. But I’ve also read a lot about people being disappointed, so maybe there’s a bad batch of drivers out there and you got saddled with a bad one. If you were closer I’d be happy to take a look, but I think scarborough is a way from wigan :~

lol yeah its a fair distance…. only soldering iv done is the banana plugs on my cinema system! im happy to have a play at it though as its useless as it is…. the only solder joints i see are to the emmiter… iv studied the thing and i cant see a way of getting the driver and emmiter out of the head without doing any damage?? the torch is actually at my girlfriends at the minute so cant have a go till the weekend…. the problem is def in the head though as i tried a piece of cable from the tail to the battery negative and it was still as dim. so should i try heat up the two solder joints to the emmiter first and see if that has any result??