I admit, I am a novice at this. I ordered one of the special edition lights that was basically designed on this forum. I waited patiently for it to arrive…IT finally did. I put in a fresh 18650 battery, and was sadly disapointed it did not work. I flipped the battery around, and once again…nothing. I took out the battery and installed a different one that just came off of the charger, and once again, nothing. I have emailed Banggood, and did get a response. They want me to send them a video. I have not done this yet due to I wanted to make sure that I am not missing something Has anyone else experienced any issues with a brand new lite not working? Thanks. MIKE
First, make sure switch retaining ring is tight. If so...
Remove the switch and set it aside. Now with just the battery inserted in the tube you can bypass the switch. Use a bent paper clip or similar. Make a connection between the negative end of the battery and a bare metallic spot at top of tube. It should light if switch is bad.
Well, I just tried that, and it did not work. Thank you for answering though.
Don’t flip the battery around, the positive (+) always goes towards the head of the light, are you using button top or flat top 18650?
I do have the positive side going toward the head of the light. And they are brand new, fully charged flat top batterys. I read through the forum, and read that it did not matter which one you purchased, was I wrong?
No, you are fine with batteries. Just to verify, you touched the paper clip or whatever you used to the shiny end of the tube. Not the black anodized edge. Black edge does not conduct. Must be on shiny silver tube end.
Did you check for tightness of the retaining ring inside the tailcap. It has two holes 180 degrees apart. Make sure it is snug using some tweezers to insert in holes and twisting to make sure it's snug.
No I didint. But I did now. I took a paperclip and touched the negative side of the battery to the end of the tube that was shiny. The part that the switch screws on to…and nothing. Felling a little frustrated…lol.
Any battery that lights up any other 18560-size light should light that one up.
Do you have a voltmeter so you can check the voltage of the cells you’re using?
(That’s routine for using li-ions, you need to be able to do that anyhow)
If you get nowhere from here out and other suggestions, it may be just a DOA. Bummer to happen, BUT Banggood WILL make it good. So don't feel to bummed except for the wait....
I do not have a voltmeter, but just put in the Nitecore D2 charger, and it registered 4.12 V. I did try and tighten the retaining clip in the switch, and it was tight. I appreciate all the answers. I guess, it looks like I will have to return it to Banggood. I am assuming they are still making the BLF Special Edition one, and that the flashlite I send back will have the same components in it, as the one they will send me. Thanks again.
PS — don’t get frustrated. This can go on for weeks before you get a good response from the seller.
The more impatient you get the more they can delay actually sending you a working flashlight or part.
Seriously, as you’re relatively new to the forum — customer “service” from Chinese sellers is like a ritual
full of delays, mostly copypasted requests from people who don’t read English very well if at all.
Assuming you have a webcam, camera, or phone that does make videos — do what they ask.
Reply to their reply including all the prior text and attach the video.
I’d suggest you show the whole process including showing the battery is charged (in another light or with voltmeter)
then show unscrewing the tailcap, putting the cell in correctly, and bridging from negative end to battery tube with paperclip and no light.
Then attach the tailcap and show clicking the button, and no light.
You could also do a continuity check of the tailcap and show electricity does flow through the switch (with a multimeter) to make sure the switch is good.
That narrows it down to a known problem, a dead driver/emitter, bad soldering inside the head end of the light.
Then send the video as an attachment.
And remember — it’s customer “service” not “customer service” — someone at the other end who speaks little or no English is going to ask you to do something else to delay. It’s how they do this.
Patience. Don’t send multiple emails, always reply to theirs including the full past history.
And remember this key: The more you write the less they read.
They just want to copypaste from a menu and go home, and let someone else handle this next time.
Eventually you get the attention of someone who recognizes the problem and will send you a replacement.
I am working on video as we speak. Thanks again.
Isn't there a Banggood Rep on the forum that can expedite this BS of DOA?
With all we here buy from them , you'd think as much.
Just like with the tail cap, there is a retaining ring at the bottom of head. Take out the body tube and check the head retaining ring for tightness. If that’s tight, one can only conclude something’s wrong with the head — driver, led. Ask for a head replacement.
Checking the leadwires at the LED shouldn’t be hard. Unscrew the bezel, lift off the reflector and observe the wires. Are they both soldered securely to the star?
If that doesn’t work as well as the other things tried above, the next step would be to desolder the wires from the star, then lift the star off and reflow. With the LED and star outside the light, test the LED by touching two wires attached to a lithium ion cell to each end very briefly. If you get light, then the problem is not with the LED. Remove the driver and observe the solder joints for the leadwires at the driver. Are they both secure. If not, they may need resoldering. If none of that works, but you get light when you touch the LED, then you have a defective driver.
However, I wouldn’t recommend trying to desolder the light if you plan to return it for warranty repair.
It could be a few different things but from your descriptions so far I would guess the problem to be in the head. One might be the wires to the emitter not being properly soldered.A loose wires on the emitter pads are easily seen after removing the bezel but a loose wire on the driver requires desoldering the emitter, unscrewing the retainer, and pulling the driver.
The problem I’ve come across is due to one or the other retaining ring not screwing in all the way. The retainers don’t just hold things in place but also serve to conduct current. If the retainers don’t press on the driver and switch circuit boards there’s no current and if the ends of the battery tubes don’t contact the brass retainers there no current.
There is a fix for this. A stripped 2” piece of solid copper wire bent into a ring and placed under the retainer will allow the retainer to press the driver into contact with the head and allow the battery tube to press on the brass retainer. Low voltage sprinkler control wire is ideal. Simple, but I haven’t done this so don’t have a pic.
A more permanent fix requires scraping some solder mask from the driver in 2 places and soldering copper spacers there. 
if your not up to soldering I suggest you try the ring approach.
First and foremost, did you put the battery in with the positive first the first time? You said you flipped it around and it still didn’t work, if you had it backwards the first time the reverse polarity protection diode may very well have blown and it won’t work now til that is replaced.
There were some of the early one that the battery tube didn’t screw in far enough to contact the retaining ring, either a spacer as already described or one of several other methods will fix this.
If you can verify that the driver actually works by touching a negative wire to the ground ring and a positive to the spring, that would help us know what the issue is.
If you don’t get a fairly quick response from Banggood, shoot me a PM and I will try to help you solve this issue. Worse comes to worse, I’ll fix it for you.
Gotta love this ^ Kudos to the gentleman from Texas.
+1,000,000,000,000,000 