BLF Kronos X6/X5 GB - Group Buy now closed.

You’ll probably be able to sell them here on the Want To Sell discussion area. You can save the 10% ebay fee and the 3% basic Paypal fee (by having members pay for the item as a gift). I think you still pay the 3% currency conversion under Paypal, though.

Think the price out to customers will be too high with all the fees etc.

Is this the right Efest Purple?

650mAh with 9.5A discharge rate

OK first off, I’d genuinely like to thank Krono, et. al. for allowing me the opportunity to participate. I ordered one set of each as soon as I got the code and the SS/CU/box orderer arrived today. I placed two separate orders because I couldn’t seem to get the codes to work for both sets in a single order. Tracking said both were to arrive Friday, so maybe the aluminum ones will arrive tomorrow.

I filmed the box opening just in case there was an issue and to get footage for a review video at some point. I also filmed my wive’s initial reactions and she was most impressed, especially about the heftiness and the lit tail caps. Even our children started arguing which one each was going to get to keep which light.

Jokes on them, of course. But seriously, there are about 120 lights in the house and everyone has some for there own use, but I’ve never seen our youngest EVER get so excited about any piece of gear, much less a flashlight.

What about damage? Well, honestly, there wasn’t really any to speak of. The sides of the box were not wrapped in foam, which is something that probably should have been done. There is an ever so slight dent in one corner of the box, but you have to actively search to find it.

This set is mine, but I’d be proud to gift the box in the condition it arrived in if that is what I had originally intended. Truthfully, I’d be a little bummed if my bow was more damaged.

The X6 was out of place, and may have been rubbing the X5, but there doesn’t seem to be anything other than very minor scuffing. Truthfully, the scuffing could have just as easily happened during the manufacturing process. The felt underneath both lights is rubbed pretty raw. If I were in charge, I’d ship the box empty in the future and wrap all three items individually.

Here are just some quick snaps. The aforementioned unboxing video, like all such unboxing videos, is ridiculous as a stand alone vid, but if there is any real interest, I’d be happy to put it up.

In every GB, when people complain about the lights because x, y, or z isn’t correct, you typically hear a couple of retorts. The first is that we are dealing with the Chinese and that’s how the roll and x, y, or z is to be expected, The other one you hear is that if the complainer thinks it’s so easy, they should just start there own GB.

Regarding the former, I’ve never quite understood why we should be so forgiving when what gets delivered isn’t what was ordered to one degree or another. And I’m not just talking GBs either, it happens when you order stock lights. Regardless of price, I like to get what was agreed upon and for us here, that means a functioning and undamaged light that is built to spec.

When that’s not what happens, excuses should not be made.

Regarding the latter response, the people who make these GBs happen get something out of it otherwise they wouldn’t do it. It might not be financial or material compensation, but it certainly isn’t altruism either. It could just be the psychological high that comes from seeing a project through to the end.

Whatever the reason, I don’t fault anyone for their motivation. But the GBs have some negatives associated with them; there have always been and will always be QC/CS issues. People will, fairly enough, mention it. To expect that this won’t happen is unrealistic. Therefore, just like, “Do it yourself if you think it is so easy” is perhaps valid, so to, perhaps, is, “Don’t do it if the inevitable fallout upsets you”.

People are not being ungrateful when the voice a complaint. They are rightfully upset that what was promised was not delivered. And, I believe, no one here blames any of the GB hosts. It’s always the used car salesmen types that we dealt with that are the root cause.

There is an element of risk associated with purchasing budget lights that is not there if you are a SureFire fan boy, right? I mean, every purchase we have ever individually or collectively done from over there has always had a little bit of a lottery feel to it.

As for using the code after you gave up your spot, that’s less than fair. We all trust that the honor system is being used by all of us and that sort of move is probably either very close to the line or even a little over it. That said, I don’t think it rises to the level of a capital offense either.

Now, selling for a profit. I’ve never sold a piece of gear as I’m a bit of a gear hoarder, so I may not be the right guy to proffer an opinion. That said, philosophically, I have zero issue with someone selling their personal property. If you got in early and promised to buy a dozen lights, then purchased a dozen lights, then why you do with them is none of anyone’s business. More power to ya if you make enough selling them to put your kid through college.

Anyway, that was all just my two cent’s worth after reading the last twenty or so pages. Not that my opinion matters much.

BTW, my set is # 36.

Later edit- I was called away from my desk before, so I posted without proofreading. But I’ve come back to fix my many goofs. Sorry if anyone read that as initially posted.

It’s the shipping out from Norway that is extremely costly. A small packet with tracking: $18. Thats just for shipping, the smallest packet.

Yep, that’s the new one. Dark purple with the large Efest flame logo.

These are amazing team!

I'm feeling blessed...

My sets are flawless. The boxes are super nice. I only had a couple small dents and scuffs on the boxes.

The UI is just plain COOL!

Bad to the bone in every way!

Can anyone tell me if this battery will fit the X5, thanks

hazy, this line sums it up…

“Unless you need a constant discharge rate above 3A, the UR14500P is the best 14500 cell currently produced.”

The X5 will draw 5.15A with spring bypasses on a good cell. Well up in the 4’s without the bypasses. That cell will probably run it, but you’ll be missing out on one of the key elements of what makes it special… big output.

FWIW, even 3amps is big output from a 14500. That’s 1000+ lumens OTF

We’re so jaded here at BLF :slight_smile:

On the other hand, I get 3.05A from an Efest IMR10440 for 1117 lumens in my tiny little neck light, the Texas Poker. AAA size, big light output. Not that there’s anything inherently Wrong with an AA sized light Only making 1000 lumens, just sayin…

That protected cell is also claiming a ~30% increase in capacity, worth considering I suppose….IF the FET driver doesn’t trip the circuit. (I made a clear polycarbonate battery case to carry a spare Efest Purple, with mine pulling over 11A that 650mAh cell needs back-up.)

Cone in regards to your post #5121, I did one GB and what I got out of it was 1 (ONE) light sent to me free of charge, nothing more.

This was the Maxtoch M24 GB that ended 11/2015, I can assure you it wasn’t for the glory or the “pyschological high” it was because I had bought a light, months before, that I felt was a really good light that cost about half of what the big names of the same quality of this light does. I thought it would be a good deal for people of this COMMUNITY , therefore I put not hours, not weeks but months of my time into the GB and made it happen with a cost well below what you would pay normally for the same light.

I am not ranting and I am not taking it personally, but I wanted to be clear that when you have , for the most part, a great bunch of people who are willing to help each other when they can and not ask anything in return, then to me that shows there is still a little bit of hope that the world does have good people left in it.

The Old Lumens lathe thing that transpired not long ago in an excellent example of what kind of people we have in this forum. I for one am willing to give back a little of what I have gotten from this forum and its members as it is a wealth of knowledge and know how here and as I said some good hearted people here too.

Sorry for the interruption folks carry on.

If you don’t mind me asking Dale, did the old version look like this http://goinggear.com/efest-imr-14500-650mah-3-7v-rechargeable-flat-top-battery.html
or was there a different purple version?

First mod for my lights - the tailcaps. I put another blue emitter on the other side of that board to even it out (actually wound up replacing both because my blue was a bit different from the pre-installed blue. Then I pulled the blue from the copper light and went with two oranges and the pinking tailcap to warm it way up. The blue is beautiful on the stainless but the copper needed a warm colored cap, I think. The results are better than my photography skills, but here ya go:

Wish the blue hadn’t overexposed so much. Up next is a few stronger resistors to tone it down, but I don’t have any here that fit.

add box (I’m late?)

The tail current also drops steadily with cell voltage, so that extends the standby time too. It basically makes a straight line from 0 to 0.63mA as the voltage increases from 2.2V to 4.2V.

I’m surprised to hear that the voltage measurement is correct. Have you let it do the read-out more than once in a row? It’ll likely report 0.1V higher on the second (and later) readings, after the cell voltage has recovered a bit from the turbo and strobe accessed before battcheck.

In any case, people are reporting better battcheck results than I expected, so I think I’ll make the correction factor a little smaller… like maybe 0.07V instead of 0.11V.

Mine were all dry too, but I just used normal silicone grease. So far, so good. What makes you think it’s a bad idea?

You do realize I used the word “could” as a qualifier in that sentence, right? As in it was one of but many possibilities.

Anyway, I don’t generally disagree with anything you said.

To be clear, I don’t care if the people who host this or any GB get nothing or everything in return for doing it. For example, Krono could have decided to do this GB just to avoid spending time with his wife or he could have gotten a lifetime supply of IMR cells from BangGood or anything in-between.

It matters not to me.

Whatever deal he made for himself or the “team” is fine with me. I am truly thankful to be a member here and have expressed gratitude in every post or video I made concerning any light from a BG.

That said, some people sometimes almost make you feel like honest discussions about the results of all the hard work are somehow a personal attack on the hosts of the GB.

For instance. The D80’s shorter than expected tube. That was a problem for some people, myself include. I purchased cells that would work and longer tubes just in case. I wasn’t ticked off then nor am I now. But, saying it was a problem does not diminish a person’s gratitude for all the hard work that was done. Saying the sides of this box should have been better protected isn’t a personal attack on anyone.

When I tell my wife that a new recipe didn’t turn out so well, it doesn’t mean I love and appreciate all she does for me any less. Same thing on a different level, right?

Neal seems pretty good about resolving issues and I’m 99% sure that 99% of these issues will be resolved fairly. But there are things to learn from this GB which may make the next one better and the only way we are going to learn from what didn’t go so well is to talk about it.

It’s a forum, after all. :slight_smile:

At the end of the day, I’m just not seeing the need for animosity amongst those that host GBs and those that buy GBs.

If you don’t mind me jumping in here, my understanding is that most o-rings on flashlights these days are made from silicone. Silicone grease will disolve silicone, so a petroleum based grease or synthetic is preferable to silicone grease in those instances. If you have a petroleum based o-ring, then silicone grease is preferable for the same reasons, petroleum disolves rubber. There is a whole university of science for flashlight lubrication, and there are stuffs optimized for different metals, and different o-rings, and its not always obvious. I recently switched from plain old Vasoline to Frog Lube on my current lights, but if I had a Titanium flashlight, I might consider the more expensive and highly praised Nano-Oil, which has different varieties for threads and optimizing o-rings.

SS can have a tendency to gall if not adequately lubed when both of the mating SS pieces are the same type of SS. As an example, on a SS pistol like a .45, the slide and frames are usually made from two different types of SS to prevent galling.

If silicone grease isn’t good for flashlight threads then why does mtnelectronics sell it as such? Im pretty sure Richard knows what he’s doing. That’s where I got mine and its served me well on all my lights. What am I missing?