Hi guys.
I have bought this BLF light a while back and used it a bit.
The diagram for Toykeeper’s UI won’t work on the link that it should go to.
Where can I find a workable copy of the UI?
I have the text version.
Thanks in advance.
G'Day Far Thrower, 
Have a look at:
BLF A6 Final: UI__blf-a6-ui.png (PNG 600×956 pixels)
http://toykeeper.net/torches/blf-a6/final/blf-a6-ui.png
Best Regards,
George
Hello everyone – If this is the wrong place to ask this question, please let me know where I should go.
I’m a complete flashlight noob, but I did some minor research and found the BLF A6. So I purchased the flashlight and it works fantastic.
Only issue is the tailcap seems to need to be really REALLY cranked down hard before the flashlight will function. Basically, to get the flashlight to operate, I have to tighten the cap essentially as much as I possibly can by hand. Is this normal to require this much force? I’m afraid that by tightening it down this much every time I swap out the battery for a fresh one (to put the spent one on the charger) that I will make the tailcap need even more force every subsequent time.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
It’s not normal, yours has a bit too short battery tube.
You can bend a paperclip and insert it in tailcap, to make contact with tube. That will fix it.
Since you mentioned eventualy needing more force to tighten, my A6 doesn’t agree. I’ve carried it daily for maybe a month without unscrewing tailcap, and it got tightened on its own that I couldn’t unscrew it. Luckily, I have some strong friends. 
Thanks for the reply! Is this something that I can ask Banggood to replace? I kinda hate to start sticking paperclips in my flashlight just to make it function properly when it’s brand new!
Much appreciated!
I would ask for a replacement. that is unacceptable.
convoy s2 seems like more of a durable EDC to me. a6 is cool, but it does not seem built solid enough to withstand normal use.
my opinion.
I may or may not be tougher on my stuff than you.
It’s much easier to slightly raise the retaining ring by removing it and then shimming it up. You can do that by using thin braided wire, aluminum foil, etc. You can even use a bit of solder on the inside of the ring. To be honest it’s not worth the effort to contact Banggood over such a minor issue. It’s probably 10 minutes of work.
See this post and the next several posts:
djozz #4800
The only problem might be the correct length tube is out of stock or no longer made.
Oh good find! Yeah, sounds exactly like my issue. I’ll take it up with Banggood and see if they will come through for me.
SIGShooter - Definitely can’t argue with your logic. Only issue though is I don’t have the equipment to solder and I’ve never done it before or ever modded a light in any fashion. Might take 10 minutes for someone experienced at this, but you get me doing this for the first time and I will probably just break it more.
Appreciate the trick! I’ll definitely try that tonight and see how it goes.
If you remove the retaining ring you can fold some aluminum foil into a circular shape and place it over the switch. Just make sure you don’t have it touching the spring. Then reinstall the retaining ring and see if it lights up. If not make the aluminum foil thicker until the flashlight works properly. The times I’ve had to do this I used spare computer wire and squished it as flat as I could with pliers. But anything that conducts electricity works and since it’s under the ring it’s not going anywhere.
To remove the ring you can use tweezers or needle nose pliers. But in some cases where the rings were really tight I just drove 2 nails through a piece of wood and bent them until they were the right distance apart for the holes in the ring.
For me it’s a better solution than using a paper clip since the clip will fall out when you remove the tail cap. Plus the paper clip is not aesthetically pleasing 
Once you’ve shimmed up the ring nobody will ever know it’s there. Since it lights up when you torque the tail cap down you likely don’t need to shim it much.
I say give it a try…I bet you’ll get it to work properly in only few minutes. And flashlights are far from precision instruments so it’s not as if you can cause any major damage.
Ok, that doesn’t sound too bad. I’ll give that a shot and see how it goes! You are right, paper clip might be a quick and dirty way to fix it, but then yeah, not aesthetically pleasing plus it will always fall out and just be a general nuisance.
Thanks for giving more detail to this flashlight newbie!
It’s too bad you guys are having these issues. I edc my one of my original gb blf a6 lights and I’m still in love with it. JakeDjanitor I would be willing to bet a spring bypass would help a lot. If the wire that’s used in the bypass sucks in any solder during the mod it would help stiffen the springs. Also guys don’t forget to check out the very first post in this thread! I can’t even remember everything in it but it should still help out even with future lights you get. 
Stiffening the spring would make it harder to make a connection.
Is modding required with the A6 GB?
The A6 prototype samples were great, indistinguishable from the original EE version. Unfortunately, the production units were significantly lower-quality. 
I hear the Astrolux version of it may have returned the quality to what the samples had, but I don’t have any so I can’t verify it.
Meanwhile, Convoy has maintained high quality hosts since the company first started, aside from a couple hiccups which got quickly fixed.
At this point one can put together a Convoy S2 host, Banggood blf driver, and xml-2/xp-l on a noctigon board for around $20 so that’s the route I would take rather than buying an Astrolux. Actually I’d go with the MTN-17DDm driver and it’s still less than $30.
Better quality and the pride of self-assembly
But a “blf”painted on doesn’t mean it’s well made now.
So go to MtnElectronics for a quality driver.
I’ve assembled several lights with both drivers and to be honest I don’t noticed any difference in performance. Now I’m not saying that there isn’t a performance or quality difference but my Mark 1 eyeball and volt meter don’t show any noticeable differences. Both look the same on a side-by-side visual comparison and draw about the same amps on my meter.
I just assembled a new version Convoy M1 host with the blf driver and also put a Mtn one into a spare M1 (old version with pill). Both with xml-2’s from Mtn on noctigon boards. Running Samsung 30Q’s in both I could only see that the Mtn version had 1) a lower low (good), and 2) the bike flasher mode barely functioned (almost a constant beam but a very brief and barely noticeable blip every 5 seconds or so). Since i’m not planning on riding a bike at night #2 is a non-issue.
I also dropped the blf version into other lights and they worked as expected.
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m definitely not saying that the blf driver is better than the Mtn one. And I have no doubt that the quality control on the Mtn driver surpassed Banggood’s.
But for someone on a budget the blf driver isn’t a terrible choice.
> I don’t noticed any difference
Yep. Just saying, the observed pattern — widely reported here and elsewhere —
is that products look good at the beginning then get worse as time goes on as corners get cut.
Many here have made that observation.
So I think it’s worth pointing out suppliers like RMM who consistently get us the same quality time after time.
This matters for people who may read this thread next month or next year.
“Trust, but verify.”