My COMETA is a POS - does not connect with tailcap spring - burned my finger [Hobby Ending - Enough is Enough]

[DanielM]

I’m glad I did not enter this GB, it look like they made a fine grenade instead on a light. Shame.

[Tom145]

Thank You for all the helping answers.
Could fix the Problem. It was NOT the cometa itself but the driver.
The COMETA works really great. Love it.

[strango]

@will34

20awg wire not some leftovers from other lights and generic 24awg wires.

lol really?
I wonder how much they has saved on that, 10 cents per flashlight?

[bella-headlight]

They used the stars & drivers left over from previous group buys hence the 24awg wire.
Probably saved a few dollars rather than 10 cents on each light by doing that.

[unknown00101]

@strango

@will34

20awg wire not some leftovers from other lights and generic 24awg wires.

lol really?
I wonder how much they has saved on that, 10 cents per flashlight?

It takes about 9 pennies for enough 20awg wire to hook up a driver to the led mcpcb. This is at the consumer level with a small quantity of wire. 6 pennies for 22awg. I don’t have a source for 24awg, never bothered getting that small of wire, but it’s probably a few cents cheaper than 22awg.

[eebowler]

Hugs Rusty… Have some BEER!!!

[keengeorge]

@will34

The only issue here is that the cometa project was given to astrolux (banggood hiring manker as factory) to manufacture. We asked for noctigon, we paid for noctigon and what we got was leftovers DTP boards from the previous groupbuy. This is not the first time we get off specs lights. This is also the reason I won’t be part of any future groupbuy involving banggood, astrolux or manker. You just don’t receive what’s promised, and yet we keep getting the same excuses every single time.

Some may argue that the astrolux mcpcb is also DTP but that’s not the point, the price was based on the established specs which included a real noctigon board and 20awg wire not some leftovers from other lights and generic 24awg wires.

Will34, other members have looked at the BLF A6, & BLF X5/X6 MCPCBs, and they were found to be Noctigon MCPCBs in their opinion. They just were a different color.

Re the wires used in the Cometa, has anyone that received production lights actually checked to see what wire was used? Was it 24AWG? OR?

I think that Cyberescudo's sample may have used 24AWG at one stage.

Also using 24AWG wire rather that 20AWG probably made it easier to manufacture the lights (thinner & easier to manipulate wire).

Note that I am not a modder. My flashlight repair capabilities are Very limited due to lack of knowledge, time, & experience.

And in my experience in about 3 years, Neal & Banggood have always taken care of any issues & problems till now.

It just requires time, patience, being civil, & remembering that english is not their primary language. But that is the case when dealing with any supplier, person or organisation overseas (or locally).

Best Regards,

George

[Tom_E]

Got my Cometa today. It's true 24 AWG, clearly labeled in mine. I would not have liked 20 AWG wires in this light - no clearances, and the people assembling these things I would not trust to spend the careful attention to detail to do it right. Even the 24 AWG is too thick for these guys to do properly, as we are finding out.

Yes - white over the red. Hank/Noctigon did not want their name showing on these GB deals.

[hank]

white over the red. Hank/Noctigon did not want their name showing on these GB deals.

disambiguation: I’m tne other Hank, not Hank Wong here who sells flashlight parts.

The Cometa I have came with the red, Noctigon-labeled board, and 24 AWG.

I assume they reused parts from the previous GB.
Give them credit — they did flash Toykeeper’s up-to-date firmware this time, which they forgot to install on the previous GB.

FIXUP NOTE: be careful if you put a “butterfly” spacer with square hole over the LED, there’s a known risk that it will rotate and rip the LED off the board especially when hot.
And the emitter does have a clear cover over the phosphor which can also be peeled off accidentally, if you happen to twist a spacer around that runs into it.

I don’t know of a butterfly spacer with the bigger round hole that could rotate without contacting the emitter.

ALTERNATIVE: the 19mm 3M stick-on insulators have a hole big enough to rotate around the LED if they come unstuck, and the outside diameter is big enough to cover the solder bumps. Those squish down comfortably when you tighten the black parabolic thing down, and stay stuck to the board so they don’t rotate easily.

Not centered yet in the picture:
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!

[Brett_H]

@The Miller

Will34, you’re breaking my heart there mate
Maybe we should step back and let those slow turning wheels that are set in motion bring a solution for this Cometa disaster
I have put it away and will gently ask Cyberscudo when Banggood is going to send us first buyers a set of washers and paid for wires. Not now but in a couple of days so they can sort it out.
Really important is the title change so all new to this see the dangers and have it in the OP.

And yes I am full of questions, let me share this, I have a friend who was highly interested in the Cometa, working for a company selling supplies to the firefighters here. I asked if Cyber could send me a review sample and that I would send it back or to whoever following.
This was when they were nowhere near the 500 mark and this could mean several hundreds of Cometa s sold so I figured a valid request.
I got the reaction a sample was going to be send to a BLFer for review and that was it.
I never saw the review and I really missed it and still do not get why nobody seen the obvious design flaw in a anodised disc that could just as easy been made of plastic for probably less money. Three times taking is out is enough to spot the problem.

I received a response from BG regarding these washers. I first contacted Neal and today I received the following email from BG…

Dear customer,

Thanks for your email.

We have arranged to resend you a CPFItalia COMETA Insulating Sheet for item 1048342.

But this item is out of stock at the moment, could you please wait for few days?

Sorry for the inconvenience and best regards,

Aurogon

[JakeDjanitor]

@SIGShooter

Things should definitely work right out of the box but sometimes don’t and this issue isn’t confined to flashlights. My main hobby is firearms and it used to be common to have to tweak handguns in order to make them work right. For example the old Colt 1911’s were unreliable without first porting and throating them. And let’s not forget the original Glock 22’s where the barrel had less support than needed causing heads to blow especially with reloads (and hot factory ammo).

I guess what I’m saying is that unfortunately things don’t always work right out of the box and I suspect that this will always be the case due to poor QA, design, etc. So it falls upon the end-user to be careful and knowledgeable about things that can and do go wrong.

And as we’ve seen price is not necessarily correlated with quality

I completely understand you. But for my edc 1911 I sent it back twice to ruger. They replaced with one that had no issues.
My newest carry p938 rosewood would be sent back if it didn’t run so beautifully <3
It’s one thing to tinker, I enjoy it on my guns, but my carry guns are factory stock. Maybe slight dehorn or smoothing.

[SIGShooter]

@JakeDjanitor

@SIGShooter

Things should definitely work right out of the box but sometimes don’t and this issue isn’t confined to flashlights. My main hobby is firearms and it used to be common to have to tweak handguns in order to make them work right. For example the old Colt 1911’s were unreliable without first porting and throating them. And let’s not forget the original Glock 22’s where the barrel had less support than needed causing heads to blow especially with reloads (and hot factory ammo).

I guess what I’m saying is that unfortunately things don’t always work right out of the box and I suspect that this will always be the case due to poor QA, design, etc. So it falls upon the end-user to be careful and knowledgeable about things that can and do go wrong.

And as we’ve seen price is not necessarily correlated with quality

I completely understand you. But for my edc 1911 I sent it back twice to ruger. They replaced with one that had no issues.
My newest carry p938 rosewood would be sent back if it didn’t run so beautifully <3
It’s one thing to tinker, I enjoy it on my guns, but my carry guns are factory stock. Maybe slight dehorn or smoothing.

I really like Ruger’s customer support. I once had an issue with a semi-auto that didn’t manifest itself for over 5 years (off-center firing pin strikes on double action mode). Called Ruger about it and they sent me a prepaid shipping sticker no questions asked.

I wished all companies were like Ruger.

[Calmaja]

@Tom E

Got my Cometa today. It’s true 24 AWG, clearly labeled in mine. I would not have liked 20 AWG wires in this light - no clearances, and the people assembling these things I would not trust to spend the careful attention to detail to do it right. Even the 24 AWG is too thick for these guys to do properly, as we are finding out.

Yes - white over the red. Hank/Noctigon did not want their name showing on these GB deals.

+1
May be they already aware of the issue if using thicker wire, higher possibility scratching the disk.

[Old-Lumens]

@ Rusty Joe - Just about everyone moves on sooner or later, especially for something like flashlights. Just sayin'

Too many fingers in the pie sometimes and too many people who thought they knew how to make a flashlight and ended up not knowing the things that needed to be checked, like simple clearances. Too many small time companies over there, with not enough knowledge & resources, or enough control, to keep quality as a perspective. Too many makers of components like batteries, where there is a simple lack of control of standardization. If cells had standards that had to be met, for OAL, OD and the raise of the positive contacts and contact diameters, then there would be less nasty problems like yours.

Take care buddy and go find something that brings back the spark you need.

It's all what it is. Best of luck with whatever you do.

Justin

[Rufusbduck]

I take it as a given that I’ll need to tweak something and sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised not to. Group buys are becoming more customized which takes a known product further from stock and introduces more possible chances for mistakes. Most things I enjoy drive me to distraction at some point, it’s the challenge and chance to be creative that brings me back to any of them. Hope you find your way back.

[stephenk]

I picked up my Cometa today. During the teardown, I noticed to damage to the anodising on the black disk thingy. The damage seems to be more towards the LED than where I would expect damage from the solder points to be, however I should note that after screwing the disk on and off again, the damage was worse. One of the solder points does however a spiky bit.

I’ve attached a link to the photo below (I’m having issues embedding the photo)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenk1977/26326237223/in/dateposted/

Any advise on whether this is purely cosmetic, or likely to result in a short would be greatly appreciated.
I won’t be using the light until I’m confident it is safe.

[MRsDNF]

Heres your picture.

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!

[stephenk]

Thanks. I need to read the how to post a picture thread!

[Tom_E]

stephenk - No pic showing, and link doesn't work for me... If you are talking the bottom side of the disc, then yes - sounds like a potential short. If you could flatten out the solder, or if not, cover them up, but there will be a lot of heat there, so use something that can take the heat.

On mine, excessive solder was used - bumper up way too high, but think mine still cleared. My fix was to reduce the solder and flatten it out with the flat tip iron.

[teacher]

@stephenk

I picked up my Cometa today. During the teardown, I noticed to damage to the anodising on the black disk thingy. The damage seems to be more towards the LED than where I would expect damage from the solder points to be, however I should note that after screwing the disk on and off again, the damage was worse. One of the solder points does however a spiky bit.

Any advise on whether this is purely cosmetic, or likely to result in a short would be greatly appreciated.
I won’t be using the light until I’m confident it is safe.

It gets worse each tome you take it off and put it back on???

Hmmmm. it must be rubbing against something. Let me think a minute and get some coffee in me.
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Thanks for fixing the pic MRsDNF!!!
I just added it to his original post.