Question about Olight S15R thats on sale at Gearbest - factory seconds or slipping QC or something else?

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

Not to come off as a crybaby given the recent issues with GB orders not arriving as well as some of the items slipping through manufacturers QC with small issues, here come some observations about two of S15R that I have received so far.

After using this light for more than a month and observing some things about it Ive come to conclusion that Olight might be churning out these lights at a sale price neglecting some QC issues, I have received 2 and have one more on order:

-first light, the one in my review, came with tiny anno chip near the switch steel ring, nothing major, can be seen only if looking for it, not a big deal, not functional issue after all! Not worth posting a picture and wouldnt mention it if it was the only thing about this otherwise good light.

-second light has small anno/aluminum defects in a shape of small dots at the tailcap, right below the lanyard attachment:


-battery in first light, after looking at it today, seems to have hooked positive end:

(yeah, I should get decent camera and shoot the objects straight, not angled)


-battery of the second light, which I havent used and inspected today after noticing visual issues with the first one, turns out to have some sort of liquid residues or corrosion residues beneath the wrapper, checked it with UV light and there is some glow where the protection circuit runs at the side of the top of the light as well. This battery came in at 3.67V out of the box and seems to work, but has never been charged and only used for few second when testing if the light is working upon arrival. Battery on the left where the + marking is, on top of it is whiteish spot that shows up with UV light(it does look like reflection with my phone camera, but its not a reflection):

Corrosion-like marks around the lights top:

Both batteries side by side:

Also, prior to some battery runtime tests Ive put my S15R with included battery onto its charging pad and even though from empty or half empty it had charged it without any issues, yesterday it charged the first battery to 4.27V! I re-checked it with two meters, the voltage is within 0.01V. Could it be the charging pad or simply user error by putting almost full battery to charge again/top up? Here are pictures of charging pad that came with first light, on the right side and the one that came with the second light, on the left:

Would you guys check your lights and batteries and report back if there are any flaws, no matter how unimportant to support the idea of either factory seconds or neglected QC?

Thanks!

2

’oogled
https://www.google.com/search?q="micro-dok"+charging+pad+volt+problem

and this popped up:

3

Yeah, Ive read about it and at first it appeared that the one that came with my first light is already the new version that shouldnt overcharge batteries, but now, when I re-read my review I have forgotten that it has happened already once with this charging pad, so its two times so far and its not like I have checked the voltage every time I charged it on that pad!

Still waiting for others to chime in regarding other points noted in OP ;)!

4

Not user error. Presuming a proper cc/cv charger, even trying to charge a full battery wouldn’t result in the battery voltage going any higher than the normal cut off that particular charger does. Most likely the olight built in charge just has a 4.27v termination / cut off. It’s normal for the termination to vary from one individual charger chip to another but 4.27v is high imho. Especially for a supposedly premium brand. Better for the termination to be on the low side.

5

vēer,

Had one out of the five S15’s I purchased recently with minor Ano blemishes and what appeared to be a shortened body tube? Not sure, but battery button top was crushed down, and needed much force to screw tail-cap back on sufficiently to make contact.

Olight 14500 batteries out of the other four S15’s had the same problem in it.

Used a different brand battery with its own problem, (a sloping protection circuit board), and it now works a treat!

As previously mentioned in another thread (Mr Admins, I think), they may be getting factory QC rejects at some of the sellers we know, and knocking them out at discount prices.

You know us, we can’t resist a bargain! :smiley:

P.S. It charges to 4.11V every time.

6

Thats what got me concerned, OK, I didnt pay full price that these lights were sold for before the sale started, but that doesnt mean that me or any other buyer should settle for less and ignore such flaws and if Olight presents themselves as premium brand with high quality, they should stand behind their words and reputation ;)!

GB rep told me that they are running with sale directly through Olight factory not some retailer in between, so in that case it could look like Olight is deliberately getting rid of factory seconds without letting buyers know!

7

4.20v /- 0.05v or/- 1% (4.158-4.242v) is a common termination range. 4.27v is outside specs for most quality li-ion charging chips. And even a chip with a +/- 1.5% range. Just too high. Again especially for a supposedly premium brand. There is no good reason for that at all imho.

8

What about that hooked battery terminal on one and corrosion marks on the other?

I suppose it would be better to dispose off the corroded one(not feeling like tearing the wrapper off), but what about the other one?

Will check out the other charging pads performance tomorrow and update here.

9

And that’s too low, again outside specs for most quality chips. Outside even a +/- 1.5% range (4.137v min). Gee I don’t know what kind of parts you’re using olight.

10

Are you sure your meters are good enough (calibrated) to measure such tiny differences? In the digital world, not all that is shown with lots of digits after the decimal point is the real value and blindly trusted. Only high-end equipment has the accuracy to measure voltage better than the chips mentioned (<0,5%).
If you’ve got more than one meter in the mid-price range than I bet not two of them will show the exact same value not to mention the real value that it should be…

11

Its not meters, its the charger.
Other chargers show good 4.17-4.20V when batteries fully charged and I cross-checked it with two meters, one is UNI-T UT33C DMM and the other is cheapo LCD volt meter both of which have been reliable so far.

Cancelled my 3rd S15R order, not willing to risk receiving another light with deffective anno and whats more important - defective battery or charger.

12

For what it worth, i received a S30 from gearbest yesterday and quality is simply great, works perfectly and no cosmetic defects, fully boxed with o-rings.

So, no QC or factory defects in my case…

13

I was certain that driver is responsible for battery charging as one sample was undercharging to 4.07V and it did not charge any better on another dock that charges other sample to 4.20V

I opened micro-dok and there is charger pcb inside, based on SH67P847 ic.

Perhaps some other factor (contact resistence in tailcap) is responsible for these voltage differences, meaning that whole tailcap charging design is flawed in the first place and that’s why olight changed it on new series…

14

GB say this is a limited offer, which is not consistent with this being a way for Olight to shift seconds. Maybe that is marketing fluff to help them sell.

15

Happily.Anno OK,cell wrapper and button top OK,ui OK,dock has the lightning bolt below light.I checked the charge , 4.012v.
After charging on the dock,I didn’t notice exactly when it went green , so probably a few minutes earlier.I got 4.165v on a non calibrated Fluke 115.With in spec.

16

Chiefinspectorfinch, there are no components on the back, correct?
Can you tell what is under that red blob? I would guess it’s a coil / inductor.

17

I have a couple of chargers that both became erratic. Turns out i had too many things plugged into the extension lead.Put into a wall socket on thier own they are both fine!

18

I have T25, S80 and S15R from GB. All in perfect condition. (Except S80 didn’t came with original charger). I think the are on sale because Olight is swirching to newer models of these lights, not because they are factory seconds. It doesn’t exclude the possibility of GB also putting hands on some factory seconds and selling them with good ones though

19

I suspect some of these bargain items are a way to ship more product. The more you make and sell, the lower the unit cost, so sell some at full price to make profit, and others at a reduced price to reduce the unit cost. Just a guess. I’ve had some sale items from GB and another seller, and they’ve been fantastic.

20

No, there are no components on the back side, under red blob is small coil (68uH)