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

LED Flashlights – General Info 26650 Flashlights
1

I am VERY, very angry right now. Trying to be peaceful…

Received my Cometa a day ago. I quickly unpackaged it, along with the BASEN battery, put the battery in, and…nothing.

The battery isn’t long enough to make contact with the recessed cap. It jiggles up and down. No tension. So I tried to add foil and then dimes, and still nothing. And then, mysteriously, I pressed put the battery back in, tilted it to make contact with the negative end of the battery and the tailcap, and the light came on in the tailcap, a light blue-white-ish, but it didn’t stay on, and it wouldn’t do it again—and no light came out when clicked.

So I took the battery out and immediately noticed the light smelled hot. I touched the spring of the tailcap to see if it was somehow loose, AND IT BURNED THE F*CK OUT OF MY INDEX FINGER! B

I am unable - and unwilling - to do anything else. I am getting my money back for the light, plus, I am done with this hobby, probably forever. Enough is enough. The irresponsibility has to stop somewhere. It’s one thing to have to Paypal claim some smoking, jaundiced, Chinese dude who just wants to make a buck, but this has become actually dangerous.

I’ve met so many good people here, but this is my last straw. I’ve been active here for years, but now the hobby just isn’t giving back anymore. And most threads now are just about little hotrod torches with little consistency or concern for big things like quality control.

Sorry. It’s just all too much now. It looks like it is time to move on.

2

Have you read the Cometa thread in the past week?

It sounds like the unprotected Basen cell shorted on the underside of the pill. Probably melted the driver spring, maybe melted the tailcap spring as well. Maybe fried something in the process.

Need pictures to determine the exact cause and effect.

3

G'Day Rusty Joe,

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Please post in & read the Cometa Group Buy thread at:

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/37235

Best Regards,

George

4

Yep, like George said; you really need to go here and do some reading & research. Seriously……………

5

I have updated the original post.

6

POS? piece of sh*t?

7

Yes. I was very angry. lol

8

Yes, that’s probably what he meant. I highly doubt he’s trying to say ‘Point of Sale’

9

Joe, I think you’re just a little burnt out. Don’t give up on a nice hobby right away. Step away and come back in a few months. You may feel differently then.

10

I appreciate your advice, and your concern. Thanks, buddy. I may do that.

11

It looks like the specs were screwed up…go figure. Why can’t a company produce a light with the agreed upon specs? Seriously…it’s ridiculous!! If a group buy has been put together and a test light approved with the agreed upon specs…why produce a run of lights that are out of specs? Does the seller feel like they need to cheap out on the agreed upon specs in order to gain a higher profit margin? I’m getting sick and tired of these companies taking advantage of us. Yes, this is a BUDGETlightforum but it doesn’t mean that we have to take what we’re given because we get it cheap.

12

+1
Amen brother, well said!!!

13

I am posting this here in the hopes that as many as possible may see it due to safety concerns with this light.
If you want to know more you can click on this link that will take you to the ‘mother’ thread.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-
WARNING ……… PLEASE READ!!

I don’t know, or really even care; if anyone else feels this way or not…… but we are just beginning to see the tip of the iceberg with this situation concerning the COMETA.

This is a potentially VERY DANGEROUS situation………….

Just notice some of the posts that are beginning to come in from people who either are unaware of the problem, have not been keeping up with this thread, refuse to read the whole thing, do not really understand the “fixes” described, do the “fixes” incorrectly, or just happy go lucky think it does not apply to them because their light “works’.

Many do not have a clue that they are playing with a Potential BOMB…….

This BOMB could potentially hurt or kill them, as well as those around them; if it “goes off”.

This IS NOT an exaggeration, and I challenge anyone to say what I write is not true……

This IS a potentially VERY DANGEROUS situation concerning this light!!!
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Disclaimer: I DO NOT represent myself as an “expert”, either self proclaimed or otherwise.

But this is a potentially very dangerous situation!

And I defy anyone to openly disagree with what I have said.

If anyone takes me up on this, please list your rational.
~
Also, the problem lies with the sell/maker for ignoring agreed upon specs.

’Cyberescudo’ IS NOT at fault.

14

Let me begin by saying that I don’t blame the BLF members who put in long, hard and unpaid hours to achieve the goals and specs we agreed upon. This is not the first groupbuy with unexpected results and it most certainly won’t be the last. Maybe a lot of it is caused by differences in attitude and language. But it seems that on any level where the person you´re dealing with is not first hand involved in the manufacturing, there is a more than average chance that things go wrong. Let´s face it, the quantities we are talking about are not the ones to make or break a manufacturer. And if shit happens, containment is first priority, not real customer satisfaction.
That does not mean we can dodge our responsibility to (at least: visually) inspect the things we buy before we use them.
But when was the last time you took good notice of the lights on your dashboard before you turned the ingnition-key?

Only a few of us will remember the unforgettable Phil Silvers as MSgt. Ernest G. Bilko in the Phil Silvers Show AKA Sergeant Bilko. Personally I don’t believe everyone we are dealing with overseas is like him.

15

Whether or not we are flashaholics, or enthusiasts, I EXPECT if I buy a light, especially one that has been designed by a group of light enthusiasts, That the light will be in proper working order WITHOUT modding.
why buy a light that is supposed to be great, and not need modding, and then expect to have to make mods for the darn thing to turn on?
Just stick a paper clip on the BLF A6, it will work, well maybe replace the tail spring its to soft, and if you breath on it the darn thing changes modes…
This is PATHETIC!!
now we are at a whole new level of stupid! I know when I get a light I can not wait to turn it on, well someone is going to show their kids, or wife, maybe dog their new awesome light, and it is going to cause irreversible damage! if this is truly the case and they are made improperly , all cometas need to be replaced.
I almost bought one too…. the A6 taught me better, thing cant even be a reliable tail stand light it is so touchy, don’t bump it over. I almost put it on my bicycle, and then laughed and got my s2+
I am tired of these long awaited lights coming out like garbage. Good, hard earned money is spent and we do not expect to buy trash. we expect the best of the best. maybe we need to set REALISTIC prices, maybe instead of making something $20, when it should cost $100, we meet in the middle and buy quality.
unacceptable

16

So I took the battery out and immediately noticed the light smelled hot. I touched the spring of the tailcap to see if it was somehow loose, AND IT BURNED THE F*CK OUT OF MY INDEX FINGER!
Pics or it didn’t happen :wink: haha :person_facepalming:

17

Yep, the problem with the COMETA is that ’Cyberescudo’s’ specs for the light were not adhered to.

The fault of this fiasco falls squarely on the seller/maker.

They are the one’s that deviated from the agreed upon specs specified by ’Cyberescudo’.

The deviation has caused most of the problems associated with the COMETA.

18

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 :frowning:

19

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.

20

Got my cometa today. Fixed all problems. The Lamp did work...

But now I guess theres some problem with the driver. I cant change the modes now. Clicking the switch half is useless. It just blinks in the same mode. I think this is no problem of the cometa but the driver. Because when I shake or hit the lamp from the side it will change modes - funny somehow ;-) I did resolder de driver board and check everything.

This is my question to the experts who can explain where on the driver this problem could be:

I think I have a dead solder point but could not find it: Can anyone tell me why this Problem shows up?