Just got the Sofirn Sp10v3 yesterday, took it out for a walk had it on maybe 10-15 mins. With both the Sofirn 14500 battery and an alkaline AA when i walked back home i had the 14500 in it, i used it on the walk back home mainly on high mode and sometimes on turbo so it got a bit warm, but not too much. So when i arrived home the sp10v3 was warm i just thought thats normal my other lights also get warm and put it on the cupboard. the light was off of course… then i ate something, 45minutes later i wanted to look at the flashlight again, and it didnt turned on, i noticed it was still pretty warm but the light was off and was not turning on… i swapped the 14500 battery for the alkaline AA i used before outdoor on the walk and it also didnt turned on… i tried a brand new AA battery, and it still did not turn on. Then i charged the 14500 battery to the max and put it in the sp10v3 and it turned on and it worked normally, i turned it off and left it on the cupboard awhile, and again the whole body got pretty warm but it was off ! Its also still not working with an AA like it worked before on the walk outside. Does anynone know what happened why its not working correctly anymore ?
What should i do now ? Open a Dispute on Aliexpress or write Sofirn just a message. im unfamiliar with this and i dont know if its considered as rude if i directly open a dispute ?
What a shame… overall i really liked this flashlight, i wanted to give it my grandma as a gift, she wanted to use it with AA batterys…
I forgot to add : inside the battery tube it smells a bit weird, i dont know if thats the smell of the grease or fat from the threads or something else… but no other flashlight from me has that smell inside the battery tube.
I left the light alone with a 14500 in it and when I went to use it a few hours later it wouldn’t turn on. When I checked the battery voltage it had drained to 1.0V while off.
Same burning smell.
I took everything apart (Lots of glue in the assembly. The most I’ve seen in a Sofirn light). Discovered a burned out component on the board. This is where my knowledge runs out. I dont know what the component is.
I reached out to Beamax store on aliexpress where I purchased it. Showed them pictures. They agreed to send me a new driver.
I had assumed I must have a rare anomaly. It seems this could be a bigger issue.
I was really excited to get this light with a UI that wasnt long click for off. But so far not impressed.
Another minor greivance is the new tailcap design. It is less stable when tail standing. There is no tail button so there is no reason to have this style tailcap.
I originally wasn’t going to post about my experience. Sofirn is very good to this forum so I didn’t want to tarnish their reputation if the light I ordered was just a fluke defect. But if others are having the problem I suppose it’s a public service to let people know.
Yes the tailstand is very unstable. While the sp10v3 was still working correctly i would say only that and no battery level indicator were negative, everything else was ok in my opinion (while it was still working) does the other sp10 versions have some sort of a battery level indicator ?
Does anyone have a schematic or circuit details of the horizontal board to which the switch board (vertical) is soldered? To identify that part of the circuit and the part number of the device that burns up.
If it is a FET, then it needs a pull-down to ensure that it shuts off; FETs can remain ON even with the gate signal removed due to the capacitance in the FET, that’s why they need to be driven to the OFF state and not just left floating.
If someone wants to send me a board then i will trace it out and send it back repaired.
TIFisher does your sample work with both AA and 14500?
Mine never worked with AA.
100% agree with you jasontheguitarist. The UI was the only thing that needed to change.
I will say that the beam on the V3 is slightly improved over previous models. It’s a bit bigger spot with a more blended spill. Ofcourse this is just my opinion/preference in a light like this.
Was the light OFF or ON when the temperature increased by 6° Celsius (~11° Fahrenheit) in ~25 minutes and what level of brightness was selected if the light was ON?
I have one SP10V3 from AmazonUS (shipped from a warehouse in the State of Illinois) and another SP10V3 arriving today from AmazonUS (shipped from a warehouse in the State of Washington).
I bought the Sp10v3 on the Sofirn Official Shop on Aliexpress. I opened a dispute and now they replied :
“First, check that the insulating sheet placed on the battery needs to be removed to conduct normal conduction. Second, the test battery can be used normally (you can use other brands of batteries). Use a wire to test whether it can light up. If it does, it means that the tail switch can’t conduct electricity. Just send a switch. Fourth, use alcohol to clean the exposed areas on both ends of the barrel, including the exposed areas of the steps inside the tail cover, and then try again. Try to light up”
What should i write them now ? Should i just give them a link to this thread ?
Take a video of it not working with an AA battery and say it’s a faulty driver.
You could message the Sofirn member above and they should then be able to get in contact with the AliExpress team, but only if you don’t get anywhere with the video
