My case still in a dead end. Hank’s programming tool won’t help and I don’t know what the owner will said.
You’re both correct. This bug is indeed a product defect, and a safety issue as well. It should be recalled. But Mark is also correct: “good luck”. It ain’t gonna happen, at least not for free. If this was a U.S. company, maybe you’d stand a chance. But a small Chinese company? Nope. I think Hank will do what he reasonably can within financial limits, but he’s under no international obligation to make Americans/Europeans whole.
Your best bet is to just never use muggle mode. If you’re clicking away, make sure it’s not in muggle mode before you put away the light. Or remove the battery. Or just throw the light away if you’re concerned this bug (or another undetected bug) might be a safety hazard (which it is).
Cheap, good, bright. Pick 2.
Good luck what? Of course you cannot enforce a stated warranty from a Chinese seller, that is not my point.
I am just saying that to argue that the warranty should not apply in this case is a stretch. These are finished products (not kits), sold at a profit with a stated warranty. If someone wanted a replacement light (instead of flashing kit), I would support them. I would not criticise them and saying they were ‘whining’ or being unreasonable. If I found out that Hank was refusing, I would not be impressed.
I am not suggesting everybody return their flashlight. It seems most BLFers will be satisfied with the flashing kit remedy.
Just a suggestion but maybe Hank can set up a flashing service with MTN Electronics for people in the US that aren’t able to do it themselves to send their lights to. Doesn’t sound like a too big expense. Can’t be that many affected units. A lot of US warranties require the buyer pay shipping one way.
Likely the least expensive way for Hank and his customers to deal with the problem is sending out said flashing kit for little money. Something like p&p would be. Guess that’s the plan, and I’m fine with it.
Tried to assemble one reflashling kits today, and tought my GF how to reflash the firmware, she has zero knowledge about flashlights,
took 5 mintus to reflash 10 pcs stock lights with the latest firmware.
Next step is how to assemble the kits with more precision, so that it will be easier for the reflashling process.
TK has suggested me to sell those reflashing kits several times, but I was too lazy to do so, and this time I’m pushing myself to
assemble those reflashlight kits, hopefully it will be much easier for the modders and have fun with the different fimrware.
Looks great Hank!
Will existing customers of the D4v2 get priority on ordering these kits? It’d be great to also be able to use this in upgrading future firmware.
Windows 7 works for flashing?
I’m using windows 7, it does work.
[quote=azhu]
Yes, the exisiting customers of D4V2 get priority to order those kits, or the first batch reflashing kits will be sold to the D4V2 customers only. We are trying to produce a socket which the needles can just be inserted into the holes without ever soldering onto the pcb, will test it this week.
It’s not as if too much money would be lost ,Hank won’t be losing the cost of a flashlight on every sendback because he knows how to reflashing & has got tools for it ,he can reflash the returned light & send it back (China shipping is cheap) it’ll cost mainly time ( lesson learnt that proper testing should be done in future ) let’s face it ,the majority of people won’t know what to do with the tool if they had it ,the only real problem is who’s paying to send back to China ,Paypal will reimburse sendbacks (in this country anyway) to help restore any lost credibility perhaps Hank would pay (or share it with the main culprit who caused it) like I said lesson learnt & won’t be making the same mistake again if it’s gonna cost. Learn & move forward ,progress in action.
That’s my opinion how it should work ,everyone else’s opinion may & probly will vary.
You don’t even have one, move along. If you don’t think it will cost too much money, why don’t you pay out of pocket? No? Okay then.
The idea with the socket looks great…I definitly wanna buy one!
Nicely done Hank!
@Hank
Will the USB device be part of the flashing kit?
Looking forward to getting one of these. Thanks for the support Hank&Toykeeper and please don't be disheartened by the reactions of some people here.
I enjoy Emisar flashlights/the Anduril firmware a lot and I'm sure I will order some of your future lights.
I am a bit concerned about the destructive nature of the bug. Bugs are common, and this one comes in a circumstance I would never check. I don’t intend to use muggle mode but the consequences of this bug are too extreme to feel safe. I wanted the light for the aux LEDs so unscrewing the tailcap defeats the purpose. That said, I’m happy to pick up a flashing kit at cost to fix the issue. Can this be used on the FW3A? I wanted to use the 50% fet firmware for Nichia 219B.
Also, I truly appreciate toy keeper’s efforts, this is a very obscure bug. And I never got a warning email.
Hank will the kit connect to a USB port? If it requires opening up the computer, it would be too difficult for most people.
Ok guys, Wanna test this and see just what happens for myself… but I haven’t ever used muggle mode before. So if I click 6 times it engages the dreaded muggle mode, I only have a short ramp and no turbo. No aux lights are on. No possibility to engage the blinkies. Do I have to have the aux lvp engaged to duplicate the problem? To do so, I would need this aux mode engaged BEFORE shifting to muggle?
I’m using an 18500 so heat shouldn’t really become a factor… then again heat shouldn’t really be a problem on a partially depleted 18650 either. (Technically, an 18650 at 3.7V is discharged) Nonetheless I would like to attempt to replicate this issue and see what the truths are…
The FW3A doesn’t need the key/pogo pin adapter for flashing because it doesn’t have the pads on the driver. You would want an SOIC8 clip and the USBasp device for flashing one of these. If the kit from Hank includes a USBasp, then you’d just need the SOIC clip.
SOIC8 Clip:
The USBasp connects to a standard USB port.
A really cool thing about the D4V2 is that they have flashing pads on the bottom of the driver. You would take the head off the D4V2 and place the key/pogo pin adapter on the flashing pads located on the battery side of the driver, then you run the software to flash the new firmware.
The hardest part for most will be installing the drivers in Windows and typing in the commands for the software. This is still pretty easy though. (even easier in Linux) I haven’t tried on a Mac, but I might just have to try it to see if I could write up a guide.