Got my Tmart refund once they received the nonworking light, and they supplied the mailing label/postage. Can’t complain.
(Well, except that if they’d bothered to put padding over the ends of the box instead of only wrapping some around the middle, it might not have been broken by the time it arrived, sigh)
Yes, if it had been mailed from China, it would have been protected by flat blister wrap, lol. Why don’t you try again?
Not going to order another one just yet — though if anyone gets the thing apart successfully and finds it can be modded, I might — yeah, I will — be tempted.
I suspect I’d want to put in a better (quieter) motor, and expect to find cheap plastic gears too.
But I am now provoked to start looking for 3C- and 3D-cell flashlights more generally.
The plastic cover in the back of the head unscrews, and the driver lifts out.
It doesn’t look like it can be taken apart without separating the head into two pieces. We see wires, the motor, the driver, the mechanical switch, a wire to the electronic switch and another plastic separator. Clearly this thing would be challenging to mod.
The driver has a sort of mezzanine floor on it. It is also the motor controller.
Some more auto-zooms:
And the 3 x D auto-zoom with an adapter/charger:
Here is a 4 x D cell light. That should be good with NiMHs, an XM-L, etc. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hugsby-E4-4-x-LR20-D-Size-Alkaline-Battery-CREE-XR-E-Q3-Max-230-Lumens/362629722.html?tracelog=back_to_detail_a
With the cells topped up and reading 1.40, 1.43 and 1.45 V, I measure 1.57 A. It gets brighter when I short the meter leads together, showing that the current with the braided tail in place may be near to 2 V and that regulation is only by resistance.
It is not as bright as my modified 18650 lights, but brighter than a stock 26650 zoomy I have.
Once you start collecting D-cells, you start looking for uses.
Here’s a 3xD camping lantern just offered recently: Closed!!!
The replacement cell measured 1.27 V out of the package and 5.3 Ah on it first cycle. I an not very confident that my measurements correspond to the advertized (10 Ah) capacity. But it does appear that these cells have suffered from long storage.
I don’t think that makes a lot of difference in the brightness of this 3 x D cell light. The alkalines and NiMHs give similar current readings when fully charged.
I ordered a second example to replace the one I gave away. The zoom does not work. Tmart live service asked me to send videos. They have not responded in a few days after I sent them.
I wonder if they sold you the one I returned!
Or more likely it’s a common failure.
I think I told the story above, it took a few days and a little incomprehension followed by an internal referral within Tmart before the emailed me the postage paid return label.
I was thinking maybe the sensors, but now I see there is a flat spot in the outer head and a dimple in the red layer, at the upper left.
Tmart has promised to send a mailing label.
It looks like it might be fixable, if the head would come apart.
Huh. That’s not the one I returned, but it looks very much liket the same kind of damage.
Did they send it in thin white paper box in a plastic bag, with a bit of padding wrapped around the middle but no padding at the head or tail end?
The one I got had been dinged so hard the plastic bag and the thin box both had holes in them that lined up with the damage on the light.
I guess the message is, these are danged fragile at best.
Yes, it is not just Tmart’s packaging. A Convoy or an SK-68 might have shown a dent, but it would have worked fine. Something so fragile should be easier to take apart.
A three year old dropping my first one only made a small scratch, but that is not far to fall.
Another X2 came today. There was still no outer bubble wrap on the ends, but I guess they didn’t drop it, cause it works. They were out of grey ones, so I got a black one. It is just as impressive and even a bit cheaper. Tmart sent me a payed mailing label and gave me a full refund for the second one, when I insisted I didn’t want 70% capability for 70% of the price.
I measure 1.1 A with three alkalines at 1.51 V