So, seriously, are there hosts that this driver and emitter will transfer to reasonably well, to leave behind the hardware issues?
Do I recall correctly that the last set of samples did successfully lego both with the X6 and with the S2+?
The unique driver, plus the emitter and the wires connecting them would seem to me a good deal, still, for $25, even losing the host they came in.
Also note, having finally gotten the stuck head apart, those black lines visible in the very early screenshots I and TK posted are shadows — they’re the slight gap between the plastic spacer and the square emitter. I’d thought they were the emitter sitting in a square black outline not quite straight but there’s no such ‘target’ on the board. When the bezel/head is tightened down, the reflector makes the white plastic spacer rotate — and it makes those long triangle dark gaps turning that last little few degrees.
I’m used to emitters are held down by machine screws or press-fit or threaded retainers, hadn’t had enough lights that rely on the reflector to hold the emitter in place to have recognized that result.
It’s just a 17mm driver and 16mm mcpcb, you can put them in almost anything. If you bought the LED/Noctigon and driver separately from RMM, it would cost about $22+s/h. However, it seems some of the QC problems are with the driver itself. It looks like they either used bad solder paste or didn’t leave them in the oven long enough for one batch. You wouldn’t have that lottery from RMM, he does consistently good work.
I still think it’s a fantastic deal on the light, even with a bit of a QC lottery.
I got mine today, I haven’t had much time to play, but I like the light, I’m disappointed that they changed the thread pitch. The clip shape isn’t ideal, it would be better if the back end of the clip was more open, and if where it came off the tube it didn’t stick out as far. I did notice that you can install the clip backwards to clip it to the brim of a baseball cap.
After Manker shut down a BLF group buy with some map crap and now that they changed the agreed upon specs during production, they have earned the name Wanker. Fark them.
quote from OP: “My math that inspired me to attempt this group buy:
BLF 17DD Diver from RMM w/ options ~$14.25
Noctigon 16mm Driver from RMM ~$1.99
Subtotal parts 16.24 plus shipping plus cost of flashlight (EE A6 ~$19) = $35.24 +/- vs GB of $22-$23 (or even less if we can get the same success of the X6-SE)
To me that is a huge savings.”
so now the math changed right ???
get this great deal for 25usd plus buy a host which fits the specs ~12USD total 37USD its still a great deal but suddenly the savings are gone heheheh
is that what you mean or do we try to talk the threads good now ??
FYI I was responding to a post from jack-bkk that seems to have disappeared. Perhaps I should delete mine as well to avoid confusion? te=Jubeldum]
I was using a unprotected Samsung 26.
After Manker shut down a BLF group buy with some map crap and now that they changed the agreed upon specs during production, they have earned the name Wanker. Fark them.
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I’ve had mine a few days now and love it. The driver and firmware are amazing. I wasn’t sure if I would like the long press to go backwards. Now that I’ve gotten used to using it my I find myself trying step backwards with my other lights and when they don’t I feel they are missing something. My other dd fet drivers all tend to have a whine in one of the levels. I haven’t heard a peep out of this one yet. The moonlight is as low as my rmm moonlight special lights. I can tell the firmware has been fine tuned to work very well with the hardware. I now want to upgrade a couple of my convoy triples with this driver.
When I first got the light and was checking everything out, I reassembled the body tube backwards and the light would not turn on. I quickly figured it out and flipped the body tube around the correct way and it works great. Maybe others have done this and haven’t realized why it wasn’t turning on. So if its not turning on make sure the pocket clip groove is toward the tailcap.
Thanks to everyone involved in making this happen. Special thanks to bugsy36 for being the ringleader and to Wight and Toykeeper for making my favorite part of this flashlight.
edit: I also love the way the hidden modes are cleverly accessed. They are out of site, but quickly accessible when you want them. I think that stutter beacon will be nice when bicycle riding.
Well, mostly. Some people found their hosts had loose threads and they didn’t like it. Some had tight threads that were hard to turn, and they didn’t like it. If you get one that has reasonably fitting threads, and you’re not trying to fit any of these parts to any other parts in the world, you should have nothing to complain about. What I’m worried about is the shorty tube we requested to be made for this light. How is the QC going to be for that? :~
david the shorty tube has to be made to this standards or it wont fit same disadvantage here it wont fit on any other light but this would be amazing if it fit
but in the end of the day what can we do we cant expect them to make new tubes its a mistake a stupid and annoying one but not the end or the world the light is great ui is too so at least now we got the drives which been so often requested 5555 and we got the tube as freee gimmick
jack, I applaud your positive outlook, but here’s the deal. Yes, we got an awesome driver. That’s great! However, I probably would not have bought this light, no matter how good a deal it is, if I’d known there would be QC issues. On top of that, Manker has shown ill will toward us by using MAP to shut down a Group Buy that WWEFANS was trying to do. If they hadn’t done that, I might be willing to chalk the QC issues up to just a mistake, possibly trying to run too quickly on our behalf, etc. But, not now. They’ve shown malicious intent.
At this point, I’m sincerely hoping that when I receive my four lights, I don’t regret having spent the $100USD to get them. I’m not a skilled modder, like a lot of people around here. And, I don’t have a lot of extra money laying around to waste on buying junk lights. I need them to work perfectly and be decent quality.
Edit: Oh yeah, about those shorty tubes. Here’s my fear on that. In order to “work” with this light, they now “have to” be made to the same low quality standard. With this light, they had a goal, a target - match the existing EE lights - and they failed. What makes anyone think they’ll match these threads now? And, if they do match, then it will prove that they didn’t try to match the threads before, even though they did with the samples. To me, that shows malicious intent. They had the right settings to match the threads, and they decided not to!
Just received my A6. The battery tube can’t be screwed in wide enough (- 0.20mm) to get contact with the unanodized area in the tailcap.
A paper clip did the workaround (with additional resistance). A battery tube with e.g. 0.3mm longer thread on the tailcap side could be a permanent solution.
I think if the 4 you get are as good as the 4 I just received you’ll be happy so long as lego-ability with the X6 isn’t a big concern for you. I checked one of mine, definitely not interchangeable.
This seems to be the same with mine, I can get it to work (light up), if I screw on the tailcap with way to much force, but I fear the electrical contact is then still not optimal and over time it will wear out the threads even with grease.
What to do?
David i agree with you but we shouldn’t mix up their GB with MAP issues and this light its 2 different things and you knew that issue before so why take manker then in first place ??
i work with china all the time and i inspect factories get samples inspect production line during production it often happens that i get samples from factory A the production start in factory B and we end the production in factory C which was build in the first weeks of production in factory C.
the problem is if you confirm samples they can come from any factory but one thing is clear this samples are the specs so manker cant get away with that easy another point is in my opinion this solder points we saw in the pics are far from professional if you compare them with many other Chinese light they look more like a back yard production. nothing against back yards i saw amazing quality come out of some back yards.
modder or skilled or not we are all customers there and pay money so the light have to be ready to use.