Code now public! BLF A6 FET+7135 Light. Short 18350 tubes and Unanodized Lights Available

BLF Special Edition Products
5221

Received 4 more lights today. All 1a’s for gifts. I ordered when bg still had 1a in stock 9-1-15. They. definitely have some different shades of anodize and some off center tubes. (Not complaining just giving a time stamp as to when I ordered and what showed up as to keep track of what’s coming in October.) :wink:

Anyhow they all function perfectly. No doa. All modes function fine, stepdown works fine. Made me happy. :slight_smile: And very grateful that mine are 3d and 5a lol. I’m in love with the tints and ui. Starting in moon is my new favorite function. Time to buy a programmer and start modding!!!

5222

Zebralight, Nitecore and 4Sevens deep carry clips are what seem to work best for me.

5223

Let's just say that I am a "clip idiot" Please elaborate on the likes and dislikes.

The WHOLE purpose of the A6 is to get what WE want from the manufacturers with specs decided in a democratic fashion .

While not perfect...the A6 is the closest thing to date that has "something for everybody" in an EDC ;)

5224

Those three clips are deep carry, have coined edges (nice and smooth), seem to be made of 420J steel, are very tough (can be Bent back into shape), and can clip over the seam of a jeans pocket. The current A6 design is good. Really good. Many a process change in heat treat or material along with final machining will take care of any issues that I have read about.

5225

Not a thing at all wrong about the A6 in theory mate. But read the above posts on how the clip could be improved. Should be easy to clip in a pocket, due to its design it’s far from that unfortunately

5226

My two cents on the clip:

Larger 180 degree bend to compensate for grabbing thicker pocket tops etc.

Smaller wings on the tube grip part, they are large and are easily removed/filed, but get them right if you are going back to the board with these.

Material slightly thicker, maybe .2 mm to “beef up” the entire clip, remember that a 1 mm to 1.2 mm thickness increase brings about 70% more stiffness to a stamped item like this, so not much thicker would be a great increase.

Keep the finish, I like the gunmetal/matte look.

I have bent my front “ramp” down a bit, it works for me fine like this, but if you had a slightly concave cut in the end of the “ramp” it would be more flush against the tube…

Better heat treatment the key to steels is in the heat treatment…

I like the clip as it is, so this is just a wishlist/feedback. I know that the clip is not the best, but after years of breaking off knife clips on things as I worked or went about daily life, I adapted to having them on. This one works for me, but longevity may be an issue…

I think that there are other ways to attach flashlights to your pockets as well, and I have found that the small pocket clips on the ’Bay and a couple of O-rings to tie it to the light work very well for me and offer a more “concealed” carry, less likely to snag on things. The clip groove on this light will be perfect for this method… Pics below:
”
“:Carry Review of the DQG Tiny III 18650 light.

Personally, I am not going to spend over a quarter of this lights cost on buying just a new clip for it… I put that into a XP-L HI V3 2B on a Noctigon from RMM :stuck_out_tongue: It is all about the light

5227

Yeah, being totally honest, the clips are, in a word, bad. I was hoping the deep carry would make them work for me, but as others have said, I just took them off, as I have with most clips in the past. It didn’t bother me in the least.

5228

Those Zebralight clips are pretty fantastic. The Olight S-series clip is very nice too. Otherwise I’ve never really liked any clip-on clips. I prefer the screw-on ones, or sometimes the thread-in ones (SF L2 clip). Something which can’t slip off or rotate around and scratch the finish.

But for the A6 clip… I think the needs are already pretty well-identified. Springier, stronger metal, no (or very small) wings, no ramp, lower raised portion, wider bend at the deep end. Oh, and arms which match the groove size and are bent at the correct angles.

5229

Many have already said these, but I’ll repeat (for better clip):
-Larger opening at the top. Some of us may want to clip it on to a thick leather belt, for example.
-The “ramp” & gap between the clip and the light is unnecessary and is in the way when clipping it on.
-The “wings” poke uncomfortably into hand.
-It is a bit fragile (wrong heat treatment/material?), snaps easily when bent.
-Clip was not uniform when received. Another side was bent more than the another…

I think they might have tried to copy the Olight S-series clips when doing this one. The olight clip has smaller “wings” and they are more rounded. The head in those Olights is also little thicker than the body, that’s why they have the “ramp” - that is not something you should copy in to a clip that goes to a flat tubelight.
That Zebralight clip sure looks good, but this one could be pretty good too by fixing the flaws.

5230

My two Samsung 30Q 18650s from Banggood arrived (via Sweden?!, ordered same time as the A6, shipped 2 days later than A6 and arrived 9 days after A6) and after a short wait to charge them up in the new Nitecore D4 I was able to go into my darkened backyard and “Fiat lux!” light up my entire backyard with the turbo mode! 45 seconds later there was a minimal drop down to High2 with a slight heating up of the tube. I haven’t tried every corner of the UI yet but it is certainly phenomenal! Many thanks and “We’re not worthy”s go out to everyone who worked on this Group Buy; bugsy36, ToyKeeper, Wight, Dale, Kronos, Steve, JohnnyMac, Neal (and Banggood) and Manker and M4D M4X (for the battery code).

My evaluation of flashlights (more lumens!) is like my appreciation of music (louder!) so I got the 1A. I see nothing less than beauty. It looks great and the unit has no flaws. I may have lucked out by getting one of the early 1A’s before the production-speed-up quality problems crept in but if everyone with problem lights just hangs in until they can get you a fix, you will have a truly amazing little light cannon for $25!

I’m so glad that I started my search for modern LED flashlights and joined back in June and that I was in time for this fantastic Group Buy. You may have created a monster because I’m contemplating a couple of spring bypasses now and have begun my journey into the “light side.”

5231

+1lichan. Good comment my friend! That’s exactly how I feel having joined around the same time. My friends and wife think I’m a dork but I don’t care! I would have easily paid 60$ for this light after seeing what it can do and the way it sheds heat.

5232

Mine is not arrive yet,can’t blame the snailmail post

5233

weird question - flashlight seems to work, when turned on I’m shaking it in my hand and so on - without a problems.
I gave one to my uncle and he’s telling me that when he had it mounted on a bike and riding somewhere flashlight was going off and on almost every time he hit a small bump on the road…
Do you have any idea what I can check here?

Or rather - told him to check… :S Eh, I should not gave it to him so fast, but use for few weeks to discover all flaws.
Another - goes to the maker and quality control.

5234

The pill/driver section on my 3D is bluish.

The tail switch is also bluish.

Anybody else with a striped light?

I love the light, but the QC is a bummer.

Thanks to the team for making it happen!

I’m prepared to pay a slightly higher price for more lights if there will be a second run with higher quality.

5235

^

Agree, wish EE did this run, they were as immaculate as they were underpowered.

5236

If the springs were weak, or if they have become deformed by heat, they can get loose. To fix this, stretch it out or replace the springs and do spring bypasses. This should allow it to hold the battery firmly in place without the excess heat making it get out of shape.

5237

Might also be the switch boot, maybe? One of my A6's switch's boot cover was real tight against the switch - swapped the rubber switch cover for the GITD that was looser - works/feels much better now. I dunno if the tightness of the boot cover would cause the switch to engage/dis-engage or not with getting bumped around.

5238

You could also try of have him try different, maybe longer (e.g., protected) batteries, and maybe flat top vs. button top batteries - that’d be a lot easier if you had the light in your possession though.

Also, check the retaining ring in the head holding the driver and the retaining ring in the tail holding the switch and make sure they are tight. You can use a pair of pointed tweezers to do that.

Somewhere, Toykeeper also mentioned to try to make a paper clip into a circle and put that into the tailcap. The threads on these are anodized (why? I don’t know why for a tail clicky, but maybe they expected an electronic switch?), so the back end of the battery tube MUST make contact with the retaining ring in the tailcap to get the continuity.

There’s also a thread somewhere for troubleshooting this light…

EDIT: Here’s the thread: BLF A6 FET+7135 Light Troubleshooting and Mod thread

Jim

5239

My tailcap is a deep navy blue, my battery tube is dark purple, and the head is black. Pretty tough to see unless you really look for it. I kinda like the navy blue, would be nice if the whole flashlight was that color.

5240

Again let me say this is Jack of all lights :) I will just want to point out something for the quality controller at BG or Manker. It is easy to spot the quality of the anodization by using cw flashlight. I accidentally found it out when I'm taking pictures of my light to send to heyanqing. Using indoor light seems color is alright, but when I shine it with my cool white light it showed the mis match, or maybe my eyes is not that good anymore :bigsmile: