The 1A is STUPID BRIGHT with an HE2. I’ve scrolled thought the modes, expecting it to be the last one, and they just keep getting brighter. I’ve only tried the pre-set 7 mode so far, actually flashed myself in the mirror a little bit, and still see halos, or whatever. Excellent job, and thanks all!
The 3D, uh, well, besides DOA, has some of the worst flaws I’ve seen on any light in a long, long time. I will take some pics when my phone recharges, they will tell the story well enough I think, and I really don’t want to complain or sound ungrateful. I appreciate this GB a lot, and the flaws are on Manker, or whomever, not at all on the great team. They deserve only appreciation, and a thank you.
By the way, the 1A had a too small and oval o-ring in the head, and three holes in the switch retainer ring, with no lube at all. I just switched them on to the 3D, since it doesn’t work anyway.
On my DOA 3D I can add the same comment regarding tube thickness, on the switch end one side of tube is noticeably thicker than other. The 1A looks pretty uniform all the way around. Doubt this is a factor in functionality but maybe details like this together with corresponding package labeling will help Banggood narrow down where problem occurred.
Never fails… Every time I start a 48 hour shift my flashlights get delivered! Guess I’ll have to wait until Monday to check them out. It’s going to be a long shift…
I don’t know about this stuff as well as I should, but I’m guessing the driver is great. Its the soldering that is really bad, and I haven’t even taken mine apart very much. I don’t intend to either, as the 3D needs to be replaced, plain and simple.
I can loosen both of mine by hand, I just have to take apart my EE XA 6 to get the spacer MCPCB and optic to check fit.
The head on one of my comes off by hand while the other doesn’t. The stuck one was probably assembled by superman 
Mine arrived today. It works great and is spectacular. Many thanks to Bugsy, TK, Dale, etc. The interface is a thing of beauty, and I love the 3D tint.
Mine has many of the same issues others have reported (off-center boring of the battery tube, three holes in the tailcap retaining ring, no Lego with my X6) but Manker appears to have sent me a bonus to appease me.
I’m guessing that my new, well-worn, “Tong Ming” battery isn’t 30Q quality, but it’s better than a stick in the eye!
Hmm maybe this means they’re starting to test the lights before shipping?
Well I am excited to get my lights, and still really enthused about trying them out tonight. However, I think I bought enough of them to have a bit of most every problem that has been mentioned here: one dead, one that flickers while on and changes modes only occasionally, and one with adonizing dings and a o-ring on the inside that just wont seem to get out of the way.
The quality complaints:
The tailcaps all feel like maybe the belong to a slightly bigger light (maybe this is the problem, the size was done just slightly too big for tailcap threads). Maybe its waterproof, maybe its not. This could end up being a big concern if its at least not water resistant in heavy rain for me, as I will use them all the time in the rain being in Seattle area.
I don’t like the way the clips fit or the wings, but hey, I don’t prefer clips anyways.
They are also all bored off center except for the 1A light…maybe there is something to the idea that 1As had better QC. This is a minor annoyance and may not have even been noticed if I hadn’t read it here first.
That darned O-ring. Some can be re-positioned. My problem light, oddly I was able to unscrew that light by hand without any of the difficulties people have had (only tried problem lights so far), moved it a bit, it seemed fine, screwed it back together and its smashed out into the lens again…hmmm, solutions?
And of course 1 DOA and one flaky driver/probable solder connection issue somewhere.
PS: absolutely no MALICIOUSNESS detected 
The positives:
Still a great light for $25 for the working ones!
The driver is just absolutely beautiful, thank you so much ToyKeeper for your work on it! I am going to look for each light to be able to downshift from now on and be disappointed, I can already tell.
Love the 5A, it is nice warmish and ROSY. I’m still wondering where that tint color came from that you posted Dale, neither of the tints that I have are very close to it, I’d love it as well.
How could I have forgotten the output? Awesome “OMFG” brightness to people who have only used non-souped up lights. Like Dale, I have become jaded after having triples in this size and this level of output feels “normal”. Amazement becomes “nice output”, just like the driver, I kind of expect this output level after experiencing it!!
The tint reports are interesting, there COULD be some different tints mixed in (5A1 through 5A4, same with 3D1 etc). I got at least one of each, and I’m finding ESPECIALLY when viewed side by side that the 1A= bluish, 3D= creamy yellow tint, 5A= rosy. I’m not sure if its perceptions, or some people’s 3D and 5A are getting mixed up, or different bins, but I can’t see how anyone can not see the significant rosy-ness in the 5A if you compare it to another more neutral light. If you want to see it, compare on max level against a white wall. However, your eyes adapt, plus the people who don’t detect it seem to not want to detect it, so maybe thats a good thing! Me, I love the tint on the 5A and the 3D is pretty nice too!
As long as BG makes good on refunding/replacing the errors, the DOA and the driver problem light, I’ll be happy, but these are BG issues and BG on handling Manker QC issues. Overall its a nice light. I am disappointed with the other minor issues since it shows some in production were lazy/inaccurate and/or tried to shortcut/substitute, but nothing is perfect and the driver, output and tint are awesome for $25. As long as its water-resistant in a good downpour. 
I’m loving the UI, so easy and simple now. The directions made it seem more complicated but doing it a few times without looking at it just made things flow easier when going thru the modes.
Also for one of my clips, I just used a channel lock and clipped down the little wings and they snap right off. A good clean break, just got to file down the edges n all
Don’t trust, verify! Its a Chinese budget light, the way you have to look at it is all Chinese budget lights are a crapshoot. Buy one, if it doesn’t work, go back to BG and ask for one that does. Then go to Paypal for a refund if it really has issues, and they don’t remedy it.
Otherwise, pay a premium price for a premium light and demand it not have little issues, and still have much less value for the money in the driver and output! Those are pretty much your options.
My lights arrived today. My 5A is working perfectly, but the 3D is having some kind of driver issue. for 7-mode group, mode 1 does not light up, mode 2 and 3 is the same brightness, and mode 4 to 7 is fine. In 4 mode group, mode 1 and 2 is the same brightness and mode 3 & 4 is fine.
OK, its getting darker, just checked my 5As against each other, one is very rosy, one is barely rosy at all and more yellow…looks like it is a random selection of 5A1 through 5A4 I’d guess!
*edit: I also just verified that either I’m a wimp today or I cannot heatsink this by hand continuously hitting turbo with a HE2 unless I want a burn 
A
To all that say that moon does not light up...
Please double check against your palm or even at night...it is extremely low and CAN actually appear not to work when it reality is.
Also..for modes that many think are the same...again double check with the amount of time used to half-press the switch.
If any mode above moon is coming on then I suspect moon is actually there. moon is tied to the 7135 and if it (the only one on the board) was dead then there would be nothing but turbo and I think high. (Have to ask TK which modes are tied to 7135 only). I believe that the bottom three modes are all and only 7135 so I think lose one lose all would apply.
I don’t see anyone blaming anyone here at BLF which is a compliment to this community. We have many extremely dedicated members here who worked really hard to make this happen. Any fault lies with the Manker. Either they will step up and help clean up the mess or they won’t and we know who they really are. Maybe we have to look at this one as a baby step. Nothing like this has been pulled off in a group buy like this before. If nothing else maybe this will open doors to even better things down the road. I must admit I’m now skeptical and concerned about the BLF SS/Cu/Al X6-SE v2 group buy. I’m committed there too and it’s also being done by Manker. I hope that enough concern is expressed to Manker that they step up their game on that one. I don’t want to drop $80 on a pair of badly machined lights no matter what metal they’re made of. At least two of these A6’s I ordered were supposed to be gifts but I’m not really comfortable gifting them now. Can we get some kind of feedback from Manker?
I was going to say something similar too, a few of the problems I’ve read so far sound like may be people not understanding UI, going into the special modes with too long of a press on first turning it on and thinking they have a problem, or mixing short and long presses. I did this the first time, wondering why the modes weren’t working right. But once you get the hang of it, I absolutely love the UI.
Can you guys make a link to the UI function in the first page easy to find? Its hard to find this info, and when I looked, I was reading about soldering to turn memory on still…its going to confuse many.
I decided not to bother with pictures, unless anybody wants a couple. No need to pile on to the complaints here, which are valid, and unfortunately, too common. The driver on my working light is fantastic, it is the brightest light I own. I’m sure the UI will be excellent when I learn to use it. Right now, tonight, I am going to keep it in stock 7 mode, and enjoy the brightness. As far as the 3D, I know Neal at BG is a member here, can anyone tell me his user name, so I can pm him? As said above, I don’t want to start with the customer service dance unless I have to. I think he will make this right, I hope we won’t have to go the Paypal route, and I just don’t feel right about listing a bunch of other flaws on a light that is dead anyway.
Nevermind, I found the user name. Pretty obvious I guess.
my moon mode has a quick flicker and doesn’t stay on. My next two modes are indeed same brightness and no difference in output. Also, no SOS mode, but the other modes work. The 5A does look real nice though, I pmed Neal and will go from there. I could still live without a moon mode or SOS, I have lights without that so this 5A could be a super special edition version :money_mouth_face:
Gonna compare my two 1A with 30Q and H2 tonight and hope my eyes can see a difference thru the modes levels. 1300 lumens stock is where the fun starts and maybe spring mode later
Just to double check, Neal’s user name is Banggood, right? For some reason the system is not letting me type that in as a user name for a PM. Weird.