COMETA Solutions//Warnings, safety, problem"fixes", pre/post mod measurements, & more. UPDATED

LED Flashlights – General Info
161

To confirm the specification of the EU warehouse lights, to see if they had changed anything compared to the China warehouse lights I asked on the Banggood forum

“Post on June 03,2016 04:17#1
Are there any differences between this light & the earlier China warehouse lights, other than the addition of an insulating disc to the underside of the pill please ? ”

The reply from “Zoe”
“Post on June 03,2016 20:47#2
Dear,
The upgraded one not very more different place. It different place is adding a insulating ring and the solder joints changing to small.(Avoid the short out problem)
Best Regards,
Zoe”

So they have added the pill insulating washer & reckon the led wires solder blobs are now smaller to avoid shorting on the anodised led retaining disc.
I have received one of these spec Cometa”s & my solder blobs still shorted on the anodised retaining disc :person_facepalming:

162

We have 2 members who used o-rings: one got 53 mm in lenght (cut) and 2 mm thick, and he suggest to take longer ones because they have to be stretched quite a bit; another member used this o-rings that are used for the sink:

And they are square shaped 2 mm thick and around 20 mm in diameter.

Put them every 2 notches (not every 1 or it will be too stiff), and don’t use lubricant (it will attract dirt).

163

You BLF members are the most damaged from this situation (since you bought more lights), and we won’t let you down. We’re here to offer all the help we can provide.

Is there an estimation of how many BLF members bought a cometa, or how many cometa were sold here on BLF?

164

Sharpie, this may point in the direction of knowing how many were made, not how many were sold.

165

Sort of goes along with my last rant if you happened to catch it prior to my delete, regarding a lot of things said during this issue that flat out were not true, sure did learn a lesson with this one though.
I do have a question,
I am wondering for all who have settled with BG and kept their lights, would there be any interest in a new custom pill for this light?

166

With what specs?

167

Well T41, that is what would have to be worked out if enough people had an interest,
One thing that I have found to be completely off with this Cometa pill is the overall length is off by about 1.5mm or 2mm,
When you look at the dome look at the gap that doesn’t thread down to the body, about 1.5mm exposed.
And the driver pocket is also about 1.5mm to deep so overall 1.5 to 2mm to long.
If you put a 16mm x 1.5mm O ring down on the shelf in the current pills driver pocket it will bring the current retainer and driver up flush with the bottom of the pill and it gives you about two extra spring loops so now it won’t crush down and short because there wasn’t enough exposed spring to begin with, something the person reviewing the sample should have seen immediately.
I would guess if there was enough interest in a new pill, the MCPCB would probably stay at 20mm so some who would want to change the emitter to Noctigon XM20 can but then a real driver pocket would be made in a new pill if everyone stayed with the current driver,
I am just wondering really if there was any interest and then if so, start getting opinions I suppose and then see if there’s enough interest to get the machinists interest, price is another thing also…
If I had a mill I’d just rework this one by boring the pocket out large enough to accept a ready made pill from a Convoy or other, there’s so much open space in this pill that really sky’s the limit when I look at it… then peel off enough of the bottom side so the dome screws down flush to the centering ring and body, but I don’t have a mill, have been looking hard at the sanding belt though… ha ha

168

On our forum we had 308 reserved cometa, almost all for the Eu warehouse if I’m not wrong.

169

So what is it that you are hoping to do once you have found out how many Cometas we have bought on BLF ?

170

Budda, can you clarify please, why you need this statistic?
Seems slightly unhealthy curiosity.

I’am one of those who spent money for fake Cometa. Not a big problem, of course, but I’ve worked for that money.
For this reason, I am sensitive when one of those (not you) who had to evaluate and give the green light of the project not finished his work precisely. It doesn’t matter whether it related to USD 40 or 0.4, I would expect your activity to be primarily for correcting of the harms already done.
I am strive to be positive. Myself make gaps every day.

171

G'Day Budda,

If you refer to Cyberescudo's original thread's OP:

WARNING: Cometa – read/fix BEFORE inserting battery

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/37235

You will see that there were 305 Cometas spoken for by BLF members (a few of these opted for EU delivery, but AFAIK most were from China warehouse).

Best Regards,

George

172

@Bonham I’m here dealing with a problem. I’d like to know the magnitude of it.
If I know that 234 lights have been sold, and I know that there aree 234 members who say thay got their money back, I’m happy.
I did not evalueted the project. I saw the Cyberescudo posts and his opinion. That light was good, so I listed for 1 cometa.
We’re here dealing with this problem because the sample sent for the evaluetion to Cyberescudo is different from the one actually sold by BG.
I’m here dealing with BG “errors” (something made on purpose is not an error) because I know you worked for your money and what happened it’s unfair.
Unfair to all, including people who worked on the project like Cyberescudo.

I’d like to see a thread with all the members who bought write the status of their paypal/whatever they used to get their money back.
I’d like to know that all the members got refounded and then the only thing we will have to live with will be a horrible light with our forum name on it that we didn’t approved.

173

You can start that thread yourself.
Cometa Register and Refund Log- post your status
That’s a good name for it in English.
I would start it for you but too many would ignore it with my name on it.

174

Trevor I do read and understand your messages.
Thanks for the suggestions.
We are still trying to figure things out with banggood, hopefully for good.

175

In my world this is called fraud.

I am disappointed that valuable members behave like politicians and not call things by their real names!
With such obvious fraud and the apparent unwillingness of BG to compensate cheated customers I join the OL proposal for a boycott or other appropriate sanctions for Banggood.
Reading about the attitude to this and other similar cases here, I am pessimistic about any progress at all of the Cometa saga.

176

hmmm did anybody see this J Team action yet?

Hmm refund for the Cometa, and a real Jax Z1 host for the zoomie it was supposed to be sounds pretty logical!
Banggood send me a pill so this is not my route, I wrote I accept the new pill so bound by that.

177

Hey, do you want to surender now?
Boycott is not the solution I personally want.
I want money back for people who bought something different from the advertised product.
Once members have been refounded, they can decide to move their purchases elsewhere, or not.
I trust the members decisions.

If we don’t get this, then we will do ANYTHING we can.

178

True a boycot is not the solution, BG will work harder to fix things knowing sales will follow :wink:

179

Can you tell us what these differences were?

180

To answer Budda’s question. I own one, and I haven’t asked for or received a refund. It is honestly not worth the time and aggravation.

If BG was honorable, they would refund the money and pay for return shipping without having all of us jump through hoops. Neal, for all the good it it does to have a BG representative among us- is never around when there is an issue; though he was quick to respond when a manufacturer showed up to call BG out, wasn’t he?

No one- and I’m mostly referring to our EU friends- should buy this light regardless of what anyone says has been fixed. Once bitten, twice shy. We’ve all been warned at this point. This light is not, and will never be, right and proper. The light is a huge POS and so is BG’s customer service. All anybody who buys one now is doing is throwing good money after bad.

These group buys treat the membership like the initial investors in a Ponzi scheme where we fund the initial production costs and then through word of mouth (forum posts, YT vids, and IG photos) we dupe non-hobbiests into buying tens of thousands more lights.

Which would be all well and good if someone, anyone one, could just produce a light according to spec and provide us what we bargained for in the first place. These group buys should be a symbiotic relationship where we all benefit. Instead, I am reminded of the scorpion and the turtle fable.

So, perhaps all this talk about a boycott should focus a little closer to home. Maybe we should stop these things where they are born by not participating in the group buys in the first place. That, of course, is an individual choice, but I suspect, that as these deals come and go with various degrees of associated problems, people will eventually tire of being taken for a ride and simply avoid them in the first place.

Which is too bad, because, in theory, every one of these group buy lights should have really been something special.