I can center the LED quite easily though, I just need to find something to use instead of the screws. If there’s no screws to throw it off center then the reflector centers it. Place a little downward pressure onto the bezel on the side you want it to move closer to. Simon used to use steel rods instead of screws on the osram chips and it would center perfectly. The only issue back then is that the bezel was placing no pressure against the mcpcb and it needed the screws. Now with the recent batches the bezel places a lot of pressure onto the mcpcb.
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If I get anymore sales than I’m getting I’d go bananas lol. I get more than I can handle and that’s why I’m struggling with the QC testing. Maybe I should send out a newsletter and get feedback on whether or not people care about the centering, but I’m still left with the out-of-focus issue which is the worst. To make a custom gasket I sand down a second gasket to 0.5mm and glue both together. This takes even longer than centering. We’re looking at a total of 30-40 minutes per L21B model when a custom gasket and centering is involved.
I might just have to buy a 3D printer to make my own gaskets as required.
Glad to hear your business is doing good, congrats on that. But yeah if it takes only around $100 for new gaskets for each model, Simon should definitely be ordering new ones to fix the issue. The 3D printer is a good temporary solution till Simon fixes the issue.
Just out of curiosity, would you say your customer base is more “flashlight enthusiast” buyers or “muggle” buyers?
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Do you know that everyone with a faulty convoy light goes on BLF to make a complaint.
Hunters make up 95% of sales so having a good looking spot beam is important. I have a Hunting Guide that shows the range on animals, so if the range gets messed up, due to poor focus, it becomes a huge problem for me.
The C8+ and L21B are my main sellers, so if I ditched Convoy I’d be unemployed on welfare lol. Not too far off from reality though when my reputation is affordable hunting lights.
I appreciate the responses btw
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No I dont. I am not going to explain statistics and percentages here. I am not defending anyone here, just trying to give a perspective from the other side. As a consumer, I did not have this perspective till I got involved with manufacturing myself.
Sometimes we have to knowingly sell products with minor flaws that might affect a small number of our customers, but fixing those issues would lead to manufacturing delays and increased prices, which would affect our whole customer base. And we deal with the affected customers by providing excellent customer support. This is a better business decision in most cases.
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I hope Simon fixes the gasket issue soon. And thanks for the testing and reporting the issues. I checked my own convoys, only after after seeing the reports.
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I think rather than it being a you issue it might be a resellers’ issue. I’ve had one faulty Convoy, I messaged Simon and he asked me if I would be able to replace the driver, when I told him that I couldn’t solder he sent me a new light. This made me happy.
Had I bought a hundred of them and had to fix a bunch of them to avoid being complained at by my customers I would be less happy, especially if I had to do the fixes myself.
I don’t know what the solution is, I’d happily accept a small price increase to Convoy lights if it guaranteed higher QC standards, but from my point of view of buying the odd light here and there for personal use and knowing that Simon will take care of it if there’s a problem, I’m not unhappy with things as they are. Limiting the number of options may be advantageous to give Simon a smaller inventory to have to manage, do we really need an S3, S6 and S8 in addition to the S2+?
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Is Convoy spread too thin with all the options available?
I received a flashlight with the wrong emitter and wrong driver.
A fellow flashlight enthusiast ordered a Convoy H4 SST40 with an Anduril driver and had it posted directly to me. They asked me to swap in an XHP50.3 3V emitter and update the driver to Anduril 2.
The box arrived. It had a Convoy H4 SST40 label on it with “Anduril”. I ran some runtime tests for a before and after comparison.
When I disassembled the headlamp, I realised that it had an XHP50.2 emitter and the driver didn’t have Anduril 1.
Simon later sent the correct driver.
It sounds like I’m just piling on. But some customers might not check which LED was actually installed and whether the driver is as expected. It’ll be pretty obvious if Anduril isn’t installed unless you’ve never used it and assume that the UI guide in the online product description is for Anduril (it’s not).
Are these just once off issues? If so, it’s a storm in a teacup.
But design flaws where gaskets are too thin or a driver is 6.5A instead of 5A need to be resolved. While it’s not a safety issue and the lights still work, the performance isn’t as good as it could and the emitter might deteriorate sooner. I think these two issues can be resolved by using gaskets with the right thickness and the right sense resistors. These seem like easy things to fix but they’re not being fixed a year later… it keeps happening.
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Yes! S8 has a deeper reflector, cooling fins for better thermals and cuts on the back like s2+, so pressing the button is easier. I’m waiting my first one!
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The M21B and C8+ i tested a few months back had the premature stepdown issue. These jave the 6v 5A driver (17mm and 20mm for m21b). The M21H i tested (provided by Banggood, not Convoy directly) did not have the issue. Same driver 20mm 6v 5A. My guess is Banggood gets the newest stocks so they get the newer unaffected drivers. Its hard to say who gets a faulty one and who doesnt. Issue is unless you’re testing these for runtime, you’ll never know whether it’s the bad batch or not!
I like the analogy…storm in a teacup. This is a tough nut to crack because unless you test the flashlight performance with a luxmeter, clamp meter, you won’t know about the less or not obvious issues. It’s easy to see if you get the wrong LED, or your beam is cruddy, or you get the wrong driver/UI, but less easy for other things like output. Simon’s lights still blow everyone away even Wurkkos, when it comes to features and performance for the $$$. Plus, his customer service is pretty special (read: rare) in this industry. Those other quality snafus remind me of the early 2019-2020 Fireflies and early Astrolux and Sofirn lights, where you might get some QC issues missed. Now, they’re greatly reduced.
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Control the controller ! :laughing:
There is a good reason why manufacturers such as Olight do not do custom Configs/Tints/etc.
Way too many expectations and possibilities to for “stuff” to go wrong.
Good profit is made with casual users, not particular users.
And to do it at a Budget price is just asking for trouble.
Can’t have good Champagne on a Beer Budget.
Don’t know if that custom hot rod guy is still around or not (Vinh) , but he had the right idea for building things at high tolerance, Charge a high amount worth your time plus profit.
Time = Money
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Well, custom hot rod guy Vinh Quang Nguyen isn’t very active anymore on BLF. Or on the other site, for that matter.
But he has his own site now, loaded with goodies: https://skylumen.com Check it out!
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I take your point, but I have an S6 and an S2+. I’ve not noticed that button access was easier on one or the other. Both my S2+ and S6 have the SFT40, the S6 has the same reflector as the S8 and the difference in throw between my two is minimal. As for thermals, they only get noticeably hot when run at 100%, which is visually not much different from 50% where they stay cool. I’ve not tried the S8 but I can’t think that the fins will make a meaningful difference.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, your S8 will be a great light and you’ll love it, but if it didn’t exist I bet you’d be as happy with an S2+.
Hopefully my M21A’s arriving today! …and I’ve just remembered that I meant to add a couple of the screw-on clips to my order and completely forgot. Oops!
The M21B is a rear clicky and the M21H as an e-switch making them different though. Was there never an e-switch 6V 5A driver existing before mid 2023? If not, then that’s good news, but not all boost and buck drivers were affected, only the drivers that needed another batch produced. Have you heard of any reports of the e-switch boost drivers that were fine before mid 2023, if they existed? I know the M21E 22mm 8A Buck e-switch model never had a new batch and weren’t affected, I purchased stock and were same as my review unit.
Yeah, those driver issues were a real annoyance, there’s a whole thread somewhere on here all about it. The 5A Linear driver was outputting 4.8A which was suitable for the Osram CSLNM1, then a later batch had a group reset bug and the driver received its fix, one that changed the sense resistor. Instead of 4.8A, it’s now pushing 5.7A making it too high for anyone buying that driver to pair with an LED where they only want 5A.
We told Simon over and over to fix this and yet here we are 2 years later with no change. I reported to Simon that my S2+ kw cslnm1.tg stock were turning blue and being damaged. His response “in fact the LED can even handle 6A”. That was his awesome answer when I had multiple units failing and yet he ignored the issue. I had to purchase 3A 8*7135 drivers and install them into the remaining stock. Heaps of people were reporting that the L21B CSLNM1’s were showing up with 6A drivers, even though the description stated they have a 5A driver. The 5A driver used a 17mm to 22mm adapter, but easier to install the 22mm 6A.
I’m not sure what the 22mm 6A measures, might have been closer to 6.5A since that was also affected by the group reset bug.
Now we have the Getian GT Green and Red being badly overdriven and that’s also being ignored. The blue would surely be as well, I just don’t own one. Simon said they won’t burn out until 9.5A, so I guess it’s all good, right? A bit like djozz’s test of the SFT40 that drops to a low output past 11A and yet doesn’t burn out until something much higher.
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I think everyone should read the detailed complaint list again. These issues mentioned should not be acceptable for any company. Missing screws? Off center LED? Poor soldering? The soldering in many cases looks like a two year old did it.
How can anyone try to justify this.
I would gladly pay double for any Convoy light if all these problems mentioned can be eliminated.
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Perhaps the point has now come where an answer from Simon is entirely appropriate. Just constantly sending new lights or new drivers/LEDs and not changing anything cannot be the long-term solution.
The fact that he misjudges the maximum performance of LEDs in real-life applications (apparently not for the first time) is also an issue that urgently needs to be addressed. LEDs are not performing the same way in flashlights as it is seen in djozz or my tests! These are done under lab conditions, for flashlights the maximum performance could be much lower!
Unfortunately, I often have the impression that some people are defending Simon’s business and talking away the problems. But they are there, and at some point it’s time to discuss the topic openly and constructively - except that we here in the BLF have hardly any opportunity to actively change anything about it, apart from giving tips.
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