This is my first post here on the forum I hope this is the right place for this question. I recently purchased a Convoy C8+ with the sst40 and the LED popped off the board. I may try my hand at reflowing it, but if that doesn’t work has anyone ever used different heads from other companies for the the C8 body? like the Atibal ai-II? Atibal Illumination Ai-2 LED Light Head
I have asked a couple of other companies if their standalone heads would fit the convoy body but they had never heard of Convoy. I’m hesitant to spend a lot on an aftermarket head if it doesn’t fit. I searched on here and a couple of other flashlight sites and noone seems to have tested swapping heads like surefire, CloudDefensive, Atibal etc., onto the C8 body which is odd since the size is dang near perfect for pocket carry now if they don’t fit obviously I would understand, but is there anyone on here by chance that has tested this? Also if someone has pics of “franken-lights” like this pics would be appreciated. Thanks for reading the ramble.
I would contact Simon at convoy. You can PM him here or maybe better on his AliExpress store page. He is very good with supporting his products,
If you can reflow it, fine. But it sounds like there was some other problem that caused it to fail. Simon would probably be willing to send you a board with LED to fix it.
Worst case look for an MCPCB with an LED of your choice pre mounted. Then you just have to unsolder and re-solder 2 wires. If you keep the same LED, the gasket, reflector and everything else should work perfectly. You can probably find the exact replacement on the Convoy AE store…
I am not aware of a different head that would fit the Convoy C8.
A C8+ has essentially three parts. The head, where all the action is. The tail, which holds the switch. And the body, which essentially connects head and tail and acts as a container for the battery. You write you “lost” the led, which is one of the essential parts lodged in the head. When you mention reflowing, you have to take apart the head. Unsolder the MCPCB, desolder the led, reflow a new led, and resolder the leads from the driver to the MCPCB.
Why not order a new MCPCB with an SST-40 and swap it with the faulty old one? You can buy one HERE. for a fraction of the price for an outrageous expensive (unknown to me) separate head. Like Mandrake50 already wrote, it is just a matter of desolder the old MCPCB and resolder a new (better) MCPCB.
I didn’t lose it per se’ I was unscrewing the front cap that holds the glass on and the reflector cone scraped it off the board. I like the light itself it pretty nice and crazy bright but the head to way too wide for comfortable pocket carry. Thats why I was asking about the other heads to see if they would fit since I know that have a smaller foot print but I may just endup going down the rabbit hole of the c2 and some of the other smaller lights that I have found from Convoy.
I get it now. But the C8 head and reflector are responsible for it being a nice, “relatively” compact thrower. Even if you found a smaller head that would fit, it would defeat the whole purpose of the light.
So yeah, looking for an overall smaller light would probably be better. If you can give up throw for a nice close/medium range light, the S21D or S21F (variable tint) are ones to consider. Of course they are 21700 lights, so they are a bit bigger than the 18650 lights, but the head size is considerably smaller than the C8. But I find that the S21d/f is OK for pocket carry in jeans. Then there is the S21B which I also like (same head diameter as the body).
I am willing to put up with slightly bigger lights that use the 21700 cells for its much better performance.
The chances of a random head threading onto another random flashlight are rather low, I would say. Flashlights don’t typically use “standard” thread sizes, the pitch diameter is often arbitrary. The “thread form” varies as well. Many lights use square threads, others trapezoidal / ACME, and others use the more typical triangular form.
Just echoing what everyone else said. I had a problem with an LED in a convoy this week. So I just sent him a picture and told him how it happened and he was like ‘would a new LED be good’ and I’m like ‘ye’ and hes like ‘k I’ll send tracking #’ and that was it. Im assuming he’s just sending a bare LED, but im sure that if I said naw I can’t reflow it myself he wouldve sent it on an MCPCB.
Except my case was an actual defect not something I broke. But it feels like I could’ve avoided it because I saw it didn’t look right and I shouldve opened it up and checked it over first, but I just used it anyways and it broke. So I guess I did technically break it. But it was gonna break. So I probably couldve got a refund thru AliExpress, or a partial one… although maybe not, you never know. Was easier to just see what solutions simon pitched. All I need is a new LED the rest of the flashlight is good. So that’s what he’s sending. Perfect.
