I have purchased several S2+’s direct from Simon, they all have been good performers. I modded them because I wanted to, not because I had to due to issues with the light. I have never seen a real Convoy come in looking that way.
Good luck.
I’ve never seen a light come that way from Convoy. That one was worked on by someone who didn’t know what they were doing, to put it bluntly. Possibly returned to GearBest and they sold it? Would bet good money it didn’t come from Simon that way.
How does an MCPB even get bent like that? It would have to have been bent like that from the start?
Is the MCPCB in your picture glued?
Yes i think it was but just the tiniest bit of thermal paste holding it.
From time to time I buy lights for friends hunters, from Simon and I noticed that quality is indeed going down, with old C8 that had removable pill I had to correct them because they had a dent in the middle from top (they were concave), now anodisation on gray models is not great, ther are some lines of unequal anodisation, very hard to take a photo of them. Some tail-assemblys screw in more than others.
I also have several S2+ with different head diameter! I know this because I made a copper spacers for triple XP-G3 setup, spacers were made at the same time in one preoces so they are all of same diameter but they fit nicely in some S2+ and do not fit at all in other samples of S2+ and I have to file them down additionaly…
I guess hyperproduction is taking its toll.
+1
Buyer discretion has kept me knowing the difference between cheap and budget. 
EDSG, do you have a pic of the driver? From memory that was the easiest way to id fakes. If you have a look through the red S2+ thread there are some comparison pics.
Yea its a real Nanjg i stuck extra 7135s on it lol. Or that style. but no soldering stars?
From memory the fake S2+ had a thinner spring, and the font might have been slightly different. There should be a few threads on fake Convoys, I have to get some sleep otherwise I would have a look.
Okay cool i will search now thanks for your help.
I have a least a half dozen Convoys in assorted models, and none have ever looked like that.
I’m betting somebody bought one, did some crude and amateurish ‘mods’ and then decided to return it - and it got inadvertently resold to the OP.
Every one of mine has been of a quality that exceeded the price by a wide margin. I’ve bought from FastTech and Intl-Outdoors as well as from Simon. All have been excellent.
There was a period that Simon admitted that their QC wasn’t great (due to an intern I think?) So there’s the small possibility that they are “genuine” but maybe they’re Gearbest’s leftovers from a bad batch that Simon stopped selling?
A search for “Gearbest fake S2+” will certainly give you what to look for.
As noted in the What Legos With What thread
Yeah, there was a little while there that QC slipped — but, definitely, there were badly put together lights coming from 3rd party sources — solder over retaining rings, solder instead of retaining rings for example, on lights sold as bargains by resellers.
My impression is that problem is in the past, though some lights will be coming from resellers. I hope so.
It’s a very precarious position to be in, a small business that becomes popular and tries to grow bigger.
I recently puchased 3 S2+’s
1 from Gearbest
1 from Simon
1 from Mountain Electronics
They all look identical, and high quality
I also bought a S2+ Nichia UV from Gearbest. It looks like a different driver with a tapered spring. Still very decent quality.
Think I have 6 Convoy’s now. All were bought as Hosts. No complaints on build quality.
Wish you had posted pics as it was received, not after you made changes.
I had two old pill style C8-s, three new C8 hosts, an old S2+ black, a red and a green S2+ , a grey S2+, L2 host, and an L6.
All af them was perfect except for the grey S2+ when I unscrewed the pill the thermal glue released the led star and the L6’s tailswitch is half soldered. Grey S2+ from gearbest. I bought it about 2 months ago when it was 10$ and the L6 is from banggood.
L6 switch:
At all I’m happy with Convoy products overall quality. I have seen worse a lot for same prices.
Some thermal paste’s will allow the star to lift with stiff wires, it’s not a defect as it was working before you disassembled it.
“Half soldered” is a deceptive statement. The solder is making the contact, the switch works, it isn’t going anywhere, therefore there is no problem there either.
No big deal. I soldered the switch in a second but when an L6 have spring bypass and 5A current I think it need to do better than it have a little contact. And as I said I like Convoy because I have many and I ordered a lot for my friends and none of them reported any issues. :+1:
I like to do a through-board bypass when a light has 5A or more, by routing a 22ga or 20ga Turnigy lead from the switch to the top of the spring it makes sure there’s plenty of current capability and relieves the spring of the heat that could collapse it. Normally not really a problem at 5A, but if the light is used for prolonged periods it could still heat up the spring. I pulled the forward clicky in favor of a reverse clicky in my L6’s and L2. Personal preference I know, but it just seemed a little safer to have to make a full click to power it up, and since I have no clue how to signal anything the momentary feature of the forward clicky was lost on me anyway…