Hmmm… I´m asking myself if they already have manufactured flawless new heads with proper optics that fit over the LEDs and not squeeze them… I thought they still are in the process of evaluating the problem… so if you get a new head it will probably have the same faulty setup?!?
EDIT: question: I already sent an email to cservice@banggood.com with the problem description as advised in the first post but did not get any reaction yet. Would it be helpful to additionally open a ticket in their ordering system or would that be more confusing?
Getting the offer from BG for a new head replacement. Only way I consider it is if the new heads are built different, or the problem will reappear. Can they guarantee that?
Kudos to Nick (vwpieces) and mattjk for sharing their findings with us. Your information is going to help them to narrow down the problem, thus speeding up their investigation process. Let me think of a way to reward you guys Redesign and test will take sometime. Try not to rush them.
Came home today and found the (Nichia version) S41S waiting for me. I shot an unboxing video for liability reasons, and the light worked fine, no instant issues, it even passed the 30 seconds on turbo test. Looking closer however, still one of the Nichia domes is damaged, in the picture, taken on moon setting, you can see some debris and an edge of blue coming out under the phosfor. So I don’t trust this light a bit in actual use. I do hope that Banggood does replace all heads with a proper one, not just the ones that are severly damaged.
Oh, and the clip was bent, it took some effort to bend it back without damaging it.
It is a quite stunning light though, I really hope that the issues are resolved. It will look even better I think with the copper tarnished, so one of the things to do is strip the copper head and give it the blowtorch treatment to remove the coating.
It seems that all the lights that are used in Turbo for sometime will suffer a some class of damage more or less, but really is a faulty design … all heads must be replaced….
I’m going to make a point of using mine heavily on turbo to see if this happens or not, already drained one battery, doesn’t take long with this lumens output lol. Was fun doing it, this thing packs a serious punch lighting up a dark path up the side of a field.
One LED shows a tiny hint of blue on one side, if it doesn’t grow I’m not worried, it has no noticeable impact in real use.
I’m worried about melting or more precise deforming of the optic, it must make some difference that it firmly touches the leds instead of just slightly or even not at all.
Since mcpcb is held down by screws, it is better to leave a slight gap between the LED and optics? What is your recommendation?
[quote=djozz]
I'm worried about melting or more precise deforming of the optic, it must make some difference that it firmly touches the leds instead of just slightly or even not at all.
[/quote]
Here are a couple pics of a Triple Carclo optic on top of a Noctigon MCPCB with 219C emitters.
I think I mentioned earlier the emitter holes in the S41S optic were 2.53mm. On the Carclo they use 3.3mm holes. There is enough room for the optic to have some movement. Domes certainly are not touching the optic inside the hole. Also you can see in pics that the optic sits above the base of the emitter.
From a production standpoint I would use No screws and a 4 Legged optic. Also use Thermal adhesive under MCPCB and assemble the head before it the adhesive cures. That way the MCPCB would settle together with optic and cure in that position. But they need to learn how to design an optic first.
An after thought is to still use the thermal paste, NO screws so the MCBPB can settle in with optic. Sure it may twist but having the driver still loose will allow for it to work. If they INSIST on Glueing it all together it will only ever get taken apart by a Few skilled hands.
For a non-defective S41S, how long are you supposed to be able to keep it in turbo mode (with a Samsung 30Q) without causing any damage? My S41S appears to be fine but I’d like to do a turbo test to make sure but I obviously don’t want to keep it in turbo for an unreasonable amount of time (beyond design parameters).
The used BLF-A6 driver does have a stepdown to a lower level in turbo, in my copy it is after 40 seconds. That will already help. Actually I think that if the light gets rid of the design flaws (optic a bit higher up so that it does not touch the leds, and assembled without the optic shearing off led domes), the light would be fine if kept with a 18350 battery and if the stepdown is not ignored. If an 18650 battery is used with the longer tube, or if the step-down is ignored (turn it manually back to turbo) that might be a different story.
Ok, I opened my S41S up. It took two strips of inner bicycle tubing, one tightly around the copper, several turns, the other dito around the bezel, light heated up on turbo until stepdown after 40 seconds, then it took all the force I had in my hands before it gave way. No damage this way, actually not a lot of visible stuff was visible in the threads
The inside of the lens was dirty, but easily cleaned with a tissue.
The optic is undamaged and is the exact same one as I bought spare from Banggood for the S41 (left the Banggood spare optic, right the S41S optic).
The optic had been squeezed into the silicone on the side of the domes and damaged it, but the domes seem intact, the die of the upper right led seems a bit damaged though, suggesting a slight shearing of the dome, shifting the phosfor a bit.
…which also shows when the light is set to moon, a tiny edge of the blue die shows.
I re-assembled the light and it still works ok. The plan still is new leds (219C 3500K R9050, or 219B V1 5700K R9050) but before that, as suggested above, grinding the ledboard a bit thinner to make room for the optic to clear the silicon of the leds.
But I sure hope that Banggood provides new heads so adaptations are not necessary.
edit: that tiny bit of damage in that one led does show as a blue curve in the beam:
Also messing with mine. I drilled the 2 holes in S41S MCPCB slightly larger to fit a Carclo Quad. I got all 4 legs to seat in nicely But S41S emitter pattern is not set wide enough to fit the holes in Carclo. On mine I will flow another set of XP-G3 on to a TPad Quad MCPCB and file a Carclo to fit.
Kinda thought of a Triple S31S :laughing:
with a fatter luminescent red O-Ring to fit the 20mm triple optic.
Would be easier than filing down another 24mm Carclo quad optic.
Thanks for the picture. But the pictures of diozz are realy helpfull too.
I think the head must be 1-2mm higher or deeper. The Optic can be held over the mcpcb by laying on the head. The legs of the optic will protect again rotating the optic if the spacing is set by the deeper space in the head.
Redesign and test will take sometime. Try not to rush them.
