The bad first.
The driver doesn’t seem to memorize nothing! If you re in Modes and do a power cycle (physically lock out or changing batteries) you re back to Ramping again. And if you want to change any setting (I tried many times to disable blinkys, to choose 6 mode from the mode set, and to set the thermal to timed spepdown) after the power cycle… back to default!!
The driver seems to reset to the default every time you do a power cycle. If you don’t do a power cycle everything works OK.
I always change these 3 settings in my narsilm flashlights, and i always physically lock out the lights every time, so for me this is a huge problem.
The second bad is that i think one of the leds looks like the dome has lifted from the phosphor or something like that, if i can described it correctly. I took some photos but i don’t know if you can see it. The led works OK, but if you see it directly with moonlight the damaged side looks more yellow. Maybe in the factory push hard the tir? I don’t know.
I will forward my comment to fireflie and see how it goes…
Now the good.
I have many lights with 219B sw45k R9080. This is from the best, more neutral, excellent tint and beam profile.
Mine is still en route to me but reading your post makes me worry already. How can they suggest their customers to resolder a defective LED by themselves? I'm pretty sure that most of their buyers are not skilled to do such a repair. How can they suggest you, living in England, to send the light to Vinh Ngyuen who lives in the US? In my humble opinion, this sounds rediculous. Will they gonna pay the significant shipping costs and the tariff fees for inbound/outbound customs. As far as I know, in Germany every single parcel from the US will be processed by customs and you always have to pay at least the 19% import turnover tax.
In my opinion, if they want to achieve and keep customer satisfaction they should quickly think it over again and send you a new light.
It’s a known issue, and happens randomly. Basically, if you keep trying, keep making it save settings, it should eventually remember. Make sure to save a few times before disconnecting power.
And if I understand correctly, it should be fixed in the next batch. Not that that helps you, but hopefully at least things will be better for others later.
Please don't take this as an offense. I know about the risks of buying things that are brand-new but when the groupbuy started, I was not aware that the driver had a "known issue" and that the light would behave weird in terms of saving settings. I am wondering if a flashlight that cannot save its settings would be subject to a warranty claim and exchanged by a revised version from the next batch. I have never seen a flashlight before that is unable to save its settings unless stated otherwise.
It just won't make any sense to send a $ 100,- light DDP to the US for at least another $ 60-70 plus US import taxes, have it repaired by someone - who's AFAIK not an officially involved or authorized repair partner by Fireflies - and let it sent back again for another $ 60-70 plus UK/Greece/whatever import taxes. It's absolutely unreasonable and ineffective to do that. Apart from that this would generate a lot of questions: What if the flashlight gets broken during transportation? What if the repair has not been carried out to full satisfaction? If things go south you have to deal not only with Fireflies but also with another party. Personally, I wouldn't take any chances.
Well I encountered the same problem on every ROT66 (2 Nichia, 1 XP-L). And this “memory lost” problem will disappear after more times of tests. You need to trigger a program to the EEPROM (which is far saving the settings) and unscrew the head for several minutes, for many times, until the setting can be loaded from the EEPROM successfully (if not, the settings will simply go back to default again).
The possible cause is, sometimes the EEPROM needs a certain amount of Program-and-Erase (P/E) cycles to get stable. At least all my ROT66s can memorize their settings now.
I also have a flashlight on my way. Version XPL NW. When I read how many of them are damaged, I see the LEDs destroyed because of the production defect on the lamp, I am very nervous. The flashlight was not cheap and when I pay more than $ 100, I expect the perfect product. And a great customer service that sends a new piece of work in case of a problem and does not ask the customer to send a flashlight to the USA. When I received a faulty Sofirn Flashlight, I was immediately sent a new one. I will definitely write whether the flashlight is fully functional and if it is not the solution offered by the manufacturer.
I also just experienced this on my ROT66 219B, changed to Modes group, then removed battery and when I reinserted battery, it’s back in Ramping. Although I prefer Ramping mode for now… so it’s not that much a problem.
I wonder what is causing that to happen?
(I also have the BLF Q8 with NarsilM, but I also haven’t tried changing to Modes and checked if it could have this issue (change to Modes and replace battery, will it be back in Ramping next time?)
Flaws have been seen with the first batches of many new lights in the past. Compensation is (here) the lower group buy price.
Luckily I’m going to mod my light anyway with a new driver and a couple of different LEDs.
Of course, I do not agree. When you buy a car that costs 20,000 euros instead of 25,000 euros at the standard price and damages the engine, are you also satisfied that you bought the product cheaper? No, you want the product with the same warranty. Because only the thing the seller has offered a lower price. It was not conditioned by lower quality or manufacturing defects.
The action price can not be conditioned by lower quality. In addition, the seller’s site was a full price, not a pre-order. Surely there were several customers who bought at full cost.
With all due respect, I must disagree. Flaws like dead LEDs can never be compensated by a lower group buy price. If this was our common understanding here, no one would ever take part into a groupbuy again. I'm aware that first batches might have minor imperfections or do not have nice features like the auxilliary LEDs the next batch of the ROT66 will come with, though.
It’s a well known risk buying the first batch of a new light. Read the forum archive.
If I were not able to repair flaws I wouldn’t buy it.
Your decision …
