NOTHING against you guys who ordered in the last few weeks and already got them or you will have them soon.
This is On banggood! I ordered on February 14th and mine should be here in a few days.There are dozens of people who ordered right around me and still have not gotten them!
It pisses me off a bit. :smiling_imp: We are waiting 2 plus months and several of you guys who ordered recently already have them!
Oh,yeah,I was #257 to order.
I like it.
I get to see beamshots and videos to keep me entertained while waiting for mine.
Besides it is inevitable, only one person out of 1000 will receive the light first.
I ordered on 20th february,and still dont recieve them.
It is not banggood or manufacturer fault…it my fault because i pay for groupbuy.
Im a saint,i can wait a year or whatever forever…i am gooood.
I do not get your logic.You are missing the point.
Really?You like when people who ordered 2 months after you and they get the light before you? Just for beam shots?! lol!
To each is own
Maybe it’s a dumb question but I will ask anyway…
Looking at Tom E picture of the thermal grease and the back of the MCPCB I really am thinking in opening mine up and give it a polish and maybe change the driver wires for thicker ones, I don’t feel like removing and re-flowing the led, I was thinking in covering the led with a small plastic cover while I lightly sand the back of the MCPCB and then just clean it with water or alcohol.
Will water or alcohol damage the led in any way?
I plan to use Artic Silver 5 for the MCPCB, my guess is that it will be better than what is stock, what do you think?
Would using thicker wires than stock give me any noticeable advantage or am I just wasting time there?
Thanks!
Going with a thicker wire will definitely increase the risk of the LED drawing too many amps. Are you okay with that risk?
On top of that, you probably would not even see an increase in output. So why do it at all?
Cleaning the LED with alcohol should be perfectly fine.
If you want to lap the MCPCB you might want to use some fine grit sandpaper on a piece of glass to ensure it is flat.
1200 grit should be plenty (though start with something like 400). That said, I’ll be going to 2000 just for the sake of it.
Thanks for the replies, I am not going to replace the wires since is very bright as is, I plan to start with 600-1000 grit sandpaper all the way to 5000 grit paper on a piece of glass (Mirror shine 
) and apply artic silver.
will use alcohol to clean afterwards, but will be careful not to cause too much dirt buildup during sanding.
100% Isopropyl alcohol is the correct way to clean the MCPCB. Its safe to use on most electronic and is commonly used to clean flux of PCBs it leaves no residue. You can also get away with using 70% Isopropyl alcohol but that has greater risk of shorting if its not fully dried when voltage is applied to the PCB not really an issues on a MCPCB. I use it to clean up after dedoming LEDs it works good i’ve never had it damage the dome of any LEDs either.
As for every one else what kind of BLF thread is this? I was expecting to see XPG2s or flat whites thrown in this light its been weeks?
You could measure output and output-drop after 30 seconds before/after the treatment, it will give others information if it is worth the effort.
I don’t see how there would be any correlation.
As Jason said, isop. alcohol on a micro fiber cloth (does not shed) should be fine. I've done it on literally 100's of LED's, basically every light I work on.
I confirmed the wires are 20 AWG labeled, and 200C rated which is good. It's just that they feel stiffer than typical Turnigy wire I use. The stock Mateminco driver is a 2 layer design where the LED wires are soldered on an inner side - tricky to replace without taking the boards apart. Also, if you don't have the pogo pin programming device to match the pins placements (does anyone?), you would have to take the boards apart to re-program the firmware.
So, for now, I'm leaving the stock wires in there, but replacing the driver spring with a big Blue (round 1) spring clipped down 1.5 turns from the bottom, and a 20 AWG bypass.
I'm gonna start with at least 400 GRIT, maybe lower - these grains are deep.
How does the “wood grain like” MCPCB affect output/performance/heat retention?
Yes. Bigger surface area contact, better thermal transfer. The "wood grain" pattern reduces contact area - wut all this means? I can't quantify that, but I can speculate it increases LED heat, output drop would be quicker based on heat, etc. Better grease helps as well.
The grease they used seemed to separate into white and clear parts - dunno what that means either.
There's tests that could be done of course, but I'm not gonna spend the time on it. You could do thermal imaging before/after as well. Again, if you have the right equipment, setup, and time, I'm sure it could be quantified.
How deep are those scratches? Can sanding them result in any issues with loose reflector or maybe messed up beam, due to changed distance?
Not likely. Reflector rests on the top of the MCPCB.
I can see some smudges on the reflector after i cleaned it with a paper towel to get the glass pieces off. Dunno if I was meant to use that or not but is there a possibility that I might have scratched it?
I think you scratched it. a paper towel is way too abrasive.
I use a “Microfiber” Cloth. I use it for my glasses, screen on phone and my flashlight lenses. It works well.
Hopefully they are small scratches/smudges and you most likely will not notice them when you use your light.
EDIT:iirc Your lens is broken right? The smudges Probably are not going to matter the way your lens is broken,unless you have a new one already which I doubt. Below is the picture you posted.
Potentially but my sanding to remove the "grain" reduced it maybe from 1.60 mm to 1.58 mm - shouldn't effect it. But in theory if taken off 0.1 or 0.2 mm, might have effected things if the reflector no longer tightly sat down on the isolator which sits directly on the MCPCB. I've sanded down copper MCPCB's from 1.60 to even 1.0 mm to match original clearances.
Ohhh - my 2nd FT03 arrived and definitely the glass is different - the 2nd has a definite purple AR treatment while the first was almost slight yellowish, off white. Throw I measured on the 2nd unit was 238 kcd on a GOLISI at 4.20V, amps measured at 9.3 amps -- all stock. Bezel and tube again not glued.
NW?