New FandyFire STL-V2 Disappointment. An example of "Shoddyness" Can it Be Saved? It's alive ~ new driver & emitters (post #55)

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

I’ve read some very good things about the FandyFire STL-V2, so when it arrived today I was rather let down. The first thing I noticed was that the o-ring for the lense was half hanging out with the bezel screwed down on it. The o-ring is too small for the light.

Next I noticed that when I put batteries in it, it didn’t come on. I bridged the tail end, and got nothing. I figured the end of the tube wasn’t contacting the the driver for ground properly, so I shimmed it with a piece of solid copper wire.

Nothing!

I manually connected the batteries to the spring and pill and got light. Hmmm. Checking the body tube with a DMM, I noticed there was no continuity from end to end. The body is a two piece job, and very thick. I placed another copper wire where the pieces but together to get contact.

nothing!

Finally I sanded the anodized threads with emery cloth and got it working.

Well, let’s take a tailcap reading. With 2 x Panasonic NCR18650PD I’m reading 0.56A. Let’s see, with two cells that means I’m theoretically getting about 1A per emitter if it’s wired in series. If it’s parallel, I’m in big trouble.

I was expecting a lot more from this light. I still need to have a close look at the driver and connection points, but it wouldn’t be working at all if it was shorting somewhere.

The single emitter UltraFire F10 I got today blows it away.(A very nice light by the way). I guess I’ll probably be looking at drivers. Any suggestions?

2

Does it have the plastic reflector, and the cheaper driver too? I had my eye set on the FF version as well, but decided against it based on a few semi-recent reports of them using shoddy materials in newer shipments (same with ff stl-v6 vs SR stl-v2). :frowning:

I’m really hoping they don’t do the same to the ff UV-S5. :\

3

At first I thought the lens might be high quality plastic, but it’s glass. I know because I just dropped it. It didn’t break, but the sound of glass hitting the floor is distinctive. I think the reflector is aluminum, but I can’t be sure. I really couldn’t tap on it from the front, because of scratching. I’d have to take out the screw from the back first, which may require disconnecting the wires which seems to be happening all by itself. It just stopped working again. When I looked in the head, the LED wire seems to have come apart. I’ll have to take off that tape to see if the wires have been spliced. The end of the white wire looks cut off flush. I don’t see any sign of solder or splicing.
I better look into this right now. I’ll keep you informed.

Disconnected wire.

I don’t know what the driver is. Here’s a pic of the top end.

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Lol package tape to insulate wires? That looks nasty…

The optical driver appearance seems good.

5

I got it going again. That was a nasty bit of close in work.

After I cut off the packaging tape, I noticed another bare spot in the - emitter wire.

Underneath the packaging tape on the + wire it was wrapped in something that kind of looked like cigarette filter. I have no idea what it is.

I didn’t have much room to strip the emitter wire and resolder it back together. From my guess, I would say that the wires from the driver are 24AWG spliced onto 26AWG and the emitters are joined by 28AWG.
I managed to cobble it back together and wrapped the wires with some Klapton tape that happened to arrive in the mail today.

I’m still getting a reading of 0.56A at the tail, so probably less than 1A per emitter.
This light needs some serious work done to it if it’s ever going to be loved.

Oh yeah. The reflector is aluminum, not plastic.

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You recieved this light with that tape covering the damaged & joined wires ? from an online seller as new or used ?

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I got it from FastTech, but it’s the manufacturer that’s the guilty party. I really couldn’t expect FT to tear apart and inspect every light they sell. I am disappointed in the light though. I was expecting better from FandyFire.
Now I’m counting on my BLF brethren to help me make a man of this torch.

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Could also be an example of places that get lots of lights that are considered damaged or discontinued and they "repair" them or build them from spare parts and sell them off as factory new. Between that and cloning, it's hard to tell who has what any more. I was looking at a Trustfire the other day and I emailed them to ask about it. I gave them the link from DX and they told me flat out that it was a forgery and there's so many of them out there and they can't do anything about it.

Fasttech should go check their inventory and they should immediately send you another one. One that has been fully checked, including amp draw. Are you listening Fasttech?

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That looks really bad in this case, especially with packaging tape on the wires, low amps, and not working when you recied it.
They should send you a new one ( after its checked)

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That is discouraging to here. I just hope the Maxtoch version I ordered for a buddy is all that people have said it is.

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I also notice that the reflector does not seem to fit the XMLs properly. Usually the LED hole fits around the little LED mounting base (I don’t know what it’s proper name is), but this reflector sits right on top of the base. Because the LEDs are too low they are partially blocked and are not properly focused. The beam is kind of fuzzy, like you would expect from an orange peel reflector.

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My FF STL-V2 is nothing like that - quality, good brightness, etc. -- my first multi-emitter light, so had it for over 1 year. I got emitters and a driver to upgrade mine, but didn't get a chance to work on it yet.

Don't get these triples confused with the single emitter throwers - same model name.

13

This is how it arrived with the bezel o-ring squeezed out of the lens. I’ve tried to fix it, but the o-ring is too small for the head.

The battery tube had no continuity from end to end. I tried shimming it with solid copper wire, but finally had to sand the anodizing from the threads.


14

Okay, this light will never do as it is. The body is is solid and heavy, but everything else doesn’t add up to beans.
I guess I’ll have to start taking it apart to see what is what.
The first thing I did was disconnect the driver and hook it up to a single XM-L on a heat sink that I use for testing.

I hooked it all up with the DMM, turned it on, and before I could look at the reading, the emitter died. I tested the LED thoroughly, and it’s dead. It was only on for a split second. Is there something I should know about multiple emitter drivers?

Next, I pulled the triple emitters out of the head and hooked them up and got a reading of 0.51A. I can’t believe that puny little current could have blown my test XM-L. So this driver is putting out a measly 1.0A per emitter.

Well, let’s pull out the driver and have a look at it. I don’t recognize it. If anyone knows what it is, let me know.

Here’s the battery side of the contact board with a different type of filthy tape partially covering it. Yes, this is how it came.

Underneath the tape are some kind of contacts. I wonder if they’re like the stars on NANJG drivers that you bridge for different modes.

The lower board of this driver is 26mm. That’s a fair size for only 1A per LED. Anyway, it looks like I’ll be needing a new driver.

The next thing is the reflector. The emitter holes are too small in my opinion. Instead of surrounding the entire base, they rest right on top of the emitters plinth. I think this makes the LED too low in the reflector and blocks, or distorts some of its emissions. As it is the beam is weak and fuzzy.

I suppose XP-Gs would fit better, but what would be the point. Like most triple reflectors, the cups are fairly shallow and smallish in diameter, and wouldn’t give an XP-G any useful throw.
I guess I’ll have to see if I can drill them out so XM-Ls will sit higher and focus better.

What can I say. It would have been easier building a light from scratch. I definitely got a lemon.
I want a driver that will give me 3A per emitter with 2 x 18650. It’s 26mm, so that makes things easier. Maybe a new reflector? Let’s see if I mess this one up.

Edit: additional
These four black post type things connecting the two boards are connected to those four contact points on the contact board.

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Maybe you can unsolder the connection pins and look if you can find and modify a current sense resistor.
Maybe it’s underneath the black blob

I don’t understand the 1A thing I clearly can see the 0.51A reading and this is in series with the emitters…so the emitter current is 0.5A. What am I missing?

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I’m running two cells, so the current reading is doubled.

17

Where did you measure the current?
If you measure tailcapcurrent on single emitter light, than your workaround with two times measured current is equal led current is correct…
But if you measure in series with the led like on the picture, the measured current is the led current…

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0.56A at the tail, 0.51A at the emitter. Pretty well the same if you account for battery drain since I got the light.

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If it's a triple emitter driver, it's most probably designed for voltage boost only.

LEDs being, well, diodes, there's an exponential increase of current with voltage.
Hence, why your test LED burnt out in single emitter config.

In that picture, your current reading of 0.51A is the current through ALL the emitters.
You can't have 0.51A flowing through the DMM and 1.0A flowing through the LEDs, unless you were talking about a different config.

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I’m pretty new to this multi emitter stuff, but those are my readings, and I checked and quintuple checked. It makes no sense to me.

0.56A at the tail……0.51A at the emitters.