Cheers RMM.
What about battery length? intl-outdoor.com says 67mm, but most batteries recommended on mtnelectronics meteor page are 66mm or less. Will 66mm work fine in this light?
If they are recommended then they work.
Will protected Panasonics work in these ?
No. No protected batteries are supported, and in the new shorter tubes they will not fit and the batteries will most likely be crushed. Unprotected button top with a 10A or greater continuous drain rating are the only supported cells.
How well though?
Some people have complained about having to extend springs every now and then to still make good contact, as well as complaints about light shutting itself off when tapped on the desk.
If someone has experimented with different cells it would be interesting to hear if there is some correlation between above and length of the cell.
That’s not because of the cell length. It’s because the springs can change shape when they have a lot of power flowing through them for a long time. The higher the current and the longer the time, the hotter they’ll get. Get them hot enough and they won’t “spring back” afterward. It’s a common issue for extra-high-power lights, and one of the main reasons to do spring bypasses.
I haven’t had any issues with this on mine though. Perhaps because I mostly use the lower levels (with only brief bursts on turbo).
What in your personal opinion, are the top three choices and why ?
Are these protected by a MAP ?
What Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal are you able to offer on this ? (Buy the torch and get 2 sets of batteries free for example as a suggestion that would interest me and also get around MAP if there is an issue with that).
While that may all be true, the length of the battery could partially affect that as well. Didn’t they shorten the tube in newer versions for that reason?
Anyways, if anyone has experience with 65 or 66mm length cells with this light please share how they worked.
I'm not sure how the IOS button-top cells are so long, since they look the same as the ones I carry. Unless they add an extra cap on the bottom I don't see how they could be significantly longer, since the buttons look very similar. Anyhow, I haven't had any issues with them in the old or new models.
I didn't even know about the disconnect "issue" until I read about it online, and I had been using the light for quite some time before I heard about it. The newer ones are slightly shorter, so they have slightly more spring tension with shorter cells. Either way, unless you are constantly sitting the light on the tailcap on a hard surface you will likely never have the batteries disconnect. I can shake the light very hard and use the light normally without having any issues.
On one light where the customer was particularly worried about a disconnect happening I cut some qlite springs in half, reflowed the factory springs off, then soldered the qlite springs inside of the factory springs. Unless you look close you couldn't even tell anything was done to the light, but it is virtually impossible to get it to disconnect now.
That said, most people will never have a serious issue with this. There are a lot of lights out there that will disconnect if you hit them the same way with any significant force (almost all lights that do not have two compressed springs and have an 18650 or larger battery).
If you want the maximum turbo output possible throughout the discharge, then you want one of the high-drain batteries (HG2, 30Q, HE4, 25R). If you want slightly more capacity, then the 10A batteries will give you that (MJ1, NCR18650GA). Between those two classes there are some slight differences, but nothing earth shattering. The best turbo performers I think are the HG2 and 30Q, but for the money some of the others may be a better fit depending on your budget and intended use.
There is no issue with MAP, but I have set my price to be competitive and to what I feel is currently a fair price.
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They are identical batteries. I bought a set from you and a set from IOS. They are the same in every way including their length of right at 67mm, maybe a hair shorter.
After owning the light now for several months and using it practically every day (as a night light on low-low), I have to say, that I'll have to get rid of the default springs and replace them with other ones that I have here. The beryllium-copper springs (I knew what I was getting into when I first bought it, but still...) stay in its compressed state even with the use of a "small dab of solder" on top of my cells.
As a result of this compressed state and the uneveness of the solder in the cells, some of the cells do not make contact with the positive end and the light is sometimes powered up with only 3 cells instead of 4.
I'll scrounge around to find replacement springs, but if I can't, can any one recommend me some springs I can use with this light?
What I really need is someone to offer a service where I mail them my current tail cap board and they mail me a tail cap board with the correct Springs, bypassed with the copper braid, etc, and I PayPal them money to do so.
Because shaking the light sucks, and I am unable to solder now that I’ve moved. (I am able to pay, however)
Does anybody have pictures of a complete disassembly for the Noctigon Meteor M43? I can’t seem to figure out how to get the drive side apart…
wdkingery, how is that tailcap mod. holding up?
I have tried a few different solutions, and so far I think that the best is to “double spring” the tailcap by adding a fully collapsable steel spring inside of the beryllium spring. The beryllium spring still conducts most of the current, while the steel spring does most of the heavy lifting.
There are screws that hold in the driver, but they are covered by the outer PCB covering. The PCB covering is glued in place and on some lights can be difficult to remove, especially without applying some heat to soften the glue.
Thank you. I’m not planning on doing any modification, I’m very pleased with it just the way it is. I just like to know for future reference. Thanks for everything.
That’s interesting, have a couple of questions: Which spring are you using exactly? I assume it’s available for sale at your shop, right? Does it needs to be soldered or just put inside the original spring? Thanks
It has been over 3 months since Richard added (4) reinforcement springs to the board in the tailcap of the Meteor M43 I ordered from Mountain Electronics. To this point, I can state if functions at least as well as another Meteor I ordered from him with stock springs and a different tint. It started seeing real world duty only after I returned to Brazil a couple of months ago, and I wanted to provide an amateur’s analysis of what Hank Wang refers to at his Outdoor Store site as: ‘Real Tools for Real Life’, appropriate where I live along the lower Amazon River Basin. To be fair to the original design, neither unit has disconnected inadvertently, just as Richard imagined. He offered to try the spring mod on my first unit when I mentioned if I had to pass along one of the Meteors, I would worry more about the light shutting off from rough handling, than battery related output or discharge issues. The thought of having a flashlight shut off as it fell in the dark because of rough handling, relying only on the faint glow of the electronic switch to be visible, while eyes needed to adjust from intense light to total darkness, was more than a minor concern.
After trying out the most popular major brands of mainstream LED flashlights, and consequently deciding on ZLs as my EDC and ‘go to’ brand of light, I began searching for something that went beyond the lumen ceiling in their current production models. The ZL S6330 no longer being easy to find, and the lumen output modest in comparison with other ‘modern day’ light canons, the search for a superbly crafted, compact blaster with a similar UI led me to the Meteor, and consequently to RMM/Mountain Electronics.
As with the new ZLs, three issues predominate: battery choice, tint, and springs. The 18650 battery market is dynamic, and they are easily replaceable, but tint and springs are beyond my humble talents, and limited patience. I will never be a soldering artist, or circuit guru like Richard. In awe at the perfection and attention to detail that identifies his efforts, I realize I should have taken “Welding Shop” in High School.
Spring/battery interaction, along with their characteristics, are the subject of my observations, empirical in nature due to my lack of reliable measuring equipment, combined with a merely modest understanding of such things as forward voltage, along with voltage sag. A test of practical day to day, ‘real world’ use is most important to me, where batteries will be draining periodically through several days, with typical discharge and cooling periods.
Impressions and Conclusions first:
The high-drain LG HG2 (brownies) I bought may not have come from the same cookie cutter, meaning that some level of priming/formatting was likely needed to stabilize their behavior. The capacity and discharge irregularities gave initial concerns regarding characteristics of the light itself. The LG-HG2s seem to conduct themselves better now, but I would like to have had some Samsung 30Qs and Panasonic/Sanyo GAs for comparison during my testing, although the relative advantages of the higher turbo output from the brownies would be difficult to measure without equipment.
After receiving the first Meteor, with reinforced springs, I related the Meteor’s initial behavior, and suspicions about the brownies. Richard cited the need to make sure the battery tube was firmly tightened, and voiced some level of concern regarding the spring mod. I ordered the 2nd Meteor, with a different tint, four more LG HG2s, and another Xtar VP4, figuring I would compare different sets of batteries, along with single and double spring tubes. For the record, both Meteors were purchased last November (2015), being shortened versions, intended to keep the batteries from losing spring contact. Richard offered to send a stock tube as replacement for the unit with the springs he modified, in the event I suspected, or determined his ‘field test mod’ to be a factor in the anomalies. However, to that point in time, I had never completely discharged the cells, only topped them off. I suspected at least one of them could be less efficient, defective, or needed to be conditioned/formatted. This need is sometimes debated, leading me to perform the following ‘amateur’ test.
First I drained all batteries side-by-side in the two lights until they shut down, then fully charged them simultaneously side-by-side in a pair of VP4 chargers. All eight batteries started charging from approximately the same (depleted) discharge voltage level after the Meteors shutdown, but battery #1 rose to 4.20 before any of the others, suggesting reduced mah capacity.
The following day, after the batteries had cooled and rested, I ran them in turbo, side-by-side for less than 5 minutes. I noticed afterwards how much faster some batteries in one unit had lost voltage. The second unit, with different batteries, demonstrated similar behavior to a lesser degree.
RESULTS: Charging to 4.20 from shutdown voltage – then discharging on turbo for less than 5 min.
Battery#
1 double springs - 4.13 volts after 5 min on turbo - first in the tube to finish charging from shutdown
2 double springs - 4.11
3 double springs - 4.14
4 double springs - 4.20 volts after 5 min. on turbo - last in the tube to finish recharging from shutdown
5 original springs - 4.20 volts after 5 min. on turbo - last in the tube to finish charging from shutdown
6 original springs - 4.11
7 original springs - 4.16 volts after 5 min. on turbo - second last to finish charging from shutdown
8 original springs - 4.14
DETAILS: The discharge period of no more than 5 minutes was performed the next day. The first four batteries (1-4) were received with the Meteor featuring modified (double) springs. The voltages after the charger reached stability and began recharging measured 4.11 to 4.20 (one of the batteries in fact started at 4.09, but soon reached 4.11). The batteries charging to 4.2 more quickly, lost more voltage on discharge. Batteries taking the longest to recharge in the VP4, lost the least voltage on discharge.
Unfortunately, I have no truly accurate method of testing absolute mah capacity.
CONCLUSIONS:
Since the test indicates the last two batteries to reach 4.2 during the charging, maintained the same 4.2 volt reading when checked in the VP4 after nearly 5 minutes, starting on turbo, and were each in different tubes, spring modification would seem blameless for the initial anomalies.
It would seem batteries #4 and #5, from tubes with different springs, could handle deeper cycles at that point. It seems batteries #1 and #2, discharging in different tubes, with different spring configurations reached 4.2 volts faster while charging, then suffered more voltage drop upon discharging, indicating the possible need for conditioning/priming/formatting.
FOLLOW UP TEST TO DETERMINE REAL WORLD RUN TIME: My next intention was to come as close as possible to duplicating discharge cycles while reflecting my typical usage; full power during 5 to 10 minute periods, at the same time comparing both the original, and double spring configurations. After the ‘existing’ initial five minute from full charge test, and over a period of several days, I tried to mimic real life use, while grouping the higher mah cells into an ‘A’ bin, and the weaker batteries into a ‘B’ bin. A consecutive series of tests were carried out to see how long it would take for the batteries to drain until shutting down, and how their voltages would compare.
- Both lights were discharged repeatedly (six times) starting from turbo/high. Each period lasted for five minutes. The batteries were then removed and allowed to cool. This was performed over the period of two days. Total discharge time totaled 30 minutes.
- Switching heads with the same batteries in the same tubes, 3 x 10 minute discharges were performed, once again letting the batteries rest and cool, outside of the tubes. Additional discharge time totaled 30 minutes, reaching a total of one hour. Removed each time for the cool off period, the cells were randomly reinserted so they did not sit on the same springs.
- With sixty minutes of use, starting 9 times from turbo (or high) during three days, the last burn, on the fourth day, was to see how long the two sets of cells could last until terminal shut down, without any cooling break.
Observations/Conclusion: Keeping in mind that both units spent a great deal of time in full-bore Turbo, they turned off at nearly the same time, lasting a little over an hour, totaled through several days. At the end, relative voltages of all batteries matched to within 0.01 volts, measured with an inexpensive VOM.
Though my preference has gravitated towards the 3D tint, I still haven’t gotten around to selling the CW Meteor I purchased, but intend to when a worthy buyer appears. My intention was to include the modified ‘double spring’ tube, but it is going to be difficult to part with it.
Apologies to Richard for taking so long to report back, this is my first post.
FYI: For those of you who have not already fallen asleep from this long winded report, I registered with BLF specifically to relate my experiences with the Meteors, and join the RMM fan club.
Tjohn,
Awe inspiring first post, looking forward to more…
Now I will say in some jest, we will be needing some beamshots taken with you lighting up the Jungle with those Meteors!!!
Seriously, thank you for the detailed post on the Meteors you own, and good to see them being put to real world use, they are well built lights….