I recently received what was advertised as a Roche M170 from a well known Chinese site. It arrived with a bunch of problems that now make me suspect I might have gotten a fake light . I’m hoping others familiar with this light can chime in as to if these are common issues?
1) Electronic switch often doesn’t register clicks… depending on just how I push the button it will sometimes work and other times the tactile feel is off and doesn’t register
2) Ramping mode doesn’t ramp down smoothly (has a little jump up in brightness while ramping down) and seems to only ramp from 100% brightness down to maybe 50%
3) Light only draws 4.8A at tail cap and just doesn’t seem that bright to other 3 x XML lights I have. This is advertised as a 2400 lumen light, but I don’t see that being possible with only 4.8A current draw driving 3 XM-L2.
4) Arrived with mismatched handle. Handle should have two pins on on the mating surface that engage two holes in the flashlight body to prevent it rotating… surface is flat like it came from the older version.
5) Roche branding missing completely from rear cover… no branding on negative battery contact plate nor driver contact plate in head… also rear cover didn’t come with the magnet and spring that original should. Came in generic box with no branding whatsoever
I realize it is often hard know what is real vs. fake with all the copying that goes on, but this light seems not to live up to the quality that the Roche M170 is supposed to have so I’m a bit suspicious.
My guess is you got the unlucky bottom of the crate "throw the rest of the parts together into a flashlight and sell it" It looks legit to me, just missing QC in a few places.
I recently picked up an M170, probably from the same sale. Didn't get the ramping driver.
Edit: BTW, if your buttontop adapter deal is slightly warped then I would avoid using it. I used mine and despite cranking the tube down very tight, only 2 cells made contact. I found out when I checked my cells today and 2 were 3.9v, 2 were 4.13v
I also got my flashlight (green driver).
How does ramping I did not understand. Four short press activates ramping and what next to do with it is not clear.
Max mode - 4.3A from 18650
Mid - 3A
Low - 1.2A
Yeah, I’m not at all happy with this light… the driver is garbage. I realize we got it for a good price… but only if it was real M170. Time to start the back and forth game with the seller.
I sold my old King, and I do not regret. It is much better case. For promotional $ 35 it was good. About the driver - I asked the tech support about a fake.
if we can raise the LED current to 2.5A, I would have left as is
From my understanding, there's multiple possible drivers since it was first reviewed here. One ramps, one has a weird multiclick UI, and one has a simple 3 mode.
Mine, green driver, seems to be simple 3 mode, but has some unknown functionality as well (as mentioned above). With 4 rapid clicks it blinks once and then I have no idea...
experimenting with clicks/long presses after that blink eventually I got no light at all and it wouldn't turn on. Unscrewed the tube, retightened, a quick flash then nothing. Did that about 20 times and finally the 3 modes came back Somehow... Lol.
I have exactly the same. But my after the ramping can be turned off by long pressing and turn on by long pressing again
I think I have to put it in Courui D01 with XHP50 LED & buy LD35
Hang on. I’ll check it against mine when I get home. I have one of the originals from when they first came out. (IOS Hank Wang).
They never came with instruction, and trying to figure out the ramping was interesting. I always thought the ramping was a bit …meh. Not the greatest. For a while, fast tech had a choice of ramping or three mode.
I’ve been planning on getting mine out and modding it with a FET driver.
I remember the originals wouldn’t fit long protected cells, but was fixed easy enough by changing the springs. The original springs “stacked up” as they compressed, so just swapped with springs with coils that compress within each other.
After the 4 clicks and the flash I was able to enter something that resembled ramping. It was 2 slight drops in brightness and then it shut off completely.
Certainly seems like a good candidate for a nice FET driver anyway, the rest of the flashlight is top notch.
That sounds pretty much the same as the ramping mode on mine. Although ramping isn’t part of the spec in the GearBest listing, I’ve opened a complaint with GearBest with respect to the really flaky switch and low tail cap current. I’ll probably order an LD-35 driver from Simon to make this light what it should be.
Like I said, I think the standard ramping drivers in these lights are a bit flaky. Weird pressing and holding, too fast ramping with the flash that tells you when you’re at max or lowest. Sometimes it turns off and you have to start anew. This isn’t anything new, like I said, I have an original ($$$:money_mouth_face: from an extremely reputable dealer.
I think RMM has a FET driver with a ramping option. I want to find somebody that’s tried it. Or I may just go with a five mode FET.
I’m not too worried about the ramping as that’s something I doubt I’d use much anyways. What about the standard Hi, Mid, Low modes - are they reliable on the original with the LD-35 driver and do you happen to know the tail cap current on high?