+1
I'll let L-P, gchart and TK know as well. We don't want this happening with the Pro.
I'm suspecting is once you run it with a AA alkaline, it fries the part, then the 14500 has the problems. Not sure, maybe the owners with the problem can confirm.
My offer from post #14 still stands,
+2, though really this is not a new light.
Mine was more like $11 (40% off). It made me wonder why since the light had just been released. It’s usually at the end of a product’s marketing cycle that retails try to get rid of their remaining stock by offering big discounts to clear out what they have to make room for new stuff. But Sofirn did it at the very beginning, which seemed a bit odd. But I dunno. Maybe there was a good reason.
That is an interesting hypothesis especially since Alkaline batteries exhibit higher voltages than NiMH batteries when fully charged.
Hopefully others will respond with "when and where" they purchased their SP10V3 and share the "operation status" and "any testing" they have done for their SP10V3 lights so we can have an idea of how prevalent this issue is from the different sources of supply.
I am most curious and it would be beneficial to understand if this is a case of "infant mortality" where failures occur from the start or quickly thereafter or if these failures could occur unexpectedly at any time in the future.
I have two SP10V3 from AmazonUS that were delivered this month. Both have been tested at least two times with three types of fully charged batteries (Alkaline, NiMH, and Li-ion) and neither have experienced any failures so far and I will continue testing with NiMH and Li-ion batteries.
With Alkaline and NiMH batteries, I ran them on Turbo until the battery voltage was too low to light the LED and as the temperature regulation caused the LED to dim I would frequently bump them back to Turbo by double clicking the switch after handling them to ensure they were not getting too hot which they never did.
While using Alkaline and NiMH batteries, the light's LED would blink three times once per minute after the battery voltage became low, but it was difficult to measure the exact voltage when this occurred to provide an accurate number since I was running on Turbo and the battery voltage was recovering and increasing quickly while I removed the battery to measure the voltage.
I also ran them on Turbo with the included Li-ion battery but only bumped them back to Turbo occasionally when the LED started to dim since the light was becoming hot.
The lowest Li-ion battery resting voltage from after the Turbo test runs ended up being about 3.3 VDC since I did not want to needlessly harm brand new Li-ion 14500 batteries which I currently only have a few of and I did not test for a "low voltage blinking warning from the LED" or test for any built-in "Low Voltage Protection" functions while using Li-ion batteries.
I guess I could start.
I got mine this month (through Amazon) and owned it for one week before the problems happened. I only used it a couple times with the 14500 battery, mostly to see what it could do. Otherwise, I used a 1.2 volt Ni-MH. On the last day, I used the 14500 again just to see my way to the front door of my house and get inside. I was with my Dad and I used the turbo mode to impress him with how bright the light was. Then I turned it off and put it back in my pocket. After about 15 minutes, I took it out and was surprised at how warm it was, and remembered reading about that happening here. So I took out the battery (and noticed a burning smell in the tube) and went to bed, and the next morning put the 14500 back in and left it off for around an hour, feeling the light every so often to see if it was heating up, and it was. Then I figured maybe I should just use it with the 14500 only on limited occasions and just stick with Ni-MH. So I put one in, and it didn’t work. I figured it might be too low, so I then tried a fresh alkaline. Still nothing. That’s when I realized my light was a dud.
I never ran an Alkaline or NIMH in mine prior to the heat/drain issues. Charged the Sofirn cell via the charger in the kit to test the charger, and installed the cell in the light after it completed. Ran the light intermittently over the course of three or four hours, outdoors primarily. It was fairly cold (30°F), so I really never noticed the heating problem until the next day. After reading OP’s experience, I tried both AA and NIMH cells in the light, neither worked. The second sample would not operate with AA or NIMH right out of the box.
Ah, OK.Sorry, no easy pattern. Hope they can make good for everyone, or take up kennybobby's offer.
Pretty obvious this model has issues.
Note to self;
Wait for SP10V3.2
Not like another AA/14500 is needed in this household anyway.
Sofirn will get it right, just hope they didn’t make too many of these that will take forever to get out of the pipeline.
Strange that my two SP10V3 lights from AmazonUS seem fine and both of yours were defective, even though we purchased them during the same time period, so they were probably from the same production run.
I'm not sure if I should feel lucky or apprehensive.
Fortunately during this time of year, because of the holiday shopping season, AmazonUS extends their return window thru January 31, 2022 (instead of the normal 30 day period) which provides more time to ensure the lights continue to operate correctly.
The SP10V3 LED's color temperature and tint is very much more pleasant than I had expected. I only wish the Moonlight brightness level was lower, as it seems closer to 10 lumens than the stated 1 lumen.
[quote=roostre]
I noticed that with mine as well. The manual says it’s 1 lumen, but there’s no way it could be that low. Sofirn replied to me here about it and said that using a 14500 in moonlight mode will be brighter. But when I was still able to use AA battery, the brightness was the same with both AA and 14500 in moonlight mode.
I’m glad to hear (I suppose) that others are reporting the same thing. Mine is way too bright on Moonlight and I thought it was broken and was just skipping that mode. That’s with any type of battery.
Hard to speculate on the coincidence or lack thereof. I was pretty bummed because everything else about the light, with some exceptions (scalloped tail cap, poor clip) was fantastic. I thought the “moon” mode on my (first) sample was perfect/not too bright. The switch was nice and crisp, and UI easy to navigate.
My lack of Irish heritage is evident in this case…no luck.
For now, if your order is shipped from China, it's the new batch. But amazon warehouse may have mixed first batch and new batch, I can not say 100% of them are issue free. But I believe only a few of them may have the hidden issue which occurs after long time rough shipping. So, no need to worry about it.
I understand, thanks for your reply.
I am curious what is the cause of this issue?
What was the reason? Bad solder connection? Wrong part? Can this also occur after rough usage (like dropping the light on the floor)?
I would also like to know the answer to this. I understand a company would prefer not to release details of such defects, but there are safety considerations related to Li-Ion batteries and it’s important to understand which actions could render the flashlight unsafe.
Not to mess with anyone’s psyches or anything, but I’m having the mirror image of problems reported in this thread and in another (about a different model). I’d be interested in everyone’s thoughts about this situation and my SWAG about a potential cause.
Yesterday, the new Sofirn SP10 V3 that I ordered from AmazonUS arrived. It did NOT include a battery. I inserted a fully charged AceBeam ARC14500N-800 battery and the light would not come on. Then I inserted a fully charged Energizer NiMH AA battery and the light worked according to specs. Then I inserted a new Duracell alkaline AA battery and the light worked according to specs. (Spoiler: during repeated experimentation, the light ALWAYS works with a non-14500 battery. This is exactly the opposite of the issues reported earlier in this thread.)
On the off chance that the 14500 was not seating well in the light, I tapped the LENS end of the light fairly energetically on a legal pad on a wood desk. MIRACLE OF MIRACLES - the damn thing worked. This result is repeatable - not every time, but > 50% of the time. And, yes, in every trial, the tailcap was screwed on as tightly as it could be. NOTE THAT THIS IS THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION PRODUCING THE OPPOSITE EFFECT OF THE PROBLEM REPORTED IN ANOTHER THREAD ABOUT A RELATED SOFIRN MODEL - that is, the flashlight turns OFF when tapping the TAILCAP.
I have also discovered that, if I put the 14500 in the light and screw the tailcap on tight and test and find that the light isn’t working, I am sometimes able to remove the tailcap and, using a finger to press and wiggle the negative end of the battery around in an effort to force the battery further down, I can replace the tailcap and the light works. This behavior is also somewhat repeatable.
Now, my SWAG: The positive end of the light, when examined from the tailcap end looks like this: I O I , with the “O” being the protrusion that contacts the button-top and the “I”s being some kind of shoulder that I think I saw somewhere does something about making sure the battery is a button-top and not a flat-top or some other purpose - if anyone knows for sure, I’d like to know. Anyway, I measured the buttons on the two types of batteries and I discovered that the 14500 batteries’ button-tops are 6mm in diameter and the standard AA’s button-tops are 5mm in diameter. According to Wikipedia the MAX diameter of the button-top is supposed to be 5.5mm. So, gee, ya’ think that maybe all the problems I’ve seen in these threads might indicate that there is a continuing problem in these Sofirn lights that produces unacceptably high variations in the clearances of the I O I structures (whatever their purpose) across several models that cause some batteries not to seat properly?
I need to know more about the purpose of the “I”s in the I O I structures, particularly whether they can accept current from the battery just like the “O” can. And also whether they are used to detect in some way the battery type (14500 or standard AA). From what I can tell, the “I”s seem to project about 1 - 2 mm further toward the tailcap than the “O” does, so maybe it is used someway to block further travel. I think that more info about the “I”s might help resolve the problem my SWAG may have explaining why the 14500’s work and the standard AA’s don’t in many reports.
Just sayin’ . . . .
Thoughts?