At the end of the day I am quite philosophical about it as either BG will replace or refund or paypal will refund so what ever happens you won”t lose out, it just might take a little while to sort especially if you want a replacement.
Hahaa they will ask for a video, showing the packaging and skew numbers off the boxes?? No video so I sent them these instead
Knowing I had 2 Cometa’s, asked me to try the other tail cap on the light to see if it would solve my problem? Really??
bang good should send us some washers or something to fix this with
my light will be arriving monday - I plan on testing with a protected cell and also insulating the pill with some gorilla/electrical tape until a permanent solution can be found
thanks for all your work cyber 
First I think this can be intimidating to step in now for Cyberscudo
Personally I don’t mind a little drama as long as people put in a smiley here and there but I have seen groupbuys where organisers felt personally attacked and that is just sad.
Secondly I think it is awesome to see how other BLFers jump in with their knowledge and advice to help out.
Thirdly I think mistakes can be made and probably will be made and that is not good but not bad either
Only without adequate solutions things start to look bad.
We the Q-team follow all groupbuys closely. Some are without drama like the small Gearbest AAA Nichia light that is going for its third run.
Also the small AAA Astrolux groupbuy can be considered a outright success.
Others have more issues and well the complexity of a project gives more aspects where things can go wrong.
This is why we tried to involve BLF to get a good specs list. And still, when pouring it in another format yesterday I saw we had not specified the thickness of the lens.
So we take it slow and rather have a good light later then a bunch of issues now so to speak.
However I totally understanding the urge to make the lights available as fast as possible as seemed to have happened here.l despite warnings from a couple of people who warned for a too fast release.
On the other hand with ~500 pieces there are bound to be a few with problems maybe we have seen all or them now 
Would someone who knows more than I do please
come up with a complete list of checks that should be done on each light?
Keengeorge and Sharpie have started — don’t let their input be lost in the growing thread.
AND — what size are the wires supposed to be? (check for cuts in wire insulation if edges of the holes through metal are sharp and not clean)
AND — how to test the tailcap?
AND — what’s the specification on the driver, and is there any way to test it, should it be removed to test it?
Unfortunately I’d worry that any serious testing may cause the seller to blame any problem on the buyer.
But we really, really, really don’t want to just pop a battery in and click the button, on this flashlight.
Maybe it’s already time for a parallel thread about how to identify and fix problems with the light?
That kind of thread has happened with other group buys that didn’t come pre-checked — it seems we need that.
Could mean my earlier guess is right, that some of the short circuits happen inside the tailcaps.
_
Everyone should have a DMM — digital multimeter.
You need this — the voltmeter part — to work with li-ion cells safely!
NOTE: you know where NOT to buy a DMM, right?
DO NOT BUY A CHEAP DMM FROM CHINA THESE DAYS
Like anything else where you have a spec — volts, amps, millimeters, angles, depths, lumens — you also have to have one ruler or meter that everyone can trust to be correct.
Otherwise you end up with all your measurements wrong
snark
thinking you own the entire South China Sea
/snark
Sorry. But really. They need to fix this, not profit from the mistake.
Anyone know if you can buy the lens for this light on it”s own ?
Pretty expensive, http://m.banggood.com/1pcs-JAX-Z1-K9-Coating-Glass-Lens-For-Flashlight-DIY-p-950500.html
I wasn’t part of this groupbuy, but how hard was for the seller or manufacturer to come up with some common sense and look if there are some of the most common problems in these lights?
After so many groupbuys I thought they should be assigning someone to test the lights before shipping but no, it seems like they prefer to assign someone to deal with returns and warranty. Won’t be long until Neil shows up, apologizes and tell us to send an email to the person assigned to deal with this GB.
I’m starting to believe they simply assume these issues are normal and that there are absolutely no room for improvement at all.
As I thought it is the exact same lens as the JAX Z1.
The reason I asked was that I will want a complete replacement from BG for my non working Cometa but if I can buy a lens separately I could use my DOA Cometa as a host.
Hank is like a beacon of good in this this thread so I will quote this (maybe updated when the check list gets larger) from time to time.
Bella-Headlight, its weekend let BG fix the issues and send you replacement parts no need for rewarding faults with extra orders.
Important quote here:
Thank you for the pics! This is most helpful in checking mine when they arrive.
Yep, 24 gauge. I had forgotten about the 20 gauge specification. You think this is holding it back? Maybe that is why it is not quite as bright as I was expecting, based on initial specifications?
Regarding the abrasion, it may indeed be solder from one of the connections? I saw that last night too but was too tired to post any more. Does anyone have any feedback regarding how safe and durable (long term) the anodizing might be as an insulator? Maybe there was not enough clearance to safely put in 20 gauge wire? If I look closely at the original photo, I see what might be an abrasion flat spot on the positive terminal solder blob. Now I am tempted to disassemble again and carefully file down that connection a little!
“Bella-Headlight, its weekend let BG fix the issues and send you replacement parts no need for rewarding faults with extra orders.”
Hi The Miller, I am not intending to reward BG for their mistake but at the moment I have a 36 euro useless metal tube.
I have no intention of accepting a new lens “O” ring & driver (if in fact the driver is the problem) off BG & trying to repair my Cometa myself as I bought & paid for a working light.
However if they will replace the complete light & I can identify what the problem is I might be interested in putting a new lens in my DOA Cometa & swapping out the offending part/parts.
This is my lens !
!
!!
Drama gets way out of hand far too fast.
Reality has a pronounced bias toward being calm about what’s to be expected — if you don’t freak out.
I’d recommend people check the past comments about past problems just in this forum.
Read that?
Then take a break, go for a walk, pet the dog, throw the frisbee, and relax for a while.
If you plan to organize a buy from China — know what you’re getting into.
None of this is unique to this light, or these organizers.
They could ask you to send the light back. In that case you would have ordered a new lens for nothing
Here in BLF most of the time we are willing to look for ways to fix things on our own, it’s not too difficult and often very rewarding. But this is just my personal opinion.
This shows the “O” ring with the broken piece of lens attached
I have no problem sending the light back to them if they will pay the postage, but as postage will be more than the cost of the light I doubt they will suggest that ?
wouldn’t most of these problem lights be eliminated if they were ‘tested’ first before going out? Is that unreasonable?
I think that they must know about the cell shorting problem as I have just noticed this at the bottom of the BG advert
“Note:Please attention the battery head,don’t use too big of the battery positive head.”