WARNING! STL-V2 MarsFire version

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

I just got home from a day at the range, inter school club championship shoot, was a great day, fun had by all.

Anyway, after a snooze in my chair, it got dark. It happens here. So, I went to my bedroom and grabbed my new MarsFire, hit the switch and nothing happened. Clicked a few more times, nada. OK, took it back to the lounge for a closer inspection. Popped the batteries out, one was a bit warm. Hmmm.

Tested both batteries on my DMM, the warm one is under 1 volt! Charger won’t look at it, 3 flashing lights = battery fault. Not sure the other will charge either, it was 2.5 V but its just sitting in charger and doesn’t seem to be taking charge. *just checked with the meter, the cell is taking charge and lights up a torch, may be ok.

I took the battery tube off the torch, and the driver has detached from the pill and the B+ spring has shorted on the inside of the adaptor that the tube screws into in the head. The driver just barely locates on the end of the pill and the solder let go, looks like the pressure on the spring from the batteries pushed it sideways enough to hit the tube.

Don’t know how long the torch has been like that, I tossed it (gently) onto my socks in a washing basket when I went to bed last night and the light was working then.

Neither cell appears to have vented, blue UltraFire 18650 2400Mah from ebay.

I’m feeling pretty lucky I wasn’t roasted in my sleep, or came home to a very large and expensive pile of ashes.

I got it from the ebay seller listed above.

Anyone with their light, please check your driver. Mine was ok when I checked it out initially. It has not been dropped or knocked around.

See Forum Thread Here

Light Bought Here

2

Glad I opted for the fandyfire version phew

3

Thats strange, the cell can’t just short out like that sitting dormant in the light UNLESS the switch was clicked to the ON position. The -Vbatt side of the circuit is completely cut when turned off.

I would take a closer look at that warm cell. Is it getting warm by itself or only in the light? At any rate, its probably done for and I would not attempt to use it again.

4

I agree. Unless it was switched on, the anode spring can touch the tube wall all it wants all day long and nothing will happen. My guess is either that battery went rogue on it’s own or you accidentally had it switched on without realizing it and that battery (likely dicey to begin with) took a crap before the other one. My guess is the former.

Either way, glad all is ok and you caught it before anything horrible happened. I just don’t think it’s the light’s fault.

5

Just a thought…. Check the cell wrapper for possible nicks. Possible short/ground points.

6

Wow.

I’m glad you’re not posting this from the burn ward.

As written above, toss the iffy cell. Now is an excellent time to acquire a set of quality protected Panasonic- or Sanyo-based cells for your hobby.

It’s pretty cool that your school has shooting sports. Was it long gun or pistol competition ?

7

You guys are 100% correct of course, the cells cannot make a circuit unless the switch is on. I wasn’t thinking when I posted this.

I must have left the switch on when I tried turning it on the first time, I clicked it more than a few times. Then I made a bathroom stop on the way back to the lounge, where I put the light down and it may have been a few minutes before I got back to it. The cells were about half discharged after about a week of use, so thankfully didn’t have a full load of current to deliver.

Chicago X, it wasn’t my school that had me at the range, I am a volunteer range officer there. I was just helping out with about 20 others yesterday.

We had about 90 kids from at least 6 or 8 different schools, disciplines included long gun and pistol. I was told there is a waiting list for kids wanting to get involved in the comp, but as a club we can’t handle greater numbers than we have now. I was hoping to get our local school involved, but looks like we will have to organise our own shoots.

I know there was a clay target shoot with shotguns, moving target rifle, bench rest rifle, pistol comp and I was involved in a novelty shoot mostly for beginners. Single shot .22 with 5 targets at increasing ranges + a swinging metal chicken. We had a few that cleaned up, and chocolate bars were given as prizes and encouragement incentives. Our club put on a bbq lunch, and a lot of parents were there to help out and support the kids too. The kids had a ball and it was a great day all round :slight_smile:

8

I just sent the seller this email

Hi, I had a problem with this torch, the driver with spring on the + battery end broke away from the head and shorted out, it killed one of my cells and now the light does not work. One day it worked, the next day not.

I was very lucky there was no explosion or fire as shorting 18650 batteries is very dangerous. The cell got very hot before I noticed but did not vent, but now won’t charge. This is a very dangerous flaw!

Now as well as a non working torch I have lost a battery too. It now reads less than 1 volt and the charger shows it as defective.

I await your reply, yours in good faith, Ian

9

So what was wrong with this light, I read quickly through the whgole topic and I’, not sure??

Alas, I just bough it yesterday :o

PLs heeelp, I dont want my house to burn down :frowning:

But I surely want use it with unprotected cells, so I mean, if there was a shortcircuit of some kind, even cheapest protected cells have working shortcircuit protection. (on the other hand, low voltage protection is usually non-existent)

In that case protection would kick in and nothing would happen, yes?

PS: Aha, now I understand, I need to check the driver, and possibly reinforce it a little with solder?? Yes?

10

Yes Ecig, the solder on the driver let go.

Tension from the cells on the B+ spring pushed the driver sideways enough to short the spring inside the battery tube. I must have left it switched on when I tested it, causing a dead short. Thats my best guess anyway.

Check it out and re-solder just to be sure. There is nothing else really holding it in place, it barely contacts the pill, maybe .5 mm around the edge.

The torch was working fine last time I used it, the night before. It was not dropped or bumped.

I have only had it less than a week.

My cells are supposed to be protected, if they are, it didn’t stop the short. One cell is definitely dead.

11

Maybe there should be a link to this thread in Marsfire STL-V2 “deal” topic (in “flashlight deals” :o )

12

You should probably send pictures to the seller too.
Good Luck!!

13

Mine had ok springs but driver was faulty.
It drained batteries empty if left ON.

14

No kidding!!! aaaaa :o :smiley:

15

I just received this reply from the ebay dealer, sounds like a fair thing. What do you guys think?

Dear friend,

Sorry for the trouble, thanks for contacting us.
So sorry for this inconvenience, t’s not honest to send defective items to customers, so our manufacturer did test all of our products strictly before sending out. For this order,
As you describe, it’s really very dangerous. How about we refund you 20USD as compensation, the rest we keep as postage and production cost.
Sure you don’t need to send the faulty product back to us.
How do you think?
Sincerely,
Elaine

- hittime_hk

16

Sounds a fair thing to me, the seller got back to me with this offer within 24 hours. Shop is a front for Buy In Coins. Seems like decent customer service. Can’t really complain about that.

17

Buy In Coins refunded $20 to my PayPal account today and let me keep the torch as per their original offer. I think they were very fair and courteous overall.

I hope mine was a one off fault and no one else has problems with their torch.

Now, to order those new cells

18

I complained to Sally about the long time shipping since I ordered mine on 6-28. She said she would give me a full refund if I accepted. And I did.

19

Weird

20

Hmmm, Ill back up this warning. This flashlight is really dangerous
I got that Marsfire yesterday evening and didnt have time to test it till now
I’ve test it outside a little, before that I checked the driver quickly , to see weather it soldered well, check the spring (because I’ve read something about ti here), and after quick testing outside I left it on the cupboard, with 2 trustfire flames protected (2400) in it. Of course it was in off position.
I was tidying my room a little and after 15 or 30 minutes by pure chance I took that flashlight in hand and noticed its rather warm, even hot.
First trustfire flame (new) got little cooked up, burnt, Ill post pics soon.
Ill be asking for full refund for sure. They shouldnt be selling this…

I dont understand why frikin protected TF flames (should be originals) didnt protected me??
Also, I was a bit careful, when putting cells and screwing the flashglight, with that spring on the driver, not to make shortcircuit to the inside of the body. But it seems that this particular spring on that particural place is really really prone to escape to the side or something and make shortcircuit. I dont know, I dont have tme to investigate it further but this light should be avoided :o

PS: ALso its nothing special, head is not as wide as SkyRay STL-V2 and Fandifire version heads, its 2-3mm less wide, so it would be less throw with same driver… not so well focused beam…