That says it all in a nutshell. I have found so many defects in assembled lights, from most every Mfg. I pity the people who don't have a clue and just buy and use, until the light/charger/battery blows up, smokes or just goes dead. This was in the Darth Clone. I am glad I tore it down. I'm telling ya, I tear down every light I get, no matter what and it's because of crap like this.
So, sellers and Mfgs, take a look and start being more conscientious about what you produce. I have seen countless leds that have damaged domes, terrible wiring, excess solder, wires caught under stars and glued down that way, drivers that look like someone tossed the components on and heated it all, till it was one mass of solder... I know, yada, yada, yada... but it's just irritating.
I see and know what you mean OL.
Now you know why everybody here just loves to be able to get their hands on one of the lights you’ve been through already !
But that’s why they’re BUDGET lights, right? If they improved QC then the product would cost more for the end consumer. Then you get people complaining about how expensive things are. Can’t have it all… Plus isn’t tearing lights down and putting them back together part of the whole fun?
it seems like they were pulling up the led when reflowing. I think its a new system to let air move between the led and the MCPCB, to provide a better cooling. Chinese engineering
EDIT: Is that a hair on the dome? analyze the dna and you´ll have the guilty
That is one ugly LED.
As much as I agree that quality is lacking it is still an acceptable trade-off that allows me to buy cheap products. Without the prices I wouldn’t be in this hobby. I recieved a light from China last week and the on\off-mode switch was broken. I spent an hour of my time repairing the switch. This is a hobby for me so putting a price on that hour isn’t easy but the light from China cost me 11.50 and if I had bought it here in the states it would have cost 29.99. For me repairing a device now and then is worth the money I am saving and since it’s a hobby for me I haven’t lost much. I also had 3 other lights with the same switch on them. One of the three lights had an intermittent bright mode so I repaired that one and moded the other two to prevent those switches from failing. It took about 45 minutes to mod those three switches.
Yeah, that’s nasty looking for sure. I especially like that little blob of solder that appears to be imbedded in the side of the LED dome.
You know, I’d be all for them selling lights un-assembled as the first thing I do with the majority of cheap Chinese lights is change out the emitter and driver.
i’ll pay the extra 10 cents to improve the QC, but they would just pocket that and sell what they do today, which incidentally they would make 10 cents less profit on if they fixed the QC
Asking for a Chinese light to consistant is like asking a politician to be honest lol. That being said like many here I enjoy fixing things up to my liking. A couple of lights I have not changed the C8 & wf2100, both will be upgraded to xml2 but for now they get used as is. The SkyRayKing I plan on installing xml2 u2 3c. The stars are off just a bit so might as well change them after busting the Chinese cree stars loose from the fujk . I have not had a light come in that bad yet knock on wood
Copies of lights / clones always suck ..I was thinking of the roche f12 clone ..some times it's so clearly obvious from the picture and the fact it's almost half price .
same thing with the ultra fire 980L.. which was a real$42 ultrafire ..People kept buying 17$ ebay lookalikes thinking it was going to be the same light and wondering why they were such crap.
same thing in a thread asking about bangoods****-fire 8$ c-8 vs the 16$ convoy c-8..Sadly people are sometimes so cheap they miss the fact lots of others have experiance and are telling them ..buy this ///avoid that.
We are participating in a wonderful period in economic history when China is producing things that are really useful in the modern world but with much of the same variety and charm as their old products made of rice paper, bamboo and ivory. Most of the stuff works, and I gather that the more expensive Chinese lights are reliable, but don’t expect perfection, mass production and charm at the same time.
When I received my first 3-mode Zoom AA/1450 EXPIRED ! "Black" $1.99 Max 3ea, I was disappointed that it really is a modern industrial product, so the fun is now ending. Beyond start up problems, it seems to be very consistent and very well designed for general use and large cheap production. So I expect it to replace both the SK68 and the ultra-cheap 3XAAA lights with several 5 mm. leds. I don’t really know, but my impression is that they are all made in one large factory, so the rich diversity of detail, as in the SK68 clones, may soon be no more.
If people want consistency and quality buy the original stuff...Which usually cost more..
About the Darth clone. Maybe it was from Black Shadow, but there might have been a bad batch. Instead of fixing the error, they sell it unbranded and slightly cheaper.. Win win for Black Shadow. Does not even matter if the clone fails, just shows that people should buy the original. ;)
Would you pay 60$ or 40$ for a certain light. What about 30$?
Obviously most would either pay 30$ or 40$. So the answer to the question in OP is, NO, the situation will not change. There will always be cheap badly built lights out there, because people want as cheap as possible. If vendors are going to offer cheaper, its beneficial for them to not only cut profit, which means production cost needs to go down. That means means lower build quality, and in general less consistency and quality control.
There are also many people who mod, so build quality is less important as long as the "host" is decent. In many cases it may be worth it to buy the clone or cheaper version.
People sharing experiences and reviews is what keeps us on top of things, but still, most want as cheap as possible. As long as we buy cheap lights from manufacturers who have no brand reputation to maintain, corners will always be cut...
