The SureFire 6PX/G2X Tactical and 6PX/G2X Pro Thread

[PierceTheNight]

It is the 320 lumen version, with the spring.

 

[RobertMM]

^ Damn. If only the head opened easily enough I'd pot it myself with thermal epoxy. That should make it tough as any out there.

 

[PierceTheNight]

^ Damn. If only the head opened easily enough I'd pot it myself with thermal epoxy. That should make it tough as any out there.

I'm not sure about yours, but my flashlight head was removed with moderate effort. The circuit board is held in by two pins, which also connect it to the LED.

 

[Lodogg2221]

My SureFire G2X Pro has malfunctioned.

It was working fine until it was dropped from a short distance. No cosmetic damage was apparent, that was how small the impact was. It no longer has a bright mode. Yes, I put in a brand new set of batteries and it does the same thing. Tap the switch any number of times and there is only one mode, the 15 lumen mode.

I got an RMA # and will be shipping it out in a few days.

This is a real let-down. I bought SureFire over Fenix etc. due to their reputation for toughness and reliability. Now, with barely a few months of very light use (still on original batteries) and not even a single accidental scratch, the circuit no longer works properly. I know every great brand has its lemons, but I didn't spend $80 on a light for it to break. Now I no longer trust my SureFire G2X Pro to work when I need it to. I am back to carrying my Mini Maglite Pro.

SureFire just lost a fan and customer.

Pro

I cant help but think thats a bit harsh. If they fix it, what are you out? Its still a better light for the money than you can get most other places, and those places dont have a lifetime warranty. Most of the Chinese lights you are lucky if you can even get service, let alone for free.

I wonder too, what would one do with the old incan lights? Quite a few of the expensive older ones were a one time drop, bulb went poof style, where you were out the money to replace the bulb assembly. The 6P and similar werent an issue, but the 9AN, 8AX, etc sure didnt like to be dropped much. I guess spending a couple hundred on one of those would put some people off too if they dropped it and had to spring for a bulb assembly, but for those of us that had them, having the LED lights repaired by SF at their expense is a big step up.
Although, Ive dropped quite a few of mine, some from a pretty good distance, and none have had to go back yet for anything like that.
My R1 had to, because it quit charging the battery, but they sent a label, and had it back to me in less than three weeks.

Yes it stinks that the light failed, but they will make it right. Maybe you should give them a chance.

 

[tobrien]

I just picked up a new 6PX Pro, here's a better shot of the LED.



It's either a Nichia 119 or 219. The beam is wider and a bit warmer than my older 6PX Pro and G2X Tactical, which both have XP-Es.

I figured those looked like Nichias but I assumed they were some Cree I didn't recognize haha.

I'm considering a 6PX Defender actually and never saw that the price is actually pretty good on them. Plus, 320 lumens should be fine, seeing as my 140 HDS is more than enough

 

[RedForest UK]

I cant help but think thats a bit harsh. If they fix it, what are you out? Its still a better light for the money than you can get most other places, and those places dont have a lifetime warranty. Most of the Chinese lights you are lucky if you can even get service, let alone for free.

Yes it stinks that the light failed, but they will make it right. Maybe you should give them a chance.

I think the issue is with trust, yes the warranty is good and you don't end up worse off. You can look on the positive side and be glad you got a light with a good after service policy. However, when you buy a light because of a reputation for durability, and then it fails, you aren't going to have the same level of confidence in its replacement.

Still, I'd recommend giving them another chance and using the replacement as much as you can. If it breaks again then you are getting back the premium you spent through warranty service, but if it doesn't then you can slowly rebuild your trust in the light. Personally, I'd expect your situation was a very rare one and that you shouldn't have any further issues.

 

[PierceTheNight]

Regarding earlier malfunction:

I just received a brand new packaged SureFire G2X Pro from SureFire. It was shipped from the SF factory only a couple days after they received my old light, but UPS took a while. Customer service is A+ as claimed. If I recommend a SF light to someone, it will be because of the CS, not the quality of the light itself.

@Lodogg2221: It was harsh, because SureFire has built up a reputation for building "the world's finest illumination tools", and having it fail unexpectedly in such a manner was a big shock. The flashlight was what I expected mechanically, but electronically there were problems. Venture a guess where the circuit board was made.

@RedForest UK: I will be looking into a reliable backup for my SureFire instead of relying in it as my only flashlight. I will still keep my SureFire bumper sticker but will be less likely to tout them over the Chinese brands littering the Internet.

 

[cland72]

IMO, Surefire's legendary reliability was built on their incandescent models produced in the 90's and 00's. The recent generation (post Paul Kim) of LED lights doesn't seem to have the same "function over form" spirit as their older counterparts. I mean come on, how many of their current models actually have knurling? Not many, and what a shame.

To that end, I'll take a Surefire 6P Original and a Malkoff M61 over a newer Surefire light any day of the week. It may not have multiple modes, or be the latest/greatest/brightest, but hot damn will it work every single time you turn it on.

 

[tobrien]

IMO, Surefire's legendary reliability was built on their incandescent models produced in the 90's and 00's. The recent generation (post Paul Kim) of LED lights doesn't seem to have the same "function over form" spirit as their older counterparts. I mean come on, how many of their current models actually have knurling? Not many, and what a shame.

To that end, I'll take a Surefire 6P Original and a Malkoff M61 over a newer Surefire light any day of the week. It may not have multiple modes, or be the latest/greatest/brightest, but hot damn will it work every single time you turn it on.

I agree with you 100%.

 

[injin000]

I love my 6PX Defender - partly for its haptics, partly for its simple "interface". Lately I managed to take it apart, after I got curious about the innards.




After that the connection between the driver board and the LED board sometimes got loose. So I thought about drilling the head so that P60 dropins would fit into it. Some months passed until I had the opportunity to use my father-in-law-to-be's drill press and other tools in his garage. Also I needed his knowledge of metal works to succeed in doing this...

First I wrapped the head of the 6PX with some tape to prevent it from being damaged by the bench vise.


Then I took a 10 mm HSS borer and pre-drilled a hole through the massive part inside the head.


After that I widened the hole by using a 18 mm HSS borer. The target was 22.5 mm, but a 22 mm borer would have done too much damage to the inside of the head.


So lastly I had to use a round file to widen it by hand.


After a long time of filing and some cups of coffee the dropin did fit through the head, but it didn't go in far enough. So I also had to widen the upper part of the head so that also the wider part of the dropin could go in far enough. So at last I was able to not only put in the dropin and a Solarforce glass lens but also the original O-ring of the 6PX and that flat Solarforce O-ring.


Here one can see the 6PX with an EDC+ X60L XM-L2 U2 530 Lumens (but with O-ring, original lens and bezel ring). Even the EagleTac / Sportac Triple XP-G2 P60 Dropin fits without a problem.


Now I love it even more!

I'm wondering if this would be possible with the newer 6PX heads. :thinking:

 

[cland72]

I'm wondering if this would be possible with the newer 6PX heads. :thinking:

It is, based on the post you quoted.

 

[derLichtschalter]

I don't think the heads changed much, when they increased the lumens from 200 to 320...

 

[flashlight chronic]

Here's my modded 6PX tactical w/ a Malkoff M61NL running off an AW 2900mah 18650 IC

 

[cullen.salisbury]

Nice job man!


Sent from my iPad using Candlepowerforums

 

[flashlight chronic]

Nice job man!


Sent from my iPad using Candlepowerforums

Thank you kindly!

 

[martinaee]

The Surefire Stratum (now discontinued) had a Low-Med-High configuration, but I found it cumbersome to switch through. The Low-High of the 6PX "feels" very quick by comparison. Surefire only recommends primary cells or the K2 branded LiFePo4 batteries for their lights, but I've had excellent experience running Keepower 16650's in my 6PX and G2X with no issues. My particular G2X is an early model that would not fit an AW 17670.

Does anyone know for sure if the "newest" version of the G2X pro (springs in both ends) will take a 17670? I was looking at getting a protected AW 17670 for it.

 

[martinaee]

It MIGHT... but if it does, it'll be tight. You're probably better off going with protected 16650 cells since they are higher capacity, and thinner than the 17670.

fasttech.com has Sanyo 16650 for 12.08 each with free international shipping, but they are sold out right now.

Disregard my last post about 17670's then. I thought the name of the batteries indicated their dimensions. How are 17670's lower capacity than 16650's? Different chemistry?

I might try to get one of those 16650's then. Yeah illumn.com (illumination supply) has good Sanyo 16650's it seems. I'll probably get some from them. They actually seem to have a better selection of lithium ion cells than a lot of places I've seen online.

 

[cland72]

Same chemistry, just different materials, engineering, or technology I suppose. I purchased two 16650s from Ill Suppy a couple of months ago and they are GTG in my E2E and E2D, so I'm sure they'll fit the G2X.

 

[RobertMM]

There hasn't been that great of a demand for 17670s(outside of flashlight use) so few manufacturers think of putting out a newer, higher capacity version unlike 18650s, which jump in capacity by 200-300 mAh as months go by. So we're stuck with old tech 17670s, which have been in 1600 mAh capacity for years.
I remember seeing a runtime graph of 16650s used in a 320 lumen G2X(in this thread, I think). The cell and the light's circuit are a great match, such that output and runtime are almost identical to using a pair of primaries. Think direct replacement for primaries, without the capacity loss or having to bore out the light body.

 

[martinaee]

There hasn't been that great of a demand for 17670s(outside of flashlight use) so few manufacturers think of putting out a newer, higher capacity version unlike 18650s, which jump in capacity by 200-300 mAh as months go by. So we're stuck with old tech 17670s, which have been in 1600 mAh capacity for years.
I remember seeing a runtime graph of 16650s used in a 320 lumen G2X(in this thread, I think). The cell and the light's circuit are a great match, such that output and runtime are almost identical to using a pair of primaries. Think direct replacement for primaries, without the capacity loss or having to bore out the light body.

That sounds FANTASTIC. I have a small box of CR123's but hate using them. Like my other lights I keep high quality lithium primaries as an emergency stash (cr123's, L91 lithium aa's, alkaline D cells for my Streamlight lantern) but everything gets 18650's or NiMh for actual use most of the time.

I own the Fenix ARE-C1 two 18650 charger for 18650's (not the newest version with a digital display) ... would there be any problem charging one or two 16650's in it? Physically they should fit fine I think.