The Official Zebralight Thread .

[Bob_McBob]

Bob, do you think it's a bad enough defect to ask Zebra to repair or replace the driver/light for those that pre-ordered?

It's hard to say. The main symptom with stock lights is somewhat lower efficiency, particularly on H1 before the stepdown. It's much more of a problem for modded lights, because the efficiency absolutely tanks at higher currents with XHP35, but I can hardly blame them for that since it wasn't designed to be used that way.

Zebralight will do stuff like this to simplify driver designs and PCB layouts. All the previous generation TPS61088 lights (anything with a boost driver) are also missing the same parts without any serious issues, so presumably they didn't think it would matter with the TPS61288. I doubt they will be willing to replace lights under warranty since they work fine otherwise.

 

[this_is_nascar]

I agree 100%

They also should've emailed the customers who purchased the first bad batch and let them know what's going on and in turn for an exchange or refund for the new corrected version

Agreed. I'm telling you right now, this is not sitting right with me. I'm beyond pissed.

What runtime or other test(s) can the user perform to confirm they do or don't have a defective product?

 

[ilikeguns40]

Agreed. I'm telling you right now, this is not sitting right with me. I'm beyond pissed.

What runtime or other test(s) can the user perform to confirm they do or don't have a defective product?

Don't blame you. I am looking forward to the new SC700 90.3 HI. Hopefully they get that driver right from the start. Now I'm skeptical on pre order.

 

[AstroTurf]

Don't blame you. I am looking forward to the new SC700 90.3 HI. Hopefully they get that driver right from the start. Now I'm skeptical on pre order.

i'm more than skeptical...

i'll wait until y'all have your fun and spill the beans first.

 

[Monocrom]

Me too. I'm just going to let other members be the Beta testers before deciding on getting that Pre-Order model.

 

[cave dave]

I ordered mine 6 Sept, so that's really crappy to hear it might be faulty.

 

[id30209]

Don't blame you. I am looking forward to the new SC700 90.3 HI. Hopefully they get that driver right from the start. Now I'm skeptical on pre order.

SC700 will have the same driver, only emitter will be changed

 

[this_is_nascar]

Again, how or what can the user test to see if their light is impacted?

 

[Christoph]

Mine shipped august 14th I'm with you TIN.

 

[Bob_McBob]

Again, how or what can the user test to see if their light is impacted?

It's not really something you can meaningfully test on an individual light without disassembling it. You're not going to notice efficiency being 2-3% lower, and you're probably not going to notice the larger efficiency difference on H1, since it will step down to a more efficient level after a couple minutes under normal conditions. You could definitely measure the difference between the two versions side by side in cooled runtime tests, and it may have a noticeable impact if you use your light continuously on H1 in the winter.

It is certainly frustrating, and I made a personal point of not selling any lights without the comp fix, but I probably wouldn't expect most flashlight companies to replace hundreds or thousands of lights because of it.

 

[this_is_nascar]

It's not really something you can meaningfully test on an individual light without disassembling it. You're not going to notice efficiency being 2-3% lower, and you're probably not going to notice the larger efficiency difference on H1, since it will step down to a more efficient level after a couple minutes under normal conditions. You could definitely measure the difference between the two versions side by side in cooled runtime tests, and it may have a noticeable impact if you use your light continuously on H1 in the winter.

It is certainly frustrating, and I made a personal point of not selling any lights without the comp fix, but I probably wouldn't expect most flashlight companies to replace hundreds or thousands of lights because of it.

Maybe not, but I would expect ZL to make good on this and replace the impacted lights. I would have also expected some type of notification from them, outlining the issue and their plans to rectify it.

 

[Monocrom]

The vibe ZL is giving off nowadays just makes me look at other brands, or significantly older ZL models from back in the day; when the company's reputation was more solid.

 

[AstroTurf]

The vibe ZL is giving off nowadays just makes me look at other brands, or significantly older ZL models from back in the day; when the company's reputation was more solid.

agreed, pre covid...

 

[this_is_nascar]

The vibe ZL is giving off nowadays just makes me look at other brands, or significantly older ZL models from back in the day; when the company's reputation was more solid.

It will certainly influence if/how I will or will not recommend ZL in the future. When I get a free few moments, I'm going to call them and go from there. I can only call them out so much, without actually speaking to someone first.

 

[raggie33]

i still love my zebra. i hope they do some cool white options. i am odd i trully prefere around 6000k

 

[jon_slider]

how or what can the user test to see if their light is impacted?

IF you have access to a scope, or an Opple, you can compare the scope scan, or Opple flicker Index raw data of your SC65 to these images:

the ones with missing components that impact efficiency look like this on a scope:

the ones with no missing components look like this:

full details in this thread:

You're not going to notice efficiency being 2-3% lower

agree

on M1 the link I posted shows efficiency of 89% on the drivers with missing components, as opposed to 93% on the drivers will the components installed.

 

[this_is_nascar]

IF you have access to a scope, or an Opple, you can compare the scope scan, or Opple flicker Index raw data of your SC65 to these images:

the ones with missing components that impact efficiency look like this on a scope:
View attachment 53370

the ones with no missing components look like this:
View attachment 53369
full details in this thread:


agree

on M1 the link I posted shows efficiency of 89% on the drivers with missing components, as opposed to 93% on the drivers will the components installed.

Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't have access to equipment like that. That's a big enough difference (~4.5% less efficient) as far as I'm concerned. One of the major hypes about the ZL line is the circuit, the efficiency, etc

 

[Bob_McBob]

IF you have access to a scope, or an Opple, you can compare the scope scan, or Opple flicker Index raw data of your SC65 to these images:

the ones with missing components that impact efficiency look like this on a scope:
View attachment 53370

the ones with no missing components look like this:
View attachment 53369

The oscillations there are nearly 80 kHz and would only be visible with a scope using a very fast diode. The Opple cannot measure this kind of frequency.

 

[id30209]

Guys please stop.
All the things you're crying about is what you'll never notice until you go that BLF tester route and 99% of you won't.
So in other words, you'll have a hard time to tell efficiency between first and last batch drivers.
Just get another hobby…simple…

 

[ilikeguns40]

There's only one official solution.

Malkoff.