Nitecore Explorer Series (EC1, EC2, EA1, EA2)
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DavidMB
Newly Enlightened
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- Jan 5, 2005
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Is there a way of stopping the red led from blinking other then unscrewing the tail cap?
You can also use the electronic lockout. While the light is on hold the power button in until the light flashes and turns off. Shortly after, the red led will flash giving the battery voltage and then the light will be locked out. While in electronic lockout the red led will not flash after giving the battery voltage. You have to press and hold the power button for a couple to a few seconds to bring it out of lockout, so you are protected against an accidental quick press.
When the main emitter is on, hold down on the power button. It will go into standby until you hod the power button again.
alohasurftoad
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- Mar 8, 2006
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how accessible is the emitter to do a swap? does that silver trim ring unscrew to gain access to the emitter from the front or will the whole pill have to be removed from the back, if that is even possible?
importculture
Newly Enlightened
I don't think it's a battery issue, at least I hope not. My cr explorer is using a new surefire cr123 but the AA light is using a new alkaline but I can test it using an eneloop and lithium energizer. Ha ha good excuse to use the light tonight. But I don't think it will make much of a difference since both lights heat up when using the red led. I'm more than willing to try whatever I can to remedy the problem instead of sending it back. Thanks for your input I appreciate it
tam17
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If you can test both lights across different battery chemistries/manufacturers/charge states and heating still persists, it's most likely the result of a freak driver issue. There's no way that a 3mm red LED draws a significant current (over, say, 20mA) and still stays lit up. Nothing you can do really, except to return the lights.
importculture
Newly Enlightened
Thanks for your suggestions unfortunately aside from eneloops I only have and use primaries. I can definitely try various battery manufacturers although they're mostly limited to primaries and brands that I have on hand. The interesting part is the other output levels seem fine with high reaching tolerable heat levels. So I am leaning toward just keeping them and dealing with not being able to leave the red led on for a prolonged length of time. Thanks for all the input from everyone I really appreciate it
Phil Ament
Enlightened
Well I have only just received two new EC1's just over an hour ago now, and I must say that I am not very impressed at all. After unpacking them and initially thinking that they looked so much nicer in real life and that I can't wait to try them out, I am now bitterly disappointed as they are both faulty and now need to be sent back. This situation is made even worse by the fact that I live in Australia and because they are not yet available here at all I had to purchase them from an authorised Nitecore dealer in the USA, and because it is now already dark here by the time that my wife gets home from work and then takes our two dogs for their nightly walk, and so for this reason I had wanted to get her one ASAP for her immediate use, and so I paid an extra $50 to have them both shipped over here by using USPS Express International. I had decided to ship them this way so that not only would my wife have one to use a lot sooner for her safety, but also because of the fact that they would be protected against any loss or damage sustained whilst in transit by the included USPS Express insurance cover, however now we are left in the position where not only will we now have to be without the lights for an extended period of time, but also the fact that the $50 we have already just spent on the expedited shipping may have just as very well been thrown in the rubbish bin, and even worse we are also now going to have to pay for them to be shipped back again for a warranty claim.
When I had first decided to purchase these, just as I usually always do I had specifically decided against either buying a cheap inferior quality item or buying something for a considerably lesser price from one of the various possibly unauthorised internet sellers (you most probably all know which place that I am referring to), and so not only did I decide to buy a supposed good quality and so called "respected" brand, but I also even went one step further than this by only purchasing them from an authorised dealer, not that all of this has seemed to have done me any good. What I would now really like to know is what's up with Nitecore and the fact that it appears as though there is either very little or no quality control whatsoever, nor does there appear to be any period of reliability testing carried out on any of their new products prior to them actually releasing them for sale to the unsuspecting public.
One of these lights only very partially works and the other one does not work at all, well just to be 100% accurate the red LED light is still able to be lit up on the otherwise totally non-functional light but that is the only thing that will work on it. The screws for the clip are also very loose and with no real way to effectively tighten them due to the fact that the clip totally covers the heads of the screws, and because of the extremely narrow size of the slots in it the only type of screwdriver that would fit in through them would only be a minuscule sized jewellers one which would then not be able to grip the philips screw heads properly due to the fact that it is about ten sizes too small for the intended job. It would then end up turning inside the slots and it would therefore most probably ruin the heads of the screws therefore making it impossible to either tighten or remove them at any future time.
Also when I compare the two reflectors of each light to each other there is a rather large difference in between the quality of them, as one is both very nicely formed and virtually as shiny as a mirror and the other one is not. Both of the LED's are far from being centred however the one in the "ATNFL" (Almost Totally Non-Functional Light) is so extremely bad that if it was centred any worse the LED would be actually touching the reflector on one side. As to the exact problem that causes them to actually not function correctly, it appears that in the "PFL" (Partially Functional Light) that if it is fitted with any primary CR123 that measures 3 volts or under it will not work at all, and I have quadruple checked this by not only using several different brands of battery (Surefire, Energizer Lithium, Tenergy, Titanium Innovations and Eagle Tac) but I have also tested them first by using four different DMM's, yet all with the same end result of the "PFL" not functioning at all. It does appear to function whenever I either use a primary CR123 that has a reading of at least 3.2 volts or if I was to use a fully recharged RCR123 with a reading of 4.18 volts.
I have also tried exactly the same thing with the "ATNFL" but it will not even work at all (except for the red LED that is) with any of the many different primary CR123's or rechargeable RCR123's that I have tried in it no matter how high their voltage was. I will also add that I have not even tried to contact the US dealer that I purchased them from yet because even though it is not their fault at all and I do not blame them for it in any way, I do know that even if I was to contact them that the chances are that I would most probably still have to pay for the rather high international shipping costs of returning both the lights, and just to leave an even far worse taste in my mouth we would also end up being without them for a very minimum of one month and much more likely even several months. I have since decided to contact the local distributor about it and he appears to be going above and beyond the call of duty and he has also been most helpful as due to the circumstances he has very kindly offered to contact the manufacturer on my behalf about all of the problems, and he has kindly offered that I may be able to quite possibly ship the lights to him directly thus saving me some further unnecessary costs, which is something that I truly do appreciate if in fact the situation does eventuate. Unfortunately for me and my wife this will still mean that we will be without them for a very extended amount of time!
Overall this has not been a very uplifting experience to say the very least, as I had originally been quite excited and enthusiastic earlier this morning when I first knew that they were going to arrive, however any positive feelings that I had were VERY short lived and the whole thing has really sort of ruined my day to a certain degree. The worst part about all of this is that it could have all been so easily averted if the manufacturer in question had bothered to make certain that they were supplying the general public with a product that was fit to be used for it's intended purpose before it even left their doors however this appears not to have been done in any way shape or form, and actually getting a well made and fully functional light is much more akin to a "lucky dip", and because of this I will be extremely hesitant to ever purchase a Nitecore product (or their sister brands) ever again. I possess many many lights of different brands and different types and thankfully this sort of scenario doesn't seem to happen very often, touch wood. I also happen to own several very nice JETBeam's and as a matter of fact I even own a Nitecore TM11 however I am quite sure that I don't have to tell anyone about all the various problems that many people have had with this particular light as well.
Also I would really like to apologise for my post being so long but I wanted to try and make absolutely certain that I had included all of the relevant details and that I was also being 100% factual whilst doing so, and I have mainly gone to all this trouble just to let people know what has happened so that hopefully others will be able to avoid being unnecessarily placed in to a similar most unfortunate situation. Lastly and most importantly I will just say that somebody definitely needs to get their act together!
Sincerely Yours
Phil Ament (DNO, SHPAB) :wave:
Disgruntled Nitecore Owner
Should Have Purchased Another Brand
When I had first decided to purchase these, just as I usually always do I had specifically decided against either buying a cheap inferior quality item or buying something for a considerably lesser price from one of the various possibly unauthorised internet sellers (you most probably all know which place that I am referring to), and so not only did I decide to buy a supposed good quality and so called "respected" brand, but I also even went one step further than this by only purchasing them from an authorised dealer, not that all of this has seemed to have done me any good. What I would now really like to know is what's up with Nitecore and the fact that it appears as though there is either very little or no quality control whatsoever, nor does there appear to be any period of reliability testing carried out on any of their new products prior to them actually releasing them for sale to the unsuspecting public.
One of these lights only very partially works and the other one does not work at all, well just to be 100% accurate the red LED light is still able to be lit up on the otherwise totally non-functional light but that is the only thing that will work on it. The screws for the clip are also very loose and with no real way to effectively tighten them due to the fact that the clip totally covers the heads of the screws, and because of the extremely narrow size of the slots in it the only type of screwdriver that would fit in through them would only be a minuscule sized jewellers one which would then not be able to grip the philips screw heads properly due to the fact that it is about ten sizes too small for the intended job. It would then end up turning inside the slots and it would therefore most probably ruin the heads of the screws therefore making it impossible to either tighten or remove them at any future time.
Also when I compare the two reflectors of each light to each other there is a rather large difference in between the quality of them, as one is both very nicely formed and virtually as shiny as a mirror and the other one is not. Both of the LED's are far from being centred however the one in the "ATNFL" (Almost Totally Non-Functional Light) is so extremely bad that if it was centred any worse the LED would be actually touching the reflector on one side. As to the exact problem that causes them to actually not function correctly, it appears that in the "PFL" (Partially Functional Light) that if it is fitted with any primary CR123 that measures 3 volts or under it will not work at all, and I have quadruple checked this by not only using several different brands of battery (Surefire, Energizer Lithium, Tenergy, Titanium Innovations and Eagle Tac) but I have also tested them first by using four different DMM's, yet all with the same end result of the "PFL" not functioning at all. It does appear to function whenever I either use a primary CR123 that has a reading of at least 3.2 volts or if I was to use a fully recharged RCR123 with a reading of 4.18 volts.
I have also tried exactly the same thing with the "ATNFL" but it will not even work at all (except for the red LED that is) with any of the many different primary CR123's or rechargeable RCR123's that I have tried in it no matter how high their voltage was. I will also add that I have not even tried to contact the US dealer that I purchased them from yet because even though it is not their fault at all and I do not blame them for it in any way, I do know that even if I was to contact them that the chances are that I would most probably still have to pay for the rather high international shipping costs of returning both the lights, and just to leave an even far worse taste in my mouth we would also end up being without them for a very minimum of one month and much more likely even several months. I have since decided to contact the local distributor about it and he appears to be going above and beyond the call of duty and he has also been most helpful as due to the circumstances he has very kindly offered to contact the manufacturer on my behalf about all of the problems, and he has kindly offered that I may be able to quite possibly ship the lights to him directly thus saving me some further unnecessary costs, which is something that I truly do appreciate if in fact the situation does eventuate. Unfortunately for me and my wife this will still mean that we will be without them for a very extended amount of time!
Overall this has not been a very uplifting experience to say the very least, as I had originally been quite excited and enthusiastic earlier this morning when I first knew that they were going to arrive, however any positive feelings that I had were VERY short lived and the whole thing has really sort of ruined my day to a certain degree. The worst part about all of this is that it could have all been so easily averted if the manufacturer in question had bothered to make certain that they were supplying the general public with a product that was fit to be used for it's intended purpose before it even left their doors however this appears not to have been done in any way shape or form, and actually getting a well made and fully functional light is much more akin to a "lucky dip", and because of this I will be extremely hesitant to ever purchase a Nitecore product (or their sister brands) ever again. I possess many many lights of different brands and different types and thankfully this sort of scenario doesn't seem to happen very often, touch wood. I also happen to own several very nice JETBeam's and as a matter of fact I even own a Nitecore TM11 however I am quite sure that I don't have to tell anyone about all the various problems that many people have had with this particular light as well.
Also I would really like to apologise for my post being so long but I wanted to try and make absolutely certain that I had included all of the relevant details and that I was also being 100% factual whilst doing so, and I have mainly gone to all this trouble just to let people know what has happened so that hopefully others will be able to avoid being unnecessarily placed in to a similar most unfortunate situation. Lastly and most importantly I will just say that somebody definitely needs to get their act together!
Sincerely Yours
Phil Ament (DNO, SHPAB) :wave:
Disgruntled Nitecore Owner
Should Have Purchased Another Brand
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TweakMDS
Enlightened
Sad to hear that Phil, I hope this was an faulty early production batch and they'll be able to ship you a pair of perfect ones soon.
I live in the Netherlands and getting certain lights is always an issue simply because there aren't authorized dealers for all manufacturers. There's a few stores around that do carry some of the major brands and they allow sending it back (for free even), so I tend to stick to those, especially with the more expensive lights.
I posted my doubt about nitecore's new models in another thread since they also seem to have had major problems with the D11.2 and the EX11.2 (the latter to a lesser extent).
Ironically one of my stores is a Nitecore dealer but only carries a few select models.
I live in the Netherlands and getting certain lights is always an issue simply because there aren't authorized dealers for all manufacturers. There's a few stores around that do carry some of the major brands and they allow sending it back (for free even), so I tend to stick to those, especially with the more expensive lights.
I posted my doubt about nitecore's new models in another thread since they also seem to have had major problems with the D11.2 and the EX11.2 (the latter to a lesser extent).
Ironically one of my stores is a Nitecore dealer but only carries a few select models.
Phil Ament
Enlightened
Thank you TweakMDS for your reply and I think that you have hit the nail right on the head. I had originally planned to only purchase one of these for my wife to mainly use for additional safety and protection whilst on her nightly dog walks now that it is dark here so early, but after having a couple of much closer looks at them (online only) and especially at the smooth and rather deep reflector that it had for it's relatively small size, and I had then decided that they would most probably make a very good little single CR123 sized pocket thrower, and that if I had only ended up getting one of them that when I received it, that it just may be so nice that my wife would still end up being without a light, if you know what I mean, and so I decided to buy two of them just so that we would have one each. Well initially it was a stroke of pure genius and also a very well thought out plan, however due to the fact that a particular company seems to have a very bad habit of releasing brand new models before they are actually truly fit for public sale and consumption, my great idea has now just become more of a "twice the headache" sort of a thing.
I also have only very recently been warned by several others (who wish to remain totally anonymous) to never ever buy a new Nitecore model till there have at least been a couple of "revision" versions as they seem to like to call them, and now I appear to have the irrefutable proof of why this Nitecore new model avoidance purchasing method should be strictly adhered to. I also very strongly believe that it is truly Nitecore's prerogative if they wish to release any new products before they are actually really ready for the market, however I just as strongly believe that if they do choose to do this then they should also fully suffer the consequences of their actions as well!
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TweakMDS
Enlightened
It's always a balancing act between getting the latest and the greatest vs getting "proven technology".
The Explorers have a lot going for them: decent runtimes, top of it's class throw, good form factor and build (looks like it anyway) nice new UI (although that's my least favorite feature of it). I've been looking at the EA2 because I'm looking at a 2xAA thrower, but based on your experiences I'm hesitating to either wait a while or simply get another light that's been around and is sold locally (Sunwayman m20A).
What troubles me is that Nitecore was apparently unable to bring out a stable product with the D11.2, and rather than do a recall and fix this very interesting light, their solution was to discontinue it.
It's predecessors also had issues. However; if they wanted to put all their eggs in the Explorer basket, it's likely that they'll fix those right up and push those together with the TM11 as their "flagship" lights. I have theories, but it's all speculation of course.
The Explorers have a lot going for them: decent runtimes, top of it's class throw, good form factor and build (looks like it anyway) nice new UI (although that's my least favorite feature of it). I've been looking at the EA2 because I'm looking at a 2xAA thrower, but based on your experiences I'm hesitating to either wait a while or simply get another light that's been around and is sold locally (Sunwayman m20A).
What troubles me is that Nitecore was apparently unable to bring out a stable product with the D11.2, and rather than do a recall and fix this very interesting light, their solution was to discontinue it.
It's predecessors also had issues. However; if they wanted to put all their eggs in the Explorer basket, it's likely that they'll fix those right up and push those together with the TM11 as their "flagship" lights. I have theories, but it's all speculation of course.
tam17
Enlightened
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2011
- Messages
- 737
Sorry to hear your story, Phil Ament.
That's one of the reasons why I never buy flashlights online, but wait until (if ever) the item becomes available locally. By doing things that way I'm certainly not one of the lucky dozen of flashaholics to be first to own a shiny new piece of technology, but I can surely play safe and test the flashlight before I buy it, thus sparing myself from the hassle of warranty claim and subsequent return.
Regarding the TWO faulty lights being shipped to the same customer, in one of my previous posts I've wished that NC introduced tighter factory quality control standards for the E series, but this obviously didn't happen - at least not for the time being...:sigh:
Cheers
That's one of the reasons why I never buy flashlights online, but wait until (if ever) the item becomes available locally. By doing things that way I'm certainly not one of the lucky dozen of flashaholics to be first to own a shiny new piece of technology, but I can surely play safe and test the flashlight before I buy it, thus sparing myself from the hassle of warranty claim and subsequent return.
Regarding the TWO faulty lights being shipped to the same customer, in one of my previous posts I've wished that NC introduced tighter factory quality control standards for the E series, but this obviously didn't happen - at least not for the time being...:sigh:
Cheers
Here is a crude video of my issues. Primary battery @ 3.01v, RCR @ 4.17/4.18v. With a primary battery the light will briefly function normally. The primary battery allows the modes to be cycled 2 times before it no longer advances. Strobe and S.O.S. are dimmer than what I would expect them to be. RCR runs fine. This one is on it's way back for an exchange. Hope the replacement is without bugs, it really is a nice light.
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biglights
Enlightened
- Joined
- May 13, 2012
- Messages
- 515
Mine works awesome!! Sucks that you guys are having problems.:sick2:
Phil Ament
Enlightened
Thanks to both TweakMDS and tam17 for your valuable input.
tam17, whilst I generally fully agree with the points that you raised and though they may sound fine in theory, it can also be quite a different story once you try to put them in to practise. The reasons that I say this is because in a perfect world I too would much prefer to be able to purchase these or any other items from a local dealer, however it can quite often be a very long time before our much smaller country actually ends up having these items available for us to purchase locally, and some times we will even find that they never are. There are also several other influencing factors such as our dollar's exchange rate which in the last several years has wildly fluctuated from being worth between as little as US$0.60 right up to being valued at US$1.10 and right as I speak it is currently sitting at just over US$1.02. What this then means is that in what could be as little as a few months (or even weeks) time I could find that the price of the very same item could have more than effectively doubled, and thus making the purchase of a flashlight like the EC1 not at all financially viable regardless of whether it is either purchased locally or not!
Another one of the reasons is most probably best explained if I was to give you an example. Just the other day I had been considering purchasing a new soldering station and I had been specifically looking for a very well known and long respected brand and I had narrowed it down to one particular model. When I first tried to search for the item just to see who had one in stock, all of the results that originally came up pointed me towards overseas sellers and they were mainly US based ones, and it also showed that the model in question was usually sold for around the $150 mark. I then proceeded to attempt to do what I always usually do and that was to try and find the same item from a local authorised dealer, yet to my shock and horror when I did eventually find it available at several different local resellers the prices varied anywhere from between the very lowest of $499 right up to a rather incredible $999 and all for exactly the same item. Now whilst I generally do not mind having to pay a certain premium for the luxury of being able to purchase items locally, there also comes a point in time when to do so would seem to be just too ridiculous for words. Now if we were to switch places for a moment and we were also to pretend that the above mentioned item was a flashlight instead, would you be prepared to pay between $499 and $999 just so that you could buy it in the USA or would you consider ordering online if it was currently available from an Australian authorised reseller for the normal price of only $150, so now you tell me.
My last point is that I don't really put all of my trust in to the fact that if I was to go out to a store for the sake of trying a particular light out in person, that if I was to order one that I would end up receiving one that was completely identical in every way. What I really mean to say is that if I had specifically looked at how well centred the light in the stores LED was and I had found that it was perfectly centralised that does not necessarily meant that the one that I would end up receiving would be exactly the same. As a matter of fact just before I had decided to purchase these lights several days ago I had read through Selfbuilt's review of them here at CPF and it all seemed to bode very well. The thing is that much later on and only after I had just realised that my two new lights were going to need to be returned, I went back to the very same review and I decided to have another read of it and it was during this time that I happened to notice that if had the following words included at the bottom of the review:
Now when I say this I am in no way whatsoever casting any aspersions towards Selfbuilt or any of his reviews in any way shape or form as this is not at all what is intended, and I truly enjoy reading through his many different reviews and I often find them invaluable. My problem is that once I started to really think about the above statement I immediately began to wonder just how truly representative a particular product would be if it was not only being supplied by the manufacturer, but also being done so with them being fully aware of the fact that they were to be used for testing purposes for a review on an extremely popular forum, or anywhere else for that matter. In my eyes I would feel much better about it if the item/s in question were randomly plucked off some shelf somewhere, as I would be much more inclined to believe that it was a true representation of what you or I would experience if we were to venture out in to this big wide world and purchase one as a member of the public. Anyway I really hope that you can see my points of view!
Phil Ament
Enlightened
biglights
If mine were to work too I would have most probably considered them to be quite awesome as well!
Phil Ament
Enlightened
Nice job there moshow9, very well done. I am sorry to hear that you too have problems and it also looks as though a few of them appear to be very similar indeed. Can I also ask you just how shiny your reflector is and how well the LED is centred in your light. The one thing that I consider myself quite lucky to have had is to be able to have the two of them side by side to compare to each other, and which has also really shown me just how very different the quality and construction can be between these two supposedly identical lights! Built in different factories maybe (or on different days of the week!), or parts have been made by different suppliers or possibly even all of these scenarios!
Also as a matter of interest could you please tell me just at least part of your light's serial number so that we may be able to try and establish some type of pattern here, although as I said you don't really have to provide all (or any) of it if you prefer not too!
Also as a matter of interest could you please tell me just at least part of your light's serial number so that we may be able to try and establish some type of pattern here, although as I said you don't really have to provide all (or any) of it if you prefer not too!
biglights
Enlightened
- Joined
- May 13, 2012
- Messages
- 515
Hopefully they take care of you and make this right!!! That is a real downer, hope all works out for you!!
Phil Ament
Enlightened
By the way moshow9. I have only just realised that there is a typo in your post and so just to avoid any possible confusion I thought that I should point it out to you. When you are mentioning the battery voltages you state the following:
When I had only just reread it I had presumed that you must have meant to say that the RCR was really 4.17/4.18v and not the 3.17/3.18v that you have actually written. I have also just watched your video again and after seeing the volt meter readings after you have attached it to the RCR it has just reconfirmed to me what I had suspected the case to be. I hope that this helps to avoid any possible confusion about the problems with your light and your battery's true voltage levels.
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