Is This Optic Damaged / Defective? Gladius Creemator Upgrade (Pics)

[zifnab69]

Finally i repair my gladius.
I buy on ebay some thermal double sided tape. I do my best to center the led on the cooler. And more important, put some silicon grease on the plastic seals and i was able to screew the head again.
I think the led is not well centered, but it's acceptable.

For information , the cooler is a piece of aluminium, fixed with thermal double sided tape to the flashlight boddy.

Well. If you are not a flashlight and electronic expert, don't open it.

 

[akajimmy]

I am going to have to do my best Joe Friday impression.

No updates other than awaiting parts, still in process.

My Gladius should be here on Monday. Any news on yours? I will give a report on it on Monday night.

 

[yellow]

Really, I did not want to type anything here, but that RIDICULUS CUSTOMS COST - all a FAULT of the modder - could have been avioded.

There is the possibility to already ship some item from at home declaring it will be somehow reworked, so the primary cost of the item does not count - it has already been payed as the customer has it inside the country - and ONLY the additional cost will be charged.
And a good modder will probably be able to state an amount that is below the customer country's VAT/Tax limit.

imho it is the dammed duty of any "shop" to know that and to inform possible client of this, instead of stating some amount that has nothing more to do with reality and that only leads to EXTREME and unnecessary bureaucracy cost.

 

[JNewell]

Please post your results. I received the "repaired" upgraded Gladius earlier this week. I have not had time to take pictures or really evaluate it, but on a quick look the replacement optic appears to be significantly scratched again.

I have been trying to research this but time is somewhat limited. Khatod says some scratches are permitted "as long as beam quality is not affected" or similar words. However, I own quite a pile of lights with optics, and not one shows any sign of scratches or similar issues, so I don't know why the Strategos Gladius upgrade should be any different.

I need to talk to them live voice about why the optic still shows a large number of scratches. I'll post some pics later today if I get a chance.

My Gladius should be here on Monday. Any news on yours? I will give a report on it on Monday night.

 

[jellydonut]

I have been in contact with them during the crash and have returned the light to them. I also spoke to them by telephone. I was told that there was no way they could assure that a light was reassembled with its original window. That means some other lucky customer got a perfect window while I've got one that is...to be very diplomatic...less than perfect. I expect them to replace it with a new one, but we will see. That presumably means that there is no assurance that you'll get your original tailcap back, which is a non-trivial issue because there were several different versions of the tailcap, and at least the first version was actually a defective design.

This is completely unacceptable! I'd expect the parts to be kept track of as a basic minimum. It would seem the operation consists of disassembling every light and mixing all the parts together, before reassembly. :thumbsdow

The optics on my Malkoffs (two M60s and one 1. gen Wildcat) are all flawless, apart from of course the external abuse and scratching that one of them has, but that's on account of my own use, not assembly.

 

[zifnab69]

For information and for guys who have problems with the gladius ucl lens;..
Flashlightlens have "actually" 32 28.6*2.84 UCL lens usable for gladius. Next week they have 70
i buy 2 of them...
http://www.flashlightlens.com/str/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=display&ref=apps_specs

I think it's time to buy some.....

 

[akajimmy]

I received the Gladius back. My lens is not scratched. The optic appears to have a couple of very minor scratches.

When I hit the wall from about 6 feet back. It has a nice hotspot with some spill. The outer edge appears to be square. Then blank then a little more spill. I will try and put some pics up later. Looking at the bezel. It appears to be nicked up a little. It was a little beat up already. These appear to be some pretty big nicks. There is also gap between the bezel and the body, beg enough to put my thumbnail in.

Added pictures

Here you can see the gap

THe lens looks pretty clean. No internal dust and hear that my eyes can see.

I had a few scuffs on it. Face it. the light was 6 years old. But those are major dings that I had nothing to do with.
I have a phone picture of the light. But its of the other side.

I am pretty happy with the upgrade. Not happy with the poor workmanship. With my skills I think I could have done a better job.

Here is beamshot on full about 5 feet from the wall.

On a positive note. It is slightly on the warm side.

 

[JNewell]

I am still way behind, but I wanted to respond by noting that the underscored below seems problematic at best.

I received the Gladius back. My lens is not scratched. The optic appears to have a couple of very minor scratches.

When I hit the wall from about 6 feet back. It has a nice hotspot with some spill. The outer edge appears to be square. Then blank then a little more spill. I will try and put some pics up later. Looking at the bezel. It appears to be nicked up a little. It was a little beat up already. These appear to be some pretty big nicks. There is also gap between the bezel and the body, beg enough to put my thumbnail in.

 

[Jetrider]

I sent my Gladius in awhile ago, I've been using the Gladius as my primary duty light for years and figured the upgrade would be well worth the money. The R5 is impressive however the QC was unsatisfactory. The light was returned with a smudged reflector and dirty lens. hopefully this is just a cosmetic issue and the durability of the light has not been compromised.

beam shots here: http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/998/beamshots.jpg

 

[JNewell]

I got my light back, for the second time, several weeks ago. Bluntly, while everyone gets a chance to foul up once and fix it, I'm not so happy about a second round. The short version is that in spite of a written promise from a Strategos representative that my light would be personally inspected to ensure it met their standards before being returned to me the second time, the light was returned with essentially all the defects it had the first time.

I really do need to contact them again about this, but honesty if this is the best Strategos can do, then I have to question whether the work that *can't* be seen without disassembling the light was properly done. Further, I have to say that at this time, I would urge anyone considering this upgrade not to do it. I will have more to say after I reach them, which I hope to do later this week.

I sent my Gladius in awhile ago, I've been using the Gladius as my primary duty light for years and figured the upgrade would be well worth the money. The R5 is impressive however the QC was unsatisfactory. The light was returned with a smudged reflector and dirty lens. hopefully this is just a cosmetic issue and the durability of the light has not been compromised.

beam shots here: http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/998/beamshots.jpg

 

[stephencrews]

Hello all. I'm sorry that this reply is late, but I just got word of a few complaints. As for the Gladius Upgrades, we have corrected all of the issues that we were having with some of the lights. As for the "smudges" that some were facing, this has been corrected. As for the optics (instead of a reflector) that we now use, there are going to be some very insignificant imperfections. Since it is a hard plastic optic instead of a metal reflector, we can only clean the optic the best we can with an anti-scratch cleaner. We cannot guarantee that it will be as perfect as a reflector could be, but we do the very best we can with getting it as perfect as possible. The "glue" marks around the lens are not glue at all. In fact if you look at the marks, they are symmetrical. These are the indentions in the optic that holds the optic firm into the optic holder. As for the lens movement, we have found that not every Gladius is made alike. We have now come up with different size spacers that fit all of the Gladius'. By doing this, there is no gap in the bezel like some have commented about. Everything is now firmly fit.

As to some of the comments of us not being able to "ensure that the parts stay with the light", this is not correct. The lens never leaves the bezel unless it falls out during modification. Then it is cleaned and placed back into the bezel immediately. There is no possibility of "swapping out" lenses.

As for the way that the bezel is taken off, we use a padded piece of equipment that does not scratch the bezel. We also make note of the condition of each piece of equipment that comes in. If the light was not returned to you in the same condition that it was sent, then you should let us know about it so that we can check our records and make sure that it's corrected.

As for the customs charge, we claimed the amount of the light replacement the same way we always do with UPS so that if it's lost then the light can be replaced. We have had a customer recently who's light was lost by UPS and because of us doing it this way, the customer was able to get a reimbursement of $200 on the light rather than just the $70 for the upgrade. You are able to make a request for the value to be declared at just the upgrade price if you wish, but keep in mind that if the situation occurs that the light is lost in shipping, then you will only be reimbursed that price.

We apologize for the few that have negative experiences with your upgrades. We will do our best to correct whatever issues that you may have with this. Thanks.

Stephen Crews
Strategos International
Logistics/Instructor