ITP A6 POLESTAR initial disappointment

[SkunkWerx]

Well, I received my A6 Polestar today.

Read the instructions. Pretty sparse.

"Insert batteries with the positive end toward the head of the light"

OK, well this seems pretty straight forward, but the battery carrier has a spring at the bottom of 2 of the channels, and then a spring at the top of the 3rd channel?

I have always inserted batteries with the negative (flat) side toward the spring. :shrug:

Using 6 brand new EnergizerMax alkalines I loaded it up following their instructions: + toward the head of the light.
The carrier has --> arrows --> pointing toward the head or front.

Nothing. Dead. NO light. OK, they screwed up the instructions.
I get a magnifying glass and my Maratac AAA and inspect the carrier, I can see how the battery channels are connected, and YES, you put the flat/negative side toward the spring to complete the typical zig-zag voltage-in-series scheme.

Strike 1: for not placing a + and - on the carrier itself, and for not caring for this in the instructions. C'mon, update the instructions for a new light!

Got a VM, all batteries are reading above 1.6v, so there wasn't a "stinker" in the mix.

Next, I went with my initial gut reaction, and placed the 2 batteries in the odd channel with their negative bases toward the spring.
Got light. Pathetic Dim Light. Must be LOW.

OK, but the Instructions say:
"Press and hold the side switch to cycle through the modes"
"Release the side switch to select and memorize the mode"

Now it gets interesting, press and hold the switch, nothing happens.
I hold it for like 5 to 10 seconds, still LOW.
Release, it's still dim / LOW.

So I figure I'll turn it off and try again.
Press again. Stays on, won't turn off.
Click, click, click.... wont turn off.

Ummm, strike 2. Light won't turn Off. Unscrew tail cap , light goes out.
Screw Tail Cap back in. Press side switch. Nothing, no light.
Again, still no light.

OK, I'm thinking, this shouldn't be this difficult. Remove the carrier, inspect again, re-install.

Press button, get LOW mode. yay!! all this money for 12 lumens of light! [sarcasm] :duh2:

This time i press and hold. 5 seconds, 10 seconds.....at about the 20 second mark it changes to Medium!! whoo hooo!! I play with medium, shining it about. Decide to turn it off. Press and release. Still in Medium mode. Press again, still in medium mode. Won't turn Off.

Needless to say, this doesn't seem right. :thinking:

First thought is the switch, wonder if can test or clean it?
Second thought is the circuit/processor just isn't quite right?
Third thought, did the initial battery insertion all facing same direction (as per instructions) do anything?

Still messing with it at this point.
More to follow.

I own several ITP lights, each one has been 100% great out of the box and functioned flawlessly.

Just giving an honest initial experience, after pre-ordering and waiting a month. Not a happy camper.

NO reflection on Going Gear, they did their part getting it shipped when it was available.

If it's still acting up later this eve and/or tomorrow morning, I'll call for customer service.

ITP really needs to look at their battery install instructions.
"Insert the batteries with the positive end toward the head of the light"
Yeah, right.

 

[qip]

have you seen the news, defective carrier...itp is making new ones

 

[SkunkWerx]

Update: It's a goofy switch. Pretty sure.

I have now cycled completely through the modes, however, sometimes it likes the contact the switch is making, and other times not.

This also explains why sometimes it won't switch On and other times it won't switch Off.

The head on this light won't unscrew. I don't even think it's threaded.
Blew it out with some air cleaner, just in case it had dust or dirt in the switch contacts. Still the same symptoms.

Update again: Now after clicking it 50 or 100 odd times, it seems to be making somewhat better contact. 8 out of 10 times it will switch On, or Switch Off, which beats the 1 out of 10 times I started with.

Modes are reacting similarly. It switch modes, albeit still slowly, on most "press & holds", occasionally balking.
I only wanted this light for it's High setting. If I can get it to simply switch on & off consistantly, in High mode, I'll deal with it for a while and see if it settles in.

I'm slightly more optimistic than before, but I think most non-flashaholic consumers would have already boxed it back up for return.

Curious to hear from others regarding QC, did I just get a fluke?

 

[SkunkWerx]

have you seen the news, defective carrier...itp is making new ones

NO kidding???? wow!

No, I hadn't, just got back from a trip, got the box today.
I had read the A6 thread , maybe a few days ago, but didn't pick up on that info.

Thanks, I'll check into it!! :wave:

 

[madmook]

I also got mine today from goinggear, and mine is working perfectly. I do agree with the weird battery directions, though. Two racks have the + side facing towards the head, like the instructions state, but that last rack just had to be special and face the opposite direction, lmao. Should've gone with your gut and stuck to the tried and true "negative side towards spring", Skunk. :naughty:

Anyways, the switch/clicker as well as changing between modes has yet to give me any problems, either. And I've clicked it on/off quite a few times already.

It's not night here, yet, but I am already satisfied with my Polestar. My main gripes right now are: 1) there's a slight high-pitched whine when on max mode, and 2) having to go past the strobe mode when switching modes is annoying.

Sorry man, looks like yours is exhibiting some of the battery carrier contact issues that the dealers have mentioned. Well, at least ITP is fixing it, though it might be a few weeks for the "fixed"/revised version to be available. When those come out I'll definitely want one of the new battery carriers too, because it'd be nice to have an extra carrier to make changing batts faster.

 

[SkunkWerx]

Thanks Madmook,
mine doesn't have the high pitched whine, wanna trade?

So the carrier issue is causing weird contact issues like what I described?

Sounds like maybe GG didn't catch all of them, but I don't blame them,
they are trying, and shouldn't have to do "on the fly" QC for ITP.

My switch is acting better after a lot of clicks, but modes are still slow to react. My VM shows voltage as flowing fine through the carrier.

I also cleaned the threads and moved/spun the spring around in the tailcap/base to make sure it's making contact. Perhaps the little tweaks helped mine slightly?

 

[madmook]

I don't know exactly what the battery carrier contact issues entail, but if I had problems like yours I'd be lookin' to get it exchanged.

 

[1anrm]

I received mine a couple of days ago and when I first took the light off the box i heard... rattling! yikes took the carrier out and one of the metal contact for the battery was detached. I inspected and it is being held by some glue/epoxy and friction from the metal sharp tabs that grab on the plastic carrier. I tried to put it back but it would just fall out. Anyway inserted the batteries and without reading the manual put the negative by the springs. Loaded and it works out of the box. So am pretty pleased and most excited that GG will be shipping the revised battery carrier soon. So other than the loose contact am ok with this purchase, no where near as bright as my TK40 but it is indeed very comfortable to hold and shorter. Darn after playing with the polestar when I picked up the Tk40 my fingers where looking for the side switch

 

[roadie]

:thumbsdow:thumbsdow:thumbsdow

what a letdown ........ i was thinking for a while to pick it up or not .....

reading all this reviews ..... sigh

NEXT!

 

[FlashlightsNgear.com]

The second run is now available and any/all problems have been corrected. Iam looking forward to trying one of these out tonight

 

[apontes]

Well, I got one of the first 6 shipped by ShiningBeam, and didn't get any problems. Since I didn't read the instructions, I just placed the batteries in the carrier the way I'm used to doing.

The light was exactly what I expected it to be: a compact, bright light, but no match for the TK40 in any way.

The only real build issue I see is the positive contact in the head. Looks ready to fall off. Really cheap.

Besides the head contact, the annoying strobe is my only other complaint. It makes no sense in a light like this, and having to cycle through it (with a click-and-hold UI) to get to low again is double the annoyance.

All in all, I'm quited happy with mine.

 

[PerttiK]

Greets from Finland.

My only rant about this light is the ui.

I hate to cycle trough the strobe to get back to the low setting.

But that can be taken care of with a little twist of the tailcap.

Otherways i see it as a great bang for the buck.

I don't find the spill to be out of proportion with the throw.

I feel i got what i payed for.

 

[Rexlion]

It's possible to get a dud with anything. My Polestar works great. It's now my new bedside light. The low is low enough to not disturb my wife when she's asleep, and the high is bright like I expected... plenty bright to blind an intruder or see into the yard.

The beam has a brighter hotspot than the MG "wall of light" PLI, but the spill is a bit wider than the PLI's and is plenty useable. Actually the Polestar's beam is very similar to my P7 Mag's. On 18650 the maglite has a brighter hotspot (when focused tightly) and throws farther than the Polestar, with spill about equivalent between the two.

For bedside use, the PLI's low is not low enough, and the Mag of course has no low mode.

The ITP feels good in the hand and is a good circumference (just a little larger than a C Mag), but it feels a bit slippery and I wish they had made the knurling a little more aggressive (like the C8) or added some rubbery stuff (like a Fenix TK20). The carrier is some kind of clear plastic... I doubt I'll ever break it because I'm not rough with my things, but I could see it happening. And of course, others have commented on the strobe. It's an inconvenience, but mine at least cycles through the modes quickly (I'd say roughly 1 second per mode) when the switch is held down, so I don't have to see it much. But I am really happy to have a barrel switch for everything, so that feature "makes it" for me.

It's not a thrower. It's not a wall of light. It's kind of in between. But I'm not complaining. This is a good light to have.

 

[dodge_911]

I too had some initial dissapointment with my newly arrived A6 Polestar.
Had the same problem as SkunkWerx, light wouldn't turn on, but in neither battery configuration.
Emailed a bit with GearUpEurope, where I ordered it, and they were very helpful.
He said he checked the light before he sent it, and suggested giving some little bumps with my hand.
And lo and behold, after some incouraging pats on the light, it turned on!
Then the next problem arose, the switch was a bit off on occasion, wometimes not turing on the light, or refusing to switch modes.
But after about half an hour messing about with it, all seems fine.
I think I got one of the new battery carriers, it's clear plastic (I believe the old one was black), and labeled with arrows.
The manual however, is not updated yet, about the batteries having to face toward the head.
The problem with the whine madmook is experiencing, got that too over here, but only when powered by Eneloops. When I put the GP Alkalines in that were included by GearUpEurope, no whine on high.

I just think ITP has a little quality control problem, some lights work like a charm, others have teething problems.

 

[garden]

Gosh, I had to send the battery carrier back for replacement , the springs were damaged, when I received it. Switch is poor, UI is poor (you have to go to strobe every single time when you want to change modes from high.) Battery carrier is also poor. Once, I dropped the A6 from 0.5 metres onto concrete. Light goes off. Check batteries. Reinsert batteries. Still off. Recharge batteries, insert. Still off. Wait overnight (about to e-mail the dealer next morning), next morning, it works (hahaha):shakehead:shakehead:shakehead

Also, their customer service is poor (now how many times have I said "poor"?), asked them if the light was fully regulated or not, and suggested that they should "hide" the strobe, three months no reply.

 

[smfranke]

Well, darn. Thanks for posting your experiences...you've all saved me some money.

 

[joe1512]

In fairness, this post is almost 6 months old! Someone dredged it up for some reason.

The battery carrier is long since replaced with a more robust one.

I bought two itp A6s for father's day and they have worked flawlessly. You have to be careful with the carrier, but it seems pretty sturdy and works well.

 

[adirondackdestroyer]

I have a A6 Polestar and have had no problems with it at all. The battery carrier could definitely be better, but it should last a long time as long as you are careful with it.
Huge output on high, and awesome runtime on the medium setting (over 100 lumens for 9 hours!).

 

[rlorion]

So far I love my PoleStar A6...don't use it all the time, but it still a great budget high power light.

 

[Jack Reacher]

Yep... major A6 switching problems for me too.

It worked okay straight out of the box for a couple of days, but has been getting progressively worse each day now. It's currently (no pun intended) locked on "low" mode.

And the (new) battery carrier isn't the problem here; it's definitely the mechanical operation of the switch itself.

I'm very disappointed, as (you all probably know by now... boring LOL) this Polestar A6 is my very first experience with an LED flashlight. And what a disappointment this has been.

So much for a $99 piece of high tech gear!!!

—Jack.