Santa's Mad - New M1-X problems

Santa brought a new Jetbeam M1X, cell extender, pila charger, 4 AW 18650 batteries. Put two of the cells in the charger and got the green light after a couple of hours. Put them in the new M1X, positive towards the led, screwed it all together with the cell extender nice and tight. Click, click, nothing. Unscrewed, screwed, tight, untight. Nothing. Grrrrr. Found some 123 batteries, took off the cell extender, put in the 123's and it lights. Been trying to get into the user-mode with a triple-click with the 123's and can't. Help. Bit of a newb with all this. Not happy. Do I have a bum light or is it user error? I'm waiting on the other set of 18650's to charge to see if it is the new batteries.

Do the AW 18650 batteries got Button Top?
Try a paper clip for the tail cap.

With cell extender (18650's), paper clip fails to light the flashlight. Without cell extender (123's), paper clip lights flashlight. The AW's have three small nibs on the negative end, flat on the positive end.

Its the flat top cells. They arent making contact with eachother on the positive end. When using multiple 18650s or the likes stacked ontop of eachother you cant go with the latest AW cell which is a flattop . you need to go with the older style 2200mah with positive nipple or use one of a cpl methods to gain positive contact like a small magnet or solderng though both have risks and I am leery of doing either myself but many do with no problems.

Battery to battery contact should be ok i would have thought, that is what the 3 nipples are for on the negative.
Could it be the positive flat end of the #1 battery not making contact in the front of the tube ?
Should be plenty of experts on here who can help.

I dont think I have ever seen an AW with a nipple on the negative side. It is slightly raised but I dont know if I would call that "nipple"

I have had issues with the flat tops before with contact and at onepoint used magnets from Harbor Freight, but I was always worried they would move and short the battery out

Extender on backwards?

I don't have a M1X extender, guessing. :shrug:

Extender only can go on one way. The nipples on the end, I think, are supposed to help make contact.

Now the light will not shift mode when turning the head. Monday morning I'll be on the phone with the vendor.

Basically I have a light that will only work on 123's and only on high.

According to the BugOutGear site: http://store.bugoutgearusa.com/aw186502600mah.html
The AW flat top 18650 cells are compatible with the M1X.
Perhaps someone else can confirm? I was also hoping to use these cells in an M1X.

The 2600Mah AW 18650's will NOT work with the M1X. The positive end of the battery doesn't have the extended nipple (like on the positive end of a AA battery) to touch the contact on the head.

Liteskr42 said:

Its the flat top cells. They arent making contact with eachother on the positive end. When using multiple 18650s or the likes stacked ontop of eachother you cant go with the latest AW cell which is a flattop . you need to go with the older style 2200mah with positive nipple or use one of a cpl methods to gain positive contact like a small magnet or solderng though both have risks and I am leery of doing either myself but many do with no problems.

Click to expand...

I am gonna have to say you are mistaken on this. I have 2 AW 18650 2600 ah flat top cells that I run 2 of them in my Malkoff MD4 Wildcat and they work flawlessly. The Malkoff lights have an advantage because they use a spring on the head of the light compared to most brands that use a tab.

But there are 3 raised dots on the negative side that contact the positive recessed "button" when used in series with other AW 18650 2600ah cells.

The M1X may have contact issues relating to the light, but it is not a cell to cell contact issue.

I have used stacked 18650/26's without any problem on the battery to bettery connection end.

Chances are that there is a connection issue with the contact on the head and the batteries. I know that *generally* Jetbeam uses a floating head type design for their head contacts. If their isnt enough pressure on the head contact from the internal spring pushing it into place (or no pressure if the spring is broken), then the contact may be recessed in the head and/or you may not have enough of a protrusion on the contact to reach the battery nipple.

I suppose its possible that you could have a bum battery, make sure you check the batteries with a voltmeter before you throw 'em in to eliminate that as a problem.

Both sets of 18650 batteries are new and fully charged based on the pila charger green light. I doubt that both sets of batteries are bad. Also, if I turn the head with the 123's and the flashlight on, nothing, no mode change. Also, no amount of triple-clicking on the switch will get the light into program mode. I should note that this is a .v4 M1-X. Perhaps the new lights are buggy or I have a lemon. I'm hoping BugOutGear will take care of me when I call on Monday.

From BugOutGear site:

AW P18650 -26

- Three triangulated raised dots ensure solid cell to cell connection when used in series.

*** Due to a flat top on the positive terminal, these batteries may not work on some flashlights.

FYI - These will work with the Jetbeam M1X, Raptor RRT-1, RRT-2, and Jet-III ST(BVC).

You guys are right . There ARE 3 little nubbies on the Negative side. HUH, learn something every day dont ya?

Pushing the floating connector all the way in on my V4 M1X head still doesn't allow it to stick out far enough to work with the flat top AW's. Haven't you tried checking this yourself? There's no way it will work without the nub on the positive side. Battery to battery contact is fine.

My confusion was that the batteries were advertised as working with the M1-X (my first nice light) and the flashlight when loaded with 123's is also not working correctly. In taking the head out and looking it sees there is no way for the head to make contact with the flat top battery.

Sounds defective. I have had an M1X for about 6 months and it runs just fine on 2 x 2600 mah AW 18650s (flat top). Are you making sure to do a triple HALF PRESS before either holding the clickie in or clicking on in the user-defined mode? If you are triple CLICKING it - that is not the correct way to do it. Good luck with your light. The M1X is a great light. Mine resides in my patrol bag (front passenger seat) of my police vehicle. Solid, reliable, BRIGHT!

The M1X V3 DOES work with the flat-top 18650s. The M1X V4 DOES NOT.

See this post:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3219291&postcount=9

I can now confirm (just tried it) that 2x AW 18650 2600mah cells WILL work in the V4 JetBeam M1X with a single 1.6mm magnet on the topmost cell (got my magnet from lighthound). --just in case anybody was still having problems

sorry to hear about the problems with your M1X. I have a warm tinted version (not too sure if its v3 or v4 but probably a v4 as i got it late 2009) and i run it on unprotected 2x18500s without magnets, nipples etc and it works fine.

Runs perfectly well on 3xCR123s/RCR123s too.

As for mode changing on head loosened mode, i just 1/2 click 3 - 4 times quickly and hold it there till the light ramps: 1/2-1/2-1/2-hold.

Something sounds off with your M1X sad to say, i'd send it back and get it either replaced or looked at.