Normal for new SP D10 and EX-10's to be bustin' finger hard?

I purchased the new SP EX-10 last week and am totally happy with the UI, the new thicker bezel, and little thicker diameter. Not to mention the smoother transitional beam. BUT, I can hardly operate it. The thing keeps locking out on me and I have to triple-press it just to turn it on. When I do get lucky with a one-press on, the thing is harder than nails to push. I have tried checking the piston for excess goo, and loosening and tightening as variations, but still no luck. I don't mind a hard-to-press light but this is for the birds. Anyone else have this problem???

I sincerely hope they didn't screw up the EX10. I have the D10 SP in the camo color, and the bodies are the same size. The heads are interchangeable, as well as the light engine. Easy to know which engine you're looking at because the new engine is on a red wafer, while the other ramping models are on green wafers.

To answer your question directly, I have found the D10 SP to work as expected. I just haven't fallen in love with the UI yet. Still, the piston travels just fine, and changing setting is easy. I have no experience with the new EX10 SP.

Try it with the O ring removed from the piston, if it's easy to press without the O ring, you will need to replace it with a smaller O ring.

Mine was the same as yours when I received it, cleaned off all the old lube replaced the O ring relubed and now I really like action.
Norm

The red PCB has nothing to do with whether it does or does not ramp. I have a green Q5 and red R2 and the both ramp the same.

Norm said:

Try it with the O ring removed from the piston, if it's easy to press without the O ring, you will need to replace it with a smaller O ring.

Click to expand...

That's what I did in the end. I was never really concerned about how hard my button was to push but it did seem very inconsistent. I tried cleaning, lubing with teflon, lubing with silicone, lubing with rubber grease etc and if the thing was in regular use it was smooth as butter but leave it for half a day and the first press would feel like the O ring had been stuck.

I gave up and fitted a smaller O ring and now it feels perfect. Same weight each press whether left to sit or used constantly. Thing is, now I'm not entirely sure my new O ring is really sealing at all cos at best it could only be barely touching the wall of the barrel but frankly it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. If I get the unit wet I'll just open it and check to see if any water got in. It ain't like I'm going swimmng with it though.

I've had a fair bit of mucking around in the last month to get my ramping D10 R2 tuned to work as I wanted. The big gold spring spring wrapped around the inner part of the head under the switch ring (the one the piston pushes) kept getting stuck down so that the ring did not return properly which made the switching inconsistent too (sometimes it would be momentary despite the head being locked, sometimes you'd have to click twice to get it to stay on etc) so I pulled the head apart and deburred the spring and added a touch of teflon and now with that job done and the piston ring change the torch action feels perfect. Like a precision instrument and I just hope it stays that way. They can be a really good feeling thing once they are right. Of course we all feel things differently.....

I don't know which cell you are using, but have you tried testing with regular sized CR123's instead of RCR's with PCB's ?

See if that makes the light operate consistently and/or make the piston softer to push.

I don't have the SP but the regular ramping models and when I put in the longer cells(some of the protected UF's for example) the piston can really become hard to move and in the D10's case the piston won't even move at all.

Dan FO said:

The red PCB has nothing to do with whether it does or does not ramp. I have a green Q5 and red R2 and the both ramp the same.

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Agree - I have 3 EX10 R2's; all with the same 'old' ramping UI. One has a red PCB, the other two have green.

Dan FO said:

The red PCB has nothing to do with whether it does or does not ramp. I have a green Q5 and red R2 and the both ramp the same.

Click to expand...

See there? I have 10 EX10's and 4 D10's in front of me and the only one with a red board is the new D10 SP. I just made that assumption based on my 14 D10/EX10's. When I do that to my wife, she calls it "half knowin', whole tellin'"

Thanks for setting me straight.

jslappa said:

See there? I have 10 EX10's and 4 D10's in front of me and the only one with a red board is the new D10 SP. I just made that assumption based on my 14 D10/EX10's. When I do that to my wife, she calls it "half knowin', whole tellin'"

Thanks for setting me straight.

Click to expand...

Lucky man :twothumbs

Me lucky? Looking at all the nice lights in your sig, I'd say the grass is greener in Puerto Rico! I need to pick up a Jetbeam. I've never had one and read such nice things about them.