What happend to Fauxton?

mishanctrl

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After giving out some of my latest batch of Fauxtons, I went to reorder on DX and it does not exist anymore. (The SKU for the 10 pack was 4410). Often when DX no longer carries something they just show it as Sold Out, but since it is completely gone I am worried these are no more. Does anyone know of somewhere else that has something similar with a similar good price? If I had known, I would have horded my last batch!

Thanks (from a long time lurker who has built two lights from the advice here, and also found out about the fauxton here)
 

borrower

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Strange about DX, especially considering that they've got a picture of the fauxton as the splash for their led keychain section.

But you might consider fast tech dot com -- the variety is there, and in my relatively limited experience (one order with them) they do better than DX in just about every way.
 

Gregozedobe

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Strange about DX, especially considering that they've got a picture of the fauxton as the splash for their led keychain section.

But you might consider fasttech dot com -- the variety is there, and in my relatively limited experience (one order with them) they do better than DX in just about every way.

Did you buy any of the 22000mcd fauxtons from them ? If you did, can you tell me which batteries they use ?

All my previous fauxtons use 2 x CR2016 batteries, but according to the fasttech site they have 2 x CR2025 batteries in them. I have hundreds of spare CR2016 batteries, so want to stay with lights that use them.
 

mishanctrl

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SKU 1043100 shows 2 x CR2016. These are what I think are the same as the DX ones. Will probably order some soon. Based on the price and title, I assume it is QTY 5, but the description shows 10. I'll see what I get
 

Norman

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I was wandering through the DX forums a little while ago. Apparently there was some licencing/copyright/whatever issue, so they were all pulled.
 

mishanctrl

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Well I;ve ordered from fasttech. I'll report back if they are the same as the DX ones.
 

ragweed

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I have 5 of those with dead batteries. They are decent for the money but, in my experience they go dead just sitting on my desk. Parasitic drain? My Photon does not do this.
 

Gregozedobe

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I have 5 of those with dead batteries. They are decent for the money but, in my experience they go dead just sitting on my desk. Parasitic drain? My Photon does not do this.

Almost certainly poor quality batteries going flat even when they aren't being used. I've found a lot of mine need a new battery (sometimes two) if they have been sitting unused for a year or more. Fauxtons are so simple parasitic drain is unlikely. I do have to re-bend the legs of the LED sometimes to get them working properly.

I've also ordered some from Fasttech, and will report back on what I get.
 

lebox97

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+1
coin cells have a shelf life
cheap coin cells have a much shorter shelf life




Almost certainly poor quality batteries going flat even when they aren't being used. I've found a lot of mine need a new battery (sometimes two) if they have been sitting unused for a year or more. Fauxtons are so simple parasitic drain is unlikely. I do have to re-bend the legs of the LED sometimes to get them working properly.
...
 

Gregozedobe

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Almost certainly poor quality batteries going flat even when they aren't being used. I've found a lot of mine need a new battery (sometimes two) if they have been sitting unused for a year or more. Fauxtons are so simple parasitic drain is unlikely. I do have to re-bend the legs of the LED sometimes to get them working properly.

I've also ordered some from Fasttech, and will report back on what I get.

I ordered 30 fauxtons from Fasttech on 10 Jan and they arrived 22 Jan 2013 (Hong Kong -> Australia). They were packed in std (unpadded) ziplock bags inside a padded envelope, quite adequate for the (relatively light) contents.

I ordered 3 x 10 packs of 22,000mcd keychain lights with white LEDs:

SKU 1040705 - 22000mcd White Light LED Flashlight Keychains - Green body (10-Pack) $3.99
SKU 1040702 - 22000mcd White Light LED Flashlight Keychains - Purple body (10-Pack) $3.99
SKU 1040700 - 22000mcd White Light LED Flashlight Keychains - Red body (10-Pack) $3.99

The purple bodied lights were excellent (all 10 worked properly straight up), but I had to put new batteries in 2 of the green-bodied lights, and 7 of the red-bodied lights needed new batteries.

Of the 9 dud lights, 6 batteries were completely dead, 10 had only 10% charge (according to my ZTS battery tester), and 2 had 100% charge.

2 lights had significant amounts of corrosion on the bent LED leg (both where they were bent, and also on the end where they were cut shorter to fit the light).

Once I put new batteries in and scraped off the corrosion all lights worked very well (as you'd expect, there really isn't much to go wrong with only 2 batteries and one LED). I have told Fasttech about the issues, and will report their response.

They all use 2 x CR2016 batteries (I'm not certain, but I seemed to remember when I ordered these it stated 2 x CR2025 in the product description, but now it is correct).


Summary: Buy the purple ones, not the red ones (but it would be a good idea to have some spare batteries anyway, just in case). This is the best price (10 pack) I have found recently for these type of lights.
 

Hondo

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I found the black ones in a 10 pack for $5.00 at LightsCastle. Free worldwide ship. I just prefer the black ones, no back-glow in the body. Grabbed two more bags, my wife and kids have chewed through a bunch of these, and keep asking for more. If I can get the dead ones back in one piece, I clean them up and put in a fresh 2032, lasts a lot longer and is brighter than the two 2016's after about 15 minutes of run time is put on them. No where as impressive as two fresh 2016's, though, but that is a flash in the pan.

Still gobsmacked that DX no longer carries them, never thought copyright infringements could touch them. Makes me think of all the cheap 1xAA lights that look like the Fenix L1P, getting rid of those would really thin their inventory too.
 

borrower

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I ordered 30 fauxtons from Fasttech on 10 Jan ... and 7 of the red-bodied lights needed new batteries.

Of the 9 dud lights, 6 batteries were completely dead, 10 had only 10% charge (according to my ZTS battery tester), and 2 had 100% charge ...
...
I have told Fasttech about the issues, and will report their response.

I feel a bit bad about this, having mentioned Fasttech. Could you keep us posted about their after-sales service?
 

EZO

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I see that Manafont has 10 packs of 22000mcd (CR2016) Fauxtons available in a range of colors at $6.99 with the usual free shipping. They appear to be the identical ones DX used to carry, only for more money. Still, not too bad if you just gotta have 'em. Of all the knock-offs and exact clones of products we always see on DX and other similar Chinese merchants cheap generic key chain lights seem like the very last thing that would get yanked for copying. Glad I still have a stash I picked up from DX some time ago.
 

Hondo

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Got my 20 black ones from LightsCastle. 100% good - no dead batteries and all of the constant-on switches work. I have never gotten that before from either DX or others I have bought these from. I may just have been lucky, so YMMV.
 

Gregozedobe

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I feel a bit bad about this, having mentioned Fasttech. Could you keep us posted about their after-sales service?

Don't feel bad, I have lots (and lots) of CR2016 batteries to put in any fauxtons that need it. FastTech offered to give me replacement batteries with my next order.
 
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