Zebralight SC600w mkIII HI erratic function

Atnoonidrinktea · Jul 24, 2017

Hi everyone,

I purchased this SC600w mkIII HI in January 2017 and then again in July 2017. The distributor (Nkon) was so kind to replace the lamp up to 4 times but it looks like I will send it back again for a refund.

This is the problem that I get:

Sometimes when I switch on the lamp (full power) after a second, the lamp switches itself completely off. When I click again, nothing happens (lamp dead). Only after the second click, the lamp behaves normally.

This happened in 2-5% cases, when switching on. If you plan to use the light in EDC/security sensitive applications it may take away your confidence. It bothers me anyway for a light bearing this price tag.

This occurred with all 4 samples I got in my hands. Batteries are fully charged LG INR18650-MJ1 3500mAh - 10A, I tried switching batteries (of the same type) but with no success. The lamp was held still in my hands, no shocks involved. One sample had a spring in the tail cap instead of pogo pins but still the same behavior.

The distributor told me they got a few instances of this complaint, and they were thinking that this was only a problem with the first production batches.

But I see this problem recurring and would like to know:
- Is it a common failure to the whole SC600mkIII series?
- Is there an easy fix?
- Is there any other observations or useful comments on the reliability of this light?

I was thinking that maybe CPF can shed some light on this matter, and maybe it would be good to share above information, to avoid other users to suffer in silence.

By the way, I never had this problem with the SC62 (lost due to poor clip) and SC63 (with new black clip from SC5, much better)

Thanks in advance for your advice and comments

gk1610 · Jul 24, 2017

I using zebralight sc600w mk III and not found problem like you , I purchased it 2 month ago
I think your light had problem with electric circuit, model sc600w mk III released in [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]october [/FONT]It seems that the company did not respond satisfactorily
sorry, I don't speak English very well

cp2315 · Jul 24, 2017

I have a SC600 III HI and have not seen this problem. Did you try a different battery? Say a smaller unprotected 18650?
To me it is very unlikely to have four lemon zebralights in a row. When the battery is too long, there are some weird things, like the tail and the body is not secured connective.
The cell recommended by ZL is sanyo NCR18650GA. Best 18650 I have used, high capacity, high current.

PragmaticMurphyist · Jul 24, 2017

SC600w III Hi and have not seen this problem.

The only thing I've seen that's similar is when I've put it on H1 and then tried to double-click it into H2 too quickly. It goes to strobe which, on L flash every five seconds, makes me think it's off. My next click turns it off (seems like it does nothing). My next click activates H1.

(Please note - I'm not suggesting this is what you're doing and I'm not implying user error on your part. It's just my experience.)

noboneshotdog · Jul 24, 2017

cp2315 said:
I have a SC600 III HI and have not seen this problem. Did you try a different battery? Say a smaller unprotected 18650?
To me it is very unlikely to have four lemon zebralights in a row. When the battery is too long, there are some weird things, like the tail and the body is not secured connective.
The cell recommended by ZL is sanyo NCR18650GA. Best 18650 I have used, high capacity, high current.

+1

Fireclaw18 · Jul 24, 2017

Never had any problems with my Zebralight SC600w III HI.

That said, I have had a lot of issues with other Zebralights. I've owned around a dozen Zebralights and 80% of them had serious problems.

On the upside, Zebralight customer service is good. I suggest contacting them and sending them your light for repair. If it's out of warranty I think they charge a flat fee of $15 to fix it. Biggest downside is if you have to ship to China you'll have to pay for shipping, and you'll probably be without the light for 2-3 months.

ven · Jul 24, 2017

I would try another battery before returning if possible. Sounds like a cell length issue with the LG(could be wrong). As said try a GA cell. It seems from what you have said with 4 lights, the LG cell/s is one thing in common. Or get nkon to test light with a GA (or LG)cell before shipping.
:welcome:

Atnoonidrinktea · Jul 25, 2017

Thanks for the reactions.

I'm familiar with the beacon strobe operation, so I think the most interesting thing to do would be to try out the sanyo NCR18650GA battery.

I'll order a few today and let you know my findings in a week or so.

emarkd · Jul 25, 2017

Fireclaw18 said:
That said, I have had a lot of issues with other Zebralights. I've owned around a dozen Zebralights and 80% of them had serious problems.

Not doubting this report because any factory-made light is going to have a certain amount of weak and/or defective products and anything can happen, but this guy has apparently been seriously unlucky with Zebras. I've had 16 of them. I know that because I've still got them all. I've had zero failures. None. I've only had one light with an issue (it sometimes gets flaky reading battery voltage and will occasionally trigger LVP even on a fully charged cell, but only does it rarely). Contrast that with my experience with some other mass-produced brands like Olight or Nitecore, and Zebralight starts to look like one of the most reliable lights available to me.

Fireclaw18 · Jul 25, 2017

emarkd said:
Not doubting this report because any factory-made light is going to have a certain amount of weak and/or defective products and anything can happen, but this guy has apparently been seriously unlucky with Zebras. I've had 16 of them. I know that because I've still got them all. I've had zero failures. None. I've only had one light with an issue (it sometimes gets flaky reading battery voltage and will occasionally trigger LVP even on a fully charged cell, but only does it rarely). Contrast that with my experience with some other mass-produced brands like Olight or Nitecore, and Zebralight starts to look like one of the most reliable lights available to me.

I like Zebralights and own quite a few, but admittedly I haven't had the greatest luck with them.

- UI: generally good. But it's very easy to accidentally blast yourself with turbo when you only wanted moonlight. Especially if it's the middle of the night and you're half asleep. Very easy to mess up the timing. I consider the Olight UI or the DrJones Moppydrv UI to be superior, because those do not have this issue.
- reliability: I've had awful luck with mine, with 8 of 11 Zebras experiencing problems (72% dud rate). I've owned the following Zebralights:

SC51 - no issues
SC52 - worked fine initially, but after minimal use it no longer stays in turbo. Even on a full cell, it will drop out of turbo mode in less than 10 seconds. This is much less than the 1 minute of turbo the light is rated for.
SC52w - same problem as SC52
SC600 (early Mark 1) - light came with a switch defect common to first-run early model SC600s. The switch would activate just from being lightly brushed with a finger or thumb without being depressed or clicked at all. Returned for warranty repair. Took 2-3 months to come back, but no issues since.
SC80 - H2 setting didn't work out of the box. Double-clicking to switch from H1 to H2 causes the LED to flash briefly then turn off. However, low modes, medium modes, and H1 all work fine so the light is good enough as-is.
SC32w - same problem as SC52
SC62w - initially worked fine. After a few days it was dropping out of turbo mode after just 1-2 seconds even on a fresh high-quality cell. Returned and replaced it with another SC62w.
Second SC62w - Same issue as SC52
SC5w - initially worked great. After less than 3 weeks of light use the output greatly dimmed. Now on a fresh cell maximum output is maybe 1 lumen. Either the driver or LED needs replacement (only cell used was Eneloop Pro).
SC63w - no issues
SC600w III HI - no issues.

None of my Zebralights has seen heavy use or been dropped. The casing on all of them is in pristine condition. When I use Li-Ion cells, I only use quality cells from reputable suppliers (like Mountain Electronics or Illumn) in my lights. No Ultrafire cheapies here. For the above defective lights I tried multiple cells that all had no issues when used in lights from other manufacturers.

I like Zebras, but given my history of 72% being duds, I'm hesitant to buy another.

toobadorz · Jul 25, 2017

I also encountered exactly the same issue as the OP described. Although it's rare, it does happen. The cell used is an unprotected original NCR18650GA, as suggested by Zebralight. And the same cell works flawlessly on my SC600Fd III Plus, no such issue observed.

snowlover91 · Jul 25, 2017

Fireclaw18 said:
I like Zebralights and own quite a few, but admittedly I haven't had the greatest luck with them.

- UI: generally good. But it's very easy to accidentally blast yourself with turbo when you only wanted moonlight. Especially if it's the middle of the night and you're half asleep. Very easy to mess up the timing. I consider the Olight UI or the DrJones Moppydrv UI to be superior, because those do not have this issue.
- reliability: I've had awful luck with mine, with 8 of 11 Zebras experiencing problems (72% dud rate). I've owned the following Zebralights:

SC51 - no issues
SC52 - worked fine initially, but after minimal use it no longer stays in turbo. Even on a full cell, it will drop out of turbo mode in less than 10 seconds. This is much less than the 1 minute of turbo the light is rated for.
SC52w - same problem as SC52
SC600 (early Mark 1) - light came with a switch defect common to first-run early model SC600s. The switch would activate just from being lightly brushed with a finger or thumb without being depressed or clicked at all. Returned for warranty repair. Took 2-3 months to come back, but no issues since.
SC80 - H2 setting didn't work out of the box. Double-clicking to switch from H1 to H2 causes the LED to flash briefly then turn off. However, low modes, medium modes, and H1 all work fine so the light is good enough as-is.
SC32w - same problem as SC52
SC62w - initially worked fine. After a few days it was dropping out of turbo mode after just 1-2 seconds even on a fresh high-quality cell. Returned and replaced it with another SC62w.
Second SC62w - Same issue as SC52
SC5w - initially worked great. After less than 3 weeks of light use the output greatly dimmed. Now on a fresh cell maximum output is maybe 1 lumen. Either the driver or LED needs replacement (only cell used was Eneloop Pro).
SC63w - no issues
SC600w III HI - no issues.

None of my Zebralights has seen heavy use or been dropped. The casing on all of them is in pristine condition. When I use Li-Ion cells, I only use quality cells from reputable suppliers (like Mountain Electronics or Illumn) in my lights. No Ultrafire cheapies here. For the above defective lights I tried multiple cells that all had no issues when used in lights from other manufacturers.

I like Zebras, but given my history of 72% being duds, I'm hesitant to buy another.

Lol it seems you have some awful luck with them for some reason? I have 9 Zebralights, the oldest is the SC62w and the newest a SC5 MK2 and have experienced 0 issues with them. Mine are regularly bumped, sometimes dropped on concrete floors, tossed around by a 2 year old and two have accidentally made it into the washing machine and dryer. I'm happy to say all 9 still work perfectly with no issues

jon_slider · Jul 27, 2017

Don't use protected batteries?

http://www.zebralight.com/SC600w-Mk-III-18650-XHP35-Flashlight-Neutral-White_p_173.html :
Battery: One 18650 size (i.e. unprotected, 65.0-65.2 mm long) 3.6-4.35V li-ion rechargeable

Builtin battery protections with continuously monitored temperature, current, and voltage, plus a (2.7V) low voltage cutoff

Sledgestone · Jul 27, 2017

I don't think that this is a battery issue. I use the same battery in my light without problems!

Edit: Then again cell length can vary, so I would check that it's the required length.

marinemaster · Jul 28, 2017

Never had any issues with any of my ZL. About half a dozen of more. Maybe is just an environment thing.

Alan · Jul 30, 2017

I have more than a dozen Zebralight of different models and have zero issues. I guess your problem are caused by battery length. Zebralight could use only very short battery. Non-protected Panasonic cell seems to be only reliable battery for zebralight. I use only non-protected NCR18650/18650B/18650GA. Any protected cells won't fit. If you screw in the end cap by force to made connection on protected cell, it might even damage the PCB. This might be the reason why the same group of users have so many problems on zebralight while others have zero problem. Just a wild guess.

Atnoonidrinktea · Aug 4, 2017

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your advice and observations. I switched from LG INR18650-MJ1 to Sanyo NCR18650GA (both unprotected batteries) and have been testing this for a while now. I think I switched the lamp on and off somewhere between 200 and 300 times and there is no malfunction anymore.

Instinctively this is confirmed by a much more reassured belly feeling when I use the light. I trust it much more now.

I think battery length was the issue, even though they look quite similar.

Thank you for the advice guys

noboneshotdog · Aug 4, 2017

Congratulations on a great light!

vadimax · Aug 4, 2017

Atnoonidrinktea said:
Hello everyone,

Thank you for your advice and observations. I switched from LG INR18650-MJ1 to Sanyo NCR18650GA (both unprotected batteries) and have been testing this for a while now. I think I switched the lamp on and off somewhere between 200 and 300 times and there is no malfunction anymore.

Instinctively this is confirmed by a much more reassured belly feeling when I use the light. I trust it much more now.

I think battery length was the issue, even though they look quite similar.

Thank you for the advice guys

Well, the devil is in the details: INR18650-MJ1 specification states it is 65.0+-0.2 mm when NCR18650GA is 65.05 mm.

Zebralight SC600w mkIII HI erratic function

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