Got my Gladius and Problems already!

ksshooter

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Well I don't know if I got a bad one or what. The problem that I am having is total failure for light to turn on 100% of the time. I am in law enforcement and I have to have 100% reliability I am not bashing Gladius or Night Ops just wanted to see if anyone else has had this same problem. I love the light the throw and especially the strobe it just need to work all the time.

OK I have narrowed the problem down to the culprite I think. If I don't tighten the tailcap down all the way which is very very tight so tight that it couldn't be any tighter by hands I am having failure. If it isn't completely tight "I am only talking aproximately 1/16 of an inch" when I go to lock out and then very easily move the switch to the constant on mode I will have failure then move to the other modes and still nothing. The only way to fix it is to REALLY rench down on the tail cap assembly untill it is VERY tight. Now my problem with this is like I said I need 100% and what if the tail cap moves a little comming out of the holster or hits the ground or what ever I am going to have an inoperatable light. Maybee I just got a bad light I don't know. Thanks for any help.
 

ksshooter

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Before you tell me to try different batteries I have tried Surefire and the Batteries that it came with I belive Duracell. Could there be a length issue with these brands? I just don't feel that a combat light should be this finickie. Also the light is one of the new HA finished ones.
 

Longbow

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Sorry to hear about your problem with the Gladius. Moeman is right, Night-Ops will stand behind the products they vend. For peace of mind you might consider using a different brand for duty carry. Good luck.
 

joema

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I've seen reports (and experienced myself) similar problems on the U2. Fortunately Night-Ops and Surefire have excellent customer service.

The light should obviously work perfectly under all conditions and not require finicky or delicate handling. I'm sure Night-Ops will be responsive at fixing it.
 

TorchMan

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Sorry to hear this. Did your light come with battery replacement instructions on the warranty card as well as in the manual? I believe the newer instructions are also in the FAQ section, or maybe the .pdf manual on their web site. It has to be properly aligned.

It may be another issue as well. Contacting them, as others have said, is probably the best way to go about it.
 

Ken J. Good

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ksshooter:

Drop me an email at [email protected] with a good shipping address so I can send you a replacement tailcap out today.

I am hoping that will alleviate any issues you are having.

The tailcap should be snug, but it should not fail to activate if backed off 1/16th of an inch.
 

beezaur

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Longbow,

You seem to be making little jabs at the Gladius at every opportunity without really getting to any particular reason for it. Why do you dislike the Gladius? Have you had a bad experience with it or something?

Let's hear what's going on. If there is some serious flaw with the light that you know and aren't telling, I'd like to know.

Scott
 

Ken J. Good

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As you have pointed out Longbow's posts have consistently smash-mouthed Night-Ops at every opportunity. In a recent thread he misquoted me completely out of context to develop a straw dog argument that others quickly recognized as being one based on inaccuracy/fallacy.

The beauty of a discussion board for some is that they can be unusually rude in ways they would not necessarily be so bold to do in person, face-to-face.

In my view his posts lack credibility as they relate to Night-Ops so I have learned to ignore them and address the actual issues at hand tabled by folks that have genuine concern or interest.

The Night-Ops line is new and will no doubt experience production issues. This I have not attempted to hide from anybody.

I do not think Night-Ops is unique in the regard. I frequent quite a few boards and it is not difficult to find product issues with a wide variety of trusted manufacturers.

It fairly easy to be negative, more difficult to find solutions that work.

We are striving to make the necessary improvements as fast as we can identify problems.

Best to everybody, including Longbow whoever he or she is.

~Edited to fix Username spelling error~
 
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cy

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ksshooter, it's been acknowledged better instructions is needed with Gladius.

initial use of Gladius' tailcap can be fustrating. you must align tailcap with slot in body. it only goes on one way.
very simple to change cells in darkness, once you know to feel for divit to drop into slot.

several folks have destroyed tailcaps by not realizing tailcap must drop into slot before seating in.
I along with a lot of folks are ingrained not to read instructions, but assume you can figure it out :D

mine has been very simple/reliable to use, once you are aware of this.
 

zespectre

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I believe several of you have already participated in this thread http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=95176 that I started.

To summarize very quickly, I had used a Gladius briefly and had some concerns about various aspects and wanted to get some feedback from others as to how realistic my concerns were.

Well the Gladius is under a pretty bright spotlight (pardon the pun) at the moment, which is a tough position at any time, let alone for a brand new product. I was seeing people take a lot of rather extreme positions (much in the vein of Apple vs PC or Canon vs Nikon) so I was having trouble removing the "wheat from the chaff", especially since it was hard to tell who had actually used or who actually owned a Gladius.

In the course of the previous thread I recieved very informative replies from actual owners of the item and also 'got a feel', as it were, for Mr. Good as a representative of his company. In short my concerns were addressed to my satisfaction and I will probably be purchasing a Gladius soon.

I have no doubt that the Gladius (and Night-Ops) will be having some growing pains in the time to come, but I have developed confidence that, should there be an issue, the company will make it good.
 
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beezaur

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I got my Gladius today.

Wow. This light is like no other, that's for sure. Mine is gray, and I think it might be one of the earlier production runs. Is there any way to make sense out of the serial number, or whatever that is under the FCC CE certification marks?

Wow again. And "production issues" or not, this is one well thought out light! One of the first things I did was put on my fire gloves and try the various modes. Not real sure that I will need to strobe anyone at a fire or wreck, but this light is much easier to operate with heavy work gloves than any other I have tried. It requires virtually no dexterity. Actually, I might need to strobe someone at a wreck -- maybe an approaching rubber-necker motorist who I would prefer was watching out for my crew or going a little slower. Or some other optical communication. So many things that flashlights never did before! Just, wow.

Anyway, the reason I posted was to say that I tried some SureFire batteries in the Gladius and there were no problems. In fact my light still functions fully when the tailcap is almost completely unscrewed, regardless of battery brand.

There is a strange bevavior, however, that I cannot always repeat. When experimenting to see how far out the cap will go and the light still works, eventually there is a point at which the light stops working. If I do this in strobe mode like, strobe-unscrew, strobe-unscrew, etc. until it stops, screwing the light back in does not let the light work again. The cap needs to come completely off and then back on before the light will work. So if you are messing around with unscrewing the cap and the light stops working, just remove and replace the cap. Obviously this has zero operational significance.

Scott
 

ksshooter

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THANKS a lot to Mr. Good for the Help. Guys I am not having any problem with putting batteries in this light. I don't get what all the negative hype is about putting batteries in this thing. I mean come on it isn't that hard at all. Once again thanks Mr. Good I love this light and it has a very nice new HA Finish, Excellent Throw, AWSOME STROBE that I think I will like alot I just hope that this tailcap aleviates (sp) this problem that I am having.
 

zespectre

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The "negative hype" was that damage could be done to the light by screwing the tailcap back on incorrectly (without lining up the indexing pin) and this could disable the light.

A number of people (myself included) were concerned about what seems a pretty obvious design flaw in a $200+ light. Apparently in real world use the situation isn't nearly as dire as it looked at first AND according to Mr. Good they are considering a re-design anyway.
 

cy

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zespectre said:
The "negative hype" was that damage could be done to the light by screwing the tailcap back on incorrectly (without lining up the indexing pin) and this could disable the light.

A number of people (myself included) were concerned about what seems a pretty obvious design flaw in a $200+ light. Apparently in real world use the situation isn't nearly as dire as it looked at first AND according to Mr. Good they are considering a re-design anyway.
emmm.. this is not a design flaw. requiring tailcap to be aligned with slot.

but instructions could be a little better written. once you know about this "feature" very simple to operate.

when Gladius is placed in lockout mode and dropped directly on button. this is closer to being considered a defect. two failures in lockout mode so far out of aprox. 10,000 units shipped is not bad.

no new product is going to be perfect. with this low number of failures and most importantly willingness of mfg to listen to feedback.

this bodes well for improved products from Gladius down the road.
 

beezaur

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Here's another quirk:

Put the constant on-off channel in memory mode. Set the mode to the brightness you want, turn off the light. Turn the light back on and change the brightness level. Now keep the light on and change to the momentary or strobe channels. Hit the button to turn the light off. When you go back to the constant on-off channel and turn the light on, it doesn't remember the brightness change. I know, totally insignificant. :)

I find the switch to be really disconcerting. It feels weak. Apparently it is more durable than other switches, but that percieved weak feeling is hard to get over. I am sure I will feel better about it with use. I like the hard plastic. I think the way this light operates, that is a better material.

I would put the lockout next to the momentary though. Just my opinion, but if you are twisting out of lockout for immediate use, it seems like you would want instant access to a tactical mode. Plus you eliminate locking it on that way.

Scott
 

LowBat

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Ken J. Good said:
As you have pointed out Lowbow's posts have consistently smash-mouthed Night-Ops at every opportunity. In a recent thread he misquoted me completely out of context to develop a straw dog argument that others quickly recognized as being one based on inaccuracy/fallacy.
Mr. Good, are you referring to Longbow or to me, LowBat?
 

NextLight

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beezaur said:
Here's another quirk:

SNIP... it doesn't remember the brightness change...

SNIP...
I would put the lockout next to the momentary though...

Scott

Item one is by tactical design. The memory setting of the constant channel is stored by the action of turning off the light with the switch in that position. The thinking is that the operator can have the light on at a low level, and rotate the switch to be ready for immediate full brightness (again, think tactical) without erasing the memory setting.

Item three: I thought about that too. But I don't want any easily accessable behavior that might accidentally prevent me from getting a bright tactical light when I hit the button. I use my thumb to keep the switch rotated all the way clockwise as I draw and aim the light; When on target, I press the button and always get a bright tactical light, with momentary action. If the lockout were moved to the most clockwise position, I would be likely to slip into lockout position. Unacceptable for a tactical light.

It it seems I am often defending or praising the Gladius here. Yep! Lest ye readers think I am mono-lightic in my thinking, I'll be posting details of other current favorites soon, in the appropriate thread.

Gladius for ENC, KL4 on VG 1x123A body for backup, 10X for the car, L4+Mc2e+AW's 17670P in the day pack, and the economical TL-3 with 2x AW's 17500Ps around the house.
 

Longbow

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LOWBAT,

Mr. Good was referring to me.

BEEZAUR,

I can't respect any manufacturer or product that markets and or prices a product using "hype". A spade is a spade, not a "compound machine material handling device". By the same token a flashlight, even a multi-featured flashlight, is still a flashlight not an "illumination tool". But hey, that's just me. I even almost left a brother-in-law's (firefighter) funeral because the "pomp and circumstance" was driving me to the point of distraction.
 

beezaur

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NextLight said:
Item three: I thought about that too. But I don't want any easily accessable behavior that might accidentally prevent me from getting a bright tactical light when I hit the button. I use my thumb to keep the switch rotated all the way clockwise as I draw and aim the light; When on target, I press the button and always get a bright tactical light, with momentary action. If the lockout were moved to the most clockwise position, I would be likely to slip into lockout position. Unacceptable for a tactical light.

Okay, that makes good sense. Certainly reliability in the intended use is more important than the (marginal) convenience of some other user.

Longbow,

It was good of you to suffer through the funeral. The "pomp and circumstance" means a great deal to a lot of people. Having done honorable things in life is worthy of some celebration, however painful or futile the loss may be. No one wants to be remembered as a bitter old crank, heaped in a crate and dropped in a muddy hole for disposal.

Scott
 
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