Re: matched cells,
I don’t think the capacities or discharge rates of the cells need to match, only the voltage close enough so they don’t charge each other so fast they heat up. I am sort of planning to use whatever cells I am not using elsewhere, some of the time. It will run off the high discharge ones when in turbo mode and the high internal resistance ones will charge them back up when it is switched off. That won’t give 6,000 lumens, but it beats running on less than four cells.
Is that safe?
Some of the better protected GA’s (e.g. Seiko chip and 3 MOSFET) have been measured to have minimal difference to unprotected at around 5A draw.
Thanks for all the tests. I’d be interested to see how well unprotected GA without solder blob works.
Is your local hospital burns unit expecting you?
Technically this is fine, it is the same thing I do when charging cells. I toss them all in the same parallel bank, only thing I worry about is the voltage, the brand, type and model all vary. Never an issue, never had a good cell get hot doing this. They all come off the charger at exactly the same voltage.
that said this can be abused by those that don’t check the voltage so best to put a disclaimer on this setup, only if you know what you are doing.
I personally would never use different capacities or discharge rate cells in one light. Like smoking a cigarette while fueling the car. Way too risky for me.
If I’ve got 4 cells in parallel supplying power to a driver, I want them to all run down in a similar fashion. If I don’t have 4 matched cells, or very close to being matched, I simply won’t use the light until I get 4 new cells in.
I won’t put different brands of tire on my car either, not only same tires on an axle but same tires all around for me. I’ve got well over a million miles behind me and this has never failed me, not gonna change it up now.
So there it is, for the record, the guy with several hundred builds behind him DOES NOT recommend mixing cells. Not different brands, not different capacities, not different voltages within a few hundredths (like 4.20, 4.19, 4.18 maybe… I’d probably toss the 4.18 to single cell use and re-order 4 for a light like this, too high on the amperage pull to mess around).
sounds like solid advice to me!
Different tires works too, but only if you know what you are doing and don’t slip up. I had a Fiat 850 in Europe and found cheep snow tires for it, but they were over-size and cross bias. So I drove this rear-heavy car with radials in front and cross bias in back. It worked, since I didn’t ever forget and drive it like a normal handling car.
I have not had 2 matching tires on my 4runner in, well since I got it come to think of it. Not by choice, I just could not bring myself to waste tires that still had tread and now that they don’t I can’t afford new tires lol.
you are not doing it right until you are Driving around with steel belts showing :student:
Tom helped me out in a huge way and got one of his lights to me in time for my Brother-in-Law’s birthday. This is a Narsil firmware SupFire M6, light pipe beacon off the driver and with all the modifications… I got Josh’s wife to record him when he opened the package. He is 28 now, the look on his face seeing the light, knowing what it was after having seen my own M6 a couple of weeks earlier, he was stunned, in awe, and his wife giggled behind the camera as he exclaimed and oohed and ahhed. I spoke with him on the phone later and he said he was outside, after dark, actually talking to my wife on the phone (his sister) when His wife fired up the M6 from an upstairs balcony and lit up his backyard like daylight! He was just absolutely amazed. I told him he had another surprise in store for him… he’d only seen it with the new cells fresh out of the box… I suggested he charge the cells and check it out tonight! 
(if he was blown away with it on nearly dead as-shipped cells, he’s gonna pass out when he sees it running on full power!)
Thank you Tom, very much appreciate your help in getting this to me so fast. Josh can’t believe his new flashlight has a 4 page operating manual! 
Edit: Of course I told him about the upcoming Q8, he’ll have to get a few for his friends after they see this M6 he just got. 
He was quizzing me on how he could get more, he knows of 6 or 7 people that are gonna HAVE to have one after they see his…
in for one of these beasts
Great story, great people here! :+1:
K.
Yeah +1
Will update list later
Budget Light Forum…
Illuminating lower Mississippi/Alabama one redneck at a time.
(Josh isn’t really a redneck, he welds on a pipeline at the Gulf Coast, pretty sure that’s the crew that will be getting Q8’s ASAP as well.)
My 30Qs came in the other day, after testing them for resistance and capacity “for the record” as I do all “new to me” cells I fully charged them and did the solder blobbing today. The blobing was actually much easier than I envisioned. I didn’t think the solder would stick as readily as it did. My iron was a 27 watt model with a fairly large chisel point end. I cleaned the iron tip by putting it directly into the tin of Nokorode paste. Then I spread a film of the melted paste residue that was on the iron to the roughed up anode. Used a Dremel and a sandpaper disk for the roughing up.
I’m in for one
I don’t even sand then, just heat with iron, use good high quality kester solder, give it a few seconds and blob is done.
I’m in. Thank you
Welcome to BLF!
Nice you dedicated your first post to the Q8!
Will update the list later.
im so lost with this long thread.
when will it be on sale?
Still working on things
When true flawless samples are in our hands we of course will change the topic title and write about them.
It is not before that moment guesses of when it will be available can be made