Q8 modding

I've had them broken, come loose - when you do enough lights that get sent out all around the world, you have to consider these things and learn quick. Soldering is tricky - it creeps up the braid. In this type of use, I don't see much flexing there. Certainly the PCB is raised by the thickness - might not be much though. Only concern I see in this usage is coming loose from the top of the spring, but even so, if flopping around can't do any harm I suppose. I used to use braid as the only way of doing bypasses, but after several failures, gave up on it, as, I thought, many others did. There's also a good reason why bare exposed copper isn't used much. Silver coated multi-stranded copper is quite reliable.

Also not a fan of the copper braid (Solder Wick) in just the spring bypass. The short length and 2 close by solder points, along with hardening flux usually makes a single or small flex point subject to breaking there.

I guess there s benefit in using copper braid opposed to solder wick, no flux to harden except the amount you apply, if any. Also the solder is less likely to wick down stream as fast or as bad. Tops of AlexGT springs look good in that aspect with minimal wicking. Going to the screw as he did is the shortest and most direct contact possible to the housing.

I would run it that way, no worries.

The way I try to keep the solder from creeping up the braid is by covering most of it with pliers that absorb the heat and prevent the solder from going up the only thing exposed is the piece of braid that is being soldered. Hope it made sense…

Like this…

I am currently looking for a silicone wand diffuser that can be attached to the head for use as a lantern like the klarus silicone diffuser that fits perfect for the Manker U11

Hace you seen something that fits?

Something like this…

Alex do a google for “white Squeeze lotion Bottle”
Lots of results for all sizes and opaqueness :slight_smile:

Cheers David

I was thinking about doing that once I finally get mine. Anyway you can post a video of yours?

Swapped the switch leds to orange. I video-ed doing it but watching a 12 minute video with crappy focus is a lot to ask for the reader of this post :party: . Still here it is, to show how messy the act of modding can be, at least my way of modding. :laughing:

Unbelievable. Soon you will reflow main leds while running in turbo :smiley:

I did enjoy that video. Tedious little buggars. Thanks for the tips. Learned a few new tricks.

Thanks djozz for the ‘uncut’ video. Those leds are so small… but you make it look rather easy, not even removing power on the light - but at least you know right away if it works. I didn’t hear any cursing either…

I was expecting that you would ‘try out’ each led on the board to determine which way to solder them, but you seem to know this off hand… How do you know the +/- on the leds before soldering?

There’s usually a marking on the back of the led pointing from + to - . The Q8 switchboard conveniently shows an arrow too (a diode symbol to be precise) too, between the solder pads.

On the front of the leds you can figure it out too, the - is the cup containing the die, the + is the wire going into the cup from above. And if there’s a green dot on the front, it is on the minus side.

Nitpicking, but ballsy to do it powered, to demonstrate.

I think you were shorting out the MCU output to the LEDs a couple of times when removing them (when both went out) ?. Encouraging that it survived a couple of brief shorts to ground. Maybe a “don’t try this at home” warning ?

There’s a resistor in series, so shorting out the led won’t affect anything.

Ah yes. Forgot that. I was also worried about the croc-clip on the stand maybe also potentially shorting stuff when live.

Great skills and knowledge being demonstrated here. I’d never have dared try it myself.

Don’t tell Tom, but I flashed ToyKeeper’s new ‘Andúril’ UI to one of my Q8s. It’s awesome! :heart_eyes: ‘Lightning Mode’ is soooooo fun!

I mentioned my pink 0603s in an earlier post. Here they are compared to the stock green emitters.

They’re rated for 3.0 - 3.2V and are running dimmer than the green ones with the stock resistor, just as I had hoped.

I got the ‘T’ straight but must’ve bumped the PCB. :smiley:

BTW, ToyKeeper is currently working on adding indicator LED support to Andúril, so my green switch is dark for now. This photo is from before the reflash.

Lightning mode sounds awesome!

I have soldering skills, but knowledge not nearly as much, but I do like it to just do stuff without excluding all risks :smiley:

I can give it a shot. I haven't successfully uploaded a video yet.

What sounds more interesting though is paralleling 2 of the slow flashers like djozz paralleled 6 in the lighted tailcap thread. Lexel's post here makes it look like an easy mod. An I just saw Lexel has posted an OSH Park board for 4 independent emitters here.

If you don’t want to use youtube you can use http://imgur.com or https://gfycat.com - It’s a lot easier as long as its under a minute in length.

I almost ordered the board but since I’d be guessing and winging it at best I figured I’d wait and see how other people build it first.

It's ok, no prob. I'll just slowly fade away..... Replaced by a newer, younger, no doubt prettier, and probably smarter programmer.

Ohh - on the 3rd modded Q8, got this: 7,110 @start, 6,510 @30 secs Dang!! All 3 within 200 lumens of each other, and again, not touching the LED's, LED wires, or FET.

Should be possible to hit 1,800 lumens per LED (7,200). Thinking the LED wires to 16 AWG and FET to SIR404DP, maybe improvements under the MCPCB (better grease, sand surfaces to 2000-2500 GRIT.

Tom E Ohh - on the 3rd modded Q8, got this: 7,110 at start, 6,510 @30 secs

I’m going to have to try my first mod, Spring bypass seems easy enough.