Q8, PMS SEND TO THOSE WITH ISSUES BLF soda can light

I did a factory reset and now both D4 and Q8 are fonctionning the same way with a click & hold from OFF.

Before the factory reset, when I was doing a click & hold at the same time on both flashlights, the D4 was turning ON on moonlight almost instantly and after the “moonlight + pause” it was ramping up. The Q8 was turning ON after a longer delay directly to ramp up without “moonlight + pause”.
I probably disabled the moonlight (but there is no way to do it in the manual) so I probably set it to the lowest level by mistake. It seems that the emitters weren’t even emitting light at this lowest moonlight.

I'd be interested if anyone shows so called "conductive" grease actually improving their case connection. Any low viscosity grease should be fine and conductive greases are not standard for such applications in my experience.

Pretty sure the next stop for yours will be Hong Kong. Yours, like mine; do appear to be moving. :+1:

> conductive grease

Hm. Opinions vary.

That guy says nope.

and he has this warning:

Now those attentive to spelling may remark that ‘silicon carbide’ is a well known abrasive, whereas ‘silicone carbide’ would be something else again, if indeed it’s a thing at all.
Google suggests it’s not a thing. But what do they know?

Did you miss my "fast hands" post?

Hhhm, good Q. Let me check....

Edit: Ramp mode pause defaults to 0.368 secs in the Q8. Here's the code:

#define RAMP_MOON_PAUSE 23    // this results in a 0.368 sec delay, paused in moon mode

Same value used in the original D4 firmware. Might be the feel of the switch that's different?

I can confirm a setting of moon mode to 1 disabled the LEDs. Not sure if that's expected - they are using a "good" 7135, I bet was hard to find in qty 2,000. Want to check/confirm with other Narsil lights and Q8 protos...

It happened to me too. And that’s exactly what I point to in bold.

When I selected level 1 for the moonlight mode, exactly the same thing happened to me.

And not only does it change the fact that there is no pause in moonlight mode and that it takes longer to turn on the LEDs. What also happens is that if you release the button before the LEDs turn on, you will have the flashlight turned off with the button light also off. At that time, if you press the button normally, button led will light, another press will turn on the flashlight.

Yep, all normal stuff unfortunately. Sorry, didn't check the protos yet. Think if we would have spotted that and talked bout it, it would have sunk in I shouldn't even allow a level of 1 to be selected in a Q8 .

Ok, checked & verified on 3 protos and 1 production light. All of them light up the LED's, yes, all of them on moon level 1. How are you guys checking it? In room light or are you goin into a dark place? Very obvious what's goin on in the dark on moon mode level 1. It works, it ain't bright...

Flashlights are for the dark. Oh, and is setting 1 useful for anything? No, not really.

Still waiting at “Back Order”

Order no: 1000-1010 (Maybe 1004) . But who cares, I am not in a rush :slight_smile: .

Oh yeah. You guys talked about this before (500 pages back?) but I forgot. I just checked mine this way, and it says that it has departed the facility in Shenzhen! Woo-Hoo! It’s really moving! :partying_face:

Meanwhile, Fed-Ex still says “Shipping label has been created. The status will be updated when shipment begins to travel.” :expressionless:

Ok, I just checked it and it they turn on in setting 1, if that can be called turn on ...

I was doing the tests in a room in the dark, but not completely in the dark, so that it was impossible to observe that there was a slight brightness in the LEDs, in fact, with the room completely dark, you almost have to intuit that they are emitting some kind of light.

It is obvious that level 1 of moonlight is useless. I just selected mode 2, and this yes, this is usable. Although I would like it to be part of the ramp, but the ramp I see that only reaches level 3, if you select 2 or 1, they are off the ramp, in any case, not a big inconvenience.

I’m glad you did! One of my lights actually does light up in Moonlight PWM=1. It is a ridiculously low moonlight. I have no way to measure, but I am fairly sure it is less bright than the switch indicator. Tests in the bathroom at work laboratory indicate that unless you have dark adapted eyes, it is very hard to even tell if the emitters are ON - short of looking directly at them.

Yea, it's a definite "feature"

Anyone run a Q8 without the switch boot on? I get this feel'n a little green eyed monster is staring at me.... Okay, only after a 1/2 beer - I can't drink any more, or any less... :beer:

I’ve found that PWM=1 can still be useful with a slower clock speed. I’m getting about 0.2 lm at that level now on my D4, or 0.05 lm on my SRK-Q8-proto.

What I found works reasonably well is to adjust clock speed based on PWM level at the bottom of the ramp:

  • PWM=1, PWM=2: 3.9 kHz
    MCU power = ~1.5 mA
  • PWM=3 to 10: 7.7 kHz
    MCU power = ~2 mA
  • PWM=10+: 15.6 kHz
    MCU power = ~3.5 mA

What I started with was 15.6 kHz always, MCU power = ~5.5 mA. So the underclocking and idle states help quite a bit at the low end, even if it’s meaningless at higher levels.

OTOH, this makes the ramp settings even more hardware-specific, so what looks good on one type of light may appear a little bumpy on another light. Instead of a 2-segment ramp, it acts like a 4-segment ramp… and each segment boundary is an opportunity for a “bump”.

I have not gotten mine yet, but listening to various discussions, I am getting rather nervous about the usability of the Q8. I realize I have a limited primary use for the Q8 (emergency lights rather than an exciting toy) and am on a web site that is the epicenter of modding and cool things flashlight. And I may also be seriously over reacting. I am sure that will be noted in any replies.

I am not sure if I will be able to use it every so often (or never) without having to read the manual. If things go well, my Q8s may never be called upon to emit light. I will touch them only every so often to rotate the batteries. I have a TK75 that lives like that aside of the bed. In an emergency, reading the manual first is not going to happen. I have enough trouble remembering which button controls which lights in the house. I am particularly concerned about the timing sensitivity of button pressing. Some of these things can be seriously confusing to the casual user.

One aspect of an emergency light is that people other then myself may need to use it. I strongly suspect my wife will simply not be able to use it. She has problems with some relatively simple lights I have scattered around the house for when the power goes out. Handing one to a neighbor, without requiring them to read the manual, is not helpful.

I would like to ask if someone with the skills might consider making a set of firmware that makes the Q8 dead simple for an untrained user. Personally, I would buy the things necessary to reflash the firmware just to avoid confusion in an emergency. And that includes me. If the emergency is more than just losing power (e.g., earthquakes, Tsunamis, forest fires, and recently tornadoes - we have them all), I want it simple for anyone to use.

If someone is willing, we could start a thread about Q8 firmware for dummies. And when there is a reasonable set of functions, distribute the firmware.

TK, you are sobering me up here... DEL explained it to me, not sure if posted, but pretty much as you are describing. We are pushing the specs on the 7135 on these high PWM's rates and low PWM LED output values. I thought of implementing it in v1.1 of NarsilM, just no time, and the PWM value of 2 is a really nice low low moon.

Didn’t someone say it was possible to update the firmware?

Noted! :smiley:

In stock form, the Q8 is already pretty simple. Click to turn on or off, hold to change brightness.

If the click timing is too fast, code is available and there are already several nice firmware options.

In any case, this is all philosophical until after you’ve tried it in person. So wait until then to decide what you think about it.

Yes. Click the Link in my signature for much, much more information about that.

Tom’s Narsil code is available as a starting point, if you like the Q8 but want to make a few changes. There are also other options available if you want a different starting point. The BLF Q8 and Emisar D4/D1 have compatible drivers, so firmware for one works on the other. The only logical difference is the Q8’s indicator LED.