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

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.

FWIW, I ordered my 3 on Sept 8th, 12th and 26th. All 3 show backorder status on banggood as of about 1 minute ago.

Clearly, there is no favoritism on this site as I have ordered in excess of $3000 worth of goods from them since I came to BLF. :wink:

+1 with TK. The idea was make the default simple basic usage:

  • click to turn ON to last level
  • when on, click to turn OFF
  • or click&hold to ramp up, let go where you want to stop and leave it at
  • once the light is ON, click&hold to adjust it up and down
  • double click from OFF or ON to go to turbo/max without effecting the saved last level

I'm not sure if everyone agrees to this, but this basic operation described above came about directly from BLF user input, not from me or the Q8 team, least as best as I recall from early on in this thread.

the criteria here that the UI meets is:

  • quick, no frustrating delays to turn the light ON or OFF, always one click
  • quick access to the lowest setting, quick access to the max setting, quick access to last level used
  • ramping - seemed to be desired by all, and make it smooth and quick
  • get rid of poorly chosen output level sets of modes (Low/Med/Hi, etc.) - ramping has effectively an infinite # of brightness levels (~150)

The problem is of course do it all with one switch, but i think we worked that out. Now most of the talk about click timings was related to the switch LEDs, unrelated to basic operation of the light. But for those reports of the switch not working, there's two type:

  • intermittent click not working
  • any click not working til the power is reset (tube loosened)

For the intermittent issue, I think most of the the time the switch is held too long, so ramping starts. I designed ramping to be quick, so one click has to be pretty quick to differentiate from ramping. If I slow down the one click, then I'm adding delays to when ramping starts - it's a tradeoff. I thought it was a nice compromise, but others may disagree.

For the "any click not working", not sure of the detailed circumstances, how often/repeatable, etc., and certainly I've never seen it,and I believe no one on the team has seen it, prototype or production Q8's. I believe/think the reports were just a one time thing, not repeatable.

If an even simpler UI is desired, that can be arranged. I could take some things out of my FSM ramping example and make a Q8 firmware which only has on, off, a reversing ramp, and maybe a 4-bar battcheck. Call it “dead simple” or something like that.

With a bit of extra plumbing, maybe it could even forget the memorized level after an hour so it’ll be more predictable after sitting idle.

Plus safety stuff like LVP and thermal regulation, but those aren’t really things the user should have to care about.

Mine just got shipped!

Shipping Method:Priority Air Mail
Ship From:CN
Order Placed Date:2017-09-07 22:08:26
Shipped Date:2017-09-29 21:51:00
Expected delivery date:2017-10-22 00:00:00
Mobile:

Mine also just shipped!

Shipping Method: Priority Air Mail

Ship From: CN

Order Placed Date: 2017-09-12 22:57:13

Shipped Date: 2017-09-29 22:49:31

Expected delivery date: 2017-10-22 00:00:00

NICE!!! my Q8 is finally on its way. Sweet :sunglasses:

Lol mine just shipped as well.

In 14 days (maybe less) it will finally be here...

Then I can find a tutor for the UI...lmao

For simpler UI's I also intend to get bistro-HD working on it (might already, but ..) and probably even add a lockout command . I've seen that Narsil has fixed modes which is very neat, heck a of a firmware with tons of features packed. However, the click commands for ramp I guess limit the remaining commands for modes if I'm reading it right (I'll definitely give a whirl before I decide), and the one that overcomplicates it for me in modes is the lock in. I suspect this is because long click has other uses, so you need lock in to then have an off command available?

So in bistro-HD e-switch, it will be short click forward, medium click back. Long click off, almost as it's always been for bistro. No lock-in, any click back on (with memory or not, no fancy double click commands to select on-the-fly like narsil). I don't know, Tom, maybe this is something that can be worked into Narsil still? The lock-in is something I'm sure I'd rather avoid. The thing that changes slightly for e-switch bistro is you'll need a long click-off followed by a quick tap on to get what used to be a long click in bistro, ie, with no memory, a reset to first mode. But I think that's fairly intuitive.

I'd never care for a UI that has a long click for off, sorry. I've seen lot of posted complaints on long click ON/OFF UI's, and there's quite a few lights out there with it. Some could argue for symmetry - long ON/long OFF, and I think I've seen long ON, short OFF. Suppose all possible combos have been done.

I'm very interested in the direction TK is goin with her latest e-switch driver, but don't know all the details yet. I believe though it has, and will have many possible options for UI preferences though. That's part of the goal - give the user what they want, whether it's 60% of users, or 2% - it's all a matter of personal preference.

2 switch lights of course would give us more options, but we would probably need to jump to the next level ATMEL MCU's that have more I/O pins.

I’ve always wondered why nobody making flashlights builds tailcaps with 4 or 8 DIP switches.