Am I missing something about the 4xAA format? There are already plenty of lights in that category. Are you just asking for one that pulls a lot more current than the ones available now?
I think you might be able to get to about 2500 lumens from a 4xAA Eneloop light, which would be kind of impressive. It probably couldn’t run for more than a couple of minutes at that output, without heat becoming a concern. And from my experience with Eneloops, they get damaged by heat (losing capacity) more easily than lithium-ion batteries.
So, while this would make an impressive light, it probably wouldn’t be any different from existing 4xAA lights except for short bursts.
I got bout 6 Q8's laying around and a modded MT03 II doing about 25-27K lumens. I'd say it's a lot brighter than the mildly modded 6,500 Q8's, but then again the MT03 II has about $65 added in parts.
I think you have missed some context. We were discussing e.g. a mini-Q8, x4 AA /14500 etc. which has sort-of already been done by Manker MK41 (single emitter only), and seems pretty good, and rather sophisticated, programmable moon, etc. etc. 1500 lumens on AA, 2000 on 14500. As well as several other respected manufacturers who have had similar for a few years. (but not with 14500 compatibility) Then we digressed into more esoteric stuff.
I think it would have to be something rather special, maximising potential of 14500 for high current (but they are really nothing special, even the best, not remotely comparable with x4 18650, so I doubt much more is realistic) to improve much on e.g. the MK41, and as you said there are already several other such torches from other makes, in that form-factor, which are also pretty decent. I’m not sure it’s a direction with much potential, other than perhaps amazing output for a very short period (4x the BLF X5, that would wow me), or low price. However done, I think a more sophisticated driver would be necessary unless just a simple 4p 14500 torch (which I personally don’t want, it also needs to take AAs and Eneloops for me to bite), i.e. a mini-Q8.
Tom Tom, you are a “new” member so have probably missed the topic about future projects:
A Q4 and even Q2 is debated there
IF one is worried about Narsil, first, ramping is very easy and second, read the manual in post 2, just do it and think how you would like your Q8 set up
without blinkies, moon at 2, and then check how to do it, it is easy.
Funny thing, when you have it, I give it a 91+% chance you will love the ramping so much you will not change it, maybe disable blinkies.
And I even give it a higher then 50% chance you will look at all your lights thinking “I wish it had ramping like this”
So be warned, the Q8 will greatly decrease the appeal most other lights will have for you and might ruin the pleasure of a lot you already own.
Tom Tom, I have had the same objections that you are having on a 4xAA or 4x14500 light, of which the consideration that a single 18650 flashlight is in almost all aspects superior to a 4x14500 light is the most important one.
But there’s still two advantages of the 4xAA concept: it can use safe batteries, and it can be made very short. Those two still make it attractive to me, and there’s no 4xAA flashlight out there yet that was designed for minimal length (think <80mm).
(back in the days there was just one Zebralight that I really really wanted, the Q50, and it was never released :cry: )
Yes, Djozz, safe and cute
and the elusive BLF AA driver of course, in a nice bigger board because 4P size, so many SK68 lights will be modded with drivers based on that.
A quick check does not show any machining issues, burrs, or striped screws.
I do however have switch LEDs that are different in brightness and very, very slightly off center main LEDs.
The dark smudge on the brass ring mostly came off just rubbing with my finger.
The threads of my light came over lubed if anything.
The basic stuff is very easy to use but really navigating the blinkys and setup is going to take some time.
The beam and tint looks great so far indoors during the day.
The host seems to do a great job of transferring the heat as this guy warms up real quick.
This is an excellent light, thank you to everyone in the project that got this done.
I have an MF 01 in my hand now with the click ON, long click OFF. It isn't all that bad really, but not a fan of it. It goes to last mode so no direct way to get to low mode unless it's last mode used. 2X click is turbo, click when ON is next mode. Simple but if a higher mode is last mode used, you get blasted.
This MF 01 is off to VOB to make it big in the videos.
That makes more sense. I guess it basically treats the e-switch as if it’s a power switch. That’s an interesting way to do it.
I think it would mostly eliminate the benefits of using an e-switch, but it does offer a great deal of consistency. One can make all their lights behave the same regardless of switch type. The main difference would be that a common e-switch has no distinction between half-press and full-click, so the full click would need to be simulated by holding the button longer. Hence long-click-off.
This would probably translate reasonably well to a 2-stage e-switch like Nitecore uses. Gentle press to change modes, hard press to turn on or off.
Anyway, this is getting more and more off-topic. Narsil uses a single short click for on/off, and the lock-in thing is a way to enable that at the same time as fast mode selection from off. It’s basically 1 click moon, 2 clicks low, 3 clicks med1, 4 clicks med2, 5 clicks hi1, 6 clicks hi2, etc. And then 1 click for off. Except the relaxed timing allows for the first few clicks to be pretty slow if desired. And the quick level changes can be enabled again later by holding first.
It’s certainly different than how the ramping UI works, but it’s still designed well and gives very quick access to the lowest few steps and the highest step. It’s a good optimization of Werner’s UI.
Heheh I removed the cells from my MF01 and put them back in Q8 proto.
MF01 in box , will surely come in handy with Q16 stuff in the future.
Made me love Narsil even more that’s for sure!
Yup, and it’s nice being able to explain the core UI in a single short sentence — click for on/off, hold to change brightness.
The X5 is a neat little light. However, when my D1 shows up I get the feeling it’ll probably turn my X5 and X6 into display pieces which don’t get used much. It’s roughly the size of the X5, but with the performance and capacity of the X6… and I plan on giving it a more advanced UI than either one.
Similarly, the Q8 will probably make both my SRK and Meteor sit idle.
I’ve tried to warn people about that too. People don’t generally “get” it until after actually trying one in person though.
Generally one gets “the new hotness” in the mail, turns it on, plays with it for a while, and thinks “wow, this is great!”… But then they look at their collection of older items, which now for some reason look curiously dull and grey, and wonders “What have I been doing with my life?”
It’s that second part which is difficult to warn people about.
My itty bitty Nitecore MT22a 2AA is I think 81mm long, 55 grams of mostly polycarbonate, and rather good (I think you also have one) That’s the way to do it. If you can come up with a x4 AA/14500 and mega-lumens in the same length, I’ll be the first in line.
Edit: I suspect Nitecore spent more on tooling for this little thing than a 500 run of a Q8, it’s not fair.
