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

Yes, led’s do not come on. Yes switch led’s blink twice. Voltage: First Q8 - 3 and 9, Second Q8 - 3 and 5 blinks.

Yes, that’s normal. The green light under the switch stays on, normally.

Ok, but in First Q8 if i turn off light, switch is Green, in Second Q8 is not :frowning:

It appears that the indicator led is turned off. Everything else appears to be working, and the indicator leds do work. Download the NarsilM Reference.pdf , look at the bottom under Advanced Configuration UI Operation It will tell you how to enable/disable the indicator led.

So the switch LEDs work.
Maybe you switched it off in the Advanced Config Settings?

The first one “Locater Led Feature” does this.
You can try to switch it on again or reset the lamp to the default settings.

Reset to factory in RAMPING:
The lamp can be OFF or ON:
3x, 2x, 2x, press&hold (for 1.2sec) till 4 blinks

Reset to factory in MODES:
Only from OFF:
1x, click&hold (for 2.5 sec), 2x, 2x, press&hold (for 1.2sec) till 4 blinks

There is a newer cheat sheet under

With few more notes on NarsilM.
you probably need Q8 v10
The Q8 v12 is for firmware version v1.2

Yeah try that ^ much easier

Or do a factory reset….

Restore to Factory Settings
This is a feature, undocumented in the user manual, that will restore all configuration settings to factory defaults, in the
state as originally shipped. It comes in handy in case there’s any doubts of how the light is configured. To access this
feature, while displaying the firmware number (dbl click for voltage display, then dbl click for temperature display, then
dbl click for version display), press&hold the switch until the light blinks quickly – this acknowledges the configuration
settings have been reset to factor defaults.

yes, do the simple restore to factory settings as stated above. After doing this, the green LEDs should be ON! If not, you have a problem as others have had.

Yes. It’s on all the time the light is off. You can lock out the light with four clicks if this worries you. Then four clicks to turn it on again.

Works ! Thank You Very Much for All :slight_smile: Great flashlight :slight_smile:

Hmmm…

My second Q8 arrived today. However it looks like it has a switch LED problem (unstable light), also sometimes in modes (i.e. ramping disabled) there is a second or two seconds delay between pressing the button and brightness increase.

BLF Q8 switch LED problem - YouTube - switch LED problem
BLF Q8 - Delay after mode change - YouTube - delay after mode change

Still loving the Q8! Despite using it as much as possible and even as a nightlight in lowest moonlight mode every night (ceiling bounce) I have difficulty getting below 4.0v after using it for 2 weeks at a time. I guess I need to let it scream more often. Despite my frustration at it’s efficiency when used below 2 flashes of the switch LEDS I’m going to compound my frustration by switching to GA cells from the 30Qs for even more runtime. :smiley:

Really nice job Q8 team! Please frustrate me some more. I eagerly anticipate my further frustration with Giggles and the FW3A.

But despite my use of the Q8 in it’s more efficient mode it’s nice to have the light output on tap when I need it.

FWIW, I have yet to hear any negativity regarding the Q8 from anyone I’ve given one to. The reports I have gotten back, everyone who sees it and what it’ll do asks where they can get one. :+1:

Very appreciative here and I hope that comes through.

Just an aside… We entered the realm of Li-Ion cells and LED lights from old tech SunLite SL-6s and NiMh cells. This forum has been nothing but gold in leading the wife and I to really great replacements for the SL-6s. The BLF designed lights are simply superb. I couldn’t be happier with what the movers and shakers on this forum produce. The wife, she accepts my passion and is happy with a C8 since it’s so much more than the old SL-6s. Time and Tech’ march on and I dip my hat to you folks. The SL-6s were good in their day, 20 years ago. But our older eyes today need more illumination. It must have been the pits to be older folks not even 20 years ago and not have todays Li-Ion and LED technology, or not have access to the BLF with it’s affordable hotrod lights. Again, a dip of my hat. I greatly appreciate what you folks do for us. So do my dogs. They haven’t gotten into a porcupine since we got the new lights. They work so much better than the old SunLights.

Now that all the Q8 stuff has slowed down, has there been any thoughts on offering it in a cool white or warm white version?

Just received email from Banggood that the BLF Q8 I pre-ordered is now shipping (originally expected shipping date is Dec. 5, so it seems they got them earlier)… Hope I can get them in a couple of weeks, but isn’t it suggested to use button-top batteries for the BLF Q8?

For now, my only button-top 18650s are protected NCR18650B (good thing I bought some before the Liitokala Official Store in AliExpress stopped shipping to our country). The only other ‘genuine’ 18650s I have right now are Samsung INR18650-30Q and LG HG2s. Are the protected NCR18650B (button-top) usable for the BLF Q8? I read that the INR18650-30Q do not make sufficient contact and is not recommended for the Q8. How about the raised flat-top LG HG2? Will the protected NCR18650B be high-drain enough for the BLF-Q8? (I’ve tried the protected NCR18650B on an Astrolux S41S Nichia219 w/ 18650 tube and it automatically shuts down when on ‘Turbo’ or even on ‘High 2’ mode).

Having a hard time getting button-tops since most store in AliExpress have also stopped shipping — I found a few ‘not-so-well known’ (ie. lower feedback scores) stores that still sell the branded 18650s button-top, but I’m wary if they are genuine or not…

That first video, showing the indicator led”s flickering, is just how my batch 1 Q8 behaved before the indicator leds died completely.
Light works fine but indicator leds dead.

It depends on the protection circuitry that was installed. Do you know what company added the protection circuit or at least where you bought them from?

This is only in reference to the factory flat top cells. If it has the added button top or raised flat top, then it is fine.
BTW, any flat top cell can have a solder blob added to raise the positive end.

Should be fine.

The protected NCR18650Bs are from here:

The description only says: “The PCB use 2*MOS protection board, maximum power voltage is 4.2V, the minimum voltage of 2.5V”
I have tested this (freshly charged) protected NCR18650B on Astrolux S1 (ie. BLF A6) and S2 (ie. BLF X6v2), they do not trip even when set to Turbo mode.
However, I just got the Astrolux S41S quad-Nichia, and when freshly charged, the said battery trips (turns on and immediately turn off) on Turbo and on High-2 modes.

Any idea what are the parameters/characteristics of the “2*MOS protection board”?

My INR18650-30Qs are the unmodded flat-tops. Maybe I’ll use the unprotected LG HG2s then…
Thanks for the response!

How many amps is the highest current draw of the stock BLF Q8 (I believe that’s being shipped is the newest revision)?

I don’t recognize those particular cells. Just saying “2 MOS protection board” isn’t enough information. I know the higher rated boards (8A to 12A) tend to use 3 mosfets, but without specific details we can’t say for sure what the max current is.

It says output is 600mA, but that might be a typo. If it said 6,000mA then that would be 6 amps and is about the rating I would expect.

From some quick searching I see that the S1 light can draw 4.5A on unprotected cells and maybe 3.5 using protected.

The S41 can draw 9 amps with an unprotected cell. I can’t find any data about the amp draw on High 2. I wish I could so we would get a closer idea of this batteries limit. I would guess that High 2 is maybe 5 to 6 amps.

So we know it can deliver at least 3.5 amps, but not 6 amps.

The Q8 on 4 cells can draw 16 amps with unprotected cells. So maybe 13A to 14A using protected cells. That is 3.5A per cell. You might be okay using those protected cells on the Q8.

Jason, if the cells won’t put out the amps the light calls for, it will still power the light just not at maximum output, correct?

That seems to depend on the way the protection circuit is built. The protected cells d_t_a linked to obviously cuts all power if the amp draw exceeds the added protection circuits limit.

Then there are other circuits that will limit output instead of turn off. On my L6 it will draw 17A to 18A with unprotected cells, but my KeepPower protected cells will simply limit the amp draw to about 10A instead of shutting off all power.

So it really depends on the added circuits.

To answer your question, let’s say you had protected cells that only had a 2A limit then it cuts power. Four of those in the Q8 would limit the total amp draw to 8 amps. You would still be able to use the light at lower levels, but once you ramp it up to about 3000 lumen the lamp will cut off. So it’s usable, but annoying.

One thing I will say is that these protection circuits always increase the internal resistance and on a fet driver they will always pull less amperage than the same cell without the protection circuit. Assuming the amp draw does not exceed the limit of the protection circuit.

Oh yeah, if I were running protected cells in a Q8, I’d make sure and get some that are tested to do at least 5A. That should be fine for a stock light.