Oh, I also filed the anodization off the end of the head and also cleaned it off the shoulder on the battery tube, so the ground path is direct in that tight junction…. the end of the battery tube doesn’t quite seat down onto the shelf around the driver. This effort produced just about as much gain as the copper in the tail cap, in other words, nothing. Still makes the same output as before I did all that.
(Essentially, in other words, they already have it working great and most of the tricks and tweaks produce nil.)
Ok, so I went back and also put a 20ga Turnigy bypass on the driver, now, with the highest performing SonyVTC5A it’s making 4378.05 lumens out the front.
Tracy tells me that her engineers informed her that the XP-L Neutral White emitters are V6 2D or 2C. I like em, they’re just a tad bit whiter than a 3D and that works beautifully to my eye.
I think the only way to get more out of this light is to go with XP-L2’s, not intending to change it though as I like it very much as it is right now. The UI works for me, easy enough to get directly to moon or Turbo and in between are 5 useable modes… a bit of a jump between 2 and 3 but it’s fine.
Edit: I can remember being excited to get 4000 lumens from the quite large TK75, and again to get that much from the 4 headed Black Shadow Terminator… This C8 is doing what yesterday’s big boss lights did! How cool is THAT?!
Maybe you can try the SP32A. 2 Light Groups (6 brightness levels and dimming), with memory, one click on and double clicks for turbo. Here is the code and link.
Doug, It handles the heat surprisingly well. The MCPCB is a large copper DTP, I confirmed that it is in fact Direct Thermal Path, and the shelf is pretty thick under this piece. The head has proper fins and also has the mass of the 3 protrubences that make the C8 what it is. Sure, it’ll warm up given some run time on Turbo, but it takes a bit longer than I would have thought.
The top cell I’ve found is the Sony VTC5A, other cells won’t push it as hard and so the heat and run time will of course be affected in a positive way with a lower discharge capability and higher capacity. Like with our FET drivers, it’s pretty easy to control the parameters by proper cell choice.
Sounds great to me I am going to purchase one when I am able to. Just got done buying the BLF GT, Emisar D4 and accessories along with the Nitecore Tube and 4 sets of batteries. The Mrs is not real happy with me right now :person_facepalming: Great job by the way! Amazing output in such a small package. I like the fact that it will run a bit longer in turbo then just burst modes. I have a old Ebay Trustfire with a three emitter lens and a three 18650 tube that I want to mod. A 9V driver and three XLamp® XM-L2 Gen 2 Emitters should really make this flashlight shine.
You might want to consider the Luminus SST-40, it can make a lot more lumens than the XM-L2 and fits the same footprint. The only ones commonly available now though have a blue-white output, not really bad but noticeable. Lumens is fantastic though!
I’ve had my Supfire M6 running at close to 5000 lumens for quite a while now, triple XM-L2. I swapped in 3 SST-40’s and it now makes 8866 lumens. Seriously, an emitter swap!
That is the 2 milliamp setting. There are 1000 micro amps in a milliamp (had to look up because this stuff is hard to remember, lol). 1 milliamp is pretty high drain. The Q8 has 125 micro amps drain and it is perfectly fine, very low. This shows 9 microamps which is super low. I don’t even know how the mcu can be running on that even in its sleep mode. (It has to be partially running so it can detect a signal from the switch and turn itself on)
3-SST-40 are pretty Shocking coming out of a MMU X3 specially if your on the receiving end! The 21700 hits at 24-25amps and with the FETDD SIR800 guppydrv.program on Turbo/Strobe….it makes for a
Fist full of Lightning coming out of this thing!
I have a Convoy Triple SST-40 Optic it is bright but nothing like whats coming out of a triple reflector light! Kaidomain has the even higher kelvin 7500k’s I just might swap out the 6500k’s for when I get the time….
Maybe Sofirn can come out with a XM triple board for the C8F too! :+1:
I have to say I’m impressed with Sofirn too, this is one of the most interesting lights out there. And also, well done. Not so long ago they had good light, but they were willing to make a number of big changes to improve it.
Now if they ported one of BLF ramping UIs to their driver…. I view ramping as the proper way of using e-switch and overall I think our UIs are simply very well done.
That is amazing! How well does it take the heat?
I am going to purchase one when I am able to. Just got done buying the BLF GT, Emisar D4 and accessories along with the Nitecore Tube and 4 sets of batteries. The Mrs is not real happy with me right now :person_facepalming: 
