(BLF) Sofirn Q8 V1.5: The XPL HI monster, DIY parts + Extended 8x18650 tubes GB Interest List

They are at least in contact with TomE, so a Narsil upgrade is likely, not sure about Anduril…

Thanks for the info, BlueswordM and djozz.

I don’t see much meaning in a 8P setup for this light. For more runtime it’s easier to carry 4 additional cells separately than their weight and the tubes weight all the time in your hand.

But if the cell configuration can be changed to 2S4P without too much work, I would rather buy this light as a modding host for 6V LEDs for a proper price.

Shouldn’t it be doable with QuickCharge over night?

Quickcharge will cost too much. Was discussed before.

Anyway, for the 4 cell version it’s usually not more than 12000 mAh capacity, and that’s not too much for USB-charging over night, and the cells won’t be completely empty everytime.

What I have seen how the battery carriers are constructed, with some cutting traces and adding wires you should be able to make them 2S4P. Then a 2S driver can be used that has the same battery connection side as the stock Q8. A more neat solution is designing new contact boards for the battery carriers (and upload on Oshpark for everyone to use :slight_smile: ) to get this done.

Sounds good, I wouldn’t mind to design the new carrier boards.
I haven’t followed the modding discussions for a while, is a MCPCB for XHP 50/70 available meanwhile?

Led4power has in stock mcpcbs for Q8 , 4040 and 5050 footprints :wink:

https://led4power.com/product/l4p-blf-q8-40405050-38mm-dtp-direct-thermal-path-copper-mcpcb/

Great, thanks!

One concern here, if all 8 cells are run down to minimum voltage, then some bright spark decides instead of swapping them all out (since he only has a 4 bay charger), he will charge one carrier load and insert it, wouldn’t the resulting current from 4x30Q fully charged to 4x30Q fully discharged be rather like welding? There must be some sort of protection against that built in right?

With the proliferation of 4 bay chargers I suspect that charge imbalance would be quite a common problem. One easy way to encounter this would be to run a “normal” test on your cells in a Lii500, and forget that when END is flashing it doesn’t mean the cells are fully charged. Do that once on an 8 cell recharge with this setup and you now have one fully charged set and one set at a random voltage, without being aware. Happens easily.

XPL-HI, you say… :heart_eyes:

This could happen in any parallel setup, it’s not a specific problem of the light discussed here.
Btw. with a 4P2S setup it would be even worse, since the carrier with the depleted cells gets reversed voltage.

Especially when they’ve both publicly said they have nothing to do with one or the other

I guess it’s better not to ask haha … It’s a nice move Sofirn selling parts that Thorfire won’t …

Not only worse, far more common, since the 8 cells will rarely be charged together, or if together, nearly always in different chargers since more people will have two 4 bay chargers than an 8 bay.

How do you reach 20Ah with 4x18650? Max would be about 4x3200mAh - 12.8Ah, nowaday.

Whatever time it takes is much better for most people then having a dedicated Li-ion charger and handling the cells in and out of the light. It makes it straightforward, like charging a phone or a power bank without worrying about whatever cells are inside - and much safer (no chance to put one cell the wrong way).

I can imagine the variant with XPL-HI but why does anyone need a battery extension tube for the Q8?
I did not even know Sofirn was related with Thorfire :frowning:

Interested in a XPLHi version though, especially if the coupon from Martin is still working.
Did they mention what bin will be used? or is there any choice?

Imma order the battery tube extension I have a use for it. When I’m at work in my paint booth I use lights and to change batteries I have to come out from under the trailer make sure there’s no paint that will get on the light. From my paint suit. I usually change batteries but it will be nice to have twice the run time. And when I take my kids to the park at night. I make a circle of lights it’s not lit well. Having twice the run time will be nice. So most people won’t need it but a few people will find it useful. It can’t be any heavier then a mt07s but for my use I’m not carrying the light most of the time. So weight and heat isn’t a issue.

From what I have understood from what Sofirn said to me, they share the same factories, and this is how they are offering the DIY parts and the new Q8.

One other thing is they said is the reason they are offering DIY parts is that Thorfire was never willing to do so, and Sofirn saw the need for the DIY community to have these parts.

One other thing though: I have not asked Sofirn yet, but who is going to sell the new Q8? Thorfire or Sofirn?

Hmmm. Sofirn and Thorfire sharing the same factories… that seems to make sense.

I’ve noticed that the Thorfire VG10S and the Sofirn SF36/SF36W look extremely similar (I think even their UI are similar).

And the Thorfire TK18 seems to be a hybrid of the UI for Sofirn SP31 and SP32A.
(Thorfire TK18 = tail+side switch, and the UI is low-to-high-to-low — this is similar to the Sofirn SP31.
though the Thorfire TK18 also has a ramping UI, which is similar to the SP32A…)

There are likely other similar flashlights between Thorfire model and Sofirn model that I haven’t read about… (oops but this is sort of off-topic for this message thread)