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

Right, I’ve actually just fixed it.

I feel a bit silly now, I’d been trying what felt like everything for the last hour or so before posting, but I hadn’t reset the step-down setting to timer instead of temperature. Doing this fixed both issues. I’m not sure why exactly, I’m guessing for the mode groups at least there was some fault with the sensor that caused it to shut the light down. I have no idea why this would also cause turbo from press and hold in the ramping setting.

I’ll leave it on timer now!

Hi, good to see you’re still around.
I’m not sure how to exactly explain what happened to your Q8, but if you set the stepdown to temperature instead of time, the default stepdown temperature can be anywhere, including room temperature. That is because the temperature is recorded in the MCU and that is extremely inaccurate. So you will have to tell the MCU the correct stepdown temperature by going through the stepdown temperature setting procedure (see manual).

But going back to timed stepdown is a good choice too, the 3 minute default is about spot-on IMO when batteries are full.

Hello,
Who can conduct a temperature study?
To what temperature does Q8 head warm up at room temperature (22-26C) without forced cooling after 20 minutes of operation ?:

  1. 1500LM (Group4)
  2. 2500LM (Group6)
  3. 750LM (Group8)
    Is there a 20-minute decrease in brightness for thermal control in these modes?
    Thank you!

1) No thermal stepfown from what I tested.

2) Still nothing.

3) Still nothing.

The only decrease in lux comes the battery voltage going down as time passes

Thanks, you too. I somehow finally managed to get away from buying new lights and more into using the ones I already have! I still get drawn in by the odd-BLF special (I really like the look of the Sofirn AAA light with the Yuji LED and I’m sure will pick a few up after the first feedback on them), but the BLF A6 and Emisar range pretty much killed off my feel for needing anything more.

I did set the temperature using the procedure on the instructions, and I waited until the body was really too hot to touch, so I thought that wouldn’t be the problem. I would have to guess that my thermal sensor was particularly inaccurate, or faulty, leading to the odd behaviour. I think timed stepdown will be fine. It’s not like I regularly need 4-5k lumens for more than 3 minutes at a time anyway!

I’m not sure if it’s the same issue, but I fixed something like that in RampingIOS between V1 and V2. If the user ran the light on a high mode for a while, then shut it off, it didn’t reset any of the thermal info it had collected. So when the user next turned it on, even at a low level, it would think it was hot and then “step down” to whatever it was going to do in the previous session, and this usually meant it would go from a low mode to a high mode.

Since RampingIOS V1 was a fork of Narsil, Narsil could be doing something similar. It wouldn’t be the first bug the two firmwares have shared.

I completely rewrote all that for FSM / Anduril / RampingIOS V3, and those also allow the thermal sensor to be calibrated. So, that’s available if you’d like the issue fixed instead of just working around it.

I resolved the issue. I guess I used too much solder paste or I moved wrongly with some led and there was a problem - straight anode-catode short. I reflowed leds again and all works fine now. Thanks for ideas anyway ;).

After these “troubles” I have really nice 4000K HI CRI beam of LH351D leds and I got a lot of new modding experiences :).

The BLF Q8 is not available on BG,when back?

Processing time:Expected on October 31, 2018

just in time for halloween.

You can try Sofirn Q8 on aliexpress or amazon :smiley:

the sofirn is coolwhite emitters tho, perhaps he want the original ?

Does anyone have good sources for a diffuser for the Q8? A warm colored one would be perfect.

Fenix AOD-L.

I have a problem. After removing the batteries (for charging), the flashlight forgets the custom setting of the temperature of the temperature control and uses the factory setting of the temperature of the temperature control.
What to do? Or is this the norm?

There is a bug in the software that shows up on very few lights where it doesn’t always save changes made in the menu after battery power is reset.

Iirc it will remember eventually, it may take a few tries plus it helps to cycle the light on/off and basically use it normally before disconnecting battery power.

I think it’s referred to as the Narsil memory bug.

Yes, it should remember eventually…

To completely fix it though, it would be necessary to flash new firmware onto the driver. This requires some extra tools, but the tools are cheap and the firmware is free and the Q8 is exceptionally easy to flash.

A few hours of tests, the results are strange. Thermal control memorized temperature setting. Stepdown worked in any mode, for a given temperature. But as soon as I pulled out the batteries, a change occurred. In turbo mode, custom thermal control remained, in any other mode, thermal control is 7-8C lower. For example, a turbo 57C, in another mode 49C. And so every time you remove the batteries.
Is there a topic with instructions on updating the BLF Q8 firmware and links to buying equipment?

This stuff is too complicated for myself, but I kinda want to learn so I’ve been keeping track of things.

Try this link for parts.

Here are some videos.

Here is a thread on it.

Thanks for the help! :slight_smile:

It seems to me that the error is common, but it is difficult to notice because of several reasons:

- very few people change the settings;

- the factory setting of thermal monitoring (55C) is quite reasonable, but the calibration of the sensor is different for everyone (I have about ~ 48C);

- not everyone has the necessary equipment to control the parameters of the flashlight;

  • if the user changes the temperature control setting, then most likely it is not much different from the factory setting, within ~ 10C. But since there is a delay in the response of the thermal control (about 40 seconds), so it is sometimes difficult to understand whether the user’s settings have been saved or a memory error has occurred.
    Therefore, I am going to conduct an additional series of tests. I set the temperature control to be very different from charging (55C), for example, 30C or 35C. Low temperature control temperature will allow both to speed up testing and easier to control memory errors. And I will try to make the lamp remember this setting of thermal control.
    If anyone is interested, join the tests :wink: . Having a few tests can already talk about statistics.