I will have one of these but it may take a while for me since my wife continuously gripes about me buying lights. May have to go a month without a purchase just so it doesn’t seem so bad to her. She doesn’t understand.
It is almost the only posible protection for parallel battery connection.
Ok.. Just sad that not even my "normal button top" batteries work.
I don’t have many unprotected button-top cells, so I did the same thing I usually do when I need something like that… solder-blob the top of flat-top cells.
Chibi, solder blob the pad so the button top will work. 
To make button tops usually I cut up some copper sheet into a tiny disk and solder that on top with solder paste. I leave the iron on just long enough for the paste to melt.
I find that copper wears better than bare solder when its rubbing against springs and other parts of a battery compartment.
Good stuff..
TK says: solder cells
DB says: solder the pad of the driver?
Firelight says: solder copper discs unto the battery.
I damaged the red ring already... but might go the solder blob way/copper disc :)
btw: what did you guys measure in max output?
Mine goes up to 7500 Lumens.. I have the 4000K version (NW).
I don’t think he means solder the giant brass ring. That’s too big for most soldering irons. Plus it would need to be filed flat afterwards (I assume) and that requires even more unnecessary work.
Perhaps it’s best to remove the plastic(?) rings and sand them down just a little. It sounds like they may be a bit too tall.
My will have this mix:
XP-L HI 3A 6 pieces
XP-L HI 5D 3 pieces
XP-L HI 1A 1 piece
Nichia 219CT 4 pieces
XP-G2 S4 3D 4 pieces
I would like to achieve the color of 4800K and Duv zero or slightly under BBL.
I wonder how many lumens it will generate. I invented such a system:
I might just remove the whole red ring.
If more people have problems with this I feel Hank should take some action and lessen the height of the ring.
Will the Vf in these be close enough to operate correctly?
I was thinking of a carrier when I said to solder blob the pads, sorry.
TK showed how to pop the ring off the battery contact side of the driver to gain access to the screws, if this ring is removed and sanded down some the cells should work fine (you’ll have to monitor the height as you sand) the ring is made from the same fiberglass style material as the pcb of the driver. It can be left off, disabling reverse cell protection. You would then have to make absolutely certain you never drop a cell in the tube backwards.
Only nichia stands out from the rest, so if there is a problem with her, I will put something else. I have all the LEDs, so I do not risk anything. It is worth a try.
As for protection, I abolished it long ago. In M43, I got rid of the ring and cartridge in the central part. I do not have protection (as in all my other flashlights) but I can use any batteries.
That’s probably three different Vf curves for the three different emitter types… and half of the emitters aren’t evenly spaced. You might get a better result by just mixing 12 x 3A and 6 x 5D.
As the effect will be bad, I will do a mix with 9x XP-L HI 3A and 9x XP-L HI 5D
As far as removing the ring goes, why not? The Q8 doesn’t have any reverse polarity protection, does it? Same thing, no? If my copper tabbed cells don’t fit, I may be removing that ring.
I hated my Nichia M43, the UI was the worst I’ve ever used, the button glowed any colour it wanted and the tint was pure green nastiness.
Why there is not a magnet and aux leds like on the D4S? Otherwise its an excellent light.
I understand the magnet would be very heavy and expensive.
With the individual TIR’s virtually covering the entire MCPCB, where would the auxillary LED’s go?
Looking at these images from TK, there is a cover plate that holds the TIR’s in the correct position and eliminates all gaps (as seen previously in the M43), literally covering the MCPCB in it’s entirety. So where would an aux LED be seen? Nowhere up top for sure. Not without a lot of alteration…
And I’m glad that there are no additional auxillary LED’s. I turned them off completely in D4s.