Is BG gonna be the seller? I was hoping for KD, as they were mentioned also. I like KD a whole lot better and this board seems to fit in their line more then it would at BG. KD has a lot more FL DIY related stuff.
The idea is that if BG sold it they could bundle it in with the Q8 purchases saving time and shipping costs.
I was under the impression that bundling was not an option as it would make a mess of things. Can’t really remember but I think it was mentioned in the Q8 thread regarding optics or something else.
Yes this is a stand alone thing, but of course putting both in one order if they are ready should be ok
(though still I so like splitting things so unless paying for shipping would not do that myself)
BG bundles stuff all the time, that is no problem at all. The issue is getting thorfire to do anything like this, they are not exactly open to out of the box thinking as a whole.
BG bundled an S1 with my S41 order for example for far less then the S1 usually costs alone. This is pretty common, they always have a few items that you can add on for a discount.
Now I’m confused, who’s gonna make this MCPCB? Thorfire or BG? If BG makes em it should be no problem combining them when we order the Q8. On the other hand I don’t really trust BG for making this MCPCB, KD has lots of decent products, their PCB’s are allright, also their drivers and flashlights ar good + their customer service is great.
The idea is to have it made by a board manufacturer, probably Kerui because we have a contact with them on BLF and there is proof of their products. But to prevent a BLF-member to have to send out multiple boards all over the world for months on end (nobody is prepared to do that) we need a trusted seller to do that part. Since Banggood does about the same for the Q8 it makes sense to think of them, they are prepared to cooperate in such construction. But if KD wants to do that, fine too, but they seem a bit more dedicated to their own DIY stuff.
Did anyone ask Thorfire if they’d want part of a large batch purchase?
Seems likely to me that they’ll come out with a “$Version 2” of the Q8
once the first run is done …
No
Thorfire makes complete products, we have not asked it
Now that it seems maybe a SMO reflector for the Kronos light is around the corner they could be more open.
If course if a design is given a vendor like BG is nice, they sell more small flashlight stuff after all.
But it seems KD, Hank Wang or even Simon are good candidates too.
Just trying to make sure I have this straight in my head…
In spite of the “Q8 Dual footprint, quad LED” title,
we are now looking at a Q8 5050 quad DTP LEDboard supporting 4p, 2s2p or 4s LEDs. (No longer dual footprint.)
I like it. 
Correct, the 7070 footprint would simply not fit with the 5050. So the dual footprint is counting the stock 3535 I suppose now.
Id like to mention one thing here.
Due different manufacturing processes, pcbs and optics are produced by different companies which dont have big communication. For this reason, we cant use lots of interesting tirs. But as we know, tir optics is difficult project and requires big MOQ to start new model. So pcb is second in this line, proper pcb should be made for existing optics.
As for reflectors, I think situation is different. Custom reflector MOQ can be similar to custom mcpcb MOQ. SRK reflectors dont have leds laying diameter standart, so if smb will change stock Q8 pcb, it will be very hard to use it somewhere else. Also, Im almost sure that XHP leds require OP reflector.
Sorry for bad english. My idea - such projects (custom pcb) should go together with optics/reflector (and centering rings) that can be used in combination.
This mcpcb is being designed to work with the stock reflector. It will be a drop in upgrade to the Q8 reflector.
The latest xhp50.2 does not need an OP reflector to eliminate the donut hole. OP still improves things but it is not a requirement. People can use a diffuser film is desired to reach the same effect.
If you will use it with stock reflector (Im not sure about led holes and focus height), you will never use stock board (that have tons of discussions in Q8 thread).
With bigger die you will recognize square beam (which is not fixed by this board) and tint shift.
I do not understand what you are saying?
The reflector was specified to be able to have 5050 LED’s when we started the Q8 project. So it should have no problem working with the xhp50.2 at all.
The beam will obviously be more floody but that is true with any optic or reflector with the xhp50 vs an xp-l
Lets call this “light engine”. PCB+leds+optics system=light engine.
Stock Q8 pcb with any XP size leds and stock reflector is good (checked) combination.
XHP Q8 pcb with 5050 size leds and stock reflector is not so good combination (no centering rings, different tint to the edges, square shape beam). And if you purchase this board and 4xXHP leds, you will still have one light engine (and one extra useless board with 4xXP-Ls that took so much time in discussions).
Thats why I think next time ts should try to contact chinese vendors to know custom reflector order requirements. IMO they are much more simple and cheap that are for TIRs producing.
Even if we wanted to get a custom reflector made for the xhp50, the only changes we would make is adding an OP texture and maybe going with the SRK style quad reflector instead of the Q8 (slightly larger reflector bowls). Otherwise there is nothing to change.
I have not seen a square beam with a reflector, not sure what you are talking about with that, only ever seen that with a TIR optic, which we will not be using.
The throw will be reduced, correct. Lumen output will more then double.
The tint shift on the 50.2 is something that will have to be seen but is easily fixable with a diffuser film if it is an issue. That is what they do with TIR optics to get rid of it as well, they texture the top of the optic. The 10511 for example works great at eliminating all the tint shift of the latest cree LED’s. I also have used diffuser film on other lights with great success as well.
Standard XM-L centering rings should fit the reflector if they designed it as we asked (7mm led opening), so that is easy to source as well.
I still don’t see the issue?
Issue 1: 5×sqrt(2)=7.07>7mm
Issue 2: how to use stock pcb without stock reflector
I do not understand either of these issues.
The reflectors are small, this is true but there is nothing we can do about that.
The second “issue” makes even less sense? The mcpcb I posted earlier was designed specifically to work with the Q8, it has all the holes and LED’s in the correct locations to work with the stock reflector and the Q8.
Why would we not use the stock reflector? It works fine and is basically as good as we can get besides adding an OP texture.
Are you are talking about what we will do with the leftover stock LED’s and mcpcb’s we pull out of the Q8? Well thats the case for any modded light, I am sure I will toss the LED’s in another light and keep the mcpcb around as a hunk of copper for another project.
Or it might fit in some SRK quad’s according to TomE. I have one that it should work in, that is what I will most likely do with mine.