New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

I “spoke” with Simon, factory does not have any more aluminium spacers, I requested some spares so I would have when factory messes up. Plastic spacers are only option :frowning:
Today I received one more C8 ordered from Sinom, ordered on September 30 (yes, it took almost 40 days to arrive) this time black one and again, cracked plastic “spacer”.
This looks like someone just cut end cap of the bottle and unsuccessfully tried to fabricate a spacer but I accept that I might be wrong, after all I’m not engineer.

and this is what I imagined when someone mentioned “plastic washer/spacer”:

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Simon, he surely left big mark in budget & quality products category but I think this is step in wrong direction. Maybe he just accustomed me to high quality products and that’s why this “feels” like a let down. At this point rational solution would be not to order directly from Simon’s aliexpress store because he always has “fresh” products from factory, It would be better to order from one of retailer that usually makes larger stocks and sale them over longer time periods, so you would increase chances of geting higher quality components in your light.

I also ordered one Convoy C8 light from Fasttech on October 22, (wanted to test how DHL global mail works since it was under 3:money_mouth_face:, It should be here in couple of days, may be friday, I will report back when I see what’s in the tailcap.

Wow. There definitely needs to be an improvement to the plastic material choice.

Yeah that should not have happened. I’m not sure exactly what happened yet and I haven’t opened mine yet to see if it is the same but I’ve sent all this info to Simon. I will post here when I have an official response from him.

Just a quick question (which may have already been discussed but I can’t find it).
How does the low voltage protection work in Biscotti?
What is the cut-off voltage?
Thanks.

It’s the same dual resistor LVP, so it should cut off at around 2.8V, perhaps 3V, depending on the actual cues in the firmware.

Just so it’s CLEAR… the C8 can do over 1900 lumens with the new Cree XP-L W2 2B emitter from an FET driver. Just saying….

Edit: The stock Bistro-mini (Biscotti) firmware should do the same with some stacked 7135 chips, as far as that goes. Might fall a little short, but it’ll be one very bright smallish light all the same.

(Yes, I’m change resistant. TK called it Bistro-mini to begin with, I have files under that name, then all the voting carp started and somehow it got named after a snack or something… have no idea whatsoever what an almond biscuit has to do with flashlight firmware.)

So it can blow away an L2, for a short while at least? Lol

I don’t know that I’d say it like that, two very different lights. The L2 will have much more throw, all other things remaining constant, due to the much larger reflector.

Think of the C8, with a W2 XP-L, as the L2’s supercharged baby brother that can easily slip into a jacket pocket. :wink:

I swapped the clear anodized C8’s bezel and AR coated lens onto my old pill version C8 that has the W2 emitter in it, with a fresh charged metallic purple 3000mAh Efest 18650 it shows me 2028.6 lumens. Insane!

Thanks for the reply.

I won’t take/show any more images, it’s pointless, but I just wanted to let you know, report as I promised I would, that I received 2 more convoy lights today, one from Simon and one from Fasttech.
The one from Simon again, had home made/hand cut spacer, ofcourse, cracked :person_facepalming:
and the one from Fasttech had good old aluminium spacer so, its clear this is not just a random occurence or mistake…
Thats all…

P.S. In case someone decides to dig through ebay or aliexpress, needed dimensions are: ID:8mm, OD: 18mm, thickness: 1.5mm.

I’m still looking into this. Simon is extremely busy right now and I don’t yet have a response on this but please know that I’m digging in as quickly as I can to make sure this is corrected. Once I have a response I will post it here.

Ok, I have the official response:

Oops!

Simon asked me to convey an apology to any who find themselves with a junky washer. :zipper_mouth_face:
Yes, there were some plastic washers used for a time. He said that he was a bit concerned himself but the samples he tried worked just fine. Most that have shipped should be fine but a few are obviously messed up.

Sirius9 and anyone else who has a C8 with a plastic washer/spacer and is unhappy has only to contact Simon. He’s having the factory make a bunch of aluminum replacements. Upon request they will be sent to you free of charge with apologies from Simon. There you have it.

Cheers.

:+1:

I have an aluminum spacer here that has 4 holes in it, apparently to allow a lighted tail cap to work. I don’t remember if I did the drilling or if it came this way. But I thought, when I saw it in a light recently, that it was a decent idea and still strong enough to support the switch against the boot for a water tight seal.

Thought I’d toss that out there, might be viable to “perforate” the spacer for a future illuminated tail switch design. :wink:

I programmed Biscotti on a 13A in a ThorFire BD04 (from special deal on Amazon), and it's working great now. The driver board needed some tweaks though - cap was under spec at about 1.1 uF - swapped to a 10 uF, voltage divider resistors were in backwards (R1<->R2), and the 13A wasn't re-programmable so had to reflow a replacement in. Plus stacked on 4 more 7135's to bring the count up to 8 with 3.0A capability. But like I said, no problem with Biscotti firmware itself, but of course I used the proper fuse settings (low: 0x75, hi: 0xFF). TK, I believe, suspected they used the wrong fuse values - the fuse values set the MCU clock rate.

Nice! Great info Tom. Thank you! I’ve been waiting for Simon to test/confirm that Biscotti will work in the BD lineup. From what I hear the Thorfire BD04 is nearly identical to the Convoy BD04…for now anyway. The BD04 is one of the models I’m focusing on next for a bit of an overhaul which would of course include Biscotti. Shh! :wink:

Are the fuse values you mentioned the same as what’s in Biscotti now, or did you change them in the source code before you flashed it?

No, the same. The 10 uF cap is a definite must. With the 1.1 uF they had in there, you had to be extremely quick to change modes. The cap is what keeps memory in tact, so we can tell a short power outage from a long one.

I'm really liking mode #10 with no mode memory, 4 modes. I tell you, the BD04 with that SS tail switch is bout perfect for no memory clickie switch firmware like Biscotti. I'm really liking it, but might prefer a different 12 mode sets to choose from, but that I can do myself .

I’m glad to hear all this. I’ve been wondering about the BD04 for over a year now. Seems like it would be a nice balance as the zoomie light market seems to go from cheap junk to expensive with little middle ground and I think that’s where the BD04 would fit in. I have one on the way to me but it will be just the standard firmware for now. :cry: I don’t have any of the equipment to flash firmware yet. Hopefully pretty soon I can resolve that. I just finally got a light meter today. One step closer…

When you go to pick up a USBASP, make sure to get the right one. I had some very frustrating issues with the first one I purchased. A bit of info on that here.