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

got my 1st light today. had the charged up LG cells ready while the samsungs were charging so i tossed them in.

man is it bright. cant wait for night. :slight_smile:

my switch LED’s are working fine so far.

thanks to those who made this light possible.

Brian

Do you mean the LED stays on too long?

I’m not sure how people use beacon modes. I’ve seen them with an on-time anywhere between 1ms and 1000ms, and an off-time of anywhere from 1s to 10s. Brightness has been anything from moon to turbo. What kind of beacon is ideal?

On my most recent beacon I took a guess and made the on-time 500ms, with brightness and off-time both configurable. But I don’t know if that’s what people consider good.

Probably not. I’m assuming you’re looking to buy 30Q with aftermarket installed button tops(but no protection PCB added). They’re probably OK. However, it’s always an unknown factor. They may or may not have remarkable added resistance.

30Q unmodified could be available too. No problem buying those from BG either, if you’re willing to solder those to make kind of button tops.

> production stoppage

Don’t get bent out of shape.
Consider the odds are that they did stop production for good reason.

Like, they need to understand why the problem is happening and, importantly, figure out whether it would appear over time with more flashlights.
You don’t want them to rush and ship you something that is going to make you unhappy later on.

They are smart to be concerned not about just a one percent chance of disappointment but about the possibility of shipping a known failure or problem that will appear after a while.

Could be there’s a problem with construction technique. Find that guy and educate him.

Could be there’s a problem with a bad parts lot.
Could be all the good source parts have already shipped and the next batch to be built would all or mostly have (or develop) the problem.
Are there bad parts in the bin they’d be drawing from if they kept building lights? They need to find that out.

And remember — it’s several companies supplying parts, several people putting them together.
All you need is just one person on the critical path with the chabuduo — “hey close enough just ship it”— attitude, covering up a problem and passing it on.

Finding that person can be a real difficult task, as that person’s manager could have the same “close enough” problem and be helping hide it.

Could be they really care about their reputation for doing quality work. Signs are that’s what’s happening.

If you really want protected, I would go for better protected GAs (i.e. protection circuits around 10A) or one of the new breed of protected 30Q or VTC6. Examples include Imalent 15A protected 3000mAh and Acebeam 3100mAh protected.

From what I understand, it’s normal for little LEDs like this to have inconsistent performance when driven at such low levels, and to have different brightness per LED even at the same low voltage or power level. They’re not precision-binned like the Cree XP-L used in the front of the light.

For modding, people normally tweak each indicator LED individually to get a good result. For mass-production, this isn’t feasible so there is much more variation.

This probably reveals nothing about batches or longevity. It’s just par for the course.

The thing is, in our application, i.e. running LEDs at very low currents, in the 100 uA region, we are pretty much “off data sheet”.

Typically datasheet Vf is specified at currents of 10s of milliamps, but below that the transfer characteristics can be highly non-linear.

So yes, a green LED with a datasheet Vf of say 3.3 V may well emit our desired levels of light at much lower voltages, but it may not be a region that the manufacturer tests for, nevermind commits to as a guaranteed characteristic parameter, and might be highly variable from batch to batch, even within a batch…

For others’ interest I came across this tutorial which explains the basics:

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2012/resistors-for-leds/

The most reliable way to use an LED to consistently produce these low light levels might be to drive it at the lowest current level that is fully characterised (much brighter), then PWM it down to the desired level. If you have an MCU driving it already, and sufficient free internal resources (timer-counters etc.), maybe it could be done with just a little more firmware, and a resistor value change.

Nobody is suffering, this is just a $40 toy, designed for fun by folks as a hobby. Nobody is being being treated like toilet paper.

In an alternate reality, they would immediately issue a new absolute shipping day after they discovered a problem (preferably in a few days). They would then diagnose the problem, get delivery after finding they needed a replacement supply of parts, quickly rework the switch boards, and then deliver the2000 remaining lights to the carrier on the exact date previously stated. And send a repair team to each site that has received one of the first 500 and bring all of those up to spec (should only take an hour or so if there are the required 500 teams (with slack for hurricanes and other flight delays). It would be polite if each owner would arrange for good Chinese take-out while they were there.

In the reality we are forced to live in, they are proceeding exactly like they should and would/should/could absolutely not issue a new shipping date without confirming that the problem is resolved and all updates to the 2000 lights done. Then work out a protocol for replacing the problem part(s) in delivered lights. With the direction testing is leaning, this may have to replace the switch boards. The fault could be a problem with the Q8 electronics not providing enough voltage to the LEDs. And if this is the issue, it is further likely that just about everyone with bad switch boards could have the same problem at a later date based on the charge of batteries and maybe burn in drift.

Indications of ongoing testing (going on as we type) indicates a possible problem with the quality/Vf variability/incompatible Vf specs for the color and type.

THEY ARE DOING IT RIGHT.

Q8 #2

Sigh ………

  • DOA = Dead On Arrival

Besides the detail above , all looks good. :slight_smile:
It is the same as the report of Q8 #1 , besides arrival time & power relate details.

  • Arrival time was today, 9-20-2017
  • No power related details to report

I will try to find the problem later… When I have time to get to it.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Q8 #GtM _ (Gifted to Me = GtM)

Thus far all looks good with this one.

Report is the same as Q8 #1 , except for arrival time & switch LED’s.

  • Arrival time was today, 9-20-2017
  • Switch LED’s both appear same brightness level thus far.
    .
    .

That is all for now.
Carry on…….

Both of mine arrived today; they were ordered within minutes of each other the first day they went on sale.

One is perfect so far. The other has a couple issues we've seen, and (I believe) a bran-fresh one (lucky me ;) ).

First issue is asymmetrical LEDs in the switch. Here's a pic of both, and while it's not a great picture it shows a smaller bright spot on the right side of the right light's switch:

The second issue can be seen in this picture. There's an obvious flaw in the tube/anodizing. This came out of an absolutely unscathed box, so I don't believe it occurred in shipping:

Here's a close up; not sure what caused it tbh but it's not a simple dent.

Interestingly, the light with the flaws pictured above also has a battery tube that's not correctly aligned with the head when fully tight.

Mine arrived and it’s perfect, no problems to report, everything works fine, it’s heavier than I expected, thank you so much Q8 team! :partying_face: :beer:

Will update on this thread if something comes up…

Frustration is understandable given the anticipation of this exciting light. Maybe I’m a persimist, but I recognize the monumental task of getting a complicated piece of electronics manufactured half-way around the world. The barriers are enormous. It seems to me that off the shelf, stock flashlights have a higher than average failure rate compared to other commodities.
In fact, I buy most of my lights from modders like Vinh Nguyen, not just because they are bright, but any problems have been fixed in the upgrade process. Not to mention, I’m dealing with someone I consider a friend and warranty work is a fast, state-side turnaround.
So, why go for this given my pessimism? Because this is a great flashlight design, backed by a hard-working team who did their best. And let’s be honest, where pray tell can you find a better bang for the buck in a flashlight. Wasn’t it worth taking a chance? And the outcome seemingly has only one insignificant glitch, which has nothing to do with the reason we bought it.
This post is to say thanks to the team!!!

Thanks for mentioning tube alignment ‘feralcomprehension’. :+1:
I gotta go back & check that. Nothing jumped right out at me…. but never can tell, I was paying attention to other stuff. :wink:

Instead of shaking your fist at the empty sky demanding to know when it will rain again, this might be a good time to do something else. Go for a walk, talk to a friend, laugh at cat videos, rock out to loud music, argue with trolls on 4chan, do some cleaning, whatever works for you. A delayed flashlight isn’t worth raising one’s blood pressure.

I’m anxious too, with a project or two waiting on a Q8 hardware, but there are plenty of other things to do in the meantime.

Well, The Miller is. And he does not deserve any of it.

You’re right about it being a toy. It makes people complain exactly like my 5 year old on a bad day.

I’m not sure why people are expecting the tubes to be aligned ? Do you expect them to be individually indexed, or selectively fitted, or so precisely machined that every one is perfect, and interchangeable ? Do you know of any SRK type design which does so (certainly not the classic SRKs.)

It is a feature of the design. Even if somehow all the above was done, after a bit of use and wear, the indexing would shift anyway.

The alternative is I suppose a bland cylindrical tube.

It seems we have several Veruca Salts active here :person_facepalming:

There are reasons why people around here laugh at data sheets. :smiley:

Not an option. With the MCU doing PWM, it would be about 0.1mA for the indicator LED and about 5mA for the MCU. It can’t do PWM while it’s asleep, so it would drop the efficiency and standby time to about 1/40th of what it is now. It would be pretty much the same as leaving the light on in moon mode all the time.

Edit: I did find a potentially-relevant trick on my old Ferrero Rocher light though. I was able to get three brightness levels (high, low, off) from an indicator LED in sleep mode by messing with the pin mode. High and off were fully within spec, but for “low” mode I had to go off the data sheet and do things the MCU didn’t really support. I suspect it might not work on a Q8 though, because it probably relied on the voltage divider resistors which newer drivers don’t have any more.

Better they stop production and figure out the issue and change whatever needs changing than them continue putting out hit or miss products. As for a definite time that is impossible to guess at until the solution is decided upon, parts if necessary ontained, etc.etc.