Thanks for mentioning tube alignment āferalcomprehensionā. :+1:
I gotta go back & check that. Nothing jumped right out at meā¦. but never can tell, I was paying attention to other stuff. 
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 isnāt worth raising oneās blood pressure.
Iām 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.
Youāre right about it being a toy. It makes people complain exactly like my 5 year old on a bad day.
Iām 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. 
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 canāt do PWM while itās 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 ālowā mode I had to go off the data sheet and do things the MCU didnāt really support. I suspect it might not work on a Q8 though, because it probably relied on the voltage divider resistors which newer drivers donāt 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.
I couldnāt agree more
Received mine yesterday. Real fine light. Looks and feels great. My wife digs it too. I immediately bypassed the springs and drilled the driver mounting holes to clear the mounting screw holes. Neither were necessary, just my preference. The light is the real deal. I measured 6K lumens in partially depleted 30Q's. The light get hot fast like it should. Beam pattern is a great mix of flood and throw.
This is my first time using Narsil. Love the ramping and natural feel of it. I got lost a couple times in the UI, but that is probably just operator error. The indicator light is very bright for my taste (Think I will swap in a less harsh red or amber emitter). The indicator emitters turns off when the light it on. Is that by design?
Very happy with the light and I totally understand the frustration of those awaiting to receive theirs. Big congrats to The Miller and team. First light I don't feel the need to do any major mods on. Hang in there guys.
My take on battery tube alignment is that mine spends the vast majority of time āalignedā,
ā¦ during the daylight hours,
ā¦ where it can actually be seen and appreciated.
I thought that was a brilliant design decision, thanks Team Q8!
I never even noticed the tube was āmisalignedāwhen fully seated. I did not expect it to and donāt care if it does not.
Maybe you would feel different if you didnāt already have a flashlight sitting in your lap
No, Joey, Iāve said all along ā I want the manufacturer to test samples from the first run properly (thatās QC) and check during production for problems being built in (thatās QA). And Iām well aware of the āquality fadeā issue that weāre all hoping to avoid with this production.
Iāve accepted that the first run of any batch is going to have undetected problems because weāre the QC/QA people for most of these manufacturers. That is, weāre the āCharlie testā group. Thereās the alpha test (first round); thereās the beta test (did the first round get fixed?); and thereās ship it and āSorry, Charlieā test group.
If the first round were proving to be good enough, they wouldnāt have stopped pushing them out. Four percent failure in the first 24 hours is one thing. But if thatās an early indicator of a problem that will emerge, thatās something else.
If they are concerned that the asymmetrical brightness is an early indicator that a light may develop the flicker-failure problem, they have good reason to pause.
Trust me on this. I own a Cometa. Iāve avoided a number of the other disaster-batch flashlights that have been popular here.
Talk to anyone who bought one of the bad ones. Ya think they feel different ā happier ā because they got them early?
Donāt think so.
Oh, did you find out about the secret āpurrā setting on the interface? Mmmmmmmmm.
My catās jealous.
But the fact that these four lights are showing very similar problems leads me to believe that itās much more than a coincidence and it bears looking into.
Iāll keep patiently waiting.
Posted this as an edit to my original postā¦but wanted to put it here in case it was helpful or relevant to anyone.
It appears after playing some more, that my switch just MAY work like itās supposed to in regards to disabling the switch LED when the light is off (after reading TomEās suggestion of how to hit it). It does appear you donāt have as long to click the switch a second time when the light is in the lower voltage outputsā¦and that timing is a little more finickyā¦for me at leastā¦than when the light is in brighter modes. SOā¦.mine may NOT be an issueā¦JUST FYI. ALSO, I just left the switch LED on for the past 3 hours or so and after coming back to the light, it did NOT appear to be flickering or anything.
THANKS AGAIN Q8 team!
And thanks TomE for encouraging me to play with the switch thing some more. :+1:
Are you talking about the tube screws in the head a bit ācockeyedā ORā¦ the flats on the tube are āmis alignedā with the head??
A little time with a piece of sandpaper on a nice thick piece of mill finish steel can quickly adjust this. I use a worn coarse corundum belt then 400 grit wet or dry on a piece of 3/16ā a2. Stand the tube on the paper covered steel and sand while maintaining the angle. Take a few passes while gradually turning the tube to evenly sand the un-anodized end and test assembly and repeat as necessary. When close to aligned repeat with fine paper to smooth the end and do final adjustment. Itās the method I used to align two tubes to the head assembly on my Chimera. Of course, alteration like this would void the warranty.
[quote=tekwyzrd]
Warranty? Thereās a warranty?
Iām in Florida where Hurricane Irma just ripped through. Afterwards, no lights, no communication, no commerce, no gas, nothing open. Toilet paper isnāt too far behind water on oneās list of desirables! LOL
My flashlights sure got used. All of a sudden, the whacko with 50-plus flashlights was everyoneās best friend!