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

That is a perfect description…… that is exactly how one of mine looks also. Good job putting it into words. :slight_smile:

I was watching the nhc site and others for days before it turned north and following the movement of pressure systems and spaghetti as Irma moved. I know you saw some rough conditions but were fortunate as were millions of others that early forecasts predicting a direct path through Miami as a Category 5 were wrong and Irma lost a good bit of power following the coast of Cuba. I’m not minimizing the severity, just thankful it wasn’t worse.

After using it heavily for over 1 hour, maybe 30% of the time on max, and then max for 3 min, temp was only 42 Cel in 2 Cel ambient temp. I will not care if the switch Led stops shining, it isn’t that important, will possible disable that Led. Walking in the dark forest with this flashlight gives me complete peace of mind.

Had no switch problem. I will enable Thermal Temperature stepdown and want the switch light to be permanently on to easier locate it in the dark, except when in lock mode.

So why would the brightness be asymmetrical?

Variation between production runs? Maybe lights exhibiting this got leds from two different spools as the board made its way down the assembly line. Still waiting for mine - expected delivery friday according to the tracking number.

edit: this situation is why I’m surprised how codes were issued. As I said previously, as an early ‘I’m in’ I was ready and willing to accept the possibility of flaws and take steps to help resolve them before a mass production run as I imagine others were. I’m not criticizing The Miller for his distribution of codes but in future special production runs an early test production run to buyers with the ability and willingness to help resolve problems avoiding putting items in the hands of individuals who just want it to work right would avoid bad feelings and negative press. The individuals involved in the development were alpha testers. Recipients of the first production run are beta testers. I’ve done both with software so it’s not a big deal to me.

Speaking as someone who doesn’t have theirs yet…

Come on man… Production has been halted less than 24 hours. I know everyone wants their light but Thorfire doesn’t want to send out lights with issues. Their name is also on the line here. They have something like 1500 units ready to be assembled that are now just sitting doing nothing. They want this fixed more than any of us. This hurts their bottom line.

Your ship date on banggood likely says 10/7 or around there. I doubt it will take that long to get this fixed. Just give them some time. Don’t get mad at everyone on the forum and Thorfire. Things could be much worse.

They see the problem and WANT to fix it. Before anyone else gets their light. This is a good thing.

If you are in ramping mode, go into the menu by holding the button 8 seconds. This is shown in my video. You get 2 fast then 1 slow blink, wait, then 2 fast and 2 slow. Now you can press the button once or twice and look for the light to blink on each button press. Now just wait for it to exit and you see 4 fast blinks.

The 2 fast then 2 slower blinks means setting #2 which sets moonlight level. You have 1 to 7 different levels to chose from. Default is 3. Do if you want to go lower you can choose 1 or 2. Keep in mind that going lower might work or it might make some of thd leds not light up.

Hope that helps.

That's pretty much it. See the posts by Tom Tom for details, but there are two issues:

  1. The LEDs are in parallel, without individual resistors. In this configuration, the LEDs really should be matched -- ideally, same manufacturer, same production run, and same wafer if possible. Once you start mixing LEDs from different manufacturers/batches, all bets are off, and cases like bright/dim LEDs can certainly occur.
  2. They're operating at very low currents, which is an unspecified area ("off the datasheet" as Tom Tom puts it). It's possible that some batches of LEDs require a higher voltage than what can be supplied by the 15K resistor, which could be the cause of flickering/off LEDs. What works for a few prototypes might not work in production. This is further exacerbated by the previous item. It's also possible that Thorfire got a batch of poor quality/counterfeit LEDs (ensuring parts quality is a big issue these days).

No, the switch lights tend to turn off within a few minutes of the light being on, like maybe 5 minutes. Not after being turned off.

Yes, again, we well understand this. I took these pics back on Sunday:

Prototype: Production, unbalanced one:

You can clearly see on the right picture, the right LED is throwing out more light, lighting up the green PCB to the right of it. Isn't that right? We'll get this righted yet. Oh man...

This is tricky. You have to unscrew the switch cover ring, then use some tweezers to rotate the pcb. You might need a hook tool to lift the pcb up so you can twist it slightly with your fingers. Then push it back in, add the rubber cover and screw the ring back on. It’s possible the pcb can rotate while you screw the ring back on so you have to watch it carefully. It might take a couple tries to get the lights perfect.

This is why the leds are not perfectly aligned from the factory. Its way too fiddly. Lol

Are you forgetting that the Q8 ships from Thorfire and not from Banggood? I think they are in 2 different cities. No telling how far apart they are. Could be hundreds of miles apart.

I'm quite impressed on all the lights I've seen, they got the "T" switch cover straight.

If you have a hot air station you can easily remove the old leds. If you only have one soldering iron you have to rip the old leds off. Break them in two pieces then you can unsolder each end.

You need to then clean the solder pads. Verify the direction of the new leds. Add some flux to the solder pads. Then hold the led down with tweezers. Just quickly touch each end and that should solder it in place. Verify it works before soldering and after soldering as it’s easy to get the leds turned around.

I’ve swapped leds on the switches of both lights in my sig. They are different pcb, but the basic concept is the same. There are several pictures. Hopefully that will help.

Under normal conditions I thought my switch leds looked fairly balanced, with button cover.

Removed button…various zooms with faster shutter speeds.

I understand exactly what you are referring to now. :+1:
And while I really do not expect them to line up… I do find it refreshingly nice when the battery tube and head do line up in some discernible pattern. :slight_smile:

  • Some people don’t have a preference, no problem there.
  • Some of us do have a preference, no problem there either.

There is no right or wrong to be understood. It simply boils down to personal preference.

In fact… the majority of the lights I own have a discernible pattern of symmetry between battery tube & head.

In fact… Nitecore either indexes them during manfacturing OR I have been extremely lucky. I cannot think right now of one Nitecore light I own that does not have the symmetry we are speaking of. I own a bunch of them too.

But back to the Q8…. just the luck of the draw on this one. You’ll either have to try one of the fixes mentioned or live with it I guess. :frowning:

I got lucky… 2 of 3 so far have had the symmetry I like.

The third not at all…. But, it just also happens to be one that arrived DOA today.
If I had been looking for an omen I would have known it as soon as I opened the box & unwrapped it. :smiley:

Mine arrived yesterday. Very satisfied!! Smoothest ramping ever. I wouldn’t use the Police strobe inside. Your eyeballs will let you know after. I have been carrying it for a day now. The comments from people I showed it to are all good. Switch LED’s are good but also bright. It does take getting used to the click timing. Everything works as supposed to. A couple sharp edges which I shaved down and “sharpied.” (Edge burrs fourth fin from bezel above 1/4” thread and same above switch) E lockout nice or slight turn for mechanical. I leave it powered on with switch glowing. Easy to find at night and no problems. I believe you will be VERY SATISFIED when yours arrives. I look forward to my next arrival. Throw is good as is tint. Great job on the printed cheat sheet! Best to all.

Once you get to the police strobe, you can easily cycle up and down the 5 blinky modes. Press and hold and the lights cycles backwards to regular strobe and you can then click normally to go back up to the bike strobe or beacon, etc…

Honestly, all I use is the ramping, double click to turbo and triple click for batt check. That’s all. No need to memorize anything else. Save the other stuff for reading in the manual.

I know y’all have it covered Tom. :+1: … I was just telling him the way he worded it painted a perfect picture with the switch cover on.
He nailed it creating a verbal image. :wink:

Do you mean the flashlight is doa or the switch lights are not working?

If the flashlight is doa, then that is the first reported one. They are supposed to check all flashlights at thorfire to be working or not.

Please clarify.

Thanks