Dragons breath is just fanciful, I’d ignore that and stick to what works.
Brightness has nothing to do with coding, that’s a hardware thing, so ignore that.
For the people that don’t know how to turn it on or off, that is a decision that can be taken out of their hands. Then no more confusion.
I think 99% people don’t need to know when they are on fet or 7135. It does seem kinda neat. Maybe the switch can be on all the time and blink off once or twice to indicate this. I don’t know.
So you end up with:
- Don’t want it at all
- Want it on all the time, w/blinks or not? Not sure…
I find it extremely useful on my Narsil lights to just have a lighted switch to tell me if power is connected or shut off. I can’t even see the switch when my finger is on top of it, so blinks would not be seen anyway.
I think if the brightness were just right, most people would not mind the switch light on all the time. This helps to both find the light as well as the power switch in the dark.
For those few who want the light off all the time, they can twist the battery tube. And when the light is being used and the switch is lit up, they can put their finger on the button to block or reduce the light.
You are not alone, the tracking information for mine is very similar, shipped 9/29 arrived Los Angeles , cleared customs now nothing
I imagine there are quite a few of our lights in the same lot. Use the tracking information from Banggod, mine linked me to FedEx , from the FedEx site it says information sent or something like that, but there is another number that FedEx shows the reference number, it begins with “YT” then I use both numbers (the one from Banggood and the “YT” ) in 17Track.net.
My life is now all about tracking a flashlight, :person_facepalming:
One advantage to having a 30 digit tracking code is that, being completely useless, it really frees you up to do other stuff bedsides following the light around.
JasonWW - I read that as a lot of judgments and assumptions. I'm about in total disagreement with almost every point you are making. Your entitled to your opinions but don't portray those opinions as facts, or belonging to most people.
You seem to by harping on the switch LED's more than anyone else, and across a few threads. I've spent 100's of hours in development and support in firmware for these projects, and getting slapped around for doing it is not appreciated.
Well I for one like that the switch LEDs tell me if I am running on the FET or the 7135, while I have no real use for em when the light is turned off. It’s a really nice feature and extremely well implemented. Easy enough to turn it off if it annoyes me. Very well done Tom E.
Yes we have concluded the designs and such
Tom was already working on Narsil before the Q8 started.
We have been open for input and when decisions were made we have given the grounds for that.
Now come here and say things like “this should have been done different” is pointless and might come across as a little not nice.
Narsil was being worked on till the last moment, now talking here in the Q8 thread about changes to that while it is clear the Q8 Narsil is done and will bktibe changed is what I said the paragraph above but a bit more negative on all those conclusions.
You can A talk in the Narsil topic while having respect for the work that went into it, B accept how it is or C download the code and program it to your liking, it is available Open Source.
i think we should all be happy about this great driver then we still can agree to disagree about the fine tune. and that has probably lot s of possibilities
like a pizza you can make it thin thick crispy soft load with toppings or less is more you can never make anyone happy ……
Are there better instructions on how to program this light? The paper work I got with the light is not clear to me at all. I can’t understand it. Thank you.
Let’s start with some basics. When you say program, do you mean reprogram the firmware? Or do you mean use the current firmware to change the configuration?
Reprogramming the firmware is best left to ToyKeeper and companies posts on flashing code.
Configuring the light depends on what you want to do. Get started by spending some time turning it on and off, ramping up and down and stopping at specific intensities. This will familiarize you with how the light and switch works. Refer to the documentation in the first few posts of this thread and the paperwork that came with it.
Single quick click from off to last used mode - easy to do.
Double click to turbo.
Now try to get the lowest intensity from off - a slightly longer click will get you here.
Click and hold to start ramping up from minimum.
Try locking out the light - four quick clicks. Light blinks four times and goes out, switch light is off. Single clicks of the switch should now have no effect.
Four quick clicks will disable the lockout and let you back in.
What specifically are you trying to do? JasonWW has some good videos on Narsil over on YouTube and posted here in this thread.
Iam not trying to change firmware. I would like to turn thermal protection off in the stock ramping mode. I been holding it for 8 seconds seems to 2 short blinks and one long. Then it does some more blinking that iam not sure what it’s doing. Iam trying to go to setting number three.it would be so much easier if setting three was three blinks. I don’t know what is going on. It seems its overly complicated, the way the instructions are laid out on the paper are more confusing than they need to be.
My first of three is en-route FedEx, which means they’re giving it the grand tour of the US and it’ll be here in a week since it left California yesterday. The other two have landed in California, so it might be interesting to see which of the three makes it here first.
You really can’t fault the USPS on tracking, since the light was sent China Post to FedEx here at the Customs receiving center, then FedEx hands it off to the USPS when it gets near it’s destination. A 3 way hand-off, amazing it gets here at all!
As far as the details of the light go, this was all worked out in a year of planning, pretty much everyone had time to read the thread and see what was what and how everything worked, so there shouldn’t be any complaining at this point… everything was nailed down when you made your payment. Yes, there are some things about this light that will be new to a lot of folks. Play with it, read the manual, work it out… it’ll grow on you with some use and if something about it bothers you you’ll have a choice of rearranging the UI to suit you or of course you can give the light away. (or sell it, cheap! lol)
Flashing new firmware can be a daunting task, but it’s something that can be learned easily enough if one wants to tackle it. The light is certainly made to be mod-able so getting it to work just so is set up to be easy enough. I really feel though that it’s pretty epic as it is, no time was spared in getting all the details sorted out and it’s got a lot of man-hours invested just as it comes, so, like a fine meal, it should be tasted and savored before any spices are added.
I have now used my Q8 from 1st batch a couple of weeks and am impressed how long the Samsung 18650-30 batteries work, how much light it gives even at lower voltage when the batteries are starting to drain out, and then without getting hot at all. For $40 I can’t be happier with the purchase.
I just got a notice from my Delivered! app that says mine’s out for delivery today. I can’t recommend that app enough. If you have an iphone get it— it tracks almost any kind of post with great accuracy.
Can’t believe I’m gonna have my Q8 in hand after such a long wait since the beginning! Gonna be hard to concentrate at work today.
OK, Good you are already most of the way there. I was confused by the blink pattern as well - Tom set it up so that there are 2 blinks to focus attention, then a number of blinks to show what setting you are configuring. What helps me is to think or say “Con-Fig” or “Men-Ue” when those first two blinks happen. Then you count off to the appropriate setting.
So- click on, eight second click and hold.
“Con-Fig” 1 - ramping mode (click once to disable, click twice to enable)
“Con-Fig” 2 - set moonlight level (click between one and seven times to set your fav moonlight level)
“Con-Fig” 3 - set stepdown (click once to disable, twice for temp, three times for timed)
If you select temp stepdown, the LED’s turn on to max and the light starts to heat up, let it warm up to your level of comfort, then click.
If you select timed stepdown, click once for 60 seconds, twice for 90 sec, three times for two mins, four times for three mins, five clicks for five mins, six clicks for seven mins.
“Con-Fig” 4 - blinky mode (click once to disable, twice for one strobe, three times for all strobes)
Light will blink four times to indicate config session is done and turn off.
At any point in the config session, click and hold will exit the session (blinking four times to let you know).
The best and worst part of a community collaborative project is that if you think something should be done differently - you have the power to do so. No fair claiming that “Someone” should make it better. Dig in - learn to use it, document it in a way that makes sense to you, then post it. If it works better for enough people, it will get adopted as the new standard.
I asked to be put on the list for one unit, then asked for a 2nd at the end. Ordered a 3rd one after receiving the first one.
I received the 2nd and 3rd ones today. Shipped Oct/02/2017 & Oct/03/2017…that was fast.
Both are absoletely flawless and are working fine just like the first one.
Again, thanks a lot to the BLF team for this exceptional flashlight.
