[Review] BLF Q8 high-power flashlight

Yeah, nothing in the docs about how to do it, but the last paragraph says “Switch Indicator LED - TBD…”, so I was hoping there might be a secret command…

How is disabling the power switch led done?

Go into battery-check mode, by doing 3 quick clicks while the light is off.
Do a click&hold, then release.
The light will blink twice rapidly, then blink once.
Click once (before the light starts blinking the next configuration setting).
Wait a few seconds, the light should blink 4 times.
Done.

Or, what I prefer to do, it just disable it temporarily:
From off, press and hold the switch to start ramping up the light.
Then, let go of the switch, and quickly click it again.
The light will turn off, and the switch LED will remain off.
It will come on again the next time you use the light.

Thanks WITL!

I got 4 batteries from illumn at the same time, but they came in pairs and are the same part number. Is it ok to use these in the Q8 even though they came in pairs and not 4 in one box?

Yes, they will be fine together.

Charge them up at the same time with the same charger to keep them equal.

Good to know, thank you!

Just to know the Q8 works with 1, 2, 3 or 4 batteries. So, if you run it on one battery, is it still going to give you the same lumens in all modes and divided by 4 for how long it will run in each mode compared to using 4 batteries?

I’ve used it with 1 battery. On a Samsung 30Q cell, it will give about 50% output compared to using 4 cells. I also tried an old laptop-pull cell (low drain), and it gave about 40% output for a couple of minutes, before stepping down to about 20%.

I think most of the drop in output is due to the large voltage sag you get when trying to pull all those amps from a single cell. I was a little surprised a single 30Q cell (which is supposed to be rated at 15 amps) only gave 50% brightness. I guess the voltage sag is more than I expected.

Thought there would be quite a power loss. I only have protected batteries at the moment, so I'll always use 4 of them. I have the stronger protected keeppowers for the Q8, but I wonder how the regular NCR1860B would fair in that flashlight? I have four of them as well I could use for backup if need be.

I think the NCR18650B should be fine, if you’re using all 4 cells. It would only be using about 4 amps per cell, at most. You’ll probably lose a few hundred lumens at max brightness, compared to high-drain cells, but that wouldn’t even be noticeable.

Ah, that's even better than I was hoping for. So I'll keep those NCR's with me on long camping trips then.

I was comparing my Q8 to my L6 and the Q8 floods more and is a little brighter. What an awesome little light, I think it's my favorite now. I notice sometimes the led shuts off on my switch. The only way I can figure to get it back on at the moment is to unscrew the battery tube a little and then screw it back on and it lights up again. I may be doing something wrong and turning off the switch by accident but I don't know as of yet what I am doing wrong.

I’d sure like to see another coupon on the Q8 like the OP had again.

It is a known bug. When switching off quicky after complete rampdown, the switch-led will be off. Just switching the light on, ramp up a bit and then switch off again simply solves it. Actually you can use the bug as a way to switch the indicator led off, it is easier than the official way.

Ah, that makes me feel better now. How does it work in MODE instead of Ramping to switch it on and off? I am not 100% sure but I think it switched off in MODE not Ramping.

Dunno, I have to dive into the manual, just like you :person_facepalming:

That manual is scary but I'm slowly getting used to it

Correct me if I’m wrong but I dont think the side switch works in mode group.

I just tried using mode groups, and I don’t think you can turn off the switch LED when you turn the light off. I wasn’t able to figure it out, anyway. You can always permanently disable it if you wish (by programming it off), and that works for both ramping and mode groups.

I ramping mode, it’s easy to turn off the switch LED temporarily, using the mentioned bug/feature of 2 slow clicks.

P.S. The manual says you should be able to turn off the switch indicator in mode groups, by doing a single click and then holding down the button. If you do it too long, you go into battery-check mode. I dunno, I still couldn’t get it to work properly in mode groups. My timing might just be wrong.