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

I’ve had good success handing the Q8 over to noobies. They figure it out quickly, it’s a fantastic product. For easy access I still have my old Malkoff converted 2 D cell maglite, on/off - easy/peasy. It never seems to get used though. My daughter likes to go walkabout with the dog late at night. I have a 1000 lumin Nitecore MH20GT now which I leave out for her that has a mini-USB plug so she can charge it whenever it needs. She had once grabbed my Convoy C6 to shine on the guy she caught breaking into my truck at 3am. We both learned that in an emergency, having a tail on-off switch AND a side button for modes was not a good idea. She was unable to work the flashlight, but the good news was the guy wasn’t alerted and her phone call to the police resulted in his arrest.

I think Alternaty’s main “beef” with the Q8 is that while it’s “intuitive” to a certain point thereafter it rapidly can become nonintuitive. It’s an understandable complaint considering that the average public user of modern led flashlights have generally been pre-conditioned by the standard fare of on-off-high-click-medium-click-low-click-possible-strobe click.

The Q8 ain’t one of those lights to say the least. You really only get “intuitive” with it after you read the directions thoroughly and then practice with it a lot. It takes effort. It is NOT intuitively simple to use once you get much beyond the ramping up and down then just turn it off features. Again, I think that’s his point and he’s taking a bit of umbrage at those that make him perhaps feel a bit stupid. All these videos explaining how to better clearly interpret the fine print directions is a testament to that deal.

That said, his point to consider from a potential increased sales standpoint that an intuitive version and a nonintuitive version being offered is a valid one. To sum it all up: KISS vs let’s make it challenging. Who’s kidding who? The Q8 is ultimately challenging.

Clearly one may not know what they’re getting into until one actually gets into it. Complex things tend to do that. The Q8 is NOT necessarily simple to understand unless you know what the creators of it intended it to be.

A typical led flashlight was obviously never the original intent here. This is an upper grad-level light, man. I’m not saying anything profound here that hasn’t already been said. I’m just kinda defending the guy’s perspective.

@ nottawhackjob……. Well said and true. But as Throw me in to darkness said above…. “it is only complicated if you make it so”.

Forget all the bells & whistles completely…… stick with the basic on & off and it is very simple.

Past that, I agree completely; it is definitely complicated to the newbie as well as some who are not a newbie. :wink:

Teacher,

Yup, the hard part of the Q8 is in not making it overly complicated on purpose. :wink:

Oh one other thing. If I had designed the Q8 UI in hindsight I probably would’ve had TWO factory default optional settings.

One default is the one ya got now.

The second default would’ve been the KISS option: Click-On get low, click again get Medium, click again get High, click 3 times anywhere in the cycle get Strobe click 4 times get moon. Or something to that effect.

That would be one extra helluva light IMO. :blush:

Nottawhackjob,

Interesting thought. :+1:

Only problem there would be for some to figure out how to switch between each default. Unless it was light specefic that is. :smiley:

:wink:

If we had designed the Q8 as a light for dummies, I would change 2 things:

1)it would have internal charging, probably via a base, like your average electric kettle or tooth brush
2)it would have a turnable switch like the power/volume knob on old radio’s, turn it to switch on, turn further to ramp up.

Still a nice variant to consider having built, but complicated to design.

I will say this:
I would like all my flashlights to be so “complicated” :slight_smile:

For me it is the best and very intuitive system.

That. I keep thinking about new builds, but then I realize they won’t have an e-switch and Narsil/Andúril, and I lose interest. I need to find a good e-switch host, find a driver that will work with the cool firmware (and fit in said host), and start flashing drivers. Then I can mod or build again.

Komeko,

If ya think the Q8 is very intuitive I bet you play a mean game of 3D chess too.

:smiley:

I do not have time to play and I’m too old for it :slight_smile:

The first three people I gave the Q8 to play with ended pretty fast in configuration.

Since I have a standard introduction to the Q8, there were no more problems in handling the lamp.

I think it is not intuitive, more easy to get. But you can end up pretty fast in config/blinking if you only play arround.

Quick introduction for newbies or relatives:

- Don’t hold the button down for longer than 8 seconds! The lamp will enter configuration and starts wild blinking. Don’t push a button or you change things. In case handle it to a pro or search for reset in the cheat sheet.

- Don’t look in the working end!

- One click on, one click off.

  • Push the button and keep it holding for ramping. Rember to release within 8 seconds.

You never should have bought this light. It sounds like you would be better served with a 4xAA light, of which there are several nice ones. You’ll only get 1000 lumens from them, but that is more than enough for almost every purpose.

I suggest removing the batteries from your Q8 and never use it again. It can be very dangerous if not properly handled, including doing things such as installing batteries the wrong way around, or accidentally turning it on high when it’s close to something flammable.

The Q8 is meant for flashaholics, and people with prior experience with 18650 lights. A “random civilian” should not use this light. It’s safe if used with common sense, but that is often shown to be lacking.

Since Banggood sells this light to everybody it actually should have a safe mode for “random civilians”.
With a pass code protected configuration menu this could easily be achieved.

This is a very nice AA Light. It takes 4 x AA. I use Eneloops in mine & love it!!

Nitecore EA45S Cree XP-L HI V3 LED Flashlight - 1000 lumen

Okay, I have one answer to your comment:

Do you think that has a “safe mode for random civilians”?

That would be a definite no……… :wink:

Hey WalkIntoTheLight,

C’mon, a cattle prod? A cattle prod is just like your typical flashlight within reasonable public consumer expectations of what a typical flashlight does? Most flashlights typically don’t shock the living sh*t out of you even if you “mishandle” one, right? Or can kill you if you have a pace maker, right?

Would you leave a cattle prod just laying about your home around people that don’t realize what it can do? Do you really think a live cattle prod and a live Q8 on a kitchen table unsupervised around kids is a valid argument for debateable comparison here?

Whatever Banggood does or doesn’t do when they sell cattle prods is one thing. Reasonably expecting Banggood warning the public about flashlights to the extent that a cattle prod warrants is another thing. I don’t know but maybe there’s no legal requirement to warn about anything that Banggood sells within China’s consumer protection laws for items of this nature. Basically what I’m saying is that if you buy a cattle prod Banggood has a reasonable expectation that you already really know what you’re dealing with there.

Now if you’re talking about a new just hit the general consumer market high power laser that goes for only $5, will burn a hole through drywall, and looks like a flashlight, yeah I’d think Banggood would have some extra responsibility to make an extra effort to warn their unsuspecting customers random or not of this new product’s untypical hazards. I would hope so.

The point from previous comments that from Banggood’s perspective a Q8 should warrant a big deal warning OTOH doesn’t fly either so your point is well taken but the comparison to a cattle prod here is where I lose the argument’s valid connection.

I’d really like to see drivers designed to use the little DIP switches.
4 or 8 switches on a small board gives the option of a whole lot (2 to the power _) of settings.

Unfortunately not. If you want to configure unrelated configuration options (like strobe yes/no, ramping yes/no, number of modes and so on), you need at least 1 switch per option. But actually you could use a single switch to allow/forbid configuration via UI.
Still the easiest way without hardware modification is using a passphrase to protect configuration. In my momentary firmware I lock advanced configuration options with a simple 3 digit passcode: for instance “click-pause-click-click-pause-click-click-click” if the pre-configured passphrase is 123.

Has anyone seen them on sale recently?