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

It depends on what batteries are being used and their state of charge. I believe the three minute timer was set up as a worst-case scenario. Such as when you’re using very high drain cells like 30Q or VTC5, etc… and they are fully charged.

If the default thermal protection isn’t causing you any problems, you can leave it stock if you want. If your using a lower drain cell like a 35E or Panasonic B or any type of protected cell and you want the turbo time to be longer because it’s not generating as much heat, then you can go in and adjust the settings.

I did a video on it.
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Amen to that!! If the light is not what someone wants… they should buy something that is. There are plenty of choices out there.

The description details the operation of the light very well. It should be obvious to anyone buying a Q8 exactly what they are getting.

The Q8 does what it was designed to do and does it well.
If someone does not like it, that is no problem; just don’t use or buy it.
BUT… quit trying to ride a dead horse.

This has got to the point it is comical. :smiley:

Hot water, warm toes, or whatever aside ThrowMeInToDarkness…… well said.

Very well said in fact. Besides getting to the comical point, as far as I personally am concerned (sorry… I just can’t help seeing the humor in this…… :wink: ); this situation has me somewhat baffled…. pretty much for the reason you just stated.

IF…. the light is not for someone, all they need do is not use or buy it & move on to a more suitable one. :wink:

This is almost like buying a Porsch & then wanting to turn it into a VW.

Alternety, really?

“Any random person needs to be able to use the Q8 without a manual.”

(No - this is a specialised light for a niche market, clear from the outset, if it is being sold OUTSIDE THE FORUM’S CONTROL as something else, that is not the fault of the forum)

If you want anyone to be able to use the light, turn it to a medium setting and then turn it off. The next time it is picked up one click goes to medium, one click to off - no problem.

“I (after considerable initial research) bought (ordered) these as emergency lighting.”

They are great for this, but apparently your considerable research did not identify that it had many modes and functions all accessed through the same button, but despite this, only a few seconds instruction about what not to do are required. Don’t hold the button down after it has stopped ramping, and if something does not seem right, unscrew the tail and reset. There- you’re done.

All of your frustration seems to stem from your own misunderstanding of the potential problem, and your stubborn insistence that it must be everyone’s problem and it must be someone else’s problem to sort it out to YOUR satisfaction.

Jumping Jesus!!! I can’t help but wonder what would happen if this was a topic of conversation on a gun forum. Passcode protected, modes for the uninformed, fire warnings, random citizens using it……………….Oh to heck with it, here’s a bat, get out of here.

We have been struggling with that you know. We designed the Q8 for our own niche market but of course we knew that it would be sold outside BLF too. Although what Thorfire does with their own products after the group buy is their responsability, but we did insist that in the description on the seller’s page all the information and links were present to be able to judge the features and possible safety concerns

Yes, this is rather funny. I get that the Q8 is fairly easy to get into a programming mode you didn’t intend, but it’s intended for flashaholics or a least people that RTFM. No newb should not buy or use a 4x18650 light, without understanding the dangers and proper methods of dealing with lithium-ion batteries and high-power lights. This is not a light you lend to a neighbor’s 5-year-old child.

And, yes, it’s ridiculous that someone thinks this light should be redesigned to make it idiot-proof. There are already hundreds of idiot-proof lights on the market. Buy one!

As for this light, if you’re uncomfortable with it, throw it away! You’re out $50, but that’s probably cheaper than burning down your house because you turned it on high and left it under a pile of newspapers because you thought all lights should be able to do that.

The guy made an assumption - despite reading the material that should have cleared it up. He is now frustrated, and is venting that frustration by passing the buck. Most people can relate to some time when they have done that themselves, only to realise, sometimes much later, that they had lost all perspective and objectivity and were fixating. Happens to the best of us at times, I think it is best to remain civil and resist any urge to make things worse by adding ridicule or caricaturing the person involved. This may be a significant investment for him that has, in his eyes, been a failure. A month from now he will probably have taken a step back and re-evaluated.

Remember if he bought several of these lights plus batteries and chargers, he could easily be out of pocket $200-$400.

What dangers, could you briefly point them out? All I can think of is the fire hazard if the light is activated on full accidentally and left lying somewhere it shouldn’t be.
(Yes, I’m a newb who bought his first soda can light).

And a couple questions on batteries for Q8:

  1. Why do you recommend protected batteries when the light already has built-in undervoltage protection?
  2. Why do you recommend Samsung 30Q, the notorious high-current batteries? This flashlight does not seem to require high-current cells:
  • The LEDs are rated as 10W. Say, you over-drive them to 15W. 15W / 3.7 V = 4.05 Amps. Divide by 80% driver efficiency (a pessimistic figure, hopefully), and you get just a bit over 5 Amps per LED. Four LEDs, four batteries. Any regular non-high-current (5 A) battery should suffice, as long as you’re running all four. Where am I wrong? Does each LED consume more than 4 A in turbo?

Well, there’s all the inherent risks of using lithium-ion cells. Treat them properly, and you’re probably fine. But, treat them improperly, and there may be a safety risk. There are tons of threads on proper 18650 care, so you’re probably already aware.

There have also been reports of what happens if you accidentally insert one of the 18650 cells the wrong way into the Q8. It goes bang, and fries the springs. That’s if things go well…

And, as you note, this light can catch stuff on fire if you hold flammable things close to it on max. Or burn a hole in a bag that you’re carrying the light in and the switch is accidentally pressed.

Some of those are common issues with all high-power lights.

I don’t, but protected batteries will prevent shorts as mentioned above, so are better for safety.

This light uses a direct-drive when on high. That means that the higher the voltage of the battery, the higher the output of the light. High-drain cells have less “voltage sag” when driven hard, than regular cells. So, a high-drain battery will give you higher output.

If this light used a boost-driver for regulated output, then lower-drain cells might be okay. But, that’s not how it was designed (probably because of cost).

Thorfire did one single test with a full run on maximum.
As far I remember it run ca. 40 min till the temperature starts to fall.
Don’t know which batteries they used. I assume 3500mAh ones.

The light survived.
So the lamp should cope with the heat.

@Alternety
If you don’t like the UI find one who reprogramm the light.

- set the time to enter setup to 30 sec (which is now 8sec) and it should work

- or remove setup completely

  • or flash another firmware

That 30 second idea sounds good. 8 seconds can be accidental by someone trying to see if it will go higher, they will have given up on that idea long before 30.

- protected are recommended for legalreasons. Remember there are settings you can switch the protection off.

  • It’s a BLF Lamp. Of course it uses more amps. If you clean all connections it should suck 18 Amps. With bypassed springs nearly 20A.
    (at turn on)

I think he has 3.

Protected cells usually have four or five different protection circuits. Over discharge protection is just one of those.

With a direct drive light the internal resistance of the batteries plays a major role in the output of the light, so does the forward voltage of the emitters, the chemical mix of the batteries, etc…

If you look at the 30Q and the Sanyo GA both batteries can easily output more than 5 amps, but if you put them in a Q8 you will get a higher amp draw (higher lumens) using the 30Q compared to the Sanyo GA (maybe 500 lumen or more). A protected Sanyo GA might loose 1,000 or more lumen to a 30Q. The protection circuitry typically adds a lot of internal resistance.

Look at this chart here.

The more you study direct-drive lights the more you’ll start to see how the battery directly influences the emitter.

You can’t even run the Cree xhp50.2 direct drive, even on little 18350 celks in series, because it will pull too much current and blow the emitter.

I guess Tom E. used 8sec to be able to switch quickly between RAMPING and MODES.

The sequence to change is:
Hold the button till it blinks the first settings, then one or two clicks and then hold the button till the lamp confirm with four blinks.

In retrospect I think it would also better to change the first setting to
1 click = RAMPING
2 clicks = MODES
Today it’s reversed.
Only for the reason RAMPING is mostly used and people try to switch off the lamp if it starts blinking.

Oh, I see! Didn’t realize that. Thanks.

Gotcha, thanks for the reply.
So the turbo mode is just shoving as much current down the LED’s throat as it the Ohm’s law will let it. Is that safe for the LEDs? Not that I’m concerned, I personally don’t intend on using that mode for prolonged periods of time, just curious if the LEDs may degrade when used like this, or Cree is just being super conservative in rating XP-L at 3 A max.

Thanks for the chart. By the way, I have never seen a high-current protected battery, by the way. My local battery shop that’s known for selling original Korean and Japanese cells does not have them, and by “local” I mean it’s probably the best in the country. It only offers protected 5A cells. But I assume protected 30Qs do exist.
Assuming I will not insert the cells the wrong way into my Q8, do you think protected batteries are a must? What kind of protection do you think is the most useful for Q8 as far as preventing undesired situations?

Yes, the leds may not reach the rated 50,000 hours. But also, in the Q8 and many other modern flashlights, the leds are mounted with an extreme good heat path away from the led, that makes a huge difference while the Cree specs do not take that into account. On this forum we test leds in that environment and find what the real performance is. But we do not see yet what happens after a few thousand hours.