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

Two years ago we were concerned about the hole, we got a prototype, ghat one had an unmatched thermal performance, so it was clear: that hole does nothing with the performance of the Q8, it is thermally outstanding.

That’s cool… but was there a reason why it was/had to be so big?

A pic from Reddit.


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That large hole in the emitter shelf concerns me. It may be far from the edge of the light, but it still reduces the total amount surface contact between the MCPCB and the Host. The holes on the 2 BLF Q8's I received are significantly smaller than what is shown above.

But what concerns me even more is what appears to be a step in the shelf. It appears that the shelf is higher starting outside the 2 small holes for fastening the MCPCB. The whole surface under the MCPCB should be flat and true. Is that an optical illusion or and actual step?

Can we get an assurance that the Sofirn Q8's will not be like that?

EDIT: Why are those 2 small holes threaded? Shouldn't they be smooth so that the screws pull down the MCPCB? Seems like there is risk the screws will push up the MCPCB by catching the threads in the shelf holes before catching the threads in the reflector.

It might be that the MCPCB is somewhat smaller than available space. I don’t remember clearly. After all, there is no reason to make it much larger than the LED circle and there is definitely increased cost. At some point, it does not help heat transfer significantly.

Also, my memory might be off but I believe the MCPCB is screwed from the LED side, hence the threads in the shelf (and presumably none in the MCPCB). I’m not sure why that other picture shows 3 screws on the driver side… perhaps someone put the screws back in on the wrong side. It’s the center screw alone which holds the reflector to the MCPCB.

It sounds like we are back in the design stage of the Q8 1.5 year ago. That hole was an idea of Thorfire and in prototypes proved to be of no influence on performance, and as far as I know the MCPCB shelf is as flat as can be. There was a design change between the first and second run of the light in which the Sofirn engineers decided to let the MCPCB screws come from the other side. Also this change had no effect on the performance.

If you doubt the thermal performance of your Q8, measure the output of the first minute (which gives an idea of the quality of the thermal path from led to shell), and compare that to any random light of same output, you will find that the Q8 will show the least output drop.

^

Not sure why the original design is being defended. It's not being called into question. I'm talking about the specific one in Alen's picture.

fixed it, here is a djozz picture. The MCPCB spans the whole width of the thermal pasted area below. The 2 small holes in the shelf are smooth. Notice the threads in the refector for those 2 holes. I'm comparing the above picture to the original design. Can't tell is the center hole is smaller in the below picture. My memory of mine was that both samples had much smaller center holes than Alen's picture.

The two pictures show exactly the same thing. Nothing has changed. It is still using the same design the team tested and approved, because it works really well.

The (batch 1) reflector had only one threaded hole; the other two were just to provide enough room for the head of a screw.

Edit: The batch 2 and later builds changed to implement djozz’s original design, with two upward screws instead of two down and one up. If anything, this is probably an improvement.

Almost.
This was the case for the first batch of production Q8’s.
Then without our knowing, Thorfire changed that for all subsequent batches (again this did not seem to alter performance): the two side holes in the reflector became threaded M2.5 holes and the reflector now became fixed to the shelf with long screws (screw heads in driver cavity side), with the ledboard sandwiched in between. In fact that was my first construction that I gave to Thorfire early in the process but they never seemed to understand at the time.

Glad to hear nothing changed regarding the emitter shelf. That assurance works for me. When I get the Sofirn Q8, I will expect no changes. If it is like what Alen seems to describe and what the photograph seems to show, it will be an unacceptable deviation from the original design.

EDIT: Actually, if the 2 small holes are threaded and the reflector is too, then I will just drill open the emitter shelf holes. If the big center hole is within a reasonable margin of the original hole size, that will not concern me much. But if the emitter shelf is not flat, that will be an issue that I would not want to have to correct myself.

Whatever happened to people buying a flashlight and just enjoying it?

^

I plan on it as long as I get what I think I am paying for.

this is more important that shelf surface under led board will be perfect flat
but of course scaline are not acceptable,
I don’t have the light currently
thanks for who can check that

^ shelf checked more than a year ago by heaps of modders, result: :+1: ( :weary: )

The two holes in the shelf are not threaded, in the first batch the ledboard was screwed down from above forcing (so sort of self-tapping) the screws in the holes, not elegant, wished it to be different but it worked. In the later batches with the screws coming from the underside the holes were large enough to pass the screws unhindered.

I just found out that the picture in Alen's post is not his light. I was under the impression it was a recently made unit. So I searched the image and found the same photo posted by djozz in the development phase of the Q8. Geez, louise. I wish folks would reference the source of photos when the photos are not their own. A little context goes a long way to understanding a situation.

Please disregard all my concerns mentioned above.

Much ado about nothing.

wisdom is a step behind passion

Yep…+1 to both. :wink:

Which could have been avoided if you would have clearly provided me the information I was clearly lacking.

Nobody can remember where all these old pictures come from. LOL :smiley: