Picky but I prefer “Trustfire A8” on one side and “BLF Edition” on the other. No repeat of A8. Good with modes, T6-3C, option #2.
My cottage is remote water access and I have more bears than I can count. The last thing I need is walking out my back door and having to click through four modes to see the bear that is standing ten feet from me. I want the big picture…instantly.
I can understand your need but it sounds to me that you simply need a single-mode backdoor torch, not one equipped with FF mode in the first place.
Surely if it’s an all round flashlight it should then start in Med… (not that I want this). But logically it would be the best middle ground. Starting in firefly is quite a specialist and specific want and not general use at (even if it’s your personal most commonly used mode).
Remember anyone who has owned a torch before (just about everyone) will have had on/off as the only choice. And even the worst torch in the world will be a lot brighter than a firefly mode.
Well, good luck finding a replacement driver with true FF mode. I can swing the proverbial dead cat at any of our trusted component vendors and hit a driver that has High mode. Not the same when searching for a driver with true Firefly mode. Just sayin’ 
Wait a minute - doesn't the A8 have an odd sized driver making the driver swap a little more difficult (I remember something about this in E1320's UF2100 group buy thread. Someone proposed to do the same thing with the A8, but the driver was a hangup). Although, I do see Rey is showing a 16.7mm driver being used. If it does use a 20mm driver, I have been proposing the blank 20-21mm battery contact board from Intl-Outdoor as an option, but this adds to the difficulty of the driver swap for those wishing to do so.
EDIT - It does use a 17mm driver (see review thread specs), but benckie used a KD V2 driver and had flickering issues. However, new user kahvitahra has installed a Nanjg 105c with apparent success.
Guess we could revisit the idea of just group buying blank hosts and someone take on installing & setting up modes as requested (modes available on the KD V2 3.04A AMC driver). Then of course there's the shipping issue. Any volunteers?
-Garry
Perhaps we should put the mode order/memory options up in a new poll and simply go with the poll's result - majority wins. This assumes Rey can get the driver programmed with the modes/memory option voted on.
-Garry
I am sure the reason he is going with high first is to satisfy those who wanted it the first time around on the Mini order. I really don't care enough to care any longer about mode order. I just don't want redundant "A8" printed on the light. I wish Rey had listened to almost all of us on "BLF Edition". Oh well.
Also, looking at the deal on the charger and cell, it looks like a great deal to get option #2. That's what I'm going with since my charger takes f o r e v e r to charge a 26650.
Aside, I’m one who said I’d like to buy drivers — I mean
I’d like to be able to buy the driver board created for the original “Mini”
not for this new one.
As a side note to the fire fly mode debate. Do you find reflector has any bearing on this?
For instance I’ve got an EagleTac D25LC2 Mini (XP-G S2) with a very mild OP reflector. It doesn’t actually have firefly, but it does have a low, however due to the reflector I don’t find the low all that useful, it’s just hot spot.
On my Klarus NT20 it is also an XP-G (R5) but has a HOP reflector, it does have a firefly/moon light mode which is only a faction of the output of the EagleTac, but due to the reflector it’s a much more usable low level light.
Would a large SMO reflector in the A8 make the firefly less useful than it might be in a different host/reflector texture?
I have a Skyray A0 clone (pure thrower) with a Nanjg V2 driver that has close to firefly mode in low (only a few milliamps) and it puts out a tiny hotspot. In pitch dark it is still quite useful but not as great as my T10 with FF low. Small OP reflector is definitely better but it still works.
I also feel the same I do not want the Trustfire name on the light
Actually,I like the choice of high first without memory... I mean a light with these physical dimensions, I would hardly ever use in firefly mode. I can see why people like FF first in AAA, AA,1x16340 torches, but a 26650 light with FF first and no memory doesn't make any sense to me. Isn't the whole idea of having a 26650 cell to extend runtimes in turbo/high without making the torch too long? It quickly gets annoying, if I have to click 4 times every time to use the mainly used mode. Actually I would kick out firefly mode altogether and incorporate a 2nd medium... but I guess that is just me.
I’m in opposition to you. Even in bigger Lights I’m prefer to start with low. But I guess an A8 with Memory would be an acceptable compromise for the most Flashaholics.
I was going say the same thing this is just too big for firefly.
I'm not a big fan of firefly myself, so long as "low" is really a low and not close to "medium".
-Garry
+1 (I’d be a LOT more interested if this had a useful 5v charging output - I don’t care about input since I’d replace with charged spares)
I guess it’s a matter of taste and personal needs, there’s probably no point in discussing what is the “right” mode config here.
It seems these are preferred:
F-L-M-H no-memory
F-L-M-H memory
H-M-L-F no-memory
H-M-L-F memory
Its actually interesting in general, I think I start a poll (loosely related to this thread)
+1
Put it to a vote.
It’s risky to demand memory given that even no-memory wasn’t done right on the first light. 10 sec to reset is better than >1min but hardly considered working.
Also, the point of adding FF isn’t to make it a FF light, which the A8 isn’t, but to make it available for rare usage not unlike strobe. I think it’s worth putting in for that sake, but not turning this into yet another BLF MrLite which most seems to have abandoned because of inconvenient mode sequence.
I also don’t understand why M-L-H or H-M-L-Turbo isn’t being considered. It’s the same H->L sequence: ML HMLHMLHML that works well on all lights, except it starts in the most useful mode. I supposed it’s easy to confuse for an inconsistent order when it’s anything but.