(closed,all sold out) Give me your money: 2nd BLF Light, TrustFire A8

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’ :wink:

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.

And there it is the never ending mode story. People who want such a big light to start on ff or low have serious brain disease. Use a zippo if you want just a bit light…

No, putting A8 on it twice is redundant. It would be much better to have TrustFire A8 on one side, and BLF Edition on the other side. Again, it’s what the vast majority of people voted for.

Everyone who agrees please +1 this one last time :wink: