Has anyone modded their blf A8?

very nice light, awesome modes, but i still think the light can be brighter. has anyone modded theirs yet? is this even possible….another 200+ lumens would make a killer light

Anywhere still selling?

i was thinking of selling mine if its not upgradeable. i forgot how much i paid though

I’ve got my eye on it. I have a standard, and a BLF A8. So far all I’ve done is take out the reflector to see if the emitter board is glued in. It is. Other than that, it should be easy to mod. It’s on my “to do” list.

The only thing I'd want to do is swap the emitter for an XM-L2 in NW when they come out. It's really a nearly ideal light as is. ;)

it’ll take a 17mm driver so the options are pretty far spread. If I was to mod it, I’d want a 3.5a nanjg with erics moonlight to turbo program.

that said, I like the blf a8 as it is, and having just built a p60 sized host with another blf a8 driver I feel no need to change either, they are both very practical usable lights, that’s more important to me tbh.

I made an aspheric thrower out of my A8, using one of the awesome ahorton lenses.

Anyone measured the on stock lumens…
I opended mine as well to check waht is possible, should be easy to mod since everyting is screwed. But I decided to let it like it is because I use the low and low low the most time when struggling through the house at night. Sometimes I don’t even turn it off I switch to lowlow and let it lie around…

i just sent mine out to Tom E to take a look, who knows what he’ll come up with.

I looked my BLF A8 over, and it's got a clean 17mm mount on a brass ring. Actually when I took mine apart a couple of weeks ago, apparently I broke the driver - it was soldered from the inside -- they must have soldered it to the brass ring, then press fit the brass ring in. When I pryed it off, ripped off some pads/paths and looks like it's still doing amp regulation but can't change modes - only high. I might be able to fix it, but will replace it anyway with a Nanjg. Here's the deal - I think It will benefit from a 20mm SinkPAD - it will definitely fit, and the pill's thermal properties are bad - very thin walls, not much mass at all. So, maybe can get in one copper disc in the pill area, and using a SinkPAD - will help, so thinking can go to 3.5A or so without crazy heat.

There are BLF posts describing driver swaps in the A8 so it's been done before, and looks pretty straight forward - my plan is to use a regular + spring and dump the screw in plastic retaining ring - I'll just solder the driver down to the brass ring, like most driver swaps are done. At 3.5A it will run hot, so plan is to program 4 moes of brightness, including moonlight. Since you got to work down into the pill, a little more challenging than most removable pills upgrades, but all do-able.

I replaced the driver the day I got it… Same thing here, soldered from the inside, broke it when I took it out.

I put a NANJG105C 3.04A driver with my custom firmware in.

Hi Dr Jones! What did you do about the + spring? Did you leave the plastic screw-in thing in? Did you use the stock Nanjg spring or replace it? Love your luxdrv by the way - been re-configuring modes, very easy...

Hi Tom,

I was curious about something. Using a 20mm Sinkpad, aren’t they a bit taller than what comes in a stock A8? If so, would this addition height enable you to screw down the bezel sufficiently? Thanks.

Brother and I both have one and tested them first thing. Mine put out 767otf after 30sec and brothers slightly lower at 699otf at 30sec… The best throw reading on the pair was 14,400. Both were tested with quality fully charged cells.

That's for sure, always a concern. I've done it a few times before, replacing slim 16's with the 20mm SinkPAD, maybe I've been lucky, but also could be replacing the stock lens with a thinner AR or UCL, which usually helps. Sanding down the SinkPAD may help but haven't had to do that yet (but I always sand/polish them anyway, up to 2500 grit, but don't take off enough to thin it down significantly). Hoping in the A8 there's enough play to work with - maybe won't be able to fully seat the bezel, but if you are covering the o-ring and have only a slight gap showing on the head, shouldn't be too bad, haven't done it yet so will find out.

My BLF A8 stopped working 2 weeks ago, finally got around to take a peek.

Driver will not give more then 1 V. LED is still good.

What is the best way/method to get this driver out? Would it be salvageable? (Liked the 4 modes)

Will plan otherwise another "DrJones replacement". (Am happy with my "DrJones C8")

I finally did the full mod upgrade on my A8 - nice light now, used a Nanjg driver, custom programmed - nice modes.

Did you just rip out the old driver and sacrificed it?

Or were you able to save the old driver?

I probably have it saved off somewhere - I never toss them, but not sure if it's labeled in my driver pile... This is my 2nd I mod'ed i think - I know I did one other for someone.