So, we all love the BLF Q8 right?
WE love modifying it, making it brighter, more customized, better, and cetera.
First off, we have Sofirn which now sells the BLF Q8 MCPCB, the reflector, and the switch for anybody who wants to modify their light and easily swap parts, or make something completely, like a lantern 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/BLF-Q8-Accessories-lighted-switch-assemb...DTP-MCPCB-Reflector-for-Q8/32879434650.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.52b34c4dp3XU0f
Second, they also very recently released the BLF Q8 tailcap and tube, so those of us who want to do mods and keep the original tailcap can do them. Also those that lost lockout by deanodizing the top part of the threads can finally get it back without buying a whole Q8.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/BLF-Q8-Battery-tube-only-with-t...
Finally, I have some major news about a new variant of the Q8, or the BLF Q8 V1.5!
It is going to have an array of 4x XPL HI, an extended battery tube for massive runtime, and a modified driver from what I have seen.
In this case, an image is a 1000 words!
Edit: Changed from 2S driver to modified driver because of confusion.
UPDATE 1:
See what Sofirn said:
1. Yes, the tube will be sold separately, but need to change the both two tubes. Springs better too. Copper alloy.
2. Checked with our factory XHP50.2 NW 80CRI will be considered in next update and XPL-HI will be used this time, for enthusiasts who want better color tint and long range. XHP50.2 will only require modification of battery carrier to work, so XPL-HI releases, flashlights enthusiasts will only modify carriers and driver to work to get XHP50.2 working if not waiting for update.
This is surprising to say the least
And the pic they linked.
UPDATE 2
The BLF Q8 and Sofirn Q8 extended 8×18650 tubes have started to be manufactured.
I will be starting a group buy interest list to gauge interest and how many tubes you want so Sofirn can produce the right amount of carriers and tubes necessary.
UPDATE 3
I told it in another post already, but the BLF Q8 and Sofirn Q8 use different tubes because of a slight threading change, so you need to buy tubes for specific lights.
Here’s the video I also posted earlier this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmeRWGCQN6I&feature=youtu.be
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My very own high current Beryllium Copper springs Gen 3:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/67401
Liitokala Aliexpress Stores Battery Fraud: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/60547
I don’t know what to think. Is it April fool’s?
No, it’s not.
I’m not kidding. I have been speaking with Sofirn, and that is what they said:
Yes, Q8 will have a update version, that we will sell it in our store, with extend battery bube and XPL-HI emitter
The reason it led up to this was because I was asking if they could sell the BLF Q8 battery tube and tailcap separately.
Initially, they misunderstood what I said and thought I was speaking about the new BLF Q8 they were building. That is when I discovered about the new BLF Q8, which led to knowing that it would come with XPL HIs, an extended battery tube, and a modified driver.
My very own high current Beryllium Copper springs Gen 3:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/67401
Liitokala Aliexpress Stores Battery Fraud: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/60547
Wow… can’t wait to see this one!
EDC rotation:
FW1A, LH351D 4000k (second favorite)
FW3A, LH351D 3500k
FW3A, SST20 FD2 4000k
FW3A, Nichia 4000k sw40 r9080 (favorite light!)
FW3A, Cree XP-L Hi 5A3
Emisar D4V2, SST20 4000k
S2+, XM-L2 T6 4C
Yep.
With that, it would be extremely easy to swap the LEDs out, and with 8 cells and sufficient low resistance contacts, swap them for XHP50.2s, and get 15k+ lumens.
That would not be very sustainable though.
My very own high current Beryllium Copper springs Gen 3:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/67401
Liitokala Aliexpress Stores Battery Fraud: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/60547
This is uhh… interesting.
This gets back to that Sofirn/Thorfire confusion, (Sofirn has taken over the project now?) but aside from that I look forward to the next gen Q8. Though I’m a bit confused with the configuration. XPL-HI is 3v right? How does 2s work? I’m super newb.
Also I gotta say maybe I’d mount the above pictured “Uber Q16” to my truck for a light cannon but I don’t know how to otherwise use it. I certainly couldn’t carry it on my nightly walk…
(Edit: it suddenly occurs to me I’d better check the Q8 mod thread which I’ve never done. There may be info there I’m unaware of)
Djozz below. That’s nuts! I guess it would be a (bad) way to carry a bunch of cells. Wait, I know! New Olympic sport. Night time pole vault!
This version will have the normal 3V driver, not be 4P2S but 8P, and will have battery carriers.
(You can just keep on extending if you like, build a 64P Q8
)
link to djozz tests
Can’t wait for this!
I wonder at who needs these kinds of runtimes. My Q8 doesn’t drop under 4V after an hour use walking and messing with turbo constantly.
With 8 cells it might be pretty useful to light up an entire basketball court for night games.
I agree that this extension with added parallel batteries is not the most innovative add-on for the Q8 (and it was not an initiative of the Q8 team), but from their perspective this upgrade makes sense as it is easy and not expensive to make and sell, it does add runtime which will appeal to quite some people (the Q8 has a sustainable output of about 2000 lumen, at which output it currently has ~2 hours of runtime, to light your basketball court
link to djozz tests
This long body tube is quite unexpected… It sorts of voids the whole compact soda can concept.
I would suggest a screw in USB charging extension between the head and tube… That would only add about 10-15mm to the length and would make the Q8 easier to gift to non flashaolics.
Have you ever charged 20000+ mAh powerbank with usb 2.0?
Low-cost copper pills, spacers, optics, drop-ins.
If they make this, maybe also upgrade the driver to the latest Anduril for some additional features?
They are at least in contact with TomE, so a Narsil upgrade is likely, not sure about Anduril..
link to djozz tests
Thanks for the info, BlueswordM and djozz.
I don’t see much meaning in a 8P setup for this light. For more runtime it’s easier to carry 4 additional cells separately than their weight and the tubes weight all the time in your hand.
But if the cell configuration can be changed to 2S4P without too much work, I would rather buy this light as a modding host for 6V LEDs for a proper price.
BLF Q8 Janus --- Emisar D4 RGBW --- Green Lantern and HAL 9000
6th Annual Light Contest Entry --- 7th Annual Light Contest Entry
Shouldn’t it be doable with QuickCharge over night?
BLF Q8 Janus --- Emisar D4 RGBW --- Green Lantern and HAL 9000
6th Annual Light Contest Entry --- 7th Annual Light Contest Entry
Quickcharge will cost too much. Was discussed before.
Low-cost copper pills, spacers, optics, drop-ins.
Anyway, for the 4 cell version it’s usually not more than 12000 mAh capacity, and that’s not too much for USB-charging over night, and the cells won’t be completely empty everytime.
BLF Q8 Janus --- Emisar D4 RGBW --- Green Lantern and HAL 9000
6th Annual Light Contest Entry --- 7th Annual Light Contest Entry
What I have seen how the battery carriers are constructed, with some cutting traces and adding wires you should be able to make them 2S4P. Then a 2S driver can be used that has the same battery connection side as the stock Q8. A more neat solution is designing new contact boards for the battery carriers (and upload on Oshpark for everyone to use
link to djozz tests
Sounds good, I wouldn’t mind to design the new carrier boards. I haven’t followed the modding discussions for a while, is a MCPCB for XHP 50/70 available meanwhile?
BLF Q8 Janus --- Emisar D4 RGBW --- Green Lantern and HAL 9000
6th Annual Light Contest Entry --- 7th Annual Light Contest Entry
Led4power has in stock mcpcbs for Q8 , 4040 and 5050 footprints
https://led4power.com/product/l4p-blf-q8-40405050-38mm-dtp-direct-therma...
- George
My Reviews : KDlight C8 / ThruNite Archer 1A V3 / Thorfire C8s / ThruNite TN12 (2016) / Utorch UT01 / Utorch UT02 / Jetbeam WL-S2 (xp-l) / ThruNite TC12 V2 / Massdrop Brass AAA / Manker LAD / Lumintop SD26 / ThruNite Mini TN30 (3x xm-l2) / Qualilite D81 / Nitecore MH20GT / Odepro TM30 / Klarus XT30R / Nitecore NU20 CRI / Ultrafire XM-L2 / Foursevens Mini MK II / Manker E02 / Manker E14 II / Teekland Flashlights / Lumintop Elfin / Thorfire S70S / ThruNite Neutron 2C / Jaxman M8 / KDLITKER C8.2 / Zanflare F1 / Nitecore Concept 1 / Emisar D4 / Astrolux MF-01 / ThruNite TC10 V3 / Amutorch JM70 (xpl hi)
Great, thanks!
BLF Q8 Janus --- Emisar D4 RGBW --- Green Lantern and HAL 9000
6th Annual Light Contest Entry --- 7th Annual Light Contest Entry
One concern here, if all 8 cells are run down to minimum voltage, then some bright spark decides instead of swapping them all out (since he only has a 4 bay charger), he will charge one carrier load and insert it, wouldn’t the resulting current from 4×30Q fully charged to 4×30Q fully discharged be rather like welding? There must be some sort of protection against that built in right?
With the proliferation of 4 bay chargers I suspect that charge imbalance would be quite a common problem. One easy way to encounter this would be to run a “normal” test on your cells in a Lii500, and forget that when END is flashing it doesn’t mean the cells are fully charged. Do that once on an 8 cell recharge with this setup and you now have one fully charged set and one set at a random voltage, without being aware. Happens easily.
Beam me up!
XPL-HI, you say…
Let a flooder be my wife and a thrower be my mistress
This could happen in any parallel setup, it’s not a specific problem of the light discussed here.
Btw. with a 4P2S setup it would be even worse, since the carrier with the depleted cells gets reversed voltage.
BLF Q8 Janus --- Emisar D4 RGBW --- Green Lantern and HAL 9000
6th Annual Light Contest Entry --- 7th Annual Light Contest Entry
Especially when they’ve both publicly said they have nothing to do with one or the other
I guess it’s better not to ask haha … It’s a nice move Sofirn selling parts that Thorfire won’t …
- George
My Reviews : KDlight C8 / ThruNite Archer 1A V3 / Thorfire C8s / ThruNite TN12 (2016) / Utorch UT01 / Utorch UT02 / Jetbeam WL-S2 (xp-l) / ThruNite TC12 V2 / Massdrop Brass AAA / Manker LAD / Lumintop SD26 / ThruNite Mini TN30 (3x xm-l2) / Qualilite D81 / Nitecore MH20GT / Odepro TM30 / Klarus XT30R / Nitecore NU20 CRI / Ultrafire XM-L2 / Foursevens Mini MK II / Manker E02 / Manker E14 II / Teekland Flashlights / Lumintop Elfin / Thorfire S70S / ThruNite Neutron 2C / Jaxman M8 / KDLITKER C8.2 / Zanflare F1 / Nitecore Concept 1 / Emisar D4 / Astrolux MF-01 / ThruNite TC10 V3 / Amutorch JM70 (xpl hi)
Not only worse, far more common, since the 8 cells will rarely be charged together, or if together, nearly always in different chargers since more people will have two 4 bay chargers than an 8 bay.
Beam me up!
How do you reach 20Ah with 4×18650? Max would be about 4×3200mAh – 12.8Ah, nowaday.
Whatever time it takes is much better for most people then having a dedicated Li-ion charger and handling the cells in and out of the light. It makes it straightforward, like charging a phone or a power bank without worrying about whatever cells are inside – and much safer (no chance to put one cell the wrong way).
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