There are a couple of reasons I added lighted switches to my lights.
One, it tells me if power is connected or if it’s mechanically locked out.
Two, it helps me find the light in the dark.
Three, it helps me find the on button in the dark.
Excerpt from the Advanced Notes and Usage Guide on the Q8 showing the power draw of the switch LED's:
Parasitic Drain
Parasitic drain is the draw of amps (power) when the flashlight is off and the processor goes into a deep sleep mode, cutting as much power consuming features as it can, but still able to wake up when the button is pressed. Here’s the measured numbers on full or near full cells, after being off for more than 6 seconds:
- with switch LED on: 135 µA
- with switch LED off: 22 µA
In switch Lock-Out mode, the switch LED is off. There's also a quick trick method to turn off the switch LED when the light is OFF:
- from OFF, press&hold until moon mode comes on (or hold longer)
- then quickly release the switch, and quickly click to turn the light OFF
- the switch LED should be off now even with the main LED off
To put it in perspective:
- 22 µA takes 5 years to drain 1,000 mAh, so with 4 3,000 mAh cells, it could last over 60 years, in theory of course
- 135 µA with the switch LED on takes 10 months to drain 1,000 mAh, with 4 3,000 mAh cells, it could last over 10 years
When the light is first turned off, it continues running the processor for 6 seconds, then drops into it’s low drain, deep sleep state. The amount of amps is somewhat dependent on the cells, so partially depleted cells, and cells with higher resistance will have a lower parasitic drain.
Is just my personal opinion, don’t want to offend anybody.
By the way: it seems the switch LEDs don’t run reliably with the mentioned current of 135 µA, so I assume we will see a higher current in future.
Comets
1 different host then promised
2 less quality lens then promised
3 possible dead short disc under lens
4 possible short leading to only run in direct drive disc under lens
5 possible dead short wires through ledstar if it cut one
6 possible short leading to only run in direct drive wires through led star.
7 possible cut wires so no light at all.
8 possible dead short of cell
9 and 10 vanishing organiser (yeah counts double in my opinion.
11 no reviews other then one pre production sample while review of respected member was promised.
12 camera settings making it look brighter then it was
13 thinner wires used then promised
Q8
A hand full of switch assembly issues.
So…
6 possible issue severely hindering use, making it impossible to use and or are dangerous
Compared to Q8, none
So…
Organiser vanishes vs active team on top if things so no one needs yo go through customer support.
So…
Given less then promised, poor quality instead of what was promised, selling dangerous light versus a bonus feature not working on a hand full of lights.
So…
One “review” with exaggerated pictures versus 7 reviews and one outside team review.
Yes cars can get recalled but a few minor things are no reason for recall, it is probably very hard to find a car model where not 10 were having some warranty repairs done. It will be easy to find thousands of car models that have had 10 warranty repairs done without all being called back.
Jason are you trying to say that if you bought a new item & one feature didn”t work then that that would be acceptable ?
Yes a car anology is a bad example as they are much dearer & potentially dangerous, although one of my recalls was for a defective interior light, although mine worked fine.
The car would have been fine even if the interior light did not work & I can”t see that that would have been dangerous in any way but I received a letter from the maker stating that on the next warranty service it would replaced or I could book the car in then for the replacement.
I am just saying that if 1500 plus people buy the same thing for the same price then surely the things should all be the same & work the same ?
I don”t understand the reasoning that that would not be the case.
One of my switches has already played up, should I just accept that when I know that others are having different switches fitted because of that ?
It doesn”t exactly fill me with confidence that my switch is not going to totally fail nor that I won”t have problems with my other Q8”s switch does it ?
I know that the light will still work without the illuminated switch but why should anyone have a light with a flaky or non working switch when others don”t ?
If everybody was in the same boat fair enough, but they are not.
BTW I am not causing a fuss over this.
I have not contacted TF or BG but have posted my concerns/problems here as The Miller has asked.
No, I'm pretty certain not. The LED's are being changed to what they used in the prototypes, which the 15K value was designed for, and not for those they used in production. I posted this before, but probably missed. The prototypes with the 15K were not as bright.
Prototype on left, 3 production Q8's on right. The middle of the 3 is an unbalanced one, brighter on the right LED:
Oh man
Report on real issues and we are on top of things, should be pretty clear by now right?
I have no idea how to put it more clear then the many tines it is said and I think we do take it serious.
So instead of yet another repeat, say WHAT I need to add to the OP so it is clear enough please!
You may not intend to but you are going to if you keep posting about the same thing again and again and again and again until you get exactly the answer you think you’re entitled to.
[Switch on ‘sense of perspective’ (I hope the switch is lighted 
) ]
*A bunch of enthousiastic amateurs have designed a flashlight but do not want the risk involved in having it made.
*They seek and find a budget chinese manufacturer that is willing to take all the risk involved. The bunch of enthousiastic amateurs know (and you all know) that Thorfire is not a Zebralight or Fenix, but there is no way that such high end manufacturers are going to join in, and also know that the costs of having the flashlight produced to high standards by a high end manufacturer would be too high for what the amateurs and BLF had in mind.
*The bunch of enthousiastic amateurs have followed previous BLF projects and try to avoid as many pitfalls as possible.
*But all communication with the manufacturer is neccessarily via the internet, in broken english, with people of a dramatically different culture than ours, a culture that has a profound influence on the quality of the products they make. And the amateurs have never met anyone, have never been in their factory, never seen how they actually work. The only physical communication is a series of prototypes, more than previous projects because they know the pitfalls.
*so the means of controlling the process is extremely limited, the bunch is very aware of what can go wrong and tries to avoid it to the best of their abilities, which is not much.
So, with the whole of BLF having known all this all the time (we have been transparent about everything), how on earth can it be that anyone signing up for the Q8 did that without awareness and acceptance that there is a certain risk that the delivered flashlight is less than perfect??
The Miller is trying to arrange a reasonable solution with Thorfire and Banggood for flashlights that have production faults. But part of the deal will also be that the random people who are affected are prepared to take some loss, or they should never have joined a BLF design project and should never do so again.
[Keep the sense of perspective switched on from now on please?]
Sorry, don’t get this. My knowledge of LEDs is limited, could someone explain why the darker LEDs of the prototype are less prone to occasional failure with the same resistor? Are LEDs and resistance chosen by specs or by trial and error?
I have just run the 30Q powered light on turbo to check the step down time.
It was 168 seconds so about as expected.
This is the first time that the light has been in turbo for over 30 seconds.
The indicator light now doesn”t work at all.
I swapped another set of fully charged 30Q”s in just in case it was a cell voltage problem but still no indicator light.
I won”t bother posting about any future strange behaviour my switches exhibit nor will I bother posting if the other switch also fails completely.
It seems to me that on the forum it is considered unreasonable to expect GB products to be & perform as advertised & is considered acceptable & expected that they won”t.
If my lights had been bought direct from BG or AE rather than the GB, which could be done shortly & for only $4 more as far as I can see, would it be acceptable for the switch not to work ?
I don”t think so.
If I had bought from BG/AE I would contact BG or AE CS, go through the send pictures/video rigmarole & get the matter resolved, eventually, by way of refund, replacement, or discount as the light worked but not all features worked.
So far on here I have been told it is only a beacon indicator, the light itself still works & that it doesn”t matter.
I am sorry to say this but I am down for a GT, a $111 light ( I have just spent $120 on Q8”s) & the GT will be my last GB purchase as it seems that the fact that I expect GB lights to perform as expected is unreasonable of me.
I am self employed & if something I fitted for a customer worked but one non critical feature didn”t I know what the answer would be if I told them that it didn”t matter.
It would be that that feature is supposed to work as well & either get it working or give me my money back.
I’ve made two videos. The first one shows the general functionality of the indicator switch and the different blinks. Ignore the baby sounds in the background. 
Start with batteries locked out.
0:02 Power connected - two blinks
0:03 Light off - steady
0:06 Single-click. Light turns on, single indicator blink = 7135 channel only
0:07 Indicator off while light is on
0:09 Hold down switch, ramping starts.
0:11 Max brightness reached, indicator switch blinks (too short/dim to show on video)
0:12 Switch released, indicator blinks twice = 7135+FET channels
0:14 Switch held down, ramping down starts
0:16 Minimum brightness reached, indicator blinks
0:17 Switch released, indicator light blinks once = 7135 channel
0:18 Switch held down/released - short ramp up. 1 indicator blink = 7135 channel
0:19 Switch held down/released - short ramp down to minimum. Short indicator blink to signal minimum brightness, then 1 indicator blink = 7135 channel
0:22 Switch held down, ramping up starts
0:24 Switch released, 2 indicator blinks = 7135+FET
0:25 1 click, light turns off. Indicator turns on.
The second one is just to show the blink at max level in slow motion, since it doesn’t show in the first video. I’m thinking since it was so short and dim compared to the output of the main light the camera couldn’t capture it well.
I agree with you 100% but I do think this point gets lost in all this sometimes. I’ve even been guilty of it myself, driving new members here because the project sounds so awesome, when those newbies really may not be prepared to deal with the little issues that may occur. The organizers can do everything right, go over-and-beyond to try and prevent issues (and I firmly believe this team has done that, as you all promised from the very beginning), but there’s no guarantees, especially with Chinese manufacturing. And all of us who sign up for these buys should be both aware and willing to accept that.
But yes, some perspective is in order. This team and manufacturer delivered an amazing light, with only ONE DOA unit so far. These lights work! More than that, they surpass the original design specs in every way. In fact this lighted switch wasn’t even in the original design. Those of us who signed up before proto 2 (as I recall it), agreed to buy a light with a non-lighted side switch. Many of us got more than we expected, which is awesome. Thanks again to the team who made this happen. Most of us are very very happy with the outcome.
Had I known the lighted switch would become an issue , the Narsil sent for production would have had them disabled by default.
Like the first triple core AMD CPUs one could be lucky and enable the fourth present core and have a quad core. If it didn’t result in stable performance nobody trying it was bummed out.
So an Easter Egg instead of bonus….
First Q8 in sweden (?) Anyway works as intended, very uneven leds in switch.
Some metal filings found under the tailcap.
- is still in the mail.
Super awsome light anyway.
I don’t care about any of the little flaws we have seen up to now since I have the knowledge and the means to fix any electrical issue. But most buyers are not capable of doing this, and we should not forget: without the majority of “noob” buyers the Q8 probably would never have been built.
Got mine yesterday.
Mine is the same, switch leds are still working but are abit uneven. But i intend to swap them out anyway.
Overall a great light, smaller then i thought it was gonna be.
That is a great idea. One thing that gets me is that folks buy budget lights expecting them to be perfect. To make great light at a low cost, it takes fast, efficient manufacturing. Even expensive lights get plagued with the typical assembly line issues. Any light I care about, I quickly go through it to clean contact points, make sure the emitter base is well seated, etc. When I find those issues, I'm kind of greatful because it is part of why I can get a budget light at such low prices.
It seems a disclaimer should be made at the top of these type of OP's and on the product pages that these are budget lights and that one should expect go through their high performance light before using. Anyone that wants to not do that can pay someone to do it for them. The alternative is a much more expensive light for everyone.
Amplificus swapped his 15k for a 10k and parasitic drain went up to 155uA. So no one will notice.
Nobody should of course needing to fix anything in an ideal world. But we have the reality that there are confirmed issues on a bonus feature that does not hinder the use of a stock Q8. Thus far all can use it and have lots of fun with its specified features no matter how “newb” even the springs collapsing as fuse to prevent cell damage is confirmed to work great so a really good “newb” safety feature.
Of course, hold the horses, the switch assembly is taken serious.
One DOA, well ehm:
Posted Thu, 09/21/2017 - 16:59 #13331
Last seen: 1 day 22 hours ago
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It is a bit sad that Teacher, normally so broad in his wording and quick to respond has not come back to this.
We are anxiously awaiting pics or PM for a Q8 swap with Tom so Tom can check this out.
Let’s not forget:
We have agreed upon a test before shipping.
We have confirmed cell rubbing marks on arrived Q8 lights.
And no other is DOA, kind of the worst that can happen, this truly is something that NEEDS fixing
We have really focussed hard on this, even big A brand lights can have a DOA, so this part was a victory to have agreement over.
So it is very sad to see Teacher tell us about his good working lights AND the good things about his DOA Q8 in great detail, yet only a few sentences about DOA.
(so little in fact that to me at first it was not even clear he meant his Q8 or just gave an explanation of the abbreviation DOA.)
This is SO unlike Teacher to not be very clear, very wordy but alas that is all we have to go by.
It is very fortunate his last PM stated he had not done anything to fix it, so we await pictures and if he is not able to make clear pictures from different angles Tom has a perfectly fine Q8 ready to ship to Teacher to swap with while I pay shipping, for this massive problem needs thorough examination.