Please PM me if it start to bother you! thanks for being relaxed about it.
Don’t know if mine was the first batch or not… is there a number on the box or something to go by?
The screw size is a give away and order time.
DO you have a side by side photo of the differences? Or could you direct us to the post? Thank you.
This is the first light I’ve owned that has a LED in the switch, it’s brighter than the moonlight mode! :person_facepalming:
Side by side picture of driver screws 1st vs 2nd batch
PCB 1st batch vs 2nd batch
Screws for Q8 2nd Batch
The Miller and the whole Q8 team! Just received my light a couple of days ago and I must say: hats off guys. I had taken part of some group projects in the past but every time I got the actual light after huge anticipation I was always somehow pissed either about the quality or the function of the thing. Or both…
Well, not this time, to tell you the truth for 40 bucks I was not expecting too much. This Q8 however is way above any group projects I have seen here. Mine is from the later batches, good ano, uniform screws, centered leds, working switch. I like the whole thing, the body the ui the beam. To get this short, I only wanted to say all of the members who made this thing happen a HUGH thank You! There is life beyond brands and tons of money and that is called: dedication and knowledge. Thanks and keep up dreaming, cause I am holding one piece of it already in my hands 
It wasn’t supposed to be. The prototypes were not as bright. It was a surprise that Thorfire swapped to brighter switch leds.
You can always unscrew the switch bezel and put a black dot from a sharpie pen right on top of the led to dim it down.
Copyright infringement 
But the small ones arents sharp anymore?
Remember the second run of the S70?
Thorfire used a darker switch cover and some members swapped it, maybe some can be found that have it laying around and want to part with it…
Man, my phone is really bad at predictive text. I meant black as opposed to block.
Would a regular green switch cover work to dull it down while still letting light through?
I got a lot of extra green covers from various lights I’ve bought.
Just to add to what others have said, I have run protected BT Panny “B”s in both my Q8”s & they work fine.
My Panny “B”s are 70.03mm long but my lights are both first batch, I don”t know if that makes a difference or not ?
How much distance is 1/8 a turn? Like a fraction of a millimeter? There may be variances in how far the springs can compress. It’s a conical coil spring, 2 actually, so they can compress until the coils bind up. Then you can probably compress them a bit more because the coils will shift slightly with more pressure.
So some lights might be at the limit with 70mm cells and some lights might be at the limit with 69.5mm cells.
If I were to run protected cells and had an issue with the length, I’d try and remove one of the 2 springs to get a little more compression out of it. You don’t want to put too much compression force on the battery as you could damage it.
Measured from my 1st batch light.
Thread pitch = 1.48mm per revolution (.0583”)
1/8 turn = .185mm (.0073”)
O-ring thickness = 1.38mm (squishable)
If o-ring is positioned forward of groove, battery tube bottoms out .48mm* to short of where the correct o-ring groove position allows.
* or greater depending on screwing pressure applied.
Pleased to say mine has arrived, had some use and switch led’s still work after being on 48 hours.
This light is fantastic, the UI is perfect for me out of the box.
A couple of fibres on the reflector I may or may not try to remove, from experience I know how easily they get in and as I remove 1 another gets in.
Dale, could you explain why brass screws help increasing output?
Less resistance in the negative path from the negative springs to the tube and the head?
You are speculating that the springs are bottoming out, preventing the battery tube from contacting the driver.
I think this is unlikely, take a look at stephenk’s x-ray, with Sony VTC6 button tops fitted, whilst I don’t know how long these are, there seems to be plenty of spring room still available.
However if you look in detail at the threading of the head/tube (download image and zoom in), you may observe a very small clearance before the shoulder of the O-ring groove might be about to bottom out in the head threading.
If tolerances went the wrong way, this might result in poor contact between battery tube and driver ground ring. Particularly once you start sanding the tube to smooth it out.
However that doesn’t seem to be this problem, since the torch is working once the O-ring is removed.
You might also observe the very small contact between tube and driver, right at the outer edge of the driver. This is where the first batch sometimes had problems with the drivers not sitting flat, or otherwise having poor contact. It is an area that I will be looking to improve once I eventually receive mine. but that will be a topic for the modding thread.
I have a problem on my 2nd and 3rd light is that while screwing it it is a lot harder to partly due to to the oring it seems.
My batch 1 light is a lot smoother to screw in and out
Sometimes it even gets stuck and wedges the oring outward
Tried the spare one I had but that results in the same
You cleaned and lubed the threads?
Love the tight fit of mine, I think it may really be waterproof. You will need to clean and lube this one with some regularity.