Ah nice so
USA Europe Australia covered for a higher price but faster and no fakes for sure
BLFer: BDWrabbit who just signed up to BLF in order to get on the Q8 list is the one I spoke with about the pouches, and he is the eBay store owner I ordered mine from. I checked and for $7.50 shipped, it's the best deal I could find for a quality one.
Here's the deal on his stock of pouches. They are bought surplus in large bunches, and it's a mixed batch, slightly different styles - some have a 4" deep pocket, some 4.5", some even closer to 5". All you have to do is message him first on eBay and tell him you want one with the deeper pocket of 4.5" at least. Then order it - he'll be sure he picks out a deeper pocket one. I'm gonna order a few more this way, because for every light I gift or buy for someone, I'm planning on providing one of these pouches with. Really the 4" ones are not bad, just more of the flashlight sides are exposed, but the velcro flap holds it down well.
Also, once his batch is gone, it's gone. No telling when he could get more and at what price, since it's all bought on auction.
Here's the listing of the pouch:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272385613415?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Here's the listing of his full store:
http://stores.ebay.com/wrabbitsurplus?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
The surplus Pelican cases look pretty interesting. Add some custom fit foam and you got a nice carry case for a collection 
Thanks for the info Tom!
Thanks for sharing, Tom. I just ordered a couple. :+1:
For those interested, Tom posted photos of the pouches holding the Q8 prototypes here, in post #6308.
Hi Tom, would either 4.5” or 5” work for the pouch? Is 4.5” the best fit?
This is what 4.5" looks like:
5" should come up to the SS bezel, but 4.5" looks pretty good.
I just know the 4.5" is the good one - I have one already from 3 years ago and the labeling matches exactly. Dunno about the 5". Hopefully the rest of it is the same.
Hopefully I'll get my order in today for a few, and I'll ask for 1-2 of bigger than 4.5" size. He said they were up to 5", dunno if they vary between 4.5" and 5" or what. Think he's got them in like a big box, all mixed. I'm sure he could'nt go thru all of them, probably just spot checked a few.
(LVP shutting off at 3.0 volts is imho too high. Can’t say I’m dissapointed, but batteries can go down to 2.5 and the should be at least lowest low available, even when the batteries are flat dead, but not “off”)
There's issues with protected cells going that low. If you go below the PC low, the cell will shut down.
There is not much energy going down to 2.5V anyway. Look at HKJ's testing for example - his cutoff is 2.8V. Now look at the amount of Ah left between 3.0 and 2.8V.
Thanks Tom E,
As far as I remember it’s about 100 to 200 mAh left.
But still, I gave you an example with the EC2 - the battery is dead to 2.5V (and even lower) - and it works, lowest low, but I still have some usable lumens.
Shutting off at 3.0 can become a surprise in the middle of the night somewhere. And it’s the user’s life, not the battery’s, that matters.
Ah, that has 1% chance to happen. (Yes, I did want LVP-disable (“survival”) option, ok, I’m content with that 
Narsil gives a warning at 3,2V
On a low mode this should give time.
Curious though, what would be best:
Warning at 3,2V keep all cells in OR remove 1, 2 or 3 and start using those after the one(s) left to power it is(are) depleted?
Regarding Banggood shipping cells… If I read and remember my order correctly, cells for the US market are shipped out of Canada. That may be why we can get them and some EU countries can’t get them shipped.
Ohh, wait, I've been reconsidering this from all the testing I did in the last 2 weeks. Originally it was:
3.2V low warning, backing off, 3.0V shut down
Now (latest v1.4), I changed it to:
3.0V low warning, backing off, 2.8V shut down
The main reason for dropping the cutoffs though was for voltage sag. Under load, it looks like the 30Q's (for example) will read maybe 0.1V to 0.3V lower. So with a 3.2V cutoff, actually under max level it may be as high at 3.5V at rest. It's not a problem of course if you are running at lower levels. I just haven't had the time to do more thorough testing on this, but it may be only 0.1V on typical 30Q button top cells on a stock BLF Q8. XPL2's will make it worse, so will bypassing the springs. Basically anything you do to reduce resistance or increase amps will make it worse. I've seen it happen at 0.2V above the cutoff on a Q8 if running on only one cell, but that's the good thing about the Q8 - 4 cells to share the load.
There's some dynamics going on. For example, the amp draw is a lot lower when the cells are depleted down, so that actually helps reduce voltage sag. It's definitely more an issue with our typical 3 or 4 LED single cell lights, like a triple Convoy S2+, voltage sag will be a definite factor.
Update on the timing problem:
- I noticed timing discrepancies for blinks between a few lights I have Narsil on. I did some diagnostic tests (special firmware), and it turns out it's the other version of Narsil: NarsilTriple (for 3 output channels) had the timing problem, so it's not an impact on the BLF Q8.
Interesting... I know at one point GearBest or Banggood shipped some cells from California but that was a while ago. My Bangood order has a "CN" tracking #, but still no tracking info, so can't tell for sure, but I'd assume it's China? CN for CaNada?
2.8 sounds cool.
Excellent……… :+1:
Then maybe I misunderstood what the CN meant. I took it to mean a Canadian warehouse. I’ll find out in a few days. Or maybe a few weeks if it’s China.
Well it remains to be seen if 1,3 is going to be used.
We must be prepared that the prototypes are good and thus can be named samples and production starts with no alterations.
With the voltage sag you describe it seems that removing 3 cells and running them all down to cut off one at the time would give longest light right?
BrianK
CN is 100% China
Just about positive CN means China. All my orders from China have CN on them.