Imagine your shoulder fixed in China, by a budget company, you may have missed supper… :person_facepalming:
That would be about right. … because it would have been his neck they were supposed to fix. 
It arrived today, and UI #3 is definitely the way to go. It’s not a UI that’s like anything else so by the time I get accustomed to it the Q8 will be here and I’ll lose everything I learned. But it’s a beast. It definitely uses up the charge in cells in a hurry. But UI 3 helps with that. It’s not designed for throw at all with absolutely no hot spot, just flood, and what throw it has is from sheer floody output. In turbo it’ll easily reach out 100 yards, the limit of what I need. It heats up rapidly but due to step down I assume, my light in turbo never exceeded 117°F in my brief test. But the light won’t last long with 30Qs due to the current requirements of the LEDs/driver. In 10 seconds the head is starting to get warm and in under a minute it has reached the stable temp of 117°F (50°C heat step down).
My initial impression was how small it actually was. Intellectually I knew it was small, but just not how tiny it was until I had it in my hands. It’s shorter by 1/4” than my Manker MK41 which uses AA form cells. Of course it has a larger diameter.
The only thing it lacks is a way to sling it. It’s not required for weight or bulk, but a flood light is an excellent work light after dark, but with a wrist lanyard it doesn’t fit that purpose. Heck, the POJ clone SRK I bought for $20 has a better sling interface than the M43 Meteor.
Sure you are on heavy meds now Dale, but can you already feel a difference?
In any case you’ll be brighten the days of airport security without using flashlights 
Welcome back Dale.
It arrived yesterday, and UI #3 is definitely the way to go. It’s not a UI that’s like anything else so by the time I get accustomed to it the Q8 will be here and eventually I’ll lose everything I learned. But it’s a beast. It definitely uses up the charge in cells in a hurry. But UI 3 helps with that. It’s not designed for throw at all with absolutely no hot spot, just flood, and what throw it has is from sheer floody output. In turbo it’ll easily reach out 100 yards, the limit of what I need. It heats up rapidly but due to step down I assume, my light in turbo never exceeded 117°F in my brief test. But the light won’t last long with 30Qs due to the current requirements of the LEDs/driver. In 10 seconds the head is starting to get noticeably warm and in under a minute it has reached the stable temp of 117°F (50°C heat step down). I didn’t manually hold the button to get the 70°C step down to see how that works.
BTW, I set up my M43 as goshdogit suggested with mode 3 and while I don’t really remember what mode 1 and 2 were like the way mine is setup now is good. When I was testing mode 1 and 2 I knew that I didn’t much care for them.
My initial impression was how small it actually was. Intellectually I knew it was small, but just not how tiny it was until I had it in my hands. It’s shorter by 1/4” than my Manker MK41 which uses AA cells. Of course it has a larger diameter.
The only thing it lacks is a way to sling it. It’s not required for weight or bulk, but a flood light is an excellent work light after dark, but with a wrist lanyard it doesn’t fit that purpose. Why do manufacturers assume everyone wants to hand carry a light? Why don’t they give options? Oh well. At least the giga thrower will have built in sling points. While on the subject, the lanyard it comes with is the same lanyard that comes with most any Chinese light. You know the type, it has a piece of weak monofiliment covered by black thread to give the illusion of something substantial while the reality is that anyone counting on it to keep their light safe is operating in a fools paradise. I put a wrist lanyard in place on the M43 that came off of a Sunlight SL6 diving light. So manufacturers, get with it and understand that not everyone lives in the city. Some of us actually live where there are no street lights and we need our lights to provide light where there is NONE other than moonlight and the stars and we need both of our hands to do things with while we provide the light to see what we’re doing. Failing that, at least provide a usable wrist lanyard.
I don’t expect manufacturers to actually pay attention to that plea, they appear to not be able to actually understand that their lights are also used by rural folks. so I’ll just keep this post here and not even bother to put it in the review thread. At least I got it off my chest. BTW, I’m not picking on Noctigon, all of the larger lights that I’ve bought to date lack a factory built way to sling them. Only one, a $20 SRK clone came with a substantial wrist lanyard that I would trust the light to. A $20 light got that right, so why can’t the manufacturers of higher quality lights? It’s baffling.
Wow, it makes me wonder why we’re even messing with XPL’s. Lol
I guess the answer is that the 50.2 where not in existence when this project started. Maybe this should be the next blf project?
The 50.2’s are a very different light, they will be MUCH floodier and completely change the beam.
That said I have said for a long time that I think a second version of the Q8 could and should be released with 50.2’s to compete with other mega flooders.
For what the Q8 is, I agree that the current XP-L’s are a really good balance of output, beam ect. I wish they were in 4S with a buck driver but that doesn’t change the fact that it works like it is.
A high CRI 50.2 build would be great general use light for close ranges.
The answer is simpicity of build (parallel cells, direct driver), but more important: luminance! The Q8 prototype has only 70% of the output of my (triple XHP70) X7 Marauder, yet it feels like a brighter flashlight because because the smaller dies light stuff up further away, that makes it IMO a more useful flashlight. Wait until everyone has their Q8, we should do a poll comparing it to other flashlights of comparable size (ok, let’s ignore flashlights more than 3 times as expensive ;)) and see which has the best beam
Edit: TA was faster than me
> Preliminary modding thread
Yes! thank you.
Now back to our focus here: Waiting for Q8
If XHP50. 2 had been available at the start I’d still not wanted them as stock for SRKs have cells in parallel and 4 XHP50 leds probably would be more expensive
Exactly. I know BLF is a weird place to say this, but moar power doesn’t necessarily mean moar better. Lumens aren’t the whole story. The goal is to balance all the factors in the equation, not to max out a single variable.
Yep…all around ‘mo betta’ is what we be wanting.
Took the time today to test the driver from #7 of prototype run 3 a little bit. Soldered it into my test rig, consisting of four emitters on a chunky heat-sink mounted on a plywood base / cell holder. Running the latest NarsilM.
Old photo:
This setup, currently with AWG 14 wiring, pushes 17 A on a set of fresh 30Qs.
Scoped around the control signals, MCU supply voltage, LED current. No surprises. No real heat on any of the driver components in any of the modes or battery charge states either. The FET keeps up well at different charge states, no sign of excessive I2R losses. Rds does ramp up at low battery voltage, but the lower current draw (lower battery voltage) compensates. Did not see more than 34 mV across the FET, as can be expected for a 2 mohm FET.
The longer than usual wiring adds parasitic inductance, amplifying the inductive spiking seen at the drain of the FET. Looks scary on the scope, but the driver behaves well, regardless.
The 30Qs are almost drained now. Got the step down flash at 3.05 V (setting in firmware is 3.0 V). It steps down repetitively until the battery voltage recovers above 3.05 V, which currently is at 250 mA. Now just waiting for the LVP shutdown (set at 2.8 V in firmware), this will take a while.
> fixed it
Ruined the surprise, for anyone who didn’t already know what the link opens to.
Those who did know, didn’t hardly need to see it again full screen.
But bless your heart for trying to improve what I’d tried to make a subtle post.
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Thanks, Del, great test setup documentation.
Nice DEL!
So great that you did/do this thorough testing, awesome! Thanks!
Well Bless your little heart to.
All that talk from you the other day about you being old, I just figured you had a Senior Moment & screwed up your post. 
But, not to worry… I can “un-fix it” as fast as I “fixed it” & your “surprise” will remain intact for most……
That… is a really nice test rig. Usually I just hold wires onto a battery with my fingers.
I’m going to have to set up something a little bit nicer soon though, for making alternate Q8 firmware. My usual approach is really awkward on a SRK-style driver.