Q8, PMS SEND TO THOSE WITH ISSUES BLF soda can light

[Jesjes]

@sparkyDK

Well some one came up with vantablack the really black, so we just need some up to come up with the vanta LED the really bright LED’s.

I want to see R2D2 showing me Princess Lea!
Not the head of an old man on a table :disappointed:

[DavidEF]

Guys, take it easy! You should remember three things about Dale if you’re going to argue with him:

1. He’s a professional photographer.
2. He has built, modded, and/or handled probably well over 1000 different flashlights!
3. He’s in intense pain almost all the time.

[DavidEF]

@Jesjes

Only to light up a room for emergency situation the q8 is for sure a good choice but maybe not the best. If you go with more ah (4x26650, or even more) and less AMP (1 led running under low/medium electrical load) and a bigger reflector imo you will get more running time. But i am talking about the need of more than 3-4 nights.
Personal expierience: Palight boss1, 10 nights on a boat as Toplight, over 70 hours in low (astimated 250 lumen, more than enough w big reflector and nearly clear diffusor; also for a room 4x4m) with 4 liitokala 26650/5000mah.

One tiny thing here. The efficiency of an LED goes up as the current goes down. So, for a fixed amount of current, the more LEDs you have, the more light you get. And, at the same time, the Vf also goes down, which means it can run further on the cell(s) if need be. So, you get actually greater efficiency PLUS more light, PLUS longer run-time by using multiple emitters versus one.

[Tom_E]

Hhmm, the Q8 should make a decent long term lantern. Up to about 160-180 lumens, it runs on a single 7135 so it's very efficient. If you set a mode at the max of the 7135 (believe noted in the manual), that would be the most efficient. Downside is we use a Attiny85 running at 8 Mhz. Running at a lower clock rate will reduce power though.

If you need more output of ~250 lumens, the 7135 can be stacked so you get 700 mA, or even 950 mA.

As far as all the discussion of efficiency of output for diffused lighting, I have no experience with it, but I have used the Fenix diffusers and found them quite adequate at lower output settings. You certainly have the glare vs. usable light issue and efficiency, no matter what you do.

Ideally though the MCU should be dropped in to a lower power consumption mode, which I have no support for. There's some techniques for doing that - drop the clock rate, go into power saving mode, but periodically wake up to check LVP, etc. This could save a few mA for sure, maybe 2-4 mA, which would help.

[Illumenated]

@teacher

@Yokiamy

@Teacher
As requested.
I managed to pry the wrap over the button top, since that was mounted over the wrapping, that caused some small damaging as you can see on the image.

.

Thank you Yokiamy. :+1:
Yeah, that one on the right looks pretty crappy, to me anyway. :+1: … Where did it come from??

Center one looks good. Have you been able to determine if it is spot welded …. or just held on by the white washer and what appears to be clear shrink wrap??
.
EDIT:
I found it. The crappy looking one came from NKON & the better looking one came from Banggood.

Glad I saw this before I ripped off the clear shrink wrap. I bought these exact batteries from Banggood and almost unwrapped them thinking the clear wrap was just for packaging purposes. The only reason I held off is that I was too busy at the time and just packed them away.

Guess now I need to be extra careful with these batteries. If the shrink wrap comes off I wonder if the blob is welded or not?

[Tom_E]

Never though of the BOSS1 as a lantern, but certainly the 4X 26650's is an advantage, up to 22 Ah compared to 14 Ah. I modded mine with a dedomed XPL and hit over 700 kcd with it.

As David said though, multi-emitters is the best way to go for efficiency for lanterns - more lumens per watt. Checking the CREE comparative tool here, The V6 bin XPL2 does very well at 350 mA, and seems to beat the XHP50.2. The top bin XPG3 does better at 350 mA, but falls behind the XPL2 at 700 mA, plus the S6 bin of the XPG3 is not available as far as I know.

Roughly from what I recall, a high bin single LED at 350 mA does ~150 lumens, but a quad would do closer to 180 lumens.

A CC (current controlled) driver would probably be the most efficient, but if we were to use our current 7135/FET designs, a triple channel custom tailored to usage would be pretty darn close.

[OrangePeel]

Late to the party, but please add one for me.
Thanks

[fixed_it]

@Tom E

Hhmm, the Q8 should make a decent long term lantern. Up to about 160-180 lumens, it runs on a single 7135 so it’s very efficient. If you set a mode at the max of the 7135 (believe noted in the manual), that would be the most efficient. Downside is we use a Attiny85 running at 8 Mhz. Running at a lower clock rate will reduce power though.

The few mA the MCU uses won’t make a difference next to the 350 mA the 7135 is sending to the LED in that scenario. To put it another way: the MCU itself will need about a month to drain a single 18650. Light will be the least of your worries long before that.

[Tom_E]

True - only relevant down in the moon mode level, where it can consumes maybe 50% or higher of the power. All depends what level you run on. I've used my Narsil SRK's as night lights before - works well.

[deleted-200707]

@MRsDNF

Maybe you have been a naughty boy?

absolutely!
butt I am content now to practice my blobbing (some of those button tops are cute)

[DavidEF]

I can’t remember if it has been asked before. I tried Search Within Thread but couldn’t find any mention there. Is there any chance the Q8 host could be sold separately? I’d like to see Thorfire sell an empty Q8 host or shell. I want to make a multi-color light from it, so the existing LEDs, the MCPCB and the driver will be absolutely no use to me. I want to use this nice host with integrated shelf. Otherwise, I’d just buy a cheap clone and scrap the parts I don’t need. I’m hoping the host will be sold later for less than a cheap clone costs on eBay.

[The_Miller]

Will update list later

David don’t count on it
Thorfire is not in the habit of selling hosts.
What you could do is use the ledboard and driver in a SRK clone, the ledboard will give a nice start in cooling if you find on with a decent shelf to rest it on

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

OR, David, you could sell me the parts you won’t use and I could build a light from scratch around those bits. Your choice.

[DavidEF]

@DB Custom

OR, David, you could sell me the parts you won’t use and I could build a light from scratch around those bits. Your choice.

Well, tell me where I can get a decent SRK with a good shelf, and I’ll think about it. I need several though. How many ‘SRK guts kits’ are you willing to buy? :money_mouth_face:

[The_Miller]

Heheh I think Dale means the Q8 stuff there

[DavidEF]

@The Miller

Will update list later

David don’t count on it
Thorfire is not in the habit of selling hosts.
What you could do is use the ledboard and driver in a SRK clone, the ledboard will give a nice start in cooling if you find on with a decent shelf to rest it on

Hmmm… take the high-end internals out of the Q8, transfer them to a cheap SRK clone, and re-sell it for a little profit recovery.

…maybe!

[DavidEF]

@The Miller

Heheh I think Dale means the Q8 stuff there

Oh yeah… :person_facepalming:

[The_Miller]

Heheh

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

Well, yeah, you said you couldn’t use the LED’s, mcpcb, or driver. So if you wanted to buy a few and sell me those parts, I could do that, sure we could work something out that would be to both our satisfaction. I could go 4 or 5 maybe, probably not more than that. So, PM me and you can then make the necessary additions to this list.

[ISO]

I have an issue about custom tax. Since I have 4 preorders units I need them to send them one by on else i have VAT and taxes that exceed the value of the flashlight. If i cant make them sent one by one I have to scale down.