I wish Nitecore would’ve asked before designing their TM03 the way they did. They took a Panasonic PF cell and ran 3 copper strips up the side to bring a protection circuit into it and also to take the ground contact to the top… this proprietary cell causes the light to need ground contact at the bottom, like all of our lights, as well as at the top outer ground ring. It also makes a relatively inexpensive Panasonic cell cost $20 at Nitecore. Crazy. I was able to remove a PF cell and rebuild it with a better cell but still… quite a tricky bit of work on that one and completely un-necessary. Locks you in to their proprietary cell only, with new cell chemistry and capacity coming out all the time it really dates this light that is otherwise a pretty decent find.
The better the Q8 is built from the get go, the longer it will be an iconic BLF figure…
At the bottom of the list it says to what post it is updated. Sorry if I missed it the last time and if you asked after the last list update I’ll do it next time
So I’m one of those annoying people who talked about running the Q8 on one or two cells.
I’m sure your technical analysis and car/tire analogy are all sound. But for a noob like me, I knew nothing about the performance penalty, and certainly wasn’t anticipating the issue with melting springs when running less than 4 cells.
Not coming from money, or wanting to spend too much on this hobby, that’s why some of us think of this from a monetary angle. If you spend $40 on a light, and have to fork over another $20 for batteries, it gives me pause. If a car costs $50,000 to buy, I’m not sure about you, but I would hesitate to spend $25,000 on tires for it.
But I’m in a very small minority here, so please don’t make any late changes on account of us. Do what’s appropriate for the majority. All I want to do is explain why some of us think the way we do.
Enelooper, if the one-cell requirement is dropped, the reason will be that it is too difficult to achieve, I and certainly Miller still find it a neat idea if the Q8 can run on one cell. We will see what Thorfire can do about the springs.
You can run it on fewer batteries but it would be silly to think there would not be disadvantages to doing so. The melting of springs can be mitigated with a spring bypass.
The loss in output and runtime can not be fixed, you simply have 1/4 of the power available, obviously you will have less power out the front of the light as well.
You can also get some cheap laptop cells to use in this light if you want as well. You can get a battery pack for around $10-15 generally if you look around and that usually gives you 6 cells. Won’t give you top performance but a lot better then a single cell.
LOL, this is very true. For many years before HP started selling printers with the “low capacity” toner in the box I would simply buy a new printer every time the toner ran out. It was cheaper to buy the whole printer then just the toner.
I would then sell the old printer and would generally end up paying less then $50 for over $200 worth of toner.
Guys, thanks for chiming in. While I really shouldn’t try to speak for others thinking about running on 1 or 2 cells, it’s really no big deal for me. I’ll still get the light, and I’ll make it work for me.
Texas_Ace: I was somehow led to believe that the only disadvantage of running one cell in a 4P setting is 1/4 the capacity of 4 cells. Didn’t realize there’s other issues as well.
I have laptop pulls, but they’re all flat tops. I don’t solder and I heard bad stuff if using magnets and the magnets shift inside the tube.
Edit: Again, I’m late but it took awhile to write this and “stuff” came up.
I wouldn’t use the word annoying, but I know that I was scratching my head wondering why. Now it’s understood. Yes, it can get expensive.
The light has so much performance and just from that standpoint I couldn’t understand why one would want to cut the # of cells driving it. It not only affects output lumens but runtime. But since you didn’t know of the performance penalty now it makes sense. If you don’t want to feed the Q8 what it needs, to keep expense down, there are other lights that should work for you. A quality C8 comes to mind. It won’t be the Q8, but it’s a nice light that only uses one cell. It’s considered to be a quality entry level light. My wife loves her C8 and I’ve suggested them to other folks who also love it. Another with more output is the Eagle Eye X6. I don’t know what they sell for today but I think a C8 will run near $25. They are in the form of a more traditional light. Be sure, if you go this route that you don’t buy a cheap knockoff C8. Both C8 and X6 use one 18650 and are easily charged with a $5 charger.
The Manker mk41 is a sort of mini soda can light and if you already have eneloops (judging by your name) it runs fine on 4 AA eneloops. But it’s more $ than the Q8 ($55?). You save on cells (maybe) but pay more for the light. If you already use eneloops you probably also have a charger. The 41 runs on anything that looks like a AA. That’s a nice option to have in an emergency. Since it’s in the form of a soda can light it tail stands readily. It also has a nice user interface; but again, it’s not the Q8.
All of the above lights will easily reach out to 100 yards and have very usable spill light and decent runtimes. The X6 is a really spectacular 1 cell light and I think it has FET circuitry that gives it that performance level. Of course the more output the sooner the cell dies. One can’t get something for nothing.
I’m not suggesting that the Q8 isn’t for you, but if you want to contain costs those other lights might be options to consider.
Edit: Well, magnets can probably be used in the Q8, but not toward the head end of the cell. The cells slide on the ring up top and magnets wouldn’t stay in place. A short would be a very nasty affair.
OK, I just wanted you to have options. Look in my post that you quoted; I edited it for magnet use. Late again!
Hey, maybe those options will mean something to others who aren’t posting.
Looking at the expense for the light for someone who’s new to them…
$40 for the Q8
$28 for 4 cells @$7/cell
$25 for a decent 4 cell charger
It’s close to a $100 investment. With shipping the charger and cells it can be over. So yes you make a good point. For folks already into this hobby it isn’t a big deal because we already have much of what we need. We tend to forget what it cost us to get started. Or at least I do since I bought it over time.
$100 is a bit steep
Most already have a charger but the good Liitokala li500 is $20
Most have cells but I bought 4 Panasonic protected 3400 for $12 shipped once, normal is $16 and good cells that give more lumens are $20 give or take
So
40 Q8
20 charger
20 cells ~$80 if somebody has nothing
Now let’s compare that to two lights that are good soda can lights and somebody has nothing
Nitecore TM06S $95
Charger 20
Cells no high drain needed 16
$131
Supfire RMM modded $99 ( and shipping adding an unknown $:money_mouth_face:
$135 and shipping
We just focussed on the light
For ~$40 there are a lot of nice single emitter 4AA mini soda can lights
But well again one needs eneloops and a charger adding to that
Most have chargers and cells so that can be less of an issue, and I see nice deals popping up to get people cells that get you the most lumens for a fair price
I totally understand if it is steep and really there is no pressure to get a Q8, only do so if you feel good about it and can. No hype we try to be as open about flaws as well.
