There is no need for Tom to redo or repost all the thibgs he said aboit the springs in a well documented manner
I know it is a long thread but search within thread, terms spring proto 1, user Tom should bring lots of interesting stuff up. (Busy anf phone so canât do it myself)
IMHO it is not aboit safety but quality.
Funny thing is, that even with even harder abuse then I did on my proto 3 the nature of the springs makes it kind of self repairing, I mean if 2 springs sag because of heavy use and do not make good contact, the two remaining will be getting the load and sag also lol
The bump to disconnect is too light on the proto 3 springs, the nice lighted switch does mean the Q8 can be found easy when it drops and turns off bit it should oreform better.
DEL did some testing and measured the height it can be dropped before it turns off and the Q8 foes worse then the M6 here goes;
âemail quoteâ
Did a few drop tests onto a firm bed, tail first, solder-blobbed cells:
Q8 proto 3, start to reset at drops >25 cm
M6 (not stock, OSH driver board), 30 cm
SRK clone 1 (new-gen) with OSH driver board, 50 cm
âend email quoteâ
I can only find where Tom said the Proto 1 springs were no good, but with bypasses they were fine. Itâs in the quote of his I posted above. I was only asking. He doesnât have to answer if heâs too busy or something. I have to get to bed now.
AgreedâŚ
No need for you to do it even if you were not busy & using a phone. The info is there. Maybe a few forgot some of it as it appears several of us didâŚâŚ but it is there in black & white.
Nothing else even need be said about that. You are totally correctâŚ. IMHO of course.
A software solution against running the light at full power with a single high current cell and collapsing the springs sounds good in theory and at first glance.
After thinking for a second I dislike the idea. First of all, itâs almost a potential failure point; unnecessarily complicating things is never ideal. Would need lots of testing and even when functioning within limits, still potentially compromise highest possible output, perhaps without the user knowing a restricted mode is set. Maybe harmless in a consumer product but unacceptable in enthusiast equipment.
If this were to be implemented, thereâs another challenge: how to tell one (or two) high current cells apart from four mediocre standard cells? The latter case could appear the same in some cases while actually stressing the contacts less than the normal use scenario with four high drain cells. I donât think one could do that at all, at least reliably and with repeatable behavior. Imposing additional limits to the already diminished performance with four cells of lesser capability would suck be less than ideal.
I believe the Q8 team is smart enough to not even consider this useless and detrimental feature, but just sayinâ.
Edit: Wanted to clarify that Iâm not at all against improving the actual electrical contacts including springs, even to the point of idiot proofing. Itâs not on my personal wish list, but itâs nice and wonât have any negatives(except electrically). Introducing potential bugs into firmware would be outright bad.
I do have one very important upgrade/change I would like to ask for in the Q8.
Could we make the Q8 compatible with 120/240 Single-Phase AC Voltage so when I am sitting around the camp I could just plug it in my trusty Generac and not have to worry about using those four pesky batteries.
The changes should be easy-peasy. TF might love it too. Any chance of this happening
.
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IF anyone thinks or implies this is anything but what it is, âŚ. extreme off topic sarcasm / ; we will just have to award you a Participation Trophy ⌠or memento. It can also be considered your Sign . âŚ
The chip has no idea how many batteries youâre using, what capacity they are, etc. It could try to estimate based on voltage change over time or something, but it would have no way to tell the difference between four Ultrafires, two protected NCR18650A cells, or one bare 30Q. And the time required to make that kind of measurement is long enough that the damage would probably already be done regardless.
If someone wants to damage the springs, even with very good springs, there is an easy way to do it. Take four high-amp unprotected cells, two empty and two full, put them in the Q8, and tighten down the battery tube. Or use four full cells with two inserted backward (with button tops on the wrong end). If youâre lucky, the springs will melt. If youâre unlucky, the whole thing might explode. Itâs not reasonable to expect this kind of thing to be supported.
Tom can answer if he wants to answer.
After looking back over this vast quantity of posts and info for myself, last night late & this morning; I think the questions about the spring has already been answeredâŚ. by more than one.
It needs to be a bit longer, a bit stiffer, and made of a bit larger diameter wire. That is what I personally got from my late night/early morning re-reading & researchâŚâŚ (done so as to refresh my memory as to what I seem to have forgotten)âŚ.
Then somehow it turned into a âsafety issueâ that IF someone deliberately chose to or by circumstance had to run their Q8 in TURBO mode springs might melt, safety might be compromised, and they might blow themselves up.
And not to forget what happens if Jr. or Grandma gets a hold of a Q8 and they self destruct. Oh myâŚâŚ. :person_facepalming:
Well, would you leave a hand grenade laying around where Jr. or Grandma could get a hold of it and do something stupid???
I think not. So if you are one with âsafety concernsâ⌠treat your Q8 as you would a handgrenade.
But it seems I once again digress on this bewildering topic of ââsafetyââ. :person_facepalming:
Several guys ( djozz, Jtm94, nqcken, JasonWW, spinynorman, me,The Miller, to name a few), in posts before this one: addressed the perceived âsaftey issueâ as being a non-issue and further need to dumb this down ⌠to say it kindlyâŚ. was not needed.
The Miller summed it up perfectly a short while ago when he said thisâŚ. âIMHO it is not aboit safety but quality.â
So hopefully the quality spring will be found & chosen and we can let this sad discussion of springs die a quick natural death. :+1:
Sorry you interpret my post not as intended, wanted to express Tom already answered in great detail what the springs on all prototypes were
Canât look it up but it is to be found, as are sizes
Please if somebody really wants to know search and quote or link to the posts. Seems like a fair request right? (Canât expect us to quote all data on each page in case somebody missed it, forgets it or wants to analyze it. It is there and if one wants to comment please search yourself for I donât have the time and even means now only on phone (making searching, copy pasting and quoting harder ok?).
There is a lot of data, a lot of pics, a lot of measuments. I do understand it is important and need for talking and analyzing is there, please search and if asked for I can put things in the OP next time I update it making it easier to find later.)
On a related note, it can be great fun to put a wrench across the terminals of a car battery. Ever seen a wrench melt?
Or thereâs the classic âkeeping batteries and spare change in the same pocketâ trick, if anyone wants to know what it feels like to have money burning a hole in their pocket. Works best with NiCD or high-amp Li-Ion cells.
Springs should prevent actual fires in the Q8, at least. Theyâre supposed to melt like a blown fuse if something goes way out of spec. It just would be nice if they had a little more tension with short cells.
The only changes left are âwould be niceâ sort of things. It really sounds like the Q8 wonât leave much to complain about, even for people who are good at complaining. A lot of lights have a problem with âsnatching defeat from the jaws of victoryâ, some sort of fatal flaw in an otherwise-great item, but unless something goes wrong in production, it looks like the Q8 wonât have that problem.
âthe whole thing might explodeâ
My kind of flashlight :sunglasses:
And probably also why flashlights will be banned here soon, imagine the horror is some poor little Dane got his fingers burned by his own fault, so better rush in a lot of half asses law giving.
ha rubber tile society, when we were young and played outside falling meant some hurt, nowadays in the Dutch playgrounds the tiles have a layer of rubber so falling doesnât hurt so much
Okay, it wouldnât actually explode. The fuses springs melt to prevent that. Even the Cometa didnât explode, and it shorted the battery directly to itself. Nobodyâs passing any laws about flashlights, aside from the usual âdonât blind peopleâ that applies to all light sources.
Brings back memories, fuses, and all kind of intricate solutions for extra safety were discussed in depth, but in the end, come on why would we a group of enthusiasts be âholier then the popeâ when it comes to safety when big and small brands like the M6, tons of SRKs clones and what not rely on users to use the correct cell setup?
The Q8 is as safe as the M6, kind of a benchmark, safer even with sweet Narsil!
We know all who signed up were reading about flashlights before doing so, we are going to include a manual with links to BLF and the awesome Li Ion Safety 101 topic with good info in a lot of different languages, took me a lot of energy to push for that in some cases, and all the translators a lot of time to translate but now it is such a good thread for literally the whole world (Yikes typing this sigh we have not covered India, China and Japan so OK a very large part of the world (dont have the energy of audacity to pursue these three, sorry)
I really think we have done this safety thing very thorough and very much on par with professional parties.
So only a âflashlight licenceâ could make it better and i think nobody here would want governments to do something like that
It would not help anyway The Miller⌠think about âdrivers licensesâ .
Bottom line is stupidity, ignorance, no attention to detail⌠whatever name it be given; cannot be fixed or regulated.
It will always sink to the lowest common denominator and find a wayâŚâŚ. :person_facepalming:
Best to just let it sort itself out and hope no innocent bystanders get hurt in the processâŚâŚâŚâŚ ;D ⌠:+1:
ouch those edits, hmm, âlooseâ as a whole maybe, but I dont agree with it looking at BLFers working on the Q8, and with working not only emailing among the team but alo PM and here in the topic, lots being active and really involved from the start long time ago.
so OK a very large part of the world (dont have the energy of audacity to pursue these three, sorry)