I dont have any plans for messing around, but i might suddenly end up where i should not be, and i have never been afraid to push buttons.
So some fancy tap dance on the button to get back to normal would be good to know for me.
Once looking for a ground fault on 2 of the ships five 230 volt rails i blacked out the whole ship as i made a short on a 440 V rail, but this is what you get when you let a machine worker / toolmaker with a seaman’s book play chief engineer on a small coaster.
I did end up on my ass, but i just had to get up and reset the huge xxx amp breaker on the 440 V rail and we was back in action.
I do remember a flash when the screwdriver in my hand touched something it should not, but hey the copper rails in those SEMCO electrical “closets” are damn close.
And i have never claimed to be a electrician, or a engineer for that matter :money_mouth_face: it was just a chance that dropped into my lap.
Before that i worked on some ferry’s diesel electric propelled. when the fuses in the thruster room once in a while popped it sounded like a good pipe bomb ( cant remember how many amps they was on but enough for a big electric motor powering one of the 4 propellers ( 2 in each end )
Second time i was engineer it was a factory ship on Greenland, came up there as regular sailor and within 1 month i was engineer
And i never blacked out that ship, but we did spend 2 days at anchor with a 2” nylon rope around our propeller and the other end of that rope, well that was in the propeller of another ship :person_facepalming:
And there are not many places on the west coast of Greenland where a anchor can actually get a grip in something down there.
BUT ! none of that was my fault, i even tried to fix it, but pretty hard to dive in a survival suit and the water at Greenland in October are fracking cold.
I don’t think there’s going to be very much confusion about operating the Q8. A lot of people will probably switch from ramping mode just to see what it’s like to have high, medium and low, Etc, but they’re probably all going to go back to ramping just because it’s so cool.
Then you may or may not adjust the brightness of the moonlight level. I did not.
Then you may or may not turn off the memory function. You’ll probably keep it on, though.
Then it’s just a matter of learning a few special clicks. Double-click to high, triple-click for battery check and quadruple click for lockout. That’s about it.
Once everybody gets their lights and plays with it a little bit there’s really no need to carry around a manual. It’s not like guppydrv where you have a lot of different options to change to. So there’s no need for anyone to get stressed out about a manual. It’s not that big a deal.
Regarding the manual, I’ll volunteer to proofread the final draft. I’m fairly good at finding the most concise and clear wording for instructions. I don’t know who’s in charge of it at the moment, but just let me know!
There’s nothing to program on the Q8. I played around with my narsil light at first, but it’s all pretty much the default settings. I’ve had it for 9 weeks now and it’s a very easy light to use. One click on, one click off, press and hold to ramp up and down. Simple.
If anyone takes it out in the woods camping for instance, you definitely don’t need a manual to use it.
It’s not a Predator or Meteor. It’s simple.
I’m trying to think of something you might actually need the manual for and all I can think of is maybe how to turn the indicator light in the switch on and off. Frankly, I would leave it stock which is the green light staying on, and then just give the battery tube a twist to lock out the light and cut power to the indicator switch.
I’ll answer any questions about the UI as I’m sure other users will as well. So ask away.
Reset to default was talked about
But with all the “easy” clicks taken it would be more complicated to reset to default then just setup how one wants
Ramping or mode mode is the first choice in both config menus
You will see it is relaxed navigating the menu and get the feedback blinks.
I love the options in Bistro but the blinks and buzzes go to fast for me, I can’t keep up with voltage read out if it is between 3,6 and 3,9
So setting up a Bistro light is cool but for me not relaxed so I do it once (3 modes, moon yes, memory yes, long press reverse yes)
Bistro is Porsche 911
Narsil is Mercedes S class
Both very nice cars with a different feel to them when driving.
Since i am a car fanatic, i love your comparison!
I am extremely happy with my just tuned Porsche 911 (black C8, SMO, XPL-HI V3 1A on KD DTP, FET+1 with Bistro, with exact the settings you describe!)
Personally I find a printed manual reassuring in that I can easily check that I haven’t missed anything. It’s all very well people saying you can look up how to do something on the internet, but a physical printed manual in the box gives you that feeling of security that it is complete, and there is nothing else you have to investigate. The internet is great but it is also open ended, no feeling of closure. Maybe that’s an old fashioned idea but it is how I feel.
I don’t know the link, but there is a place that I went to in order to download and print a manual. If one has access to this site and a printer it’s fairly easy to do once one has the link.
Maybe someone can repost the link. Or if someone requests it I can put what I have in my dropbox for a time so that others can get it (eventually it’ll be removed). But my doing that doesn’t give the author the credit for writing it and I don’t want to steal someones thunder.
I suspect I will be using just as you described. Well put! I did print off a manual from some link for later use just in case. I’m sure I’ll be happy with or without one being provided! Thanks for simplifying.
