Sofirn C8G

80T · 2019-05-26T18:43:18.000Z

Waiting for my C8G here, but with not so much excitement.. :|

Things I like:

- Single emitter - (thus.. single big reflector) although it's a 6/12V boost driver, so idk about the efficiency VS a 3V emitter/driver. (not a big deal, I kinda like the XHP35's anyways, so it's kind of a neutral point actually)

- Dual Switch - Big plus for me personally because I can "lock the flashlight" without wearing the threads (also makes perfect sense to have a forward sw here - since the main/tail sw doesn't also change modes)

- Decent fuel format - I like the 21700 for it's quite considerably higher capacity than the regular 18650's (nearly reaching 26650 capacity) and by now it's enough of a widely adopted format (Cheers for that Elon/Tesla!)

- Ramping UI Group - Another big plus - the only UI that I would use with any flashlight where the format/application would allow it. Reason why I bought and love the C8F.

Things I dislike:

- The omission of "Stand-By" from the Side/Mode Switch - Big minus as far as I'm concerned and a very unwelcome downgrade from the C8F - disappointed with this change (this light will have to see a driver swap)

- Access to "Moonlight" Mode - Both methods are flawed - Method 1 requires you to hold the side/mode sw while activating the light from the main/power sw - not too user friendly :| Method 2 requires you to firstly access the "Turbo" Mode - which kinda beats the purpose of "Moonlight" (low light) in the first place.. and second, I don't want to accidentally go from Turbo all the way down to Moonlight by trying to activate the "Turbo" Mode again - let's say I'm not sure the light it's in "Turbo" Mode already and I want to make sure I'm at the full brightness - thus I'll Double-Click it, just in case - What happens ? I'm getting all the way down to "Moonlight".. Not ideal :| Better would be let's say from "Turbo" Mode a Double-Click would go back to "Full Turbo" again in case there was a step-down - Much more prefered than going down to Moonlight - A Double-Click & Hold would make much more sense to access Moonlight from "On" Modes, being that any lvl. of brightness or straight from "Turbo" - My 2 Cents..

Other thoughts:

Just found out from some previews posts in here that The SP70 also has a slight difference in UI compared to the C8F - but this time I'm not sure which one is actually more practical/useful in real applications, the C8F, or the SP70. While the C8F would memorize the On/Off state of the side/mode switch when you're powering on the light from the main/power switch, the SP70 would always come up in the On state, regardless if you've left the light in "Stand-By" Mode from the side/mode switch previously - which seems to also be useful, as you'll always know that when you're taping/pressing the main/power switch you'll always get light. So I'm quite on the fence about this one since I only have the C8F but not the SP70, but I'd say both the options for the main/power switch states from Off are equally good/viable UI options. Even if I don't have the SP70, I can see the appeal in that UI functionality and I'm slightly leaning towards that behavior. I'd say having both and configurable would be amazing.

I'm wondering if the C8F driver would physically fit in the C8G host (I'm worried about the "single reflector" depth compared to the C8F's "triple" one.. ) and how would it fare powering an SST-40 instead of the 3 XP-L's..

Maybe if it would be too powerful for the SST-40, if it's not a perfect fit already.. I could swap in a bigger value current sensing resistor and play with that value until the driver would provide just enough power to the SST-40 as to not overdrive it. Also, as a side effect I wonder how it would affect the Moonlight mode.. Yet, I think the SST-40 takes just a tad lower voltage than some 3xXP-L's setup.. thus, less power overall. Definitely going to try and see if I could fit the C8F Driver inside the C8G, already bought it along with the C8G flashlight itself with this in mind - all this being because of the UI design changes.

[EDIT]

Forgot to mention another nice addition that I'd like to see with this UI format: The Ramping could go from "Moonlight" to "High" and "Turbo" Mode would only be accessible by a Double-Click.

Maybe just adding another "Ramping Group" with this behavior - probably would be the easiest way to implement it. I can tell I would definitely like this feature and it's useful since I have the Lumintop GT Mini with the Narsil FW which behaves just like this (well, it also has a floor for "Low", so it's going from "Low" to "High", not from "Moonlight" to "High", but I'm only interested in the ceiling, not the floor of the ramping, as I don't really like being unable to go all the way down to "Moonlight" from any On state by ramping or at least having a shortcut - as I was mentioning a bit earlier on, a Double-Click & Hold shortcut would do just fine imo - I would very much like having this shortcut in addition to the "Turbo" shortcut, not so much having to power off the light to access "Moonlight" mode in case of the Lumintop GT Mini for example.. or even worse, as in the case of the C8G, having to go through "Turbo" firstly, or having to press/hold two switches and that being only from the Off state :| Really cumbersome UI this is.. )

[EDIT2]

So, here's another idea: I think it would make perfect sense for the already present action "Hold Mode Switch + Click the Tail Switch" to be assigned to a different action: Let's say "Battery Voltage Ckeck"

We know we already have the gross accuracy indicator present at all times (well, for 5 seconds from any interaction at least) Green - 50% ~ 100%, Slow Red flashing ~ Fast Red flashing - under 50%, but..

We could also have the nice "Color coded" Voltage indicator - Flashing the 1V step/digit value in Green and the 0.1V step/digit value in Red, thus - 3 Green blinks & 8 Red blinks would indicate a precise 3.8V :)

And if that's too complex, I would use this shortcut to change between Mode Groups instead of the 4 fast Clicks. I mean, it's not an action that you would accidentally do.. Unlike let's say trying to activate the "Moonlight" Mode from the On state - Fast Double-Click to "Turbo", then another fast Double-Click to "Moonlight" - You can see how this could easily turn by accident into a 4 fast Clicks..

For now, I would say that the current C8G UI is vastly unsatisfactory compared to even the C8F or the SP70 and even those could benefit from some of these changes (I would argue they'd be improvements over the current state) - like the Mode Groups change being achieved by Holding the Mode sw + Power sw instead of the 4 fast Clicks and maybe having a ceiling for the ramping. And, not to forget, the shortcut for "Moonlight" - Double-Click & Hold.

[EDIT3]

Ok, yet another idea..

I think we could have both "Battery Voltage Check" (if that's a viable option for this light's MCU/programming capabilities) and Mode Groups change on the same two button combo:

- From Off: Hold Mode SW & Power On from the Main/Power SW = "Battery Voltage Check"

and

- From On: Hold Mode SW & Power Off from the Main/Power SW = "Mode Group cycle/step"

Or..

- From Off: Hold Mode SW & Power On from the Main/Power SW = "Mode Group cycle/step"

and

- 4 fast clicks = "Battery Voltage Check" - which it would now be more easily accessible and without powering the light Off, thus handier and not interfering with any of the regular UI actions :)

So, Sofirn - This ^ ^ is my challenge to you :)

Cheers!

bmengineer · 2019-05-26T17:39:30.000Z

Do we know what bin is used in this light?

icpart · 2019-05-26T19:45:23.000Z

Coman:

Distance ?

Maybe around 300-400m with full power.

gchart · 2019-05-26T23:12:32.000Z

Curious if anyone has up-close pics of the driver (the business side of things, of course)?

80T · 2019-05-26T23:50:40.000Z

Curious about this myself as I want to give this light a driver swap, more specifically the C8F driver which has a perpendicular pcb soldered on the main PCB, thus taking some space in the vertical plane as well. So far I haven't found anything online about the internals, only exterior pics, that's all. I imagine the driver for this light would be either single PCB, or a sandwich of two, to save space in the vertical plane due to the single, thus deeper reflector I'd imagine.

WTF · 2019-05-27T01:34:33.000Z

It’s a 21mm driver, Kaidomain and Mountain both offer 20 or 22mm drivers. I think all those drivers are clicky based and would need some tweaking for an E-switch. Lone Oceans has a 20mm driver, its clicky based. He has released the firmware (arduino based) so maybe someone can write some new code for it.

There doesn’t appear to be anything too fancy going on with the mcu, its probably as large as it is just to get enough memory. A switch, some indicator lights, three volts out for enable and the pwm signal to the boost converter. Possibly a voltage monitoring input. The rest of the pins appear unused to me. Unfortunately the tricky part of swapping out the MCU is the millivolt feedback from the sense resistors seems to go back to an op amp which then turns into a voltage output feeding into the mcu.

The mcu is contiuously modulating the pwm output. It appears the driver will run away if you just give it a pwm signal with no feedback loop. I don’t know of any BLF firmware that does a feedback loop. I can’t figure out what the boost converter is. With my limited knowledge, no data sheet and no programming skills its looking like a dead end for me. I might pull the mcu board off at some point and feed it a pwm signal with my power supply current limit set safe just to see what happens. Probably wait till Sofirn starts selling replacement drivers first. Or put a 4000k led in it and leave it be.

It’s a good light as it is, just a little clunky on the user interface. If it wasn’t for Tom and Toykeeper spoiling us we would probably love it.

Tom_E · 2019-05-28T13:42:32.000Z

- we've been hit with no many negatives as of late, nice to hear some good words

PiercingTheDarkness · 2019-05-29T03:23:35.000Z

ecotack:

Only one gripe at the moment, you can’t turn the LED off with the mode button

Same as the Convoy L6. I don’t find this an issue

PiercingTheDarkness · 2019-05-29T03:27:05.000Z

Macka17:

Ecotak.

Macka17 wrote: And I’d vote for a side sw only.
Those tail ones are nothing but a nuisance
for older/stiffer hands.

“”Not necessary either, just a half turn on the tail cap will isolate the battery.“”

It’s not the performance of the rear sw, what it does.
It’s the actual Activation of it.
Stiff (Older,getting arthritic) pinkies. Do NOT like bending at the joints. Especially the tip joints.

Just wait.

Then just unscrew the tail cap a half turn to switch off and on. No need to use the rear switch. Maybe you should only get side clickys moving forward.

Too many complaints from a budget friendly light.

PiercingTheDarkness · 2019-05-29T03:36:02.000Z

Moonlight access on a dedicated thrower? Why is this a huge issue, I’d only ever use this light for hunting. Use something else if you’re needing moonlight. like an EDC.

80T · 2019-05-29T07:17:07.000Z

Well it's more of a commodity, a convenient feature tohhave on a light, thrower or not. Of course it wouldn't be of too much use outdoors but let's say you want the moonlight at night when you're in bed - just point the light to the ceiling and you get some ambient just like you would with a flooder. Myself, I find 1LM or even sub Lumen pointed at the ceiling plenty light to brighten up my small room at night. Even the stand-by LED's from the various equipment, monitor, router, mouse, etc. are a noticeable amount of light in pitch dark and I can see where to pick up the flashlight. My GT Mini or even micro, with the lowest moonlight lvl. set up it's perfectly enough for such purpose. If anything, while indoors there's always much reflection from everywhere compared to outdoors, so, no reason not to have a nice feature if it's a possibility ;)

80T · 2019-06-09T21:01:06.000Z

Some thoughts after receiving my C8G this Friday.. Well, mostly nags and some rantings actually.. :|

- Driver seems to be the same layout as the C8F - main PCB with a perpendicular secondary / daughter PCB - just a bit shorter than the one on the C8F tho and a bit more off-center as well to accommodate the small inductor for the boost circuit that sits on the main PCB - a C8F driver would almost fit if not just barely in this host, as the compartment hosting the driver, under the emitter's shelf it's a bit shallower due to the deeper single emitter reflector in the C8G. The C8G overall it's around 2mm longer than the C8F just because of this deeper reflector.

- There's no Stand-By function on the side switch as on the C8F, which I knew it would to be a letdown, but not as much as it actually was when I got the flashlight and practically tried to use it.. Very dissappointing :( Likely that is because of the boost diver circuit doesn't have a stand-by function itself.. ?

- The Ramping itself seems to be linear current, thus the start of the ramp seems to ramp up the perceived brightness very fast from moon to a relatively high brightness, then, for the longest remaining part of the ramping after the initial part, the brightness only seems to slower and slower gain in intensity for a long period.. :| which is another bigger letdown in practice then in expectation (also didn't even expected or knew this beforehand to begin with.. ) This linear current ramp really beats the purpose of having a practical ramping UI in the first place.. because, well.. it's not that practical in real usage scenarios.. :|

- The Moon mode - 10LM - Waaaay too much (even if it's a thrower.. ) - 1LM, even if at least from the cumbersome accessible Moon mode straight from Off (holding the side switch & power On from the tail clicky) that, btw, leads me to the next point/nag..

- The Moon mode access it's cumbersome and non practical at best: One method is a buton combo and only from the from Off state, the other mode has you first accessing the Turbo mode and from there going down to Moon mode - which beats the purpose of the Moon mode in the first place.

Ok, so there is at least one plus side of this driver compared to the C8F a reference though with this flashlight, so it's not all bad :)

- Just noticed on this light, compared to the C8F, that from Turbo or Strobe modes, a long press it's not considered a alternate way of standing-by the light (hence, this light doesn't feature such a function to begin with anyways.. ) but actually, more convenient, more intuitive, long press from Turbo mode would start ramping down (just like with Narsil) and from the Strobe mode, it would cycle through the disco/flashy modes (Strobe [of variable frequency] > Beacon [~2s interval] > SOS [a fast one just as I like it] > cycle back to Strobe > etc. > .. ) On the C8F, oddly and quite disappointingly for me personally, long press from Turbo/Strobe modes would put the light in Stand-By.. :| I guess it's an "alternate" way, a "shortcut" to straight away put the light in stand-by without clicking twice from those special modes. Makes sense, but I'd rather have the C8G's like behavior, seems like the most convenient, intuitive for me. Even the Narsil way still has a "flaw" as far as my preference goes, as accessing the Turbo would always first stand-by the light, so single click from Turbo will be stand-by.. :| then clicking again would power on the light back on in the previews level of brightness.

Btw, some pics of the 2 relevant IC's on the C8G's driver:

1st pic - the MC

2nd pic - the Boost IC (and the inductor as well)

gchart · 2019-06-10T13:19:37.000Z

On the plus side… the switch appears to be on its own board, making a driver replacement much easier if one is so inclined to do so. Are you able to measure the driver diameter?

I know you could always ignore the tailswitch or use it for lockout purposes, but I’d welcome a no-switch tailcap offering.

80T · 2019-06-10T14:40:29.000Z

I'll measure the driver diameter when I'm getting back home, but until then I'd recall it was a 21mm or 21.5..? Just the same as the C8F if you have the measurements for that one.

And about the tail switch, the Lumintop GT Mini would fit the bill quite nicely if you don't have it already, although slightly bigger head diameter and I'd argue a more cumbersome access to the various blinky modes. Other than that, a bit nicer design I'd say and only 18650 fuel compatible.

Macka17 · 2019-06-10T15:01:31.000Z

FUN…
I use the twist the rear cap to isolate ALL my torches. even the copper and Stainless ones.
Get into the habit. Just one flat is usually enuff.

Thank you.

80T · 2019-06-10T19:09:25.000Z

gchart:

Are you able to measure the driver diameter?

- 21mm

gchart · 2019-06-10T20:28:08.000Z

Thanks, 80T.

And good point about the GT Mini. Definitely a contender as long as someone isn’t hung up on 21700 capability.

bilakos10 · 2019-06-15T08:40:55.000Z

Yesterday I got the C8G in my mailbox (was sent to me for review).

First impressions are good.
The only thing I didn’t like is the wanky ramping: The transition from low brightness to high is quite fast for my liking.

The review should be ready by the end of the next week, but if anyone is interested, today I can capture some comparison beamshots between the C8G, C8T and GT Mini (will add C8A to the mix, provided that I have it included in my flashlight box )

Jackie · 2019-06-15T10:15:34.000Z

The previous topic was deleted, glad to see the talking here.

RobinVC · 2019-06-18T18:13:32.000Z

I got mine a week or so ago.
Pretty good light for the price i guess. I’ve come to terms with the tail switch, it seems to be a good quality one. Also the side switch is very satisfying to click, so no problems there. I’m not too fond of the beam pattern and color though. You can clearly see some yellow tints and you get a bit of a weird spill ring. One other “problem” is that the battery indicator light lights up every time you press the side switch. But some people would probably like that for easy visibility and so on.

As far as modes go, i prefer ramping. It starts on moonlight, which gives me plenty light for small things. If i need turbo, its a double click away, single click back to moonlight. and tbh i rarely use turbo other than to impress non flashlight-guys .

It is a decent thrower for its size, 300m for sure. 500 might be a bit of a stretch, depending how dark it it.