Sofirn C8G

DavidEF · 2019-05-15T00:19:34.000Z

DAGG3R, that does sound confusing. I would vote for mode switch can turn off but tail switch can still turn it back on.

Macka17 · 2019-05-15T02:53:47.000Z

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

Satan · 2019-05-15T10:37:50.000Z

I prefer C8F UI than C8G turn on moon light mode for C8G need to press side button and tail button

ecotack · 2019-05-15T21:07:29.000Z

Macka17:

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.

I like a UI that can go brighter or darker, without having to do the opposite first (if that makes sense) and a short-cut to turbo. So the C8F on ramping is great and the Bistro UI is ideal on reverse clicky only flashlights. Hopefully at some point Sofirn will update the UI to match the C8F.

HONDARIDER · 2019-05-19T02:00:53.000Z

Got one of the 2 I ordered today. I really like it so far. I have already replaced the emmiter with a 3000K XHP35-HI that I purchased from Arrow.com. Absolutely fantastic.

icpart · 2019-07-14T09:41:50.000Z

Hi guys. My Sofirn C8G arrived few weeks ago. I figured out there’s undocumented moon mode without needing to press tail switch and side switch before turn on flashlight. In turbo mode just double click and flash will go in moon mode. From there if you double click again it will go back to turbo. It works in any mode. Also in ramping mode that’s is fastest method to go from lowest to highest brightness and start to ramp respectively from that points.

Macka17 · 2019-05-20T20:56:35.000Z

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.

Tom_E · 2019-05-20T21:50:09.000Z

Just got the C8G, ordered on April 30th, shipped May 7th best I can tell. Looks good so far. I hope the SS bezel will fit, like I have on the C8F's.

The trick to go from turbo to moon via dbl click is documented in the manual.

Well, ramping is sort of decent - too slow and not sure if it's non-linear though. It's a major pain for using the tailswitch to power ON/OFF, specially in ramping when the single click does nothing -- very dumb, very limiting.

They probably did not implement a low parasitic drain - you have to do it both in the hardware design and the firmware, and maybe that's why they don't allow it to power OFF from the e-switch. Ok - this will definitely get a driver replacement.

Shame though that I do like the LED. It's a little on the cool side but appears to be a nice consistent tint, no nasty blues or yellows.

Anyone know what happened the the original [presale] C8G thread? It's gone, no trace accept in search results.

DAGG3R · 2019-05-21T02:25:54.000Z

Sofirn really dropped the ball on the UI for the C8G… It’s a step backwards for their C8 line.

I noticed the same thing about the original [presale] C8G thread… Looks like it got removed/hidden from BLF users.

1stein · 2019-05-21T07:31:23.000Z

Just wanted to let you know, Sofirn C8G uses a little smaller diameter LED PCB. I needed to file it down a little (the replacing LED I took from KD).

And… shame on me. I managed to break the driver. Changed wires to thicker, bypassed spring, but when testing must had short-circuited mass with the battery +. Some smoke went off. The driver works but lost its power. On the highest mode it looks like moonlight mode. So now I have 3 moonlight modes only: ultramoonlight, supermoonlight and moonlight
Anyone have idea if this is fixable?

Lux-Perpetua · 2019-05-21T08:25:06.000Z

1stein:

[…] Anyone have idea if this is fixable?

Cześć 1stein. Please get in touch with Cissy via Sofirn's shop on AliExpress (send message to seller). Usually, they can send you a spare driver for a small amount of money. Powodzenia! :-) Thomas

Lux-Perpetua · 2019-05-21T08:31:28.000Z

I have reported the issue with C8G's UI to Sofirn. Barry is being informed that most customers would appreciate a UI like C8F or SP70 on the C8G as well, i.e. the light can be turned on/off with the e-switch (being in standby) while the tail switch will mechanically turns on/off the entire light. I cannot promise you guys that this approach will be successful but I drew Barry's attention to this issue now.

Cheers,

Thomas

1stein · 2019-05-21T10:33:01.000Z

Lux-Perpetua:

1stein:

[…] Anyone have idea if this is fixable?

Cześć 1stein. Please get in touch with Cissy via Sofirn’s shop on AliExpress (send message to seller). Usually, they can send you a spare driver for a small amount of money. Powodzenia! Thomas

Cześć. Thanks for advice, I already did that. Sofirn has great customer service.
Man, your language gifted :+1:

Tom_E · 2019-05-21T14:04:07.000Z

Sounds like you got a nice "moon" "light" there . Hopefully they can get you a new driver, but for me, I'm tossing it - wayyyy too annoying. I'll probably go with a 3V XHP50.2 with NarsilM or Anduril. Should do 3500-4000 lumens, not as throwy, but maybe a slice&dice would help.

Coman · 2019-05-24T15:08:08.000Z

Distance ?

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.