Nice. You still need the coupon code to get the 40 Euro price, though.
I suppose the US Amazon will be next. Maybe the coupons will go out soon after.
How has no one mentioned a memory bug on the BLF Q8? This is what I don’t understand. If it wasn’t a real issue on the BLF Q8, then it shouldn’t be an issue on the Sofirn Q8. So I would say use the current v1.2.
If time were not a big issue, then yeah, maybe the bug can be fixed. I have no idea how much work it is to do that or when Sofirn would need a copy ready, though.
Are you saying that the shortcut to turn off the standby light isn’t working on your Sofirn model? Usually I can ramp up or down and then quickly click off (while the switch light is doing it’s blink) to make the switch light temporarily turn off.
That 10% might be due to the HI emitters. Partly due to a smaller hotspot and partly due to less output. This is my logical guess.
You should be able to tell if the lens has an anti-reflective coating just by looking at the reflection of a light in the lens. A coating will give the reflection a blue or purple tint usually.
Very hard to tell, the BLF on the right seems a bit more purple but maybe that’s just the emitters?
I’m going to post some more pics here
Usually it’s easiest to tell in daylight while viewing an external light source reflected at an angle off the lens. I generally tailstand lights in a window sill and look down at the lens from maybe 45 degrees, to check if the colors reflected match the colors I see through the window.
For example, on the left is a strong AR coating, and on the right is a weaker AR coating:
If you have horizontal blinds, it can also be fairly easy to check whether the coating is on both sides of the lens or just one side. Here’s how it looks on both sides:
Or you could take the lens out and place it on a white surface, then view it from an angle to see if it changes the color of the surface below it. Here’s a particularly bad coating (left) next to plain uncoated glass (right):
My bad, just didn’t have the touch. Standby light off on both
Got some AR lenses for C8 and they’re easy to tell but the Q8 not so much. 9pm here so will have to do daylight check in the morning.
Kind of amazing, no? Thousands of people didn’t notice.
Two people found the bug, that I know of:
- Hank of Intl-Outdoor, on the Emisar D4 with RampingIOS V1, which was a fork of an earlier version of Narsil.
- maukka, on the FF ROT66 with NarsilM 1.2.
So I suspect the issue has been present in every Narsil-based or NarsilM-based light made so far. But it’s random and only shows up if someone changes the settings and then removes the battery fairly soon afterward. Using it longer before battery removal invokes the SaveConfig function more times, and increases the chance of a successful save.
The fix is fairly simple — disable interrupts while saving, and use library functions instead of direct register access.
Thorfire is emailing previous customers (Q8?) a discount opportunity, several lights but specificially the BLF Q8 is at a discount. Still more than this Sofirn Q8 group buy though…
/\…. Yeah, I got that email. 
I’m behind on adding the newcomers to the list in the OP, will update this evening. And I see it is listed on amazon.de and not yet on amazon.com. Sofirn promised that the retail price would be $69.99 but I see 59.99 euro shipped on amazon.de and $59.49 on aliexpress, so the sales outside the group buy already starts with discount :weary: . Still, the 39.99 of the gb is a very good discount!
My request and expectation is that Sofirn will take care of the amazon-PM’s, and that this will start when also the listing on amazon-US is there. If I hear anything else I will report.
/\…… Thanks for the update djozz. Sounds good. :+1:
+1
AliExpress
Thanks
A mem bug, that Might explains the odd things I can never figure out, things that rarely happen.
I was never sure what exactly the problem was in general or if I had a problem frankly sure never was a big deal, I’ve always suspected it is completely user error,
So I’d like to vote for the Anduril as well, this would really be over the top, loved TK’s vid of lightening… Downloaded it for those weird days, well those are nearly everyday so disregard that comment.
And your welcome Teacher, that factory reset as I mentioned is my fav mode, it has straightened my light out numerous times.
Interested! I’ll get one on aliexpress soon!
NarsilM 1.2 sounds like it could be a reasonable suggestion. Anduril sounds foolish even to mention at this late date.
Impulsive, opportunistic changes to an already shipping update to an existing light sounds doesn’t sound like an antidote to manufacturer conservatism. It instead risks aggravating it.
Updated the list
NarsilM v1.0
@ToyKeeper - I hope you don’t be mad that I choose you to ask some questions. Please tell me if the source files you provided (1.2) have this memory bug. I don’t want to offend anyone by this. I would like to look at some parts of that code. I worked 5 years with AVRs, ARMs, etc. and maybe I’ll find something interesting.
I’m new here so I don’t know a lot of things. If it possible to get the PCB projecting files of Emisar D4, FF ROT66 and BLF Q8? The fact that dozens times more users of Q8 didn’t notice anything may indicate the hardware<->software problem.
And sorry for my lazyness but I’d gratefull if someone can tell me what exactly does that bug make. The memory reset? Doesn’t save the settings? Or randomizes all settings?
PS. Sofirm you fuc*ed up! You ask the forum member for a new firmware after manufacturing few hundered flashlights. If you change the firmware during production, I am preparing a popcorn for that comedy.
Yes, NarsilM 1.2 has the memory bug. But there’s not much point investigating it because I fixed it last year in an earlier fork, I sent the patch to NarsilM’s author, and he applied it to NarsilM (1.4?). But he’s pretty busy so there hasn’t been a new release yet.
I can merge some fixes in and test it on my Q8 to make sure everything works, and send the build to Sofirn. I’d just kinda prefer not to until I know how (or if) the firmware is going to be maintained. There are several forks right now and it may be a little messy getting them all merged back together, and it’s not really my project so I’m not even sure if I should.
[quote=Quad=XXX]PS. Sofirm you f*ed up!
[/quote]
Sofirn has not done anything wrong. They faithfully duplicated the BLF Q8 down to the smallest details, aside from a couple parts which were changed on purpose — emitter type, battery tube flats, logo, and bump protection. However, customers are interested in adding some firmware updates too.
That is why this question has come up. We have NarsilM 1.0 now, which people loved on the original BLF Q8. And the question is whether to upgrade to 1.2 (which adds features but doesn’t fix the minor bug), make a new version, or switch to a similar UI which doesn’t have the issue (and adds a bunch of features).
Yes, NarsilM v1.2 has the same bug as NarsilM v1.0.
Just to clarify, the Emisar lights use RampingIOS which has the memory bug fixed. The ROT66 and Q8 use NarsilM and do have the bug.
When you make a change in the settings and then disconnect the battery power there’s a small chance it may not remember the change. It’s more likely to remember if the light is turned on and off a few times before disconnecting the battery power.
It’s not that big a deal, really. I also would not call it a mistake. Upgrading to v1.2 has a couple of extra features, but that’s all. It’s still the same basic, good working UI that everyone likes. I thought this would be a good time to update the firmware, but they kind of sprung this new version on us at the last minute. I don’t think they asked any forum members about the tint or about using the HI version emitter. I wish they had, we could have made some updates before these 400 units were made.
Changing to v1.2 in the middle of production should be no big deal. Everything works the same in both versions except for some extra features that v1.2 has.
@ToyKeeper Thank you very much for clearing thing up. It is late night for me so I would write more in next days.
You used the word ‘probably’. Are you sure that the problem is gone? Do you have ability to compile and flash firmwares to Q8? Or the other mentioned flashlights? Have you tried to test your solution and ex. added delay(10000) to the interrupt/(s) and see if you also got the memory bug after make what Hank made and cut the power?
BTW. Does is it possible to flash the MCU on the board with a test clip in these flashlights?
Once again: thank you for the previous answer.
If the firmware was easy to change for a standard user, it would be ok. But when most user have never flashed AVRs and don’t have the hardware to do that, the producer should take care about that. I am sure that majority of people who already bought this flashlight on Ali are disappointed.
— edit
@JasonWW Thank you also for your post. Now I know everything about this 
I am very surprised how pleasant you are.
And I am sorry but I don’t know English enough to type so quick as you.