Talk about rambling… 
This is my masterpiece
Emily is dead when he goes back, Karen…
Even think of putting xhp50.3’s in here? Or not worth the effort? Did you end up putting sft40s in the sp36?
I’m thinking of taking all my sofirn stuff with sst40s and green lh351ds and replacing them all with sft40’s and 519a’s across the board.
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I just ordered the Q8 Sofirn EC06, and 3 Molicell 45 amp P42A’s, and am very confused about what upgrades I should do to the flashlight to improve its performance. There are many different upgrades on the forum, so I am just a little confused about which are the most important for the flashlight. Thank you for creating this form, it is extremely helpful, and I am hoping that you will consider my response.
Thank you,
Alex K.
I couldnt find ur post on the sofirn Q8 plus, but did u ever upgrade it at all or anything? I am getting one with the molicell battery, and do not really know what to upgrade… Thanks…
I think initially I did the typical resistance lowering mods, bypassed springs mostly.
Then if I recall correctly I swapped out the Cree emitters for SFQ65’s.
Honestly don’t remember where my Q8 Plus stands at the moment, surgery interrupted and the meds created a holding pattern.
I think this is one of those lights that doesn’t need much by the way of tweaking. Small gains can be made by addressing efficiency through bypasses but really, it works quite well out of the box.
Sorry I can’t be more helpful…
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The Q8 Plus has a nonstandard set of flashing pads (t1616 UPDI, but in the wrong order for gchart’s adapter), so you’ll need to put your own adapter together. You can get header cables and wire a USB UPDI programmer up to a set of pogo pins in a strip. There is a thread somewhere, I’ll take a look (Edit: couldn’t find it, will try and find the time to look later).
I was considering doing it myself but I might just wait for the M44 instead, so I haven’t done the research deep dive into which adapters would be suitable but there are several different boards available similar to the usbasp for the t1634 lights.
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Just bypassed the springs. I ordered an AR coated lens for it off kaidomain just to see what those are like. Idk if it’ll make any difference. It’s pretty bright already.
I want to swap in the newer xhp50.3’s because the tint shift is the only thing that bothers me. But there’s a low chance I’ll end up doing it. Feels like it may be way more trouble than its worth. Kinda pricey just to get a maybe better tint, and good chance I’ll just mess something up lol
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You inspired me! I literally just did a successful spring bypass on my Q8 Plus!
I was here thinking that a cooling shell similar to the ms8 and other imalent would help control the temperature of the Q8 plus. the hole to screw the shell is already there. Anyone who does this will certainly gain a few more minutes of high light…
Don’t know if this helps but i put the XHP50.3’s on my SP36 and there’s a “blue” spot on the center of the hotspot, only visible on a white wall, but it’s there, and also appeared on my other smooth reflector lights. The SFT40 is clearly the best option for the SP36 and any other smooth reflector light. Tint shift is gone though.
Didn’t tried the HI, but it might result in the same artifact.
If you really want the 50.3 on it and you have an older SP36 there’s space for a second mosfet on the board, just some scratches away from the existing one 
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Going to the domeless version usually removes the “Cree rainbow” that some lights have, so it probably won’t be as bad.
I meant to say the small blue spot on the hotspot, not tint shift, but i didn’t tried it so i can’t confirm. I’ve heard tint shift on the HI is basically non-existent.
I think that’s what tint shift is. Or one of the definitions anyways.
That spot is also an artifact of the domes AFAIK, but can also be caused by uneven application of the phosphor on the LEDs, you can see the color differences when lit up in very low current with a different color center.
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That’s exactly what is happening, uneven phosphor application, specially on the middle between the dies. I can see some blue looking straight down into the reflector.
That’s how it looks on a white wall.
Saturation boosted to 400% to highlight the blue spot.
Not really a problem for me, and I’m not disassembling it again until Cree decides to release the 95CRI XHP50.3 HI 5700K in 3V.
The phosphor coverage over the entire substrate is something that appeared with the advent of flip chip technology. It’s responsible for the greenish aura around the hot spot, which is not tint shift. The blue tint in the center of the hot spot is a result if quad die technology, yes the gap between emitters ( improved in the quad dies that have less space between them). Again, this isn’t tint shift.
When an emitter has a greenish hue at low output and a blue/white hue at high output, like the SST40 often shows, this is ( to me ) the epitome of tint shift.
A lot of people like a warmer tint, some like the extra power of the blue/white 6500K+ emitters, but few like the sickly green hues.
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How’s the hip? Did you go with the robotic assist?
Yes, went well, alignment is perfect… zero strange feelings. Walking good, was up to 5 miles a day until I pulled the lifting stunt. Walked 1.3 miles this morning so I’m bouncing back pretty quick from my dumb moment.
First week or so was pretty intense. Just over 4 weeks now and the muscular healing is coming along nicely, as long as I do my part and move smart. Easy to damage the muscles in my thigh for now. Guess a 140 lb scooter is substantially more than the Dr would allow. 
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