I’d also be interested in a scaled up version to allow 21700 cells once they take hold.
A single emitter light with the latest and greatest led would be cool as well.
Well I must say that I hope we can move the FW3A to prototype phase fast when the busy GT stuff is settled.
First boot up would be Q16 if Thijsco19 and Cawi can find the time to work on my awful sketches 
But the BLF ST (Short thrower, Q8 compatible threads, same overall length as Q8 but with shorty 18350 tube and longer head for one reflector SST40 driven at 7A) would make such a nice set with the Q8. For those two I would buy a case.
Of course the illusive AA driver for a Q4 and Q2 is a really nice goal.
All these seem lights for Thorfire to make. (Due to some parts I want to use on the Q16, some S70(s) reflectors) and threading compability and well just nice to have them do the Q series if they want to.
Sounds like a great plan! The Miller Plan.
Is there a thread for information about this scratch build competition?
The more the merrier.
Oh yeah a recoil thrower as OLSB entry, cool to see and could spark interest for the type of light.
Yes. One of my favorite style lights early in this hobby.
I guess the type became harder to make with more powerful LEDs?
I have one sub $5 and it focusses good. It misses the advantage of being able to change to flood as zoomies have.
With the size Jerommel envisions cooling is less of an issue then only having one very thin “leg” to take the heat away.
I would like to see a BLF automotive light bar, not that I could actually afford one.
Some of the rough ideas that I have had include-
- It being around 300mm-400mm in length, small enough so that it can still fit small euro cars and perhaps with a modular mount system so that 3 or 4 could be easily joined together for those with trucks.
- A driver designed with a high and medium setting operated from a single On/Off/On switch, not only for the obvious reason of not always needing full brightness but also so that members with small euro cars could still use it without needing an alternator upgrade. A low voltage cut-off to protect from a dead car battery and perhaps thermal management so that if the bar is left on while the car is stationary it won’t overheat.
- Tint selection would be chosen for reducing eye fatigue and enhancing road hazard visibility rather than the highest output. TIR lenses could be used rather than reflectors to reduce tint shift, and if common sized TIRs were used the end user could mix and match if they weren’t happy with the beam pattern and wanted to increase flood or throw.
- And for the really tricky part, keeping it as budget as possible.
Sounds all great.
Though I think it’s wise to slow down a bit with those big and more expensive projects.
Let the GT, Q8 and the fw3a finish and maybe go with something small. Like that bigger blf348. That shouldn’t make most people broke.
In the meantime we can work on the q16, that would be another big and probably expensive light. But it will take some time to develop.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with filling this thread with everyone’s wishes. 
Well idk if I agree with you here Thijsco19 
If all people who have bought a TN42 or one of the other big throwers had gone for the GT, they all would have spend less and gotten more throw.
Same with the Q16, yes it will not be cheap but having lots of lumens for a long time should make it a much more awesome light then almost all of the 10K+ lumens lights out there for almost all of those have a short high output burst and are expensive.
But in light of the wish for small I ordered that tiny 16340 light with build in charging.
The Q4 and Q2 shouldn’t also be expensive.
If Thorfire delivers and wants to do the Q series we could do different lights with faster working manufacturers like Lumintop, like the not really expensive FW3A can be followed by a copper or brass version (costing more) and/or a really tiny 16340 light TK is talking about.
The AA version of the BLF 348 is not for us/me to start, with several runs it is the most successful BLF special IMHO and done by the and Gearbest. It is logical they do the AA version too.
I don’t think it’s possible to do a good light bar cheaply. Are you familiar with Richard at Mountain Electronics? He has created his own line of vehicle mounted light bars. They are some of the brightest out there and have multiple brightness levels that can be controlled from inside. http://www.mtnlitebar.com/
Yes MTN Electronics has lightbars covered and they are not flashlights.
But this is Budget Light Forum, not Budget Flashlight Forum (just ignore the sub-title as it ruins my joke 
) so as long as it emits light it is suitable for discussion
I had briefly read about the MTN bars but never got past the price. They do look really good, but a little more “high-end” than what I was imagining. Based on the chart on the MTN website what I had in mind would fit somewhere between the Rigid and the MTN bars bit with direct from China pricing.
I’ll have to move this into the d.i.y. basket for when I am a bit better.
Well you know I kind of feel bad about the Q8 stealing the M6 thunder especially for RMM who must have seen his special versions of it being rendered a bit obsolete.
USA is the land of the big pickup trucks where light bars are cool and useful on, I would not even want to pursue light bars going below his price, he put a lot of work in them, they are honest American made high quality products. If people think they are too expensive or that they can do better, there are a few who made them so go ahead
I will follow a project like it closely and with interest but have no need for a light bar on our car
If people do start a BLF special and the drivers/electronics developed for it can benefit BLF and are designed Open Source the fund here can be used to order parts for prototypes, it is not exclusive for our/my projects of course but for BLF as a whole.
As Thijsco said, we can only do so much
It would be awesome if another team stepped up and do lights from scratch with no principal commercial interest, just for the kicks and pushing things further.
The cool thing is of course that lots of things already are going on or have been done in the past:
Bugsy36 with Banggood on the A6
the with several runs of the BLF348 by Singfire/Gearbest
ReManG, with Banggood on the sweet A01.
J-Dub74 working closely with Simon/Convoy, relaying BLF wishes to be poured into new lights and versions of lights.
Robo819 working closely with Mactoch, awesome lights!
Lucky for us in these cases the commercial parties do 100% of the prototyping so there are no costs for individual BLFers on parts.
When we started with the Q8 we stood on the shoulders of the people mentioned above. They have established BLF as trustworthy group to deal with. They proved it can be done.
Interesting is of course a key figure in many BLF lights is Neal.
A6, A01, EE X6, Kronos X5/X6 (As/Cu and ALU), Q8, GT, FW3A, all have Neal involved.
Then of course there are the “commercial parties” that still breathe BLF, RMM, Texas Lumens, Reylight, VestureOfBlood to name a few. It is so nice to see so much going on.
And let’s not forget people advising and doing work directly with manufacturers. Yeah it is clear BLF has a larger impact on the flashlight world then just being a bunch of consumers.
There areany smart people with great ideas, and if I being a newbie can kick off something like the Q8 sure much more can be done
Haha, considering I haven’t driven long distance at night in years I don’t have a need either. I am just dreaming of the good old days.
I hadn’t considered the possibility of a BLF light bar impacting on MTN, more of a rhetorical thought but I wonder how much impact it would really have? I don’t think MTN light bars are too expensive for what they are and as far as I am aware they are close to the best, if not the best product on the market, but they have a price tag to reflect that. IF, and that is a big if, I were to ever attempt to get a BLF light bar going it would be something to bridge the gap between blinted Chinese light bars and the MTN and still outperform something like a Rigid. However this is really a discussion for another thread and another time.
Actually, I think that would be a good place to target. It wouldn’t really step on Richard’s toes, but would show how underperforming and overpriced those others are. There have actually been a couple guys working on Light Bars within the past year or so here, but neither of those has updated recently.
Lots of things going on, and lots of things to start saving money for. My one way premature thought is that I hope anything new and small on the horizon can use 18350 cells, since they are a lot better than 16340, as far as I know, for now.
As far as recoil throwers, yeah, harder driven, newer leds make heat an issue. I had a lot of fun with one of those in the past, but maybe we’ve evolved past them.