*BLF LT1 Lantern Project) (updated Nov,17,2020)

Interested

I’m interested.

I think the current lantern offerings out there are sorely lacking. With the thought and planning that has been demonstrated by this group for the Q8 and the BLF GT alone, i think a fantastic lantern could be made.

Interested

this looks like a very decent project. subscribed

I was very happy when this project was initially proposed. I really wanted emergency lights with a long run time. Then it seemed it was a dead project, or might be transformed as an adapter for the then new Q8.

Then it just seemed to die so I stopped looking. I was surprised to see a reference in the Q8 thread and came here to look.

It would still, in my mind, be an excellent addition to the Q8. The Q8 has a very complete design for brightness, decent LEDs, and a good price. It appears to be well made. Color of LEDs can be change by the skilled. Or just live with the supplied color temp and CRI. There could be later bare board replacements available for different LEDs. To deal with the top heavy configuration of a Q8 on top, put 3 legs (preferably folding or easily removable) on the lamp base. No electronics or wiring in the lamp. And you get down pointing LEDs and everything else you need for a lantern. To hang it, maybe some lines to the legs or somewhere on the reflector/deflector.

I have always felt that the lantern should have a wide range of available brightness (the Q8 is superb on this point). I completely disagree with the idea I have seen on a sampling of pages here that I just did, that the light should be rechargeable. For a camping light; maybe, maybe not. For an emergency light, definitely not. It is a much better strategy to have spare sets of charged batteries. Even for camping. Recharging from a USB recharger pack takes too long. And it is inefficient. For the normal USB output it first goes through an inverter. When the light goes out, presumably you will notice it, and after you manage to locate the light in the dark, you would need to let it charge for hours. Perhaps if you found your way back to your tent in the dark, you could keep the charger where you can easily find it. If you want to recharge from your car; get a charger that works on your 12VDC. They don’t cost anymore than the little pack of USB chargers. Then you have a spare set of batteries. Instant restoration of light. I believe internal recharge rather than changing cells is a poor solution in most any case. And it uses up available internal space, adds cost (parts), and complexity to the light.

I would suggest the idea of taking the relevant parts and adapting them to the Q8 would have serious merit. It would be best to make it attach to the front of the Q8. A much less practical and usable approach would be as a replacement head end. But that would lose most of the really great technology of the Q8.

I agree. But that also means for easy replacement AA might be better than 18650 (and I like 18650 better).
Then again there’s a bunch of decent 18650 chargers out there that work on both 12VDC and 110/230 AC, and with 4 3000mah cells you won’t be charging them every day.

Hell, I’m still using my coleman fuel lanterns and that gets boring quickly.

With one of those solar panel chargers a port to get the cells juice can be very useful
and have a powerbank function with 4 cells is also nice

The design of DBSAR is really thought through to give an “old fashoined” look and feel, while being modern and practical

! tiny thing, one of those two pillars, blocking light on the diffuser for the wires and overall sturdy construction, now very small, maybe it could be a little bit wider, then walking to the toilet building can be done without shining light in your own eyes without having to hold it in such a way to block the light?

Definitely interested, I imagine this will be quite a bit nicer than flashlights aimed at the top of the tent and always blinding myself :smiley:

Interested ,Pls upload new pictures

I am going to add a TP4056 based charger and a USB power circuit to it soon to do some of those tests to it.

Below are some photos of the prototype lantern being used on a mountain top camp site during mountaineering trip back in July.

Those pictures are fantastic.

I still see no reason at all that the Q8 could not have an add on attachment to get 95% of the performance of this in a screw on upgrade. The only trick would be the reflector design to get the angles right.

I think an add-on attachment that screws into the Q8 (in place of the bezel, a-la Solarforce LT-1) is a great idea.

What do you think are the odds of getting either:

A. CAD data of the bezel, or
B. Bezels available for sale individually

?

interested!

The only thing we would really need to make it work with the Q8 would be the thread pitch and size, that is fairly simple to figure out once people get them.

The hard part is the CAD design for the reflector itself. If someone could get a workable cad design for the reflector then the rest should be fairly simple. Could even 3D print a prototype for testing and cover it in mylar or other reflector coating for testing.

I have no idea how to calculate / figure out the shape of the reflector though. It would need to spring the light as evenly as possible in a 360 degree Field of view and have a sharp cutoff horizontally to keep from blinding yourself. Totally possible but also fairly advanced reflector design…

this is a lantern.
The proto looks a bit longer because DBSAR used a SRK, lots of space is not needed and the charging and powerbank functionality are sweet.
Made well this is much more sturdy then a diffuser , handy while camping.
The big Q8 output is not needed, so the led driving part can be made with less components, freeing space for the nifty camping features.

The existing driver is already as compact as you will get expect for going to a newer MCU that doesn’t have any firmware right now. In fact this light should really use a buck driver for higher efficiency but that will take up significantly more space then the existing driver.

Lantern with power bank functionality, that takes 4x18650 cells and ideally has other functions gets my vote for the next project.

ideas for other features
waterproof slot for matches, usb cables etc
12v input
Timer to off or moonlight mode
threaded base for tripod mount
flap or curtain for creating a shadow side, ideally reflective for more output to the other side.

Ah, the new photos show something that looks very much like a Q8 with a light handler on top. This is what I thought was being suggested way back.

I would suggest that such a configuration is not a waste of a Q8, but a more flexible implementation. I would recommend thinking about an attachment between a Q8 and the lamp diffuser that does not involve threading. Simply using a clamping mechanism of some sort would allow a simple and quick way to move between lantern and raw Q8. Best of both worlds. And allows rapidly going from werewolf target identifier to werewolf locator. Sorry, I am reading a werewolf series that is quite good; it just spilled over a bit here…