Let me show you why i think 7 is best:
It uses almost all of the front surface, without dramatic cutting of the cups.
So no dramatic petals in the spill and decent throw.
(Yeah, i photoshopped it myself, couldn’t find a suitable picture…)
The difficulty with XHP LEDs is the voltage.
You’ll need expensive buck or boost drivers.
The .2 versions of these LEDs have some serious tint shift issues in aluminium reflectors.
You need more complicated battery contact boards too.
I don’t know what Sofirn wants to make, but it looks like a simple 1S4P battery set up, they’re thinking of 6 LEDs.
So why not 7?
Either way, you don’t have to have a buck or boost driver to drive multiple LEDs in parallel.
I do hope they will choose a current limited FET driver though.
But this light would be awesome with 219C, but the beam pattern and tint shift problems would be better with TIR optics.
If they want to go for BIG output, they should use the new Luxeon V LEDs, have them run on 4.5 Amperes each, which means 31.5 Amperes in total, divided by 4 batteries is 7.875 (let’s say 8) Amperes per 18650.
Shouldn’t be a problem.
Luxeon V is quite good in regular aluminum reflectors.
And with their low Vf (forward voltage) you can run them current regulated for a good part of the battery charge, unlike with FET DD drivers (which is why i don’t like DD drivers, they’re actually not even drivers…)
understand this:
FET DD driver lights usually have high Vf LEDs like XP-L and XP-G2, because they don’t draw too much current on a freshly charged cell.
Batteries and low Vf LEDs can get into trouble with DD drivers, unless you use lossy springs and thin wires, which is just a lame solution.
I don’t know if Sofirn is into driver design, but it’s only a few more parts from and FET DD driver to a FET regulated driver.
Probably they want a LED board with all LEDs in parallel config, only need two fat wires (16 or 18 AWG should do).
But i’m no driver expert either…