[PART 1] Official BLF GT Group Buy thread. Group buy officially closed! Lights shipping.

A happy and healthy 2018 right back at you sunfire!

Yeah, there are no membership fees on this site, but it will still cost you some money from FAD (flashlight acquisition disorder).

Sorry BrianK, I was working on an animation.

The search was a "general" search for a velcro strap-type, that wraps around the battery tube at two points. Mainly as ideas from products made for other things. If you look at the images there are universal grab handles available that are used in off-road vehicles, as grab handles. They are adjustable for 2"-3" diameters, and would wrap nicely on the battery tube of the GT, I think.

My idea may not be for everyone. I was merely trying to help find what's readily available, and share my findings.

EDIT, Your search is done through "Bing". I searched through "Google". When you search for Universal Grab Handle, check images to see what's available.

This is a Universal Grab Handle. There are many types and styles available.

That makes sense to me. Thanks. I found it impressive that i still hit 1.2 million cd even with a NW emitter. I wonder what it would read with a led closer to cool white. my meter is crazy bias to cool white leds for measuring throw. but i LOVE the NW emitter so ill leave it as is. That is till i can get a CFT 90 in there. 5000 lumens and 1.6 ish million cd sounds amazing(just a guess). it wont be cheap but if a driver can be made for it to drive it to its max potential im all in.

Back home from the holiday and I got to take my light out. Man this is the brightest beam I have seen. I have a nice light on my boat but this thing is crazy! I have two questions for the group.

What is the life expectancy of the LED?

Has anyone figured the illuminated circle diameter at a given distance?

Thanks

Lumintop should ship Asean’s GT first after USA’s GT.
Just kiddng… :smiley: :beer:

I tried a variety of methods to get the bezel off (clamp in vise, twist with hands, press down on rubber or leather, twist with hands), but I guess my hands are not strong enough. I think I’ll buy two rubber strap wrenches (like in the picture below) and twist in opposite directions. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what will.

Maybe we could tell the factory to lower the torque settings on the head and bezel. They are tight to the point it feels glued. I know there’s no glue, but wow is it tight. There’s no need for it to be this tight.

I have a pair of gloves rated for high temps, for cooking on the BBQ, and they work amazingly well for removing jar lids. When my GT's arrive I'll try them.

If you have a pair, clean them up real good to remove any grease, dry them out good, clamp that light back in the vise, and try it.

Looks like many will open their GT to let the smoke out for first few days or weeks :smiley:
I migth do that too. :person_facepalming:

My hands didn’t slip, my arms just did not have the strength to twist it. The strap wrenches extend the diameter and give more leverage. That should get it done.


sb56637
Mr.Scott
JasonWW
Coyotehawk
teacher
Fritz15
djozz
ToyKeeper

Neal - Valuable collaborator
Outside the team?

I think KawiBoy1428 was the only one that had any smoke (on only one of his two lights). Mine didn’t. I haven’t heard anyone else say they had smoke (from excess flux residue). Hopefully if anyone else sees it, they will mention it.

I wonder is there method to make all the material dried or settled so that they don’t smoke, for example switch on in High mode for a few days before using Turbo mode. Really don’t feel like to open a newly bought flashlight unless I want to mod it to improve it. But GT is already very very hard driven.

Opening the GT is the new test of strength. I gonna bare hand it. :smiley: :disguised_face:

I think the chance is high that some might miss seeing the smoke as it is tough to look into the reflector with Turbo mode on or it was dark outside when they switch off to check the reflector. Sure that many switch on Turbo indoor too, but i think most will not switch it on Turbo long enough because it is very hard to look at the hotspot on wall.

Anyway, the smoke might not cause detrimental damage or leave any visible marks if it is not very serious smoking. I just want to have some precautions about it.

The bezel is way harder to open then the head was to remove on both of my GT’s. The rubber mat worked to get both bezels off, but man what a PITA! I would have used my big strap wrench but it’s at work. It took everything I had to get those bezels off! :person_facepalming:

Both are done now, I even changed the other GT’s emitter to the E2 3A I bought off Lexel both the de-domed E41A and the E2 3A are more to my liking. :wink:

A few of my Throwers… 12 of them are XHP35’s…. :smiley:

Good question! I fashioned a simple ‘seesaw’ or ‘teeter-totter’ to find out. :laughing:

The center of the switch and the center of the tripod hole are exactly opposite each other.

Fully loaded with 8 Samsung 30Q button top cells, the balance point is 1 cm (3/8”) behind the center of the tripod hole.

With 4 cells in just the rear carrier, the balance point is at the rear edge of the tripod hole.

With 4 cells in just the front carrier, the balance point is at the front edge of the tripod hole.

This means the center of mass moves just 1.5 cm (5/8”) in the cases of both extremes.

In short, the balance point is at (or just behind) the tripod hole or switch.

I do lots of stuff on BLF, but I’m not on the BLF GT team.

For the GT I’ve mostly just chatted in this thread sometimes, and I’m hoping to port some firmware to the GT soon (FSM and its UIs). This will allow it to operate like a Zebralight, an Olight, a Meteor, or run Anduril (my current favorite UI, similar to Narsil).

We already have a Team account for the GT, it is what was used to post the support thread.

The issue now is that making a new thread at this point would lead to more work for the team with minimal effects on the usefulness for everyone else. I mean people still ask to be added to the list in my review thread, who says people will find and read a separate thread for the GT?

Plus there is the case of it needing to be put together and none of the team has time for that right now. I just started eating solid food again, it will be a little bit before I am ready to do anything more then try to keep up with reading the posts.

I think it would be easier if anything to add a FAQ to the support thread with the latest status updated, since that thread already exists.

Team Members noted.

Who were the members (heart of) involved in the development of the GT?

After all the nice photos people have posted of their BLF, I might want to order another. When is the cutoff for the $157 price? I want to see if my first arrived before I order another.