[Available again! - BLF special edition light] new Sofirn AAA twisty high CRI 5mm LED

Beam too big and dim at 1m?
That does not sound very good to me… It makes me think of those cheap 20c button cell keychain lights.

Not surprising,

Both are basically a battery plus a 5mm led (the reflector adds just a little to the beam, most light exits the light directly). The best version button cell light, the Photon freedom micron, puts out about 5 lumen, while our Sofirn light will put out about 8 lumen. Not that much difference.

The difference is not in the beam but in the runtime, the durability, the universal availability of AAA batteries and that those button cell lights are ugly.

I can’t watch the videos due to a web filter at work, but I’m eager to get home and watch them!

It’s hard to interpret what he meant, not knowing the camera settings.

For a rough idea what to expect, put a layer or two of matte finish tape (eg- Scott Magic) on a ~10 lumen light.

This will not be a throwy light, nor high output. but it should be fine for finding your way around the house, checking your glovebox, helping use your keys, reading, and many other uses.

Ran over by a car, fell off the core support and slung across the shop, fell out of my pocket doing 60 on a motorcycle. Yeah my old light was beat to snot and well used. Reason why my my brand and even model of go to light hasn’t changed.

Yeah the motorcycle made my stomach turn. Was surprised it only slide over to the ditch without doing anybody any damage. Bigger surprise we even found it. You see me you might laugh but it’s the reason why I have everything tethered and clipped down.

Thanks for the clarification. Now the diagram i’ve seen somewhere makes more sense. I haven’t followed this project close enough i guess.

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but aren’t there more modern and efficient alternatives to those ‘old school’ leds - COB for instance?

Actually, there’s not much in it. The Yuji LED puts out about 6lm at 20mA and about 3V. That’s about 100lm/W, so efficiency is OK.

Output is low compared to a similarly-sized COB, but this is meant to be a last-resort light, so there’s a tradeoff: lower output for more runtime.

The 5mm LED also has the significant advantage of being completely encapsulated in all directions, which helps with robustness - another desirable characteristic of a last-resort light. The shape of the package even gives it a built-in lens.

Interested in one or more

Many thanks to Sofirn for sharing that testing! I shall inform gurdygurds that this light appears to be prepared for his gauntlet.

I had to disable my ad blocker to get the videos to play.

That’s close to the worst case specified performance. Best case is 2.7V and 8 lm at 20mA, which would be 148 lm/W.

Considering this is a 95+ CRI emitter, anywhere in that range is pretty decent, and the high end is good enough to be hard for me to believe. When djozz tested an 80+ CRI Nichia 219C, his numbers at the closest datapoint to the rated current worked out to 139 lm/W.

Thanks for the details about the led being used.

Why not have three of them and get read of the useless reflector to triple the output?
That would not add much complexity and should not impede robustness either?

Sorry about the argument but i’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around a new 2018 light putting out only 8 lumen…

It is much more about runtime as it is about output, it is build as a last resort light, 8 lumen compared to no light at all is huge, also in 2018.
But what that 95CRI does in a last resort light is highly questionable of course :smiley:

I think the last of the video’s, they did it rather carefully instead of full speed, but they did succesfully run it over by a truck :slight_smile:
[video: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzgyOTI5ODQ3Ng==.html?spm=a2h3j.8428770.3416059.1 ]

What does ANY kid do, when you give him a flashlight, no matter - as a gift, or to use for a short while? :smiling_imp:
Literally, every child turns it on and looks into the bulb/led, whatever the ligh source. When the kid has made sure there are no monsters under the bed and in the dark bathroom, he or she drops the flashlight on concrete floor, in water, disassembles it, changes polarity of the battery, whatever. Afterwards, if the flashlight has survived, he / she leaves it on…
Don’t you still see a use for a 8 lumen, crash, water and freeze safe flashlight in 2018? The only issue left in this is disassembling…

Barry mailed me some other test results, mail=below. He is concerned that we think the output is too little. But we decided on 25mA because of durability and of runtime, so the output is what it is when you use these Yuji leds. They may come with a cool white low CRI version at some point, that would have an output over 10 lumen.

Sorry, maybe this posted allready.

How hot they get after 10-20 min continous work

Hmm, hot?
They run at 25mA, that is ~75mA on the battery, on average 1.2V so 0.09W, of which 0.06W is heat. After 20 minutes the light may feel slightly luke-warm, probably not at all.

Any chance we can bump it up to 35 mA? The beam is more diffused than an E01 which means it’s really going to be difficult to use this unless in complete darkness.

Especially with the warm white at 5.5 lumens, I’m concerned whether this light will have any everyday use at all.

Would also like to know what’s the lowest battery voltage this baby fires at.

That would be an interesting add, if it will be a later option!
So far, I’m happy with the results and I don’t think this kind of light would need much more. It is what it is, it will serve for the designated purposes! I wanna stick a battery into it, forget it is there, and then, when needed, use it for the longest time possible.
I (colective “I”, meaning most of us) will - probably - have other lights to use with more output.

Thanks again for all the tests and work so far! BTW, I guess this light can also be used as a “thrower”: you throw it to someone’s head and…good luck to that someone’s head :smiley: :smiling_imp:

You will have to accept that this light does not put out a lot of light, the current was discussed before and for sake of led lifetime and runtime of the flashlight it was (as discussed in this thread) decided on 25mA, as compromise between output and runtime.

You will be amazed if you have no other light than 5 lumens available how useful it is. One application, for me with its 60 degrees flood led it will be and ideal reading light without disturbing others around me who are asleep.

But search and rescue…no