I voted for E17A/21A because it allows for a narrower spot, which I like more and in general seems more versatile to me. What you notice of the CRI difference between E21A R9080 and the Optisolis is only marginal and may appeal only to extreme snobs.

Having been involved in the development of a small AAA light myself, I’m looking forward to the design

E21a

Voted E21A

Voted E21. For a different option.

Yes, I prefer too a narrow beam, better with a diffused lens; the old Fenix E05 27 lumens has a perfect beam of light, narrow with smooth transition

clemence wrote:

- Fenix E05 form factor - 4 modes: 0,5lm – 20lm – 100lm – slow beacon at 100lm (approximate OTF using D240 E21A R9080. Less with Optisolis) - Mode memory - Pocket clip

great options!
I like mode memory, it makes for a very versatile EDC.. set to moon for nightstand duty, set for medium for daytime..

I hope the pocket clip works on a hat (bezel up option), that is a Very useful feature for hands free, although even without a clip, I sometimes just put a light under my hat, no clip required..

Considering how little energy is in a AAA cell, is there any chance of getting a lower medium mode?

Usually my most-used level on any light is about 5 to 10 lm, so on something like this I’d probably do the modes a little differently if possible. Like maybe 0.2 lm, 8 lm, 36 lm, 100 lm. Not sure if that can be done here, but I think it would be nice that way.

What does this mean? “Red/Green/Blue/Amber” It isn’t explained in the first or second posts.

I’m for a E21A as well, but the driver would probably be changed to a single-mode one by me

Phosphor converted single wavelength colors? What’s the advantage of that, besides having the same Vf across the board? I’d think that would be an inefficient way to produce those colors.

I voted E17A/21A If its a lower powered aaa I want throw. And I don’t even know what they are. I am just going off djozz post.

clemence wrote:

I was about to ask helps from any of you driver programmers there. And your name came to my to-ask list. This one should be easy to reprogram. The plan also includes an optional dongle for reprogramming (much later). This is still beyond my expertise ATM but I’m more than willing to learn. It uses PIC MCU instead of AVR.

I’ve never actually attempted to use a PIC MCU. Tterev3 published some example code for the PIC10F322 though.

For now, the next MCUs I’m looking at are AVR models with more than 8 pins. But after I get the hardware abstraction layer written for those, maybe it’d also be feasible to add back ends for PIC models.

clemence wrote:

Hi All,

Or…. is it better to provide both MCPCB? I know you guys won’t let anything sits unmodified for too long…

- Clemence

This obviously.

I voted for the E21A because I have tunnel vision, so a tight beam is normally more useful to me. What’s the tightest optic for this LED? 5° or 10° would be nice

What will “slow beacon” correspond to? I like 0.5Hz to 1Hz, at 50% duty cycle. Tunnel vision again – it’s very easy for me to miss short, infrequent flashes. A brief flash once every 5 seconds – call it 0.2Hz at 5% duty cycle – would be useless to me, for example.

While I would be very happy to see an 5000K Optisolis and a 3500K Optisolis variant, beam versatility as a selling point made me chose E21A/E17A. I’d settle for a fine beaded optics with 15-20° beam diameter.

Phosphor converted color LEDs are also seem to be a good feature for E17A in my understanding.

For white LEDs, I’d choose 3000 or 3500K CCT for warm white option, and 4500K CCT for neutral white.

I think, output levels would be best like this: 0.5 lm – 4 lm – 25 lm – 100 lm.

I don’t know your possibilities, but if you could arrange a single AA EDC as well, I think, that would be also very good. (Single AA could be a better match with a single E21A emitter in term of max. recommended power level)

I would buy AA too.

adam7027 wrote:

While I would be very happy to see an 5000K Optisolis and a 3500K Optisolis variant, beam versatility as a selling point made me chose E21A/E17A. I’d settle for a fine beaded optics with 15-20° beam diameter.

Phosphor converted color LEDs are also seem to be a good feature for E17A in my understanding.

For white LEDs, I’d choose 3000 or 3500K CCT for warm white option, and 4500K CCT for neutral white.

I think, output levels would be best like this: 0.5 lm – 4 lm – 25 lm – 100 lm.

I don’t know your possibilities, but if you could arrange a single AA EDC as well, I think, that would be also very good. (Single AA could be a better match with a single E21A emitter in term of max. recommended power level)

nothing to add here, AA as EDC is just perfect

I voted E21A. I’m not a big fan of twisties and AAA lights. I already have a bunch including Skylumen E01vn with 3200k 90CRI yuji emitter. I like clickies and AA. But since it is from Clemence, I will be buying it regardless.

3000k E21A would be my ideal for AAA sized lights

DavidEF wrote:

Phosphor converted single wavelength colors? What’s the advantage of that, besides having the same Vf across the board? I’d think that would be an inefficient way to produce those colors.

Goggle “yellow gap”. Monochromatic LEDs can be pretty efficient in red, green, especially blue, but yellow/amber is pretty dismal efficiency.

PCA LEDs take a shorter-wavelength blue (sometimes violet?) LED and convert that to yellow/amber more efficiently than a regular monochromatic y/a LED.

I always wondered but never really found out definitively the spectral spread of PCA LEDs. Monochromatic might be a nice narrow spectrum if that’s what you need, but PCA for a wider spread (eg, everything from orange to yellow-green but a peak/dominant wavelength in the yellow/amber range).

I’ve only tried some Cree color LEDs, like XP-E2 and XQ-E… but they make nice vivid colors. The quad XQ-E RAGB setup I made for my lightsaber gives me a pretty vivid spectrum for everything except purple. I didn’t get red enough red emitters or blue enough blue emitters to make a good purple.

ToyKeeper wrote:

I’ve only tried some Cree color LEDs, like XP-E2 and XQ-E… but they make nice vivid colors. The quad XQ-E RAGB setup I made for my lightsaber gives me a pretty vivid spectrum for everything except purple. I didn’t get red enough red emitters or blue enough blue emitters to make a good purple.

DavidEF wrote:

So, you need deep blue and far red, but you got “regular” blue and red? But other than that, it’s working fairly well? Do you have the firmware finished yet (or close to finished)? I can’t remember if you’ve mentioned it.

Sorry, this was kind of a tangent which barely relates to the thread topic. Was mostly just saying that the color emitters work pretty well, though some shades need relatively specific components — like photo red and royal blue instead of regular red and blue.

About the saber project, I haven’t done much with it lately. I need to make a new PCB, but before that I need to learn how. And the code needs to be rearranged to enable a higher frame rate, because 60fps looks weird on a fast-moving object. Could also really stand to be ported to tiny841 in order to get the 4th PWM channel working better. But I’ve been busy with other projects instead.

I’m not really sure why color emitters were relevant for this thread, except that the MCPCB may be compatible with some color emitters. But color isn’t really the point of the AAA EDC project.