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

FYI, I do intend to keep updating the list until the planned 2000 are complete, just in case Sofirn checks user names before granting discounts. It will probably be after the US Thanksgiving holiday before I have much time to sit down and do it, however.

:+1: :+1: :+1:

My C01s started “moving” today, 9 day after they were bought! I guess 11/11 is a really complicated time for shipping :wink:
In 3-4 weeks they will arrive (probably) :wink:

Mine too :slight_smile:
Your item was accepted at 9:14 pm on November 20, 2018 in CHINA

We will have them in time for Xmas, maybe :wink:

Usually my packages from China arrive at the mailbox while the tracking has them somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

The black 3200K and 5600K are back in stock.

Thanks for the notification Tally-ho, placed an order for my two pieces. Waiting for the price adjustment.

Edit: By the way, is it safe to run lithium primaries (LiFeS2) in this? The open circuit voltage when new is ~1.8V but once loaded it will drop below 1.6V. I presume it is safe but can’t hurt to ask.

Thanks Tally-ho for the update :+1:
I edited the first post.

These lights run perfectly fine on Lithium (LiFeS2) primaries, due to the voltage drop under load. For example see the Energizer whitepaper.

To follow up an the Lithium primaries remark: these batteries are great for when using your flashlight in extremely low temperatures (at –40 degrees Celsius), or if you leave your light regularly in your car while in the desert.

Biggest advantage is their shelf life of 20 years at 95% percentage of energy contents (Energizer claim), and they do not leak in contrast to “alkaleaks”.

However, I am not quite sure that at the low load of approximately 60 mA of the C01 you will get really more energy (mAh) or runtime from an AAA LiFeS2 battery than from an AAA alkaline battery, as both are rated at approximately 1200 mAh at low current use.

Biggest disadvantage of Lithium primary batteries is their relatively high price (1.35 Euro/battery at NKON.nl), especially when compared with (LSD) NiMH rechargeables (1.50 Euro/Battery for 900 mAh Ikealoop) or Alkaline primaries (0.18 Euro/battery for Ikea AAA Alkaline).

Unless the input side driver components can’t stand the slightly higher voltage, I would expect it to run better with the Lithium Primary. This is using a boost driver already to get voltage up to the Vf of the LED.

I borrowed Djozz prototypes of the Sofirn C01 to experience the lights and their light (output) in real life.

It runs new lithium primaries fine, but I do not see a visible difference in output in contrast to full alkaline cells, or fully recharged NiMH cells.

When I measure current I also do not see any significant difference between a full Alkaline battery (with an open circuit voltage of 1.60 Volt) or a new Lithium primary battery (with an open circuit voltage of 1.80 Volt), or a fully charged NiMH. Alkaline measures 58 mA, Lithium 57 mA when the LED is on (with the 3200K-C01).

By the way this current when using full cells is the lowest of any 5mm flashlights I own. My both Fenix E01’s measure somewhere around 130 mA with new batteries (whatever chemistry). The Varta/Rayovac indestructible measures 230-280 mA (depending on chemistry). The GP Discovery CLE202 (praised for its long runtime) measures around 80 mA. The CMG Infinity Ultra measures 130mA for alkaline and 140mA for a lithium pirimary cell.

In contrast: my Zebralight H53Fc runs at 20 mA when I select an output mode that is comparable to the output of the 3200K C01. However, it will not turn on with depleted cells at 0.9-0.8 Volts, which the C01 will turn on with, albeit with lower light output.

So I guess for the ‘regulated’ part of the runtime, the C01 light currently probably has the longest runtime within its class of single-cell 1.5 volt battery vampire 5mm led lights.

In order to enact a zombie apocalypse preppers doomsday scenario flashlight fantasy, I did a runtime test with an “AAAA” cell I salvaged from a 9 Volt battery I took from the battery recycling box at an Ikea store. When opened up it contained two leaking alkaline cells measuring 0.1 and 0.2 Volts, and four cells measuring around 1.30 volts. This type of “AAAA” alkaline cell is rated at 500-600 mAh capacity when new. One of these 1.3 Volt AAAA cells ran the 3200K-C01 for over 18 hours until there was no visible light output anymore. I experienced around 10 hours of low light, 7 hours of moonlight low, and finally 1 hour of really dim low light.

Kudos to the Sofirn C01 engineer who cloned the great design of the Fenix E01 boost driver. :+1:

slowtechstef, kudos, respect, applause, and Happy Turkey Day
your dream has become reality, and it is touching the lives of many people around the world

for those who still think a Fenix with its angry blue low cri LED is worthy of your money, that is still an option. It costs more, and the LED cannot compare to the Yuji in the Sofirn C01, but I wont judge.

Speaking of lights that cost more, with LEDs that cannot compare… anyone who is interested in the ARC AAA, that the Fenix copied imo, can still buy one today, for even more money… Go Here to spend the big bucks on Low CRI.

Who has the skills to disassemble it to see if the potting material harden (like Sofirn said) or will it still be gooey?

Ha. I still have a bunch of Arc AAAs, “snow white” — in regular use on keychains, and several on the shelf with different color LEDs —aqua, red, blue. Never did get a red-orange.

I’d love to know if these are indeed as tough as the E01.

Have four coming my way.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet. There’s only a couple of these in that have been in the hands of forum members so far, the E01 and Arc didn’t gain their fame over night with just a few lights tested. A nice LED won’t save this light if QC doesn’t measure up or if the tested samples were hand selected.

About 5 hours later price changed from 17.76$ to 13.00$. Paid.

My thoughts exactly.

Thank you for testing, at least short term there will be no damage. Not sure about long term, I guess I will see. I mean the driver will briefly see the higher voltage but like I did say the voltage drops under load. I just figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Obviously lithium primary will kick alkaleak out of the water at high loads. Not so much at really low loads.
Though even at low loads the lithium primary will still be measurably ahead, up to around 40-45mA load, below that the difference will be so low it’s not worth mentioning.
At 100mA constant current it has 15% more capacity and 30% more energy. (Yes, I know 100mA is 1.6x 60mA)
So…zooming in on the datasheet, Energizer claims that at 60mA CC load (to 0.8V) their lithium primary does 12.6% better (1242mAh) than alkaleak (1103mAh). Sounds about right to me.
But I’d focus on the energy part. Especially after you consider…

…that this 60mA current draw you measure is only at full voltage with fresh cells?
The lithium primary will hold the voltage higher for longer. “Area under the curve” rules in my mind. Lithium primary wipes alkaleak off the table in that regard.
I will leave these links for reference:
I don’t know what is the absolute best alkaleak AAA but let’s just take Fujitsu Premium as an example. It sounds good and I did browse through a bunch of them and it’s curve looked nice at 100mA.
https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Fujitsu%20Premium%20AAA%20UK.html
And here’s Energizer Ultimate Lithium
https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Energizer%20Ultimate%20Lithium%20AAA%20UK.html
If some people don’t care to look behind the links for discharge graphs the main point would be that at 100mA CC load that particular alkaline drops below 1.4V/1.3V after 1h/3h while for Energizer Ultimate Lithium primary it is 8h/12h respectively.

Now because lithium primary holds voltage higher for longer my brain says that it means that with lithium primary the C01 will stay in regulation for quite a bit longer than it would stay with an alkaleak.
Because when the alkaleak voltage drops > boost circuit draws more current > alkaleak voltage drops and so on and so on.

That is, alkaleak will leave regulation and drop intensity sooner than it would with lithium primary.
This would also mean that when lithium primary leaves regulation it would be after really big chunk of the energy has been extracted.

What will the runtime with output lm look like? I seriously don’t know and I don’t have the equipment to test it.
I expect the runtimes to be similar. Maybe lithium will be slightly ahead. Whether it’s on par or slightly ahead or quite a bit ahead I fully expect that it will have a much longer regulated runtime and that would be more important to me.


Since you mentioned NiMH, I hope no one intends to use NiMH with the C01. I imagine the lower nominal voltage won’t be good for regulation time and if you forget to recharge it…
Yes I know the environment and such. To each their own.


I would be ready to send some euros through Paypal to someone who has the equipment and who is willing to do the runtime test with output lm logging between high quality alkaline and Energizer Ultimate Lithium.

If signing up for the interest list means Sofirn is more likely to make more of these, then I’ll take two 5600k and a 3200k

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You can buy the lights from AliExpress,the list was to express interest on the flashlight, I’m not sure Sofirn will do more lights now, besides the 2000 above mentioned!