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

Let me be the first to say, if the light works, it aint broke
Thanks for the photos djozz
E01 on left, production C01 on right

I honestly do not see a problem… Contact is Contact

otoh, IF a C01 Stops working… then yes, that would be a problem

and please do NOT copy the signal wires on a U60… thats a whole nuther can of worms

I respect, appreciate and admire your attention to details and suggestions for any Necessary improvements.

Do you think they make their own driver boards in their factory?
Or are they subcontracted to whoever’s the low bidder for a “good enough” product?
In the latter case I’d worry that the red and blue lights made later come through with more corner-cutting done.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-ab&q=chinese+good+enough

Question comes down to who to try to educate.

To me, the collective knowledge, wisdom and expertise on BLF is amazing. Speaking for myself, I am learning a lot here on different levels from different flashlight ‘black belts’ such as djozz. Thanks to all of you, for sharing pictures, jokes, firmware source code, PCB designs, tinkering experiences, products reviews and everything else. Hopefully, flashlight manufacturers will pay attention as well. Most of us even want them to “steal” our ideas, so we can actually buy the types of flashlights we wish would be available to us.

jon_slider: thanks for your close up detail work of djozz’s picture, the issue could not be visually illustrated in a better way.

Hank: thanks for sharing the concept of chabuduo, which seems to be pervasive within Chinese manufacture culture.

When I thought up the idea of a high-CRI version of a Fenix E01, what I hoped for was a “Toyota-style” flashlight: reliable, affordable, and build with pride. Interestingly in Japan craftsmanship, especially within modernized manufacturing, is culturally valued as something important. What I hoped for was a flashlight built with care. The Japanese have a wonderful concept that captures this idea: monozukuri (See Wikipedia or this article). Call me naive, but I truly hope we (as flashlight collective) can instill some monozukuri in Sofirn.

Most people at BLF are critical fans of flashlight technologies, they truly care about portable light, and in this technological domain they are maximizers: they actively explore the boundaries of what is technically possible, and then true to the hacker spirit try to transgress these boundaries. Engineering literally as a form of art.

Most manufacturers, and most consumers as well, are satisfiers: if it works, it works. For most consumers what is most imporant is purchase price, and for most manufacturers what counts is maximizing profit.

To come full circle to the contact areas of the C01: the current design seems to be satisficing. To quote Wikipedia:

Back to stuff that most people here probably think matters more:

Perhaps someone can create an RSS script for watching the Sofirn AliExpress store so we can automatically get a notification when the red or blue C01 comes available? Someone should probably ask this question in the IRC channel ##flashlight on Freenode. The regulars over there seem to have some advanced flashlight news notification tools :wink:

Got mine shipped. Can’t wait to see them coming.

Start with quality components, not the cheap stuff.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-ab&q=electronic+semiconductor+quality+MTBF

Oh, wait ….

… checking the AliExpress site often, daily in fact, waiting for the other colored body variants.

And indeed the parcel was available for pickup today.

Unfortunately I only received 1x 5600K when I ordered 1x both. Only one inside and even the CN22 form said “quantity 1”.
Oh well, shit happens. Not a big deal! Sent a message to them. They’ll probably get back to me later “today”, it’s 2AM in Shenzhen right now.

Like I said before, at this moment I could order more C01’s but since I did not get both CCT I don’t know which one I like more. Argh…

Note to Sofirn: the 11-11 sale is clearly the wrong moment to launch a new product :person_facepalming:

I ordered 1 of each this morning to see what all the hype is about.

Uh oh, now you will find out that it is just a nice little light with nice tint and pretty weak output. :person_facepalming:

Edit: you did write post #2000 in this thread, that is good start :slight_smile:

It fills in the black shadows between streetlights quite adequately, and I love the wide fill, full sidewalk.

But my second package is shown by Ali tracking as signed for and handed over, but it never arrived in my mailbox.

Received my 2 Sofirn today

First impressions
Sofirn tailstands more easily, Fenix throws more.

weight w no battery and no clip
Sofirn 14.2 grams
Fenix 13.3 grams

The lumens measurements were all done using the same Lithium Primary, in the Fenix body, I just changed the heads for the lumens tests.

in this next photo you can get some idea that the Fenix has more throw

Lumens
Sofirn C01 3200k 6.1 Lumens
Sofirn C01 5600k 9 lumens
Fenix E01 6000k 10.2 lumens

The beam on the Fenix is smaller, brighter, throws more and has a more concentrated hotspot.
Fenix has blue tinted hotspot
5600k Sofirn looks white and very floody, almost no hotspot
3200, Sofirn looks slightly orange and very floody, almost no hotspot

it is 10 am by a window on an overcast day. I cannot see the beam of the sofirns on the ceiling, only the blue hotspot of the fenix is visible.

the 5600k sofirn has the most “natural” tint

another view of the beam shapes and hotspots

Test of looking under the bed, during the day, when my brain is White Balanced to Daylight.
The 5600k Yuji is my favorite. The Fenix blue tint and hotspot bothers me. The warm Yuji is too dim and warm, at this time of day.

More tests to follow tonight when I wake for the bathroom… I suspect the warm Yuji will prevail in that application, but will update after real world testing.

Ooops… somebody got some ‘splainin’ to do!

Bull
Pics or it didn’t happen

Thanks for the report. Good comparison pictures.

If you’re like me, you’ll “warm” up to the 3200K after dark, but I agree, it’s less than ideal when your primary reference is daylight.

Hank thanks to the pointers about reliability.
Got me thinking about redundancy as well.
So in the true spirit of BLF I present the C01-RAIF-1

A pity Yuji doesn’t selll 4400K 5mm LEDs by the way :wink:

I understood it was only the metal clip that was rusted which caused the black paint of the clip to peel off.
The body of the C01 is made of aluminium, which oxidizes, and is not able to “rust”.

A photograph would be nice in this case so anyone can assess the exact nature of the problem.

That said: the anodization of the C01 body and the paint of the clip will wear down over time, especially when worn on a keychain.
The anodization type is nowhere explicitly specified by Sofirn, so it is probably the less robust Type II.

so which AAA do we like? and is a lithium AAA an option? never heard of those.

Energizer Ultimate Lithium is a primary (non-rechargeable) cell known for excellent shelf life and tolerance to high and very low temperatures, good discharge characteristics, and little to no leak risk. The downside is they’re a little bit pricey, but have been getting better lately. It’s an excellent option if you’re ok with the price.

Alkalines will work well in this light from a runtime perspective, especially the reduced output that occurs after the first 8-10 hours of operation. However, there is the ever-present leak risk that has to be considered for alkalines. I’ve had good luck cleaning up alkaline leakage with vinegar, so I might still use alkalines in mine. I haven’t decided.

Rechargeable nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries have very good discharge characteristics, a low potential total cost of ownership due to being rechargeable, and little to no leak risk. However, their lifespan is shortened if over-discharged, and this light is capable of over-discharging them. Recharging when the light gets noticeably dim will probably be reasonable protection against that.

I have not been a member for a long period of time but this thread has showed up at some point every week. The output is what had deterred me from purchasing this light. I would think a 30 lumen high would make this light more ideal. Just money. Sure I have spent it on worse things in the past.