Fireflies E07 preview

a friend received this one a day ago and had a look....

Some observations:

  • Having a “hot-headed” light is more an issue for the fingers with sideswitch lights. Stick a FET driver in a Manker E14 and the head can get burning hot. But this is ok, because you can hold the light by the body and the switch is in the tail. On the other hand, consider the Astrolux S42: having a burning hot copper head that you have to touch to get to the switch doesn’t work out well.
  • I agree unibody construction out of aluminum works best. It’s one of the reasons why Zebralights work so well. I’m hoping Emisar makes a unibody light with a head the size of a D4 and tube sized for 21700. Result would be a compact EDC with more capacity, output and better heatsinking than a D4. Oh and while they’re at it they should make sure the tube has knurling.
  • Protecting the fingers can work. Perhaps a copper heatsink head with cage around it made from plastic. If done right the copper heatsink could get burning hot and the light would still be relatively safe if the cage kept it away from fingers. The button would also similarly need to be protected. If the cage were done right there should still be enough exposed copper to get the heat out of the heatsink to atmosphere.

I think all of them look like that. I haven’t seen a single picture that shows a stock star with a film of thermal compound on it. I don’t think we’ll see compound on the bottom of the star until their latest revision using much more compound hits the market.

Last night I swapped the stars on my two E07s. Unfortunately, I’d used way too much Arctic Silver 5 on the first one. That star just didn’t want to come out. I could slide it back and forth, but trying to lift it up… ouch! Reminded me of those old denture cream commercials “Fixodent and Forget It!”

Eventually I managed to get it off and completed the switch. Used a much thinner layer of compound the second time.

If the copper MCPCB were a little smaller in diameter you’d see their thermal compound on the bottom. It’s not seating all the way down flat onto the emitter shelf. That’s all.

Finally, ImageShack is working again! :slight_smile:

Changed half the Aux LED’s to orange to complement the lavender or light purple look. . .

very nice dale

contactcr, I’m not that much a fan of the lighted switch to begin with so I won’t be making any changes there unless I just disable them altogether. The 4 lighted dots look neat, I like the color, but don’t care that much for the diagonally opposing action when in lockout with the aux LED’s off. I just turn the light around so they aren’t visible and don’t worry about it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: LVP is something I never see in action anyway, so again it’s something I don’t use. Lighted or otherwise. :wink: I just don’t tend to let a cell get that far down.

but what I’m saying would fix both of your concerns. It would have all 4 lights either on or off, no “slash” and allow you to turn everything off and on with the firmware, right?

Looks great.

I still think I prefer blue outer ring and purple middle ring though.

You are correct that the E07 switch looks and feels the same as the ROT66. If you can’t stand the feel of the ROT66 switch, then the E07 is probably not for you.

Thanks for clarifying my doubts Firelight2.

Good idea:)

Quite an achievement to replace those leds

Possibly Firelight, and that is what I asked them for, but I got all purple auxiliaries so I addressed it. :wink: Now mine is Custom, as usual. lol

How in the world did you change those tiny things? You use a microscope or something? Wow :open_mouth:

Which SMD LED size did you use?

I used 0804’s but they had 0603’s on there. The bigger SMD barely clears.

No scope, no magnifier, no helping hands… pointy tweezers and my hot air station. Dropped one of the purple ones coming off and aliens ate it…

Thanks a lot! :open_mouth: Now I can order some while the light is still shipping so I don’t have to wait ages.

I’m thinking of trying this. Will have to order some of those tiny LEDs though.

I notice $13 gets a giant bag of a bazillion different colors of these from Amazon.

Unlike Dale, I’d put the board in a vise or helping hands though. And I’d use reading glasses to magnify it enough so I can actually see the parts. :expressionless: