FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Concerning the Convoy S2+ SST20 4000K 95CRI we discussed several posts ago.
I got notification that it “Shipped” today. Hopefully it really did…… :wink::smiley:

Good news.

In the free software world, it’s pretty normal for things to be created based on what the community wants. Frequently, the community just makes its own stuff, scratching its own itches. BLF has a similar “make what you want” culture, but it involves physical goods instead of just data, and physical goods can’t yet be copied over the internet. So several of us have been trying to get manufacturers to participate in this process, in order to make cool things available to anyone who wants them.

Please put me down for 1 as well.

I’d like 2 please.

Someone at the New Yorker or Vanity Fair ought to write about how this is working.
It’s a new age ….

Reminds me somewhat of the cooperative Alt culture described in Cory Doctorow’s “Walkaway”

Cory Doctorow based some of his main writing themes on free software culture. It’s a major plot element in his “Little Brother” book, and is applied to a hardware context in “Makers”, and is applied to artistic works in “Pirate Cinema”. He’s pretty into this stuff. :slight_smile:

He writes about it as sci-fi, usually, but… it’s not fiction. It has been an ongoing and growing movement since the mid-1900s, and is now the code foundation for the majority of the internet.

I’m brand new to this forum too. But put me in for one please!
Love the design and the idea behind it. Thanks!

Please add me to the list

Please include me, I’d like 1.

Realize I’m a few weeks behind here, but this caught my eye:

Having done mechanical design in a past career where we outsourced most production and and concept-design-production workflows with relatively simple CNC (laser cutters) as a hobbyist I feel like point 3 is a bit simplified.

There’s appreciable effort that goes into the design itself, for sure. Someone that produces their own finished product will have some experience with what’s feasible to produce and bake that into the design document.

But having a good design - a production-ready design - isn’t the same thing as having production plans.

Whenever I design a tabbed box for laser cutting, translating the design file into a work file takes appreciable time - layout for material efficiency and optimizing geometry for cutting efficiency being the key tasks.

When dealing with machining metal parts the design to work document process may well be more involved. Tool choices, speed/feed considerations far more involved than laser cutter power/feed, material selection, jigs/workholding, production sequencing (since intermediate parts may be needed between workstations/schedules), QC processes, production scheduling concerns, negotiating slight dimensional changes that could make/break the concept for your capabilities and/or the client’s needs, etc.

Suspect that the prospect for future sales of a design that’s expected to be successful beyond the initial discounted batches - and presumably without encumbrances - is the true carrot.

I’ll take one. Thanks.

With the discussion of potentially switching to the 95 CRI SST-20, I just want to double down on the LH351D.

The SST-20 is slightly higher CRI, but at 700 lm the LH351D is around 45% more efficient at the same colour temperature from what I’m seeing, and at 300 lm the LH351D is around 25% more efficient at the same colour temperature.

That’s a big difference in battery drain and heat for the same output.

edit: this is based on maukka’s tests of the SST-20 and the LH351C (my understanding is that the LH351D is slightly more efficient than the LH351D at 1000 lm, although you lose a bit of efficiency by going from 5000k to 4000k)

edit 2: actually, that’s got me thinking, after reading through the pre-production review fully, do we possibly want to look at the LH351C? If we’re expecting the light to be 900 lumens or lower (300 lumens per emitter) most of the time, then I think we’ll be sitting right in the LH351C’s target current. Yeah, we’d lose a bit of maximum lumens in turbo (all 20 seconds of it), but the better efficiency in regular use would help the light work better in regular use, and we might be able to source them more quickly.

^ with the SST-20 you loose efficiency/output but you gain a brighter hotspot (and a somewhat higher CRI). And a bit of the 25% efficiency loss is gained back because the smaller die SST-20 gives less optical losses in the TIR.

I want one LH351D 4000K 90CRI

@idleprocess,
There is indeed a lot of design/processing work done by the manufacturer and this must not be overlooked. But when working with Thorfire on the Q8 I noticed that that part is what they (as a low-end manufacturer) were already very good at. We were not able to help them with that (from the other side of the world :slight_smile: ), but that part was provided for very well. It is the what you call production plans that were lacking, they were not very creative and to my surprise they had only little idea how the actual workings are of a flashlight. By copying others Thorfire had some pretty nice models back then but not the expertise to innovate.

I’m curious how much wider the beam on the LH351C or the LH351D is than on the SST-20.

The datasheets only claim that it is 128 degrees instead of 120 degrees (although, obviously the hotspots can vary).

If it is 8 degrees wider (with relatively similar distribution within those areas), then even after accounting for the LH351C covering a larger area with its light; in the SST-20’s 120 degree beam angle, the LH351C would still produce around 17% more light with the same power (while also filling an additional 8 degrees of range, albeit without getting into the effect of the TIR).

Unless the SST-20 has a much stronger hotspot, the LH351C or the LH351D may actually be brighter in the SST-20’s light circle while also having more spill at the same power usage (albeit, not at 95 CRI).

Bare beam angle matters w/out a collimator. With - die size does. And LH351D has it over twice as large as SST-20.

Yeah, that makes sense.

I can’t find exact numbers, but if it was a doubling in central beam width from the SST-20 to the LH351D (without getting into the effect of the lens), that would triple the hotspot brightness (within the hotspot area of the SST-20), but the rest of the light would be much brighter (on average outside the range of the SST-20’s hotspot) on the LH351D.