Superb. Any idea on when this will be available?
before Christmas, like on all BLF developments. 
It depends on the quality and function of the production sampel. After that it depends on production capacities. No one can say when they are ready for sale.
Protected or non-protected cells will work fine. (the driver will have low voltage warning built in.) just make sure the four cells are the same type, same capacity & matching. The solder mod can be used to make flat tops work too.
Yep, o-rings are planned on both the top & bottom of the globe lens to seal water out.
In for one lantern please.
The test samples are ready to ship to us for testing & evaluations.
Wait, why 4 samples? I know Toykeeper and you will have them, but who else?
Also, what LEDs are being used?
Barry is keeping a couple for them to test themselves. 2700K & 5000K, high CRI, right now as far as i know they used the easiest to get in High CRI, SST20 2700K 95 CRI, and Nichia 219C 5000K High CRI.
Edit: Barry just informed me they used Samsung LH351D emitters for the test prototypes. 
They probably have learned from the SP36, they made 2 prototypes and one was sent to me and the other to ToyKeeper, and then they had none left themselves. They could not even make pics in time for the website
Please put me on the interest list for 2.
This is a great project!
This is super exciting. Seeing the video and pictures yesterday was nice, but I still wondered how long before others would get their hands on them to check out. I’m very glad TK will be getting one to finalize the firmware. 
I’ve been following this for a while now, and finally getting to see a prototype is so awesome! I’m getting the itch to go camping now!
I have a few but your collection is just epic. 
Barry just informed me they found & used Samsung LH351D High CRI emitters for the test prototypes.
Wait, LH351D 2700k and 5000k 90CRI?
Yeaaaahhh nice.
Nice to see this lantern is almost ready. This has been quite a long project. I’m still in for one just like I was 3 years ago. Its looking real good.
The logo is fine but the font looks akward : the “1” leg is larger than the rest and also the “B” bellies, you won’t see that on professional fonts or better designed free fonts.
May I suggest to reuse the same as the BLF Q8 which looks more polished.
Not a dealbreaker if it’s not changed though.
Wood (branches, balcony) colors look nice. :+1:
interested for one
I like the path this lantern is taking, the only thing that worries me is the white diffuser material. Having owned 10+ led lanterns I know this is something that is really difficult to get done right.
Not only the type of material is important, but the thickness, outer and inner finish, transparency, tint/CRI retention, abrasion resistance, it all comes to play.
One of the best diffusers I have seen is from my core 100lm 3xaa lantern, also available at Walmart as their own brand: even light distribution, high transmittance, and almost no tint change with or without the diffuser. Even though it is just 100 lumens it feels like all of the light produced shines through the diffuser. If you look at it while off, it doesn’t look white but grey-ish.
My nitecore LR10 produces a greenish tint and it doesn’t appear to be like being produced from the emitters, the same yellowing effect that silicone diffusers have. Some cheap lanterns have the material made so thick it practically blocks half the output, while the diffuser itself it blindingly bright. (Light doesn’t shine through).
This is the sort of thing that are difficult to be determined though pictures, but IMO ideally the perfect diffuser should be clear, high transparency, with decent abrasion resistance polycarbonate material, with the correct frosting on one side. Not just some semi translucid white plastic.