Sofirn SP10 Pro (AA/14500/Andúril 2) - now available!

Certainly interested. I wouldn’t mind that gold anodizing Sofirn uses if raw AL falls through.

Interested.

New here so I’m seeking a bit of clarity; why wouldn’t we have a boost driver? Aren’t they more efficient and don’t decrease in brightness as battery voltage drops?

Now I’m interested. Tell us more please….

Interested

interested

Some interim feedback. Please note that I am not well-experienced in circuitry/microelectronics and some information has been translated from German into English. However, I hope this current status will give you a (good) feeling about how things are going on...

  1. Toykeeper and Kikkoman took a look onto the driver and reported the PIC12F1822 is rather inappropriate to use Andúril, so maybe it's worth for Sofirn to check alternative AVRs like ATtiny85 with more memory (at slightly higher cost). Kikkoman reported that with some efforts space will be sufficient on the MCPCB.
  2. The boost converters and their LVP will be more difficult to realize as there need to be two thresholds for NiMH/AA (1.2-1.5V) and 14500 Li-Ion (4.2V).
  3. Kikkoman was able to successfully port Andúril onto his experimental driver. He checked an alternative boost converter TPS61021A that runs very well with NiMH cells but it needs some more tweaks to decrease standby drain and to get more efficiency with Li-Ion cells.

Next steps:

  1. I will try to collate all information into some useful and comprehensible summary as a starting point for Barry and Sofirn's engineering dept. / product development.
  2. I have invited Lexel, gchart, wight and Tom E to join the group, so we can share our thoughts and ideas to get the best result. Lexel and gchart have just expressed their interest. Thank you guys! :THUMBS-UP:

Cheers,

Thomas

Awesome news! Thanks for all the hard work you guys do!

Interested

Awesome! The progress on the AA/14500 driver is really encouraging. Yes, standby drain matters more on these tiny drivers. I love the idea of getting ATtiny85 working on NiMh AA, though. I would probably have a hard time resisting buying several of these, because with low standby drain I could toss them in a car with Eneloop Pros and forget.

Also, the champagne color would be awesome. Or really, anything besides black gets my vote. I have a lot of black flashlights. My first preference would be the champagne, but bright colors are also nice. Silver's a bit boring to me, but still preferable to black.

Interested. I’d like a 4000k version. I think orange ano would be cool or copper color.

Interested!

Interested!

Interested depending on price

14500 would be fine for me but working from AA too would be a nice plus

Ok so here’s a few questions for the 14500 crowd:

-What’s a sensible upper drive limit for a light this size? (In terms of thermals and battery capabilities.)

-Turbo + stepdown // yes or no?

I feel like 14500 lights vary a bit. One of my current favorites is the Wuben E05. It starts out at ~1000 lumens and steps down to ~400 after ~3 minutes. That’s higher than most 14500 lights, though. Timed step downs are ok; I think it’s better than not having high enough output to need the step down. But better yet is thermal control, which (thankfully) seems to be becoming more prevalent and reliable.

That’s awesome news, thanks for keeping everyone updated! I wasn’t keeping my hopes up for NiMH and Anduril but now they’re up.

Interested in 4

I think that a 2A drive limit on a 14500 is sensible, it gives you around 700 lumen output which is ample for a small light and will already need a stepdown after a few minutes because of the heat. Also, most 14500 cells will not even deliver more than 2A for any length of time (but depending on led voltage).

You have my attention. I’d consider buying this, and I very rarely buy lights since I have a fair number of review samples.

I wonder what a sensible driver limit would be? If they used the LH351D, the high CRI supposedly gets ~360-400lm@1050mA(bin dependent), that’d probably end up around 640-870lm@3v/2A. Driving it at 3v/1.5A would get ~485-690lm and keep load down on 14500. An eneloop can push what, 3A@1.2-1.5v? boosted to 3V~1.5A sounds doable ish.