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

I streamlined my pocket carry a while back and that helped a lot. I cut down on carrying coins. I have fewer keys and more optimal ring spacing. My lighter and multitool moved to a pocket organizer so they no longer collide. My L10 also has better anodization than the last aluminum light I carried.

Really, I’d like to do some more exploration with other metals. Brass gets dinged up but it’s just more brass underneath. Of course, brass is heavy. (It can also contain a small amount of lead, which isn’t ideal.) I’ve had good results with stainless steel but I don’t see it used very often. My wife’s enormous key ring has a stainless AAA flashlight from Convoy that still looks great after years of tumbling in the death trap she calls a purse. I’ve been meaning to try something in titanium but I haven’t gotten around to it.

BTW, I was pretty good at Xevious back in the 80s.

Personally I like the beat up look. Adds character.

Copper i3T. Bigger but a great light.
Astrolux AO1 in Cree and Nichia.
Probably MY favourite.
LumintopAAA Still trying to make my mind up about that one.
VERY thin aluminium casing.
BLF/Singfire SF 348
Neither one thing nor the other?.
Plus several others.

When my BLF/Sofurn 5600 special arrives (30 days).
I’ll see if it any better. or worse than current ones.

The AO1 is the one it got to beat.

As long as it works, I don’t really care what it looks like.

I don’t mind aluminum. Its lighter than stainless steel. Conducts heat well if your driving a higher output LED. This is why I prefer natural/olive/etc colored ano, and strongly prefer HA/type3. Carried a Fenix L0D for many years with the olive finish, and while you could tell it was worn the wear didn’t JUMP out at you. Looked very nice.

Ah, but most ladies do. They think: now there’s a guy who takes not good care of his tools.

This always reminds on the following post:

Some alu lights last much longer than the others.

Yes, I am want 3000K too. Hope, Sorfin will done it.

I guess I should have searched for this before doing my own testing, but here it is. I put a 1.5 ish Volt alkileak cell in a C01 (neutral white output) yesterday. When I got home today, it was much dimmer. After taking the cell out, I measured 0.55V. A bit later I created a setup to measure the voltage and current out of the cell into my C01 with gravity, some props and a bit of tape. After running with this measurement setup for over an hour, the light seems to have stabilized (for now) by drawing about 6.5mA from the cell. The cell voltage is down around 0.3V. When my DVM measuring voltage shuts off the display, the light from the C01 flickers as the lead going to my DVM measuring current touches it, so it slightly disturbs the setup. After one such event the voltage of the cell is up to 0.39V and stable, with still 6.6mA of current. I’ll let it run overnight to see if its still running tomorrow. It been almost 2 hours since I started the test back up, with the cell at 1.0V or less the whole time. Certainly a vampire light if I’ve seen one.

Update 1:
good morning. 9h40m since I started this run, my 5000K C01 is still putting light out. 0.24V on the cell, 4.5mA being delivered, and the brightness is about the same, (slightly brighter) than moonlight on my Manker E01. I never imagined it would run all my sleeping hours on a cell down to 0.4V already.

Update 2:
Nighttime: 25h since the CO1 drained this cell below 0.6V, and started it on again. Still at 5mA level, I have seen the voltage as low as 0.24V, but typically its at 0.35V. Right now its at 0.4V and 5mA. How many more days like this? The light output is brighter than my Manker E01 on moonlight mode, maybe 3-4x lumens. Noticeably brighter.

Amazing.
Thanks for reviving thread with this interesting data. I always run Eneloops/Duraloops in my lights, which is not recommended for this experiment. It could damage the battery.

But I need to find some dead low voltage alkalines laying around the house (that I am ready to throw away) and try this in one of my C01’s.

This is great to know during a power outage that I can use any old dead battery laying around and still have some useful light! Think of how many alkalines we throw away when they decline to about only 1.0 volts!

Vampire!

But first try to sort out the almost-dead batteries from the really-really-dead batteries.
Just in case your family has to survive whatever disaster that’s waiting for you in the pitch dark.

It just keeps going, it was still running this morning, 34 hours into this test, which started with a depleted battery. As I mentioned, my setup is a bit rickety, and this morning one of the leads moved a tad and the light went out. Eventually I realized this and tweaked it back into position. It came on and after a few seconds the battery was at 0.75V and delivering 14mA to the light, so presently it fairly bright. And the test keeps going . . .

I was hoping I would see where the light turned back on (if it would on its own). Maybe sometime later during the test.

:
48 hour update. After the bumbling in my last post, I decided to just put the battery in the light and let it run. It seems like the cell continued to deliver about 5mA at whatever voltage it is. The pic above shows my Thrunite Ti-3 on the left, Sofirn C01 in the middle, and Manker E01 on the right. 48 hours after the battery was spent, the C01 is still brighter than my Manker E01, but not as bright as my Ti-3.

Thanks for posting this. We are on the edge of our seats……

I know people will laugh at this low level of light, but it is actually plenty to navigate around a dark house without falling or bumping a toe, and has the even more important advantage of not waking a sleeping spouse or baby.

R.I.P. It was still lit when I went to bed, 74 hours, albeit close to the output of the manner e01. Just to clarify, the LED is producting light still, but you can barely see the illumination looking at the LED in a dark room. Its no longer useful. But it would be interesting to see what level of current (and voltage from the cell). I’m away from home, so another day.

Glad some folks are interested, it’s sort of fun to see the realm of possible

Thanks for your tests sbslider ! I wanna do something alike with some of my lights but I still didn’t have the patience and time! But this is quite nice data :wink:
Thanks again :beer:

Any chance of a new batch this year using the new led source? :question:

It sounds like there is a good chance of it, but it is not confirmed yet:

I don’t know how many people still want C01 with this new 5mm HCRI led

The 5mm led has two options 3400K and 5800K. The body color of C01 can be Black, Red, Blue, DesertTan, Green, Orange, Bare-Aluminum

Maybe it can be 5000pcs in total.

I’d be interested in another 3400K, but even more interested in some hosts and drivers if you do another batch.