[BLF Joint-Development] WildTrail BLF Tactical Flashlight

I think you confuse a few things here.
In my experience lineair FET drivers of the BLF-A6 type are extremely reliable: they are simple, I had never heard one fail (except some that were sloppily produced), and only having small shallow components they are extreme impact-resistent. The output is not instable, it is a very predictable slow decline in output warning you in advance of battery depletion. Give me a light with lineair FET driver any day in that cave :slight_smile: . The most reliable tactical lights even do not have any regulation, just one or two current limiting resistors, so again a steady decline of output but ultra-simple/reliable.

For an emergency I rather carry an extra 18650, and CR123 cells are only abundant in the US, and after the zombies here in Europe you are more likely to run into a 18650 battery pack than into a stash of CR123’s.

...or I was just using the wrong words to express what I really meant to say. :FACEPALM: I'm afraid I need to take some more English lessons. ^:) Instead of "reliability" I meant "sustainability" or "permanence" of the flashlight's output. I agree that FET driven lights are very reliable with regard to possible failure.

This is exactly the situation I don't want to face when being lost in a cave. I want to have a steady output as long as possible. :-P

You mean it’s ok if your light to suddenly just trigger its LVP, in a cave? Haha…

My point was about the clip is being secured by the tail cap, not detachable like pictured on first post. I should have wrote more detail.

I’d be interested in Model C.

A 21700 tactical light would be interesting, and has not been done.

Dual springs + foam/rubber washers to protect cell from impacts/recoil in line with the tube.

Momentary switch, 500-800 lumens (whatever will run for at least an hour without thermal problems or dimming)

Preferred UI would have no mode memory, and a hard-to-access very low mode as well. A generic streamlight momentary switch UI that goes H-H-H-L with no memory would work and be difficult to accidentally activate low mode.

I think the idea of not wanting a FET-driver is that you rather have a lower output but constant and longer. The longer runtime and lower output can be had with a FET driver also, by adding resistance in the circuit (not often done but is a solution for those modern low voltage leds). This is just to point out that long runtimes and FET-driver can go together, but I do agree that current regulation is nice (which in a lineair driver is also done by adding resistance but it varies depending on battery voltage, to keep the current constant).
A boost driver is a different beast, I have not much experience with those, but I had one fail (a KD boost driver wrecked a XHP50.2 in one of my builds)

I have faith in the driver developer's or firmware programmer's creativity to indicate a depleted cell, e.g. by a blinking LED, followed by a hard stepdown to a low mode.

Meanwhile, I tried to reflect the desire for a more compact design with a closed ring clip mount and a rubber cigar ring (see revision 2), still not yet fully downgraded to 18650 size. Maybe 21700 is not so bad either. ;-) Using a TIR optic should hopefully save some space in total length. Provided that we go down to 18650 size, I wonder if a Carclo 10507 with 3x SST-20 or 3x XP-L HI would be as interesting as a single SST-40 with regard to throw numbers, power consumption and runtimes.

Model B.

Notes: around FW1A size or would be nice (though probably not doable with a tail click. But at least as small as possible without further bulking it up with USB charging.

@Dual switch: If you have don’t have an e-switch on the back you need a clicky there. To my understanding: If you want this to have an always high or turbo momentary, it’s key that there is no mode memory or mode memory being able to get disabled/set to a user-configurable value.

That would be a solution I can live with though in my eyes not ideal (I still prefer rear e-switch) but I would definitely buy it if it’s a lot shorter than e.g. an Olight M2R.

@kanton: If we use an e-switch in the tail we probably need to go for a double-tube design. This would come with a big trade off in terms of higher impact / wear sensitivity and more complexity at higher costs. Regarding your prerequisites about the UI, I think the draft UI I posted in the OP should take mode memory on/off into consideration. Of course, any suggestions how to improve it are deeply appreciated.

You can have an eswitch in the tail with a driver-in-tail design. That necessarily means PWM, though, and something like 98% maximum on-time (thus ~2% off-time to supply power to the driver), and a small resistor across the LED to complete the circuit when the LED’s off.

Main concern, though, should be how to differentiate this light from all others already out there, so it’s not just another “me too!” light.

My $0.02… Nobody is going to be considering between this or a Malkoff/HDS/etc. Very different niches (pricing and country of origin mostly), so don’t go chasing the “simplicity” of those lights hoping to capture the same magic.

If there could be an Anduril or Bistro offshoot that allows for a quick and easy switch to a “tactical” mode (always 100% at turn-on, limited # of modes, etc.) you could still go crazy and have a full “enthusiast” UI.

Since I still don’t know myself, does anybody here know how Klarus and Acebeam implement their tail e-switches? Many lights from both companies have that feature and are marketed and used as weapon lights so I’d think the design is pretty dependable.

If you really don’t want to go down the back e-switch route, I think the UI you posted is quite good (I completely overlooked it, my bad!). There are some caveats though, as I understand:

  • You can’t switch the light on in moon or low mode via the side switch from complete OFF. You would have to carry the light in Standby. But then the rear switch does not act as a momentary anymore (you have to click it once).
  • You don’t have momentary high from rear switch when you are using the light in a lower mode, instead it cuts off power completely.

Those are some griefs I have with it.
I admit these are probably very me-problems and don’t concern anyone else. To me though it’s kinda ugly that the rear switch does something different depending on what mode the light is in right now (from OFF it is momentary then ON, from ON or Standby it does nothing then it cut’s off power) - that’s why I dig the dual e-switch designs I mentioned. No matter if the light is on or off, rear switch is always Turbo.

Completely agree, with a “tactical” style light you absolutely need the same function from OFF every time (preferably to 100%). That comes from either a tail+side e-switches or a tail-switch only design.

Klarus and Acebeam both use tube-in-tube. I can confirm this for the Klarus XT2CR and the Acebeam T36. Olight does so on the M2R but opted for proprietary batteries with an aditional pole in most of their other models.

Can’t we have a dual switch 21700 with usb-c recharge and power bank. The highly praised Wuben TO50R would have been a perfect light if it had the power switch at the tail instead of to the side. The switch is so freaking difficult to find it the dark that I don’t use it often. It is pretty much perfect in every other way.

My vote for model B.

Do they use a more “proud” connection for the secondary tube like HDS does or just a flat ring like the FW-series?

I tossed together some quick renderings of Model B (dunno if that’s what Lux-Perpetua had in mind but I was kinda bored today :zipper_mouth_face:)







(Album link: Wildtrail Tactical Light - Model B Rev. 2 Renderings - Album on Imgur)

I like the light design in post #1. However, being a tactical light, ditch the on-board usb-c charging port and put a ~6k emitter in it. I’m not looking to make sure the leaves on my boxwoods are color correct at night with this light…

I love the way the bezel is so slightly and smoothly crenelated. Highly impressive work!