Can anyone step up for an AA/2AA only BLF budget flashlight?

Wow, that T01 does look very good!

A Convoy S6 style AA light would be great; its the kind of thing I am after (hence my use of a Thorfire TG05 currently).

Narrower, and shorter than the S6 obviously.

With the driver performance of the Manker T01 driver, if possible. :slight_smile:

Although I would be perfectly happy with just 500ma going to the LED on Max…

That Manker T01 with an optional extension might just fit the bill!

The only good looking AA lights I can think of are the Sipik SK-58 and a 2 x AA that looks nice but came with very cheap works. There is a type of 1xAA light with similar shape to the SS-5039, but it isn’t nice. I can’t say why except that the metal is too thin and the surface too smooth.

I think a modded hugsby xp11 or 12 would be nice, Tom E’s modded TG06 would fit the bill and last but not least a BLF version of the olight s15 would be great too.

Beautiful shapes have compound curves, so they are almost impossible to prototype on a manual lathe. The best way would be to make a prototype in clay and then have it produced on a numerical control lathe. There was someone on here who had worked with NC. There was a thread of beautiful 3D printed lights, but none of them could be mass produced.

Surely the majority of people would want a slim pocket friendly light rather than anything too shapely, tactical or otherwise? The look of the Convoy S6 shrunk down suitably I would have thought would have been ideal.

The battery tube of the SS-5039 has a smooth curve to it without being any fatter or heavier or weaker than a cylinder would be, and without taking any longer on the machine. It is a bit thinner near the center and a bit fatter near the ends. That makes it beautiful and easier to hold and improves the overall strength relative to a cylinder or any combination of cylinders with the same average radius. The head has a bit of extra metal, that has little function until I put new insides into it so that it needs the extra for cooling.

Even slinkier/curvier, the Smiling Shark SS-5050 1 Mode (1 x AA Battery)

That is a curvier shape, though I miss the flutes. I might like a light the shape of the 5050 if it were made like the 5039, sort of solid and with an interesting grippy surface. They say beautiful pottery is supposed to “breath”, to look like it were alive, rather than mathematical like Ancient Greek potter. The 5050 looks almost like the curve could be expanded in a few terms of a power series.
My other favorite shape is the Yezl t9, but that is not the sort of light being discussed here.

Added: I don’t see the SS-5050 on the Smiling Shark Web site. Maybe it isn’t really a Smiling Shark, or maybe they aren’t emphasizing it.

I’d love to see a BLF 1xAA light in the SS-5039 design! Definitely needs a high amp driver that is NimH and 14500 compatible!

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and for me much of the beauty lies in a lights practicality and usefulness. If an aesthetic beauty is also present, that’s nice, and I think that some should be there. But unless a budget light is just plain ugly to me, aesthetics take a back seat to the rest. In a premium light they darn well better be beautiful because I’m paying for that! Aesthetic beauty is wasted if the rest of the package isn’t up to the same high standard.

Any of the light hosts discussed so far look fine to me; I ain’t picky ’bout that.
Phil

and me, I really do not like the SS-5039 shape (see below), I prefer a boring plain tube shape any time.

Need a host, a nice driver and a sub $20 price!

Im probably in minority, but I would like something that doesnt look like UranusFire clone :D!

The driver I use for my AA and Cr123 lights is easy to find on search engines (I still have 2 unused ones from the pack of 5 that I purchased).

Google for “ld30 driver aliexpress”.

Its a good driver in general. Current controlled, low low, and a reasonable performance on high (although not as good as the latest Thrunite and Manker AA drivers)…

Works great on my Ultrafire WF-602C with Cr123 batteries - 3 good spaced modes (1 of which is moonlight), and is bright in my TG05 on Eneloop Pro’s…

It doesn’t seem to like L91’s though… Seems to think they are CR123s whose voltage has got too low or something as it just works in moonlight mode on those…

It might hopefully be a good driver to base ideas on how to create a new BLF driver… I would prefer the ability to use L91 batteries, rather than cope with 14500’s or CR123’s… Also a higher max output to the emitter on Eneloop of maybe 800ma would be good, with a turbo timer of some sort that drops down to 50% after a minute…

A good host is important though… Its got to be quite “light in the pocket” (no pun intended!) for use abroad on my holidays when there are the odd powercuts on Greek islands etc…

I wouldn’t be too bothered about it looking “fancy”… but its weight and size would be important.

And its dead!

Nah, the AA/14500 will live on…

Let me get on this! I just brought 80 AAA and 80 AA batteries give me some ideas also please… i have a Ultrafire q5 i might get a few of them for emergencies but there was a modded pen light from this forum but i can not remember the name? Maybe leave a few light around the house in different locations?

something like the SWM S10A with a thinner bezel to give way for a longer reflector will be great.