*BLF LT1 Lantern Project) (updated Nov,17,2020)

Some outdoor photos will come soon this week of this prototype before its big back-country remote camping trip field-test in May, with feedback from fellow campers, & comparisons to my other best modified lanterns in use.
Then the design specs and blueprint design will be submitted for Krono & others to work on getting a production model rolling.

Photo & basic specifications of the Prototype BLF Lantern in the OP at the top.

Very nice prototype DBSAR! Keep up the good work :beer: .

Opps… i think i screwed up the formatting in the OP…. now its just a mess of text & mumbo jumbo. I may need SB in on this to help…

Thanks ri chevy! I could use a few of those with the way life has been going lately. :slight_smile:

EDIT: - I managed to fix the formatting in the OP.) -more prototype photos coming soon.

Would be cool to have the option of a flashlight lense for it…so you can convert it to a flashlight and back to a lantern.

yeah a recoil thrower :smiley:
but that big heatsink is kind of making that impossible.

we have tons of flashlights already, the purpose of this project was for a lantern only light.

I was thinking it would be nice for a shtf light to have that…

I’d be in.

Nice! A lot of light still hits the ceiling, how about an inverted cone or curve inside the cap to reflect more of that light sideways or downsince most of led output is directed near 90 degrees from the die plane. You will still get upward spill from what misses the cone.

Or get creative with a center led and tir optic by leaving the cap open to the tir for beam and the surrounding LEDs scatter light from the outside of the tir. Using something like the 32mm quad Noctogon as a base plate. Cool what you’ve done though.

I’m definitely interested in group buy. I can’t afford it but I’ll start saving now!

I am interested, I hate all my current electric lanterns. The only lantern I have that does not blind me is my Coleman gas lantern.

I’m (still) very excited about this! Thanks for the updates! :cool:

I been experimenting with various reflectors & LED positions to get the light in all directions as evenly as possible while eliminating as much eye-glare as possible. so far the down-firing LED, with lightly frosted diffuser and a lower flat-white reflector seems to work great with getting the light directed both up and down and out the sides evenly without having the LED in direct view that causes glare.

Very interesting project!
Do you think the reflector could be made easily interchangeable and available in colors like red or green ? I wonder how much luminosity would be lost but it might also help not scaring wild life to come closer as well as possibly not attract as many bugs as regular light ?

That sounds perfect. I’m very excited about this project and really hope that we see a group buy in the near future. I will more than likely order several for myself and friends and family assuming they are solidly built and perform like your pictures. Thank you for putting in all this time and effort. I currently have ZERO lanterns that I actually enjoy using and dozens of flashlights and headlamps that I love.

once i field-test it two weekends from now on a big camp trip, i can work on a blueprint to send off to Kronos :slight_smile: