(gb=closed) Only 50 lights were delivered and sent out, *BLF special* Romisen 365/400nm 2xUV SSflashlight, gb with Tinywind

Update Oct. 6th

RoMiSen (or whoever) partly failed, only 50 custom lights were delivered to Tinywind and sent out to group buy participants. Tinywind is trying to find a proper solution for the rest: refund for the participants, or getting the custom light done from another company (which will take more time of course). see post #712 for details.

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Update Sept. 25th

The lights are there! Saphire promised that the Tinywind warehouse keeper is going to check every flashlight going out on basic function (do both leds light up) to at least prevent DOA cases. The lights will be send out 'soon'. Some pictures in post #625

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Update Sept. 16th. News from Saphire.

There are delays, caused by RoMiSen. The lights were supposed to be send out to Tinywind last week but it appeared that was not the case, now is said that they were sent on monday, two days ago. Saphire had contacted the factory manager several times to get them as soon as possible. It is what it is..

Tinywind hopes to receive the lights within this week and send them out ASAP.

Saphire is very sorry and stresses that if people are too worried about passing a Paypal dispute period before receiving the light, she will arrange a refund.

But my advice is for the moment just be relaxed about the delay, I'm not too worried yet about the flashlights not coming through

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Update August 26th. In post #551 is a picture of the engraving, the lights should arrive at Tinywind 10 days from now, and will be shipped ASAP then.

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Update August 21st. little update: Tinywind received a sample, still without engraving, but the warehouse keeper was so kind to take some pictures of a chinese CNY100 banknote, see post #629. No defibtive proof of led quality but it looks like RoMiSen has understood the requirements well.

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Update August 13th. 185 lights are payed for sofar, so the production will happen. :-) Who have not payed get a few days extra, in case they did not notice their PM with code (or there are still some who struggle with getting the order done, I hope they will succeed, with or without help from Saphire).

Please be easy-going with the wait. The lights will certainly not be send out by Tinywind to you before 20 days from the moment of ordering at RoMiSen, and after the lights are sent in the mail, it may take another few weeks till delivery, so that easily comes close to the 45 days that in some countries still seems to be the PayPal claim limit. So the time line is not the greatest, but if we all do not get too nervous for the 13 dollars/light payed, that helps!

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Update August 10th. The codes were send out yesterday and many lights were ordered already (138 as by 5 hours ago), but we're not there yet . Saphire has given a 3-day paying window so that she can do the order at RoMiSen ASAP. Because you can not expect everyone to be around at BLF at all times (a few folks over here have a life) , she agreed that, if needed, this could be extended a few days.

There's some people having trouble with the code. Please write a PM directly to Saphire and she will sort it out for you (her BLF member name is: tinywind.com)

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Update August 7th, group buy is closed.

A two days delay: due to business this weekend, Saphire will not be able to send the coupons until monday. The gb will still close by August 7th noon middle european time. Also the numbers above 200 (3 at the moment) will join.

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Update August 6th, we're over 200 now,with less than a day to go :-)

I have not discussed with Tinywind yet what to do with requests that go over 200. I assume that, with tomorrow being the closing date of this group buy, it will not go that far over 200 and that Tinywind will honour them (the order as far as I understand will be 250 lights), but I’m not 100% sure about that.

So please don’t hesitate asking for a light at this point, although with keeping a small risk in mind.

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Update August 5th, with 180 on the list :-)

I've been in contact with Saphire, this group buy will close August 7th, if we're at 200 lights accounted for or not (but it looks like we are getting there alright).

This is what happens next: on August 8th Saphire will send out coupon codes by BLF personal mail for this light on the Tinywind website, individual ones for each light of this group buy (I appreciate that she is prepared to do that, it is a lot of work). After that Tinywind will wait for all lights to be paid. If more than 20 light that are spoken for in the group buy list are not payed for, there is a problem for getting this through and Tinywind will refund the ones who payed (I hope that this will not happen, I think max 20 is reasonable and I and the other participants would be pretty disappointed ).

Then the order to RoMiSen will go out and it is expected that it takes 17 days for production plus shipping to the Tinywind warehouse, another 3 days to have them shipped out to the GB participants.

I hope that all goes as expected. Please check the spelling of your name and number of flashlights on the list, a correct list will hugely help the spreading of the codes.

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Update august 3rd, less than 35 to go, spread the news, I'm sure there's more people around you in desperate need for double wavelength UV detection :cool: At first I was sceptic about ever reaching the 200 units, but it sure looks now that we are getting there :-). I have asked Saphire for a timeline for the production and sending out of the flashlights, I hope for a quick answer.

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Update juli 30, The new specs do help getting the numbers up, 134 now :-) . 66 to go!

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Update juli 24th: We are at 70-something lights signed up sofar, still not anywhere close to 200, the group buy as is, is not going to happen this way.

But Saphire has asked Romisen for the 365nm/400nm combination and she PM-ed me today that they are ok with that, albeith for a dollar more. 400nm is great for Geochaching and showing all sorts of stains, 365nm is great for checking banknotes, to give a few examples for usage. I think this is a really nice deal, worth the 200 units needed to make it happen!

So this will be the final try for this group buy: the Romisen 3114 flashlight with two UV leds, one 400nm, the other 365nm, with inscription: "BLF special 365nm/400nm edition", for $12.99 shipped via Tinywind.

So there will not be a UV/white combination anymore.

I must repeat that there still will be no review samples, so what you get is what you get, but I can confirm that the host looks very nice and works fine, and Tinywind guarantees that the leds will indeed have the promised wavelengths. And for only $12.99 I believe it is a great opportunity even though it comes with some gamble on the quality of the leds.

Oh, and I assume that people who buy these lights understand there is danger involved for yourself and others when working with UV-light, please inform yourself well before usage, also onBLF there are a few threads that discuss it!!!!

Now what to do with all you folks who signed up for the 365nm/white light combination? Some will be disappointed by the new specifications. To make this easiest for me I will do the old cable company trick (at least that is how they do it over here): change what you get, increase the price, customers who do not actively complain silently agree :evil: In other words: I assume that everyone who signed up for this light still want it with the 365nm/400nm combination for a dollar more, if you disagree with that please respond in this thread.

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Update juli 18th: The light will have a nice inscription: BLF special 365nm edition :-) . Who can resist this mere $11.99 group buy now??

Also I asked Saphire from Tinywind (she's been very helpful sofar) if we can change to a different led combo: both leds UV, one 400nm, one 365nn. I asked this because the signed-in counter was not going to reach 200 any time soon, and during the thread the double-UV idea came up, and many folks were really enthousiastic about it.

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Update juli 9th: Although there will not be a sample light before production starts, Tinywind will check upon arrival in their warehouse if the uv-led is indeed 365nm, if not, the lights will go back to Romisen and participants of this group will be refunded.

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During a discussion (in the tinywind-thread, from post #207 on) with ahirshy, Saphire from Tinywind.com, and me about this white+UV double emitter flashlight, that was sold out and Romisen did not make them anymore, the possibility came up to do a group buy on this light. I offered to host a group buy, delivered by Tinywind, if:

a) the light was any good.

b) the 400nm UV led was replaced by a 365nm one.

So Saphire contacted Romisen about doing another production run of the light, but with a 365nm led instead of the 400nm one, and Romisen is indeed prepared to do that if a certain amount of flashlights will be ordered. The offer by Tinywind will be: if 200 units can be spoken for, they will sell them for $11.99 shipped.

EDIT 7/24th: the group buy light will come with two UV emitters, not with one white, one UV anymore, see the update above.

As for if the light is any good, I did a short review of a very similar Romisen light that I bought, only different in emitters and bezel shape, it can be found in post #257 of this thread. In short, the light should have major potential heatsink problems the way it is build, but gets away with it fine (see post#61 of this thread), and the light output of the white emitter is ok but not great (200 lumen on the white led, with no lower modes edit, good news, see post#61: I measured output of the RC-3115 again with the conical bezel trimmed away, so more like the group buy light, and now got 280lm on the cool emitter and 230 lumen on the warm emitter, better! ), but otherwise it is a pretty cool light that works fine as it is, switching between the two emitters, and it has some modding potential too. For me, I like it enough to be worth the 12 dollars and perhaps a bit more.

Before people have ordered it, there will not be a production sample with the 365nm led to test (Romisen hasn't got one before they will make the lot), so the quality and performance of the UV-led they will use will be a bit of a gamble. I know that there are a few ok performing 3535-size chinese 365nm leds out there and just hope that they pick a good one. The driver in this flashlight provides a current that may just be right for this type of led (=my guess).

I must say I'm a bit ambivalent about this group buy: I think the light is a pretty cool looking light with the SS body with dragons, and the double emitter with 365nm option plus white light, but for the white output here at BLF we are addicted to much more light than this one can deliver. And this light has a major heatsinking issue, so for modders: simply pumping up the current is not enough to make it brighter. On the other hand, for $11.99 it will be a one-of-a-kind cool light (if you are into dragons that is :-) )

So here it is, group buy attempt, please respond in this thread if you are interested in one, I will keep a list at the end of this post. Once 200 units are spoken for, Tinywind will order the production by Romisen and then I guess you can just order it on their website with a code. Personally I doubt if we can get to 200 units of this rather specific flashlight with uncertain performance on the UV-led, but for just $11.99 this light may just be worth the gamble :-) One request beforehand: don't shoot the messenger please.

(btw, for the record,Tinywind offered me one light plus a $20 coupon if this group buy is a succes. That was after my offer to host the GB, and my opinion about this group buy or anything else is not affected by that, my opinions in general do not tend to be affected easily :bigsmile: )

1 ryansoh3

2 abril

3 zelee

4 ahirshy

5 ahirshy

6 ahirshy

7 ahirshy

8 ChibiM

9 Jubeldum

10 Jubeldum

11 Nguyen

12 Hopback

13 mwfire

14 AlexGT

15 a1penguin

16 MG

17 pommie

18 pommie

19 raccoon city

20 Lotus_Darkrose

21 cicciopanzarotto

22 jealous57

23 Kodachrome40

24 Lionheart_2281

25 DanielM

26 mattlward

27 Henk4U2

28 Werner

29 Malenurse

30 antiparanoico

31 cbrake10

32 Wrathbringer27

33 kronological

34 althumbs

35 dodo

36 Pulsar13

37 ryanferg

38 will34

39 koyotee

40 koyotee

41 dthoang

42 arekm

43 magnet

44 MauiSon

45 allthumbs

46 MRsDNF

47 Aardvark

48 pro22000

49 akoposilester

50 devman

51 devman

52 johnnydoe

53 ReManG

54 ReManG

55 ReManG

56 mattlward

57 mhanlen

58 keengeorge

59 jerrod

60 ImA4Wheelr

61 hank

62 willmo

63 Flashlight Turtle

64 sesgum

65 presterjohn

66 Fritz t. Cat

67 downlinx

68 kuoh

69 chutieunhi

70 zipelgas

71 johan

72 meti

73 Meyer

74 Chicken Drumstick

75 Chicken Drumstick

76 khas

77 khas

78 willmo

79 hank

80 netprince

81 netprince

82 brad

83 Nightbird95

84 Billy X

85 Mountainking

86 aslpg

87 MauiSon

88 bugsy36

89 D10ten

90 sma

91 sma

92 merikgvr4

93 kbro

94 Nicolaas

95 Nicolaas

96 DBSAR

97 amaretto

98 amaretto

99 komessy

100! ger-slash

101 ger-slash

102 massimo.maronen

103 tino79

104 prisma

105 datiLED

106 Tom E

107 Tom E

108 sandanbob

109 pro22000

110 Jeansy

111 J-Dub74

112 hank

113 dthoang

114 t-soung

115 t-soung

116 s1m888

117 pilotdog68

118 electricjelly

119 clagged

120 Pregulla

121 bright

122 ma tumba

123 richnpc

124 seb801

125 netjrb

126 FlashPilot

127 _the_

128 _the_

129 _the_

130 _the_

131 _the_

132 abqjohnny

133 abqjohnny

134 Strick9

135 pepebig

136 pepebig

137 Charga

138 djburkes

139 vex_zg

140 patchman

141 patchman

142 Sonofspectrum

143 scianiac

144 scianiac

145 amaretto

145 amaretto

146 urausb

147 urausb

148 magnet

149 FrankFlash

150 Wieselflinkpro

151 Wieselflinkpro

152 Relic38

153 Kafar

154 cbrake10

155 B42

156 Sonofspectrum

157 ger-slash

158 ger-slash

159 majszter

160 ChibiM

161 Blinky1

162 JaredM

163 SciFiFreak

164 twin towers

165 Max Beam

166 cnrffl1

167 DOCFAR

168 sungsmith

169 albertopnp

170 albertopnp

171 ToyKeeper

172 gamezawy

173 Maxbeam

174 Maxbeam

175 Clint_S

176 Clint_S

177 cavesprings

178 Dempsey

179 glowz

180 syracuse

181 dutchguy2

182 Teezocker

183 DrJones

184 bwl123

185 dolbysys

186 dolbysys

187 dolbysys

188 presterjohn

189 HAL

190 Joat

191 Evilc

192 ReAvenger

193 Calmaja

194 keengeorge

195 dthrckt

196 dthrckt

197 dthrckt

198 Piquelito

199 2 DOGS

200 Intracloud

201 wapd2

202 lateotter

203 Gj

204 Ronmuller

I’m in for one.

Do we have more details on the UV LED?

No, we don't. I could ask Saphire to inform about it, but even then I doubt we can find it back in the chinese 3535-led jungle and judge it. I tested the intl-outdoor chinese 365nm led and that one performed pretty well (but nowhere near Nichia level), I hope for similar quality.

Thanks, I just hope there is plenty of 365nm output compared to visible light.

That is what I hope for too, the only 365nm leds I know of that do not produce some visible whitish light apart from the UV, is the new generation of Nichia's.

for that price i will take 1 even it was a gamble

I'll put my name down for 4 units please - happy to bump the figures up early to help our chances...

ChibiM please at number 4 8 ;)

Put me down for 2 lights.

fail ! , you're nr 8

I’m in for one.

1 for me too, if it realy is 365nm

Im in for one, if it isnt 365nm I might just change it…

Thank you folks

I’ll buy one.

I’ll buy one, count me in please if indeed is a 365nm UV led

I’d like one please.

Certainly up for a GB from djozz. One, please.

Thanks for the realistic, if understated, write-up.

A small risk for potentially a fun little light.

She who must be obeyed told me I need one :bigsmile:

In for one.

Cheers David

200 is a whole lotta lights…

Put me down for one! :crown:

I’m down for one too. Price is good, and the 2 LEDs with that split reflector in a small package is too cool to pass up.