Gauging interest for possible return of the Jacob A60...

Hey Everyone,

I am working with a company that sells hunting, shooting and tactical supplies and accessories and has some in-house manufacturing ability as well as access to manufacturing for items outside of their scope. I put together a proposal and sent it up to the owner, which outlined a plan that explained the popularity of the A60, its disappearance from the market and the likelihood of strong interest in the event that it could be reintroduced to the market(Likely under a different name).
I will be forwarding some of the feedback from this forum to him, to give him an idea of the popularity this light had.

* If you are interested in seeing the “A60” return, or would consider buying one if it became available, +PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT +so I can show them that there is some interest and we can get this rolling *

If you didn’t care for the Jacob A60, no worries, just ignore this thread : )*

A few other things I could use some help with:

—If anyone knows of a particularly good review with tear down OR links to build sheets, specs, driver model, emitter#, etc, that would help me immensely rather than waste time waiting for the manufacturer to come up with their own based on the A60 we send them.

-Any suggestions to help with also designing an “updated” version.— same host, different emitter(s)/driver(s) that you might want to see in it but keep it within the budget price range that we are shooting for… (ie: xp-g2 emitter with DD, xp-l with XYZ, etc….)

Appreciate your feedback!!!
Lets get this classic back into people’s hands!!

This is awesome! I am very excited to see if this materializes.

XP-G2 or XP-L HI would be a big improvement over the original XR-E. A Qlite/Nangj driver would also be a big improvement and cheaper/easier than going with fully custom driver. The reflector needs work to remove ringiness and to be sure it focuses properly on the new emitter. The original lens was also junk. Type-III ano would be nice too. The difficulty will be making improvements but still keeping the cost low. A big part of why the A60 was/is so popular was the ridiculously cheap price.

All that being said, I really like the form factor and would be interested in buying an improved version.

What Pilotdog said.

Im not sure which LED will throw better, so I leave that to those more experienced in that realm ;)!

Yeah, the price-throw factor was irresistible for A60 despite its overall low build quality :D!

There would be a whole lot of interest. A few upgrades, with a reasonable price increase, would be the way to go. I’d be in, and many others would as well.

A modest 3A with the XP-G2 is good enough for me…Would want to keep the cost low right?

Definitely not an XPE/XRE in the A60. They provide a neat, super tight, and throwy beam but it’s so small of a hotspot that it just isn’t really usable imho.

Basically you should be looking at a Convoy C8 as a benchmark. You want to be very close to it in quality, exceed the throw by a noticeable amount, and keep the cost as close as possible. For the most interest, I would say you need to shoot for $25 or less, but definitely not over $30.

Cabfrank, you’ve pretty much summarized it. I’ve proposed an idea that basically calls for an exact remake of the original and possibly an updated version in the same host.

Keep the comments and suggestions coming! The more responses, the more likely I can get the green light to get this going!

and yes, the idea would be to keep the price down in the sub-$30 range*

Don’t see the point unless you can duplicate it Exactly.
The original was liked by many of us due to its conbination of
Value & pinpoint throw.

We are “torch perfectionists” here-and there will surely be myriad design changes
suggested and/or implemented.
I doubt anything we come up with will resemble the original.

Did not want to upset anybody, up to now…

I’ll be very honest, if its going to anything like the original, I’m not close to interested. Bad quality & very bad beam pattern… I bought 2 some time ago. Unfortunately both ended up in the bin, sorry its a bit extreme.

Yes, we’re “torch perfectionists” and that’s why I’d most definitely rather go for a tricked out Convoy C8 than the original A60. Sure, the C8 will be a bit more expensive… very close to the same performance… worth every cent.

So, I agree, if you’d like to get the A60 going again, it should be an A60+ where we meticulously choose the best bang for buck changes to this light. Maybe build a list of all preferred changes and create a poll (or polls) to find out what the chosen preferences/changes should be.

My further 2 cents… try to throw in an AR lens, if possible.

At the end, everything depends on the price, I would suggest a basic cheap model for like 12-13$ with additional options like copper pill, fet driver etc

^ this.

Like pilotdog68, I'd be interested in a A60+ with better lens and reflector, designed for XPG2/XPL.

Since a lot of us like to have control over the LED and driver, I think you could offer 2 versions: fully assembled, and just the host.

Like the host idea… and 20mm MCPCB size (think 16mm standard?) with 17mm driver. Just makes things nice and flexible. Also agree on the upgraded reflector (definitely!) and hopefully AR lens (should not add much to the cost, maybe $2). Also make sure we have a good switch in the tail… reverse clicky.

Imagine we can get the Maxtoch 2X reflector into the A60+ :slight_smile: Perfect beam, Awesome throw…

A60, AR lens, metal reflector, XP-G2 with a 3.04A nanjg driver. Should be around $20

The reflector plays such a big role in the success of a light… Its really important that this part is done right. Its priceless looking at a perfect beam pattern - inner giggles and satisfaction :wink: