A little over 6 years ago we had an agency in my area involved in a night time shooting a few days before Christmas. 3-4 Officers responded, only one had a working flashlight. I thought I could do better, as a gear nerd I already had the SureFire 6P Led and it never failed me. I was lurking around CPF and found out about the 6P crazy and all the clones, copies and spin offs. I started with Solarforce host and used various dropins from XP-G up to the XM-L2’s. 2-3 modes, 18650 battery, up to 1200 lumens has covered most of what anyone has ever needed. With only off the shelf items I’ve put together about 350 lights for First responders and others in my area. Other lights are catching up to or have surpassed the P60 types in performance.
Technology is changing and the P60 style has grown very little. The style is simple, very robust and flexible. Emergency equipment needs to be very simplistic, you’ve got your mind focused on other things. I told TexasLumens if you can put it in a sack with your hand and use it on touch alone it’s easy to use. For robustness the lights I put together often got 2 days at the bottom of a pool for waterproof testing. I’ve also witnessed the light fly across a parking lot with no function damage. Flexibility, different dropins for different needs. Night time video use the infra red, organic detection use ultra violet, rest of the time any dropin you got.
TexasLumens and myself have sent back and forth over 60 messages looking at the 20700 as the next step. This host will still use 18650’s but designed with the 20700 to be primary. As the capacities stand it will give you 23% more run time over the very best 18650’s. I doubt that my slow sales could justify the project. We’ve talked about bringing more on board for their sales and designs. The feeling is that this should be a commercial success and the more the better with others involved.
This is just the first stage. TexasLumens has some other very well thought out and designed parts to show. All current heads should still work, all bezels still fit, current properly fitting dropins should still dropin. Body is 27.5mm’s and made from 6061 alloy, other metal are possible. Tail cap is new but certain switches will still fit. As others say yea or nay their expertise will be added. None of this could have happened without TexasLumens support and insight.
To TexasLumens and all others to be involved,
Thank you very much, Paul
Not yet for an interest list, really need to show the whole light. Nice thing most the Dropin’s already exist, most accessories already exist. It’s just at this point a “look here at whats coming” Feedback is always welcomed. As a first venture rough details need tending. Ultimately I would like to have a few people as venders. Myself I could only sell a few here and there. That would not justify a full production run, the more made the cheaper the price. We are Budget Light Forum.
Love the P60 and the larger D36 format, I have a healthy collection mostly untouched still in the box and wrapper old original Surefire’s. Modded quite a few 6P 9P C2 Z1 and M3 Combat Lights, 961/962 weapon lights also!
A handful of 5Mega and a few Oveready Cryo’s Zero Rez combinations, from my CPF days too!
A D36 style (I have about 60 36x31mm D36 smooth reflectors I had made) and I would also be interested in 2S battery config!
What range of cell lengths will fit? Be aware that whilst 20700s may be available in the USA, they are not currently widely available elsewhere (the other 95% of the worlds population and potential buyers). This may change of course during the year. Still, you’ll get sales for the novelty value.
I was gonna ask the 21700 question too.
It would seem to be the wise thing to do, to drill the tube out a little more, because i doubt the 20700 will have a long future ahead, and it’s pretty easy to insert a paper sheath (or similar) when you want to use 20700.
You can add a plastic foil people can insert rolled in the tube to reduce size for 20700 and 18650
Costs a few cents and some weak glue you can remove easily
That depends on TexasLumens. He’s the main man here but this project is taking off. He showed a few more designs he’s got in mind for the head. Tail cap and body diameter will be very close. I have little doubt about his tight specs, but as a tradition I’ll be tossing it in the pool for two days to check water proofing. He did set it up for double o-rings for both the tail and head. Then I take it over to the lawyer for his input. Also going over possible options like a McClicky switch, finishes, 7075 Aluminium, Copper, and a few others. With a little luck a new very bright dropin that doesn’t exceed manufacturer specs.
I was hoping for a 26650 body, this means yet another cell to put into the 14500, 16340, 18350, 18650, 26350, 26650 mix… But being a huge fan of the P60, I would likely do it.
:+1: