I present you with Giggles, the most hardcore BLF thrower in the World.

EDIT: Prototype V2 testing has been added on page 3 at Post 63

Ok, as many of you know I have been involved with the BLF Giggles project for some time now (The “BLF GT” for people without a sense of humor).

Well I posted a review in the Giggles Thread but it had not been officially christened at that point. That has been fixed now with a bit of laser engraving.

I present you with Giggles, The ultimate LED thrower flashlight, from this point forward, you shall address it by it’s proper name. :blush:

Here is the Giggles Text that I used in a few different formats. Personally I would stretch it out another mm or 2 to fill out the flat area but otherwise I think it works great.

Giggles Text For Engraving

Here is the review from the Giggles thread:

Click any picture for full size.

Ok, my long tube prototype arrived yesterday. I opened it up and promptly dubbed it “Giggles” as sounds kept coming out of me that I had no control over.

So after putting some cells in Giggles I turned it on and it earned it’s name. It is a normal flashlight, except 3x the size in every way, it is a BLAST to use. The beam is very intense.

Time for more pics!

The overall fit and finish of the light is great, exactly as we designed it to be. Only major change externally for the production run is the addition of knurling.



The button is nice with good feedback, the ring was not included, I added that for a shoulder strap. The bezel didn’t want to screw down all the way at first but seems it is just a tight un-lubed o-ring. With some lube that was fixed and will be done on the production lights.

The rotating tailcap is great, very smooth, waterproof and works great. Threads are nice and square as well. Only issue with it is it will need a plastic isolator on the inside of the tailcap to ensure the cell carrier can not short out but that is an easy fix.




The glass lens is a very nice piece, very thick and clear with a good AR coating too boot!

It is a very nice MCPCB, I forgot to take measurements then but I can get some later, looks to be around 35mm and around 2mm thick I would guess.

The heat sinking fins look great, very beefy and functional as well.

The other side from the button has the tripod mount and a plug that can act as another sling connection point

The battery tube is nice and sturdy for sure, you could use this like a bat no problem, good square cut threads.

The cell carriers are a VERY nice start, lumintop has redesigned them for the production lights with double springs that should have much lower resistance and polarity protection. Very good cell carriers for future BLF lights.

They would also be pretty simple to convert to 2s2p or 4P with a simple OSHpark PCB swap.




The driver is working flawlessly, I will let DEL give you all the details on it but so far my testing has mirrored his. A very good regulated output with a low dropout voltage and no apparent heat issues with the driver, which means it should be up to the task of driving an xhp70.2 at upwards of 60W and ~6000+ lumens :sunglasses:

Threads on the head are also very good

The reflector is good for a prototype, but could be improved. The surface finish is a little on the rough side, it looks like machine marks are showing through slightly, Lumintop have told us this was simply a prototype issue and the final lights will have a better finish. So the throw numbers should improve slightly.

The focus is very good as well. Some basic testing showed only very minor gains at differnt focal lengths. Very good for a factory light I would say but I was scared to test it too much since I am out of xhp35 HI’s if I was to damage the LED manually holding the reflector.

Here are some pictures with a sling from my S70 installed on the GT,* it balanced very well with the long tube* but is still a tad head heavy, not enough to be a problem though. With the sling it works great for walking around and lighting things up at distance. Perfect hog light to spot them way off in open country.

I would be curios to see the short tube versions setup like this to compare.

Here it is with both carriers filled:

And here with only the rear carrier full:

Now for some comparisons to my other throwers, they are all using TA FET drivers, From left to right:

Astrulux S2 - C8 XP-L2 - Convoy L2 XP-L HI - Courui D01 XP-L HI - Convoy L2 with XHP35 HI - UF 1405 xhp35 HI - Convoy L6 xhp70 - BLF GT

No flashlight will ever look the same again.

A simpler shot:

Overall I am very pleased with this light as a first prototype!

Now for Giggles beamshots!

Keep in mind the camera was on semi-auto and it was VERY humid out this night, so the beam shows up much more then normal and it doesn’t show the throw as good as normal. It looks cool though!

Giggles blows everything else out of the water by a large margin!

Here is Giggles aimed about 300-350ft away (tried to get some longer range shots but it was way too humid and the beam washed out the image before you could see the reflection, looked cool though, looked like a light saber!).

I edited the pictures since posting them in the Giggles thread in order to make them closer to what the eye saw, not perfect by any means, the humidity just made it impossible to get good beamshots but better.

Convoy L2 with XP-L HI

Pay attention to these 2 Convoy L2 beamshots, they are exactly the same light, the only differnce between them is the XHP35 below vs the XP-L HI above.

Also notice that the XHP35 is a warmer tint and even though the technical throw numbers are about the same, you can see things at range far better. The difference is even more noticeable in person. So keep this in mine, warmer is better for real world throw even if the Lux meter says differently, it sees light differently then our human Eyes.

Convoy L2 with xhp35 HI

Convoy L6 with XHP70 3A and TA FET driver at around 6,000 luemens

Cometa:

And my High CRI Triple XP-G3 3000 lumen Convoy S8 EDC frankenlight for comparison

The GT beam in nearly fog like humidity:

Another GT beamshot from a distance:

Comparison with several other throwers, I think the order goes like this:

XHP35 HI L2 - XP-L HI L2 - BLF GT - Small 2s zoomie - XHP35 HI 1405 - Cometa

Some tent beam shots to show the beam at different exposures:

May the Giggles be with you.

Great review, I grinned, I chuckled, I may have even giggled. :smiley:

Subbed’ Just because sometimes one needs to Giggle….

Swear to god I thought for a second that Emma Watson had joined BLF :smiley:

Salivating with anticipation.
Hand them over NOW!

My evil plan is working! Muhahaha

I suppose I have been called worse things then a small english girl. lol

No.

Have you measured the lux already or was that someone else that did it a while ago?

Del has measured it a few times and got a best reading of 1.1Mcd on the prototype reflector IIRC.

It is so humid in Texas lately that I can’t get long range readings, instead of going up like they should they go down. In the winter I know they go up so I am kinda out of the Lux measurement game at the moment.

Particularly since the AC is busted and it is more humid in the house then outside due to all of our sweat adding to the fun (yeah, it is as fun as it sounds, 110F+ heat index average during the day and 85f at night the last few weeks.

Can’t say I’ve had the pleasure of knowing that kind of weather; over here, when it’s that hot, humidity is always at 20% or lower. AC is torture, and humidifiers behind fans are a blessing.

Well I am getting the pleasure all day, I LOVE Texas but the heat in the middle of summer is real. Man, if we had 20% humidity right now it would feel amazing! Lowest I have seen it all summer except for right before a front moves through is like 50. In the house we seem to average around 70+ depending on the day.

Some of the heat index calculators come up with over 125f, I believe them. 95f in the house + 70% humidity is no joke.

I know I will regret having my name removed from the list but the funds that would have gone for it are being used for a greater purpose.

Great pics! And what a perfect name for a cute little light :laughing:

Thanks for the review TA. Just make sure Giggles doesn’t turn into hysteria. :slight_smile:

i’m in for one

Excellent ! I like it

Great review and beamshots, The Giggles is a fantastic light.
Thank you for the pictures.

I just hope a short tube is available for sale at an extra cost.

Goliath’s Thrower

IG you have not done it, please post this in the main Giggles thread for it is going to be hard to keep up with requests for the same list in several topics :wink:

Dang TA nice engraving.