Collecting interest for a Sofirn C01 host version

After the C01 with Yuji leds was sold out the C01 did not come back, Sofirn told us it was because Yuji did not have the leds anymore. I had asked if other high CRI 5mm leds could be sourced and although there was some progress in that, there were some problems so that still has not happened.
So now I asked Barry if Sofirn could make the C01 host available so that people can solder in their own 5mm leds, and I’m really glad that Sofirn is willing to do that. :slight_smile:

To be clear, please understand that this thread is about the low-power C01 that fits oldschool 5mm leds, not about the C01 S that fits high power 3535 leds and has a TIR optic.

Next is the price. I tried 5 dollar, but after calculating the costs Barry told me that they could not do that. Labour is the major cost and that does not change for a host version, and not adding the 5mm led saves just 15 cents. The other factor is numbers: the production becomes cheaper if more is produced, and a host likely does not sell thousands. So Barry mentioned 6.5 dollar as the lowest selling price. I think that is still a fair price for a niche product.

What will you get?: a complete C01 with driver but without a led soldered into the driver board, and without potting. The small o-ring that waterproofs the front of the led in the head will be included. You can finish the light with any 5mm led, that can be soldered in with a common solder iron. I reckon that it will be an easy job but when the host is available I’m sure there will be some tricks posted. The resulting light should run at 25 mA, will be unpotted (but still extremely tough as I found out) but easy to mod again. There may be a mod to set the current differently but I’m no expert in that.
We did not discuss the colour yet, I suggested simply black is best, and perhaps a percentage unanodised.

A strong requirement from Sofirn is that there will be an interest list so that they see that the market for the host version is there, and they can estimate the number of hosts that will be produced. Sofirn has not been very precise with inventory in the past which caused problems, so they are more careful now not to produce too much.

So this thread is to estimate interest numbers for the C01 host (this is not a group buy thread that will give you a discount). Please post how many you would buy for 6.5 dollar each and assuming that the colour will be black. (you can mention that you would like unanodised too but I will not add that to the list, the information may or may not be used to get part of the production done without ano). I will maintain the list here below in the OP.

1 djozz
2 djozz
3 djozz
4 djozz
5 djozz
6 djozz
7 thisnameisvalid
8 wolfstyle
9 wolfstyle
10 shirnask
11 shirnask
12 flightless22
13 flightless22
14 hank
15 Grigio
16 Grigio
17 Grigio
18 azhu
19 azhu
20 blind-eye
21 blind-eye
22 Gunga
23 Gunga
24 staticx57
25 staticx57
26 Unheard
27 Unheard
28 guerrilla154
29 guerrilla154
30 SvenWalker
31 SvenWalker
32 SvenWalker
33 Henk4U2
34 Henk4U2
35 Noctiluco
36 Noctiluco
37 GreenLights
38 GreenLights
39 dk21291
40 dk21291
41 dk21291
42 dk21291
43 iamlucky13
44 iamlucky13
45 buck91
46 buck91
47 Coppet
48 Coppet
49 Pwsmith
50 Pwsmith
51 Unheard
52 Unheard
53 shmolky
54 shmolky
55 dompred
56 dompred
57 Slayer1
58 Slayer1
59 mattlward
60 mattlward
61 bykfixer
62 bykfixer
63 bykfixer
64 bykfixer
65 bykfixer
66 MascaratumB
67 MascaratumB
68 MascaratumB
69 MascaratumB
70 mgwn
71 mgwn
72 shirnask
73 shirnask
74 shirnask
75 Phosphor22
76 Phosphor22
77 Phosphor22
78 Phosphor22
79 Phosphor22
80 Phosphor22
81 Phosphor22
82 Phosphor22
83 Flummi
84 Flummi
85 Flummi
86 Flummi
87 1stein
88 1stein
89 Kame Sennin
90 Kame Sennin
91 Kame Sennin
92 Kame Sennin
93 Kame Sennin
94 Kame Sennin
95 slowtechstef
96 slowtechstef
97 slowtechstef
98 slowtechstef
99 dk21291
100 dk21291
101 Petelele
102 Petelele
103 blind-eye
104 id30209
105 id30209
106 id30209
107 id30209
108 Unheard
109 Unheard
110 OtisCampbell
111 OtisCampbell
112 OtisCampbell
113 OtisCampbell
114 nastynate
115 led_400
116 led_400
117 2Ace
118 2Ace
119 2Ace
120 gotang
121 gotang
122 gotang
123 gotang
124 virencelights
125 virencelights
126 Esko
127 Esko
128 Hank33
129 matik42
130 matik42
131 Slim Pickens
132 Slim Pickens
133 zaxar0580
134 chris.zerocool
135 chris.zerocool
136

Interested in 1 host. Anybody know places that sell the 3200k yujis?

Interested in 2 hosts

Interested in 2 hosts

Interested in 2 hosts.

I want to know more about this.

I'd end up wanting to hot-rod it, and it doesn't sound suitable. So I'm out on this one. Best of luck, however.

Interested — I have Arc AAAs in blue, red-orange, green, two different UV, and cyan, and they’d appreciate company.
I suspect the 5mm LEDs available today are better (and welcome discussion of appropriate colored and UV LEDs to use)

PS, this would be an ideal host for UV LEDs, and a lot of people might find it handy to have a pocket LED source.
Discussion: site: budgetlightforum.com uv led wavelength - Google Search

I think using UV LEDs with boost or buck converters is always a good idea. They tend to have quite high Vf and so don't work as well with linear drivers.

Count me in for three. If possible unanodised.

I’m old school, I like these old fashioned LED’s. I need to find out where to get the proper Led’s here, I have to learn how to solder very precisely and how to change whatever needs to be changed but that’s why I need 3, so I end up with at least 1 good one. :wink:

This is not a hotrod host for sure, you can put only so much power into a 5mm led.
That said, when they first designed the C01, they told me that they could set the current (which ended up at 25mA). Maybe that is still possible (within limits) by changing a resistor or so.

I’d be interested in 2

Interested in 2 hosts

I’ll do a couple hosts.

I’m a little confused as to why they can’t produce the 5600k version again. I’m seeing the link to the used LED on the C01 page as being available. Is this not the case? I wouldn’t want a host, but I would definitely pick up a C01 even if it was $7 or so if that is actually the LED and it is actually available at that price. Here is the link I found in the original thread: here.

Jos, would it be possible to add some alternative LEDs to the Yuji BC that would fit into the host? Maybe this could increase the interest even more. I must admit I don’t have any idea about good 5mm LEDs. Bedankt! :-)

I had a feeling that there were more reasons to stop the C01 than just availability of the Yuji leds (the more popular 3200K led is indeed sold out). Maybe they simply wanted to move on to the C01S which is the type of light that Sofirn was planning in the first place, even before we suggested to do the C01.

Look at this post:

Someone that is more interested should PM him and see what he ended up sourcing

Personally I have a small collection of 5mm colour leds that would make fun lights. And the very bright white Nichia GS may work well too, especially if you manage to mod the current. I have them from leds.de : https://www.leds.de/leds-komponenten/bedrahtete-leds.html
But there are more sources for 5mm leds too, i.e. on aliexpress and ebay.

He is still on the hunt for good quality but it needs prototyping and testing. I (and maukka) tested some first prototypes for him and the tint/CRI/output were good and comparable to the Yuji leds but the beams were a bit uneven, which could very well be because they were prototypes (sort of handmade). But then the factory stopped communicating and now he found a new source, and some new testing must be done again. If he succeeds in getting them done and selling them they should be very good for use in the C01 host.