*BLF LT1 Lantern Project) (updated Nov,17,2020)

Other Types of Lights LED Lanterns
6041

Good job DBSAR! Looking real good now! Thanks for all the hard work :beer: :+1:

Have you gotten confirmation from Sofirn whether they are using 3000K or 2700K? I bought a TO50R modded by contactr with LH351D 90CRI 2x 2700K mixed with 2x 5000K and the tint is fabulous despite I never liked any LH351D tint in the past. The 2700K Iā€™ve read has lover duv (less green/yellow) than the 3000K version of the LH351D. If Sofirn is using the 3000K, hope they can switch to the 2700K in the next batch. 2700K would look much better in candle mode too.

6042

Or at least how many you want to pay for :stuck_out_tongue: . Thereā€™s no obligation to buy them. It appears that weā€™ll have no shortage of actual orders :wink: .

6043

Thank you. :+1:
It was confirmed by Barry, it is the LH351D 2700K and the LH351D 5000K that is to be used for the LT1. The tint & CRI in every range of the tint mixing is amazing from my tests so far. (its a better looking tint range than most of the household LED bulbs i have in use, and most every other modified LED lantern i have.

6044

:+1: 2700K mixed with 5000K with this emitter yields fantastic results. Not as good as the exotic E21A mixed tints but you wouldnt notice unless you compare them side by side. For the price the LH351D in this setup is probably as good as it gets.

6045

Iā€™m just going to leave my few cents publicly. Like I said in my PM to you a while back, if you want to keep all of the information then you need to move the stuff away from the first post to somewhere else.

As an example: on page 2 you have posts 36, 47 and 48 available > jam everything but the interest list to post 47 and put the interest list to post 48. Whatever is in those posts can stay there.
Or choose whatever posts you fancy: you have countless number of posts available to you in this thread where you can stuff/hide whatever you want, wherever you want and then link to in the first post.
That way if anyone wants to read the history or wants to see the interest list then they can do so.

With that done, you can start fresh with a completely new first post, unhindered by your past choices. And, in my opinion, a project of this magnitude deserves it.

The format of the first post could then be:
LT1 logo, Sofirn logo, ???
short synopsis (who, why, what)
final specifications
final pictures
YT embeds (production sample video or a demonstration video, good video review by someone)
links (ordering page, history post, interest list post, interest list by entry+username, reviews from notable members when they start rolling in etc.)

Clean, simple and easy to update. And would help those who stumble here to see and understand in seconds what this thing is about without having to wade through dozen A4ā€™s worth of text that starts with wildly out of date information.

Iā€™m sorry to say this and donā€™t want to sound rude but Iā€™m a bit surprised you didnā€™t do this already. With what features we have available here on BLF, I canā€™t think of any other solution.
And this doesnā€™t even take that long. Conservatively speaking a few minutes to copy/paste ā€œthe stuffā€, verify theyā€™re there before nuking the first post, adding the links (link to the history post, the interest list post etc.) and saving. There, a clean slate which you can then build up.

P.S. A spoiler button on BLF would fix almost everything (page load time not being one of them) but alas we donā€™t have that feature.

6046

As long as weā€™re leaving our ā€œfew centsā€ laying around, if you already said it in PM then its been said and you should leave it alone. Clearly this bothers you, but Iā€™ll tell you why it shouldnā€™t ā€” because its not a big deal. Thousands of folks have managed to find and figure out this thing, many more than Den needed to make this group buy a success. Selling this light isnā€™t his job. That will (eventually) fall to Sofirn. His job was to design it and make it happen, which by all accounts heā€™s been wildly successful at accomplishing. Iā€™m glad heā€™s focused on making the lantern better instead of making this thread better, because clearly the thread is good enough.

Well you did sound pretty rude. And I gave you another solution ā€” ignore it and move on.

6047

Had a look at the video and it looks very convincing: well done Den and Sofirn, and I agree on the decision to get this into production!

6048

Looking great. Especially fond of the no battery needed with usb power feature.

6049

In for one please

6050

Would like 2 please.

One to keep around the house and one to be a little rougher on to take camping and caving.

6051

In for one, please

6052

Please put me down for two, thanks!

6053

I donā€™t think it was intentional, but it sure is going to be useful

6054

DBSAR,
About the camera app, BigClive uses (i think) open camera on a couple different phones to control focus and brightness in all of his videos. Might give that a look before spending $$$ on camera equipment.

6055

Does it work for the Samsung Galaxy S9? ( which is what i have) ( your link opens a youtube random video.

6056

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en_US

I don't know how good it is, but it works with Android phones.

6057

DBSAR, just a thought, and this might be too late in the game to ask. But would it be possible to machine several thin radial grooved ridges in the top portion of the head around its perimeter? It looks like the mill removed a good amount of material that could have been used to create additional surface area for heat sinking.

6058

Itā€™s very good, though a touch screen is not the perfect interface for something with so many controls. Luckily, you donā€™t need all of those controls in normal operation. You simply put it into Locked focus mode and touch the screen where you want the focus to be (can hold up your hand where your face will be if you wish). Push the video button and start recording.

There are some devices that have various issues with the Camera 2 API that the app attempts to use, but most work fine. If you have focus problems, thereā€™s a switch in the settings to use ā€œlegacyā€ focus mode, but most modern Androids should work well.

6059

It has been talked about before and it came roughly down to this;

Yes it does increase the surface area and will increase the heat dissipation.
But, it is not necessary for this lantern. The amount of heat the leds will produce isnā€™t enough to cause problems. Iirc, DBSAR did a long term testing and found that the top part didnā€™t become ā€˜too hot to touchā€™.

And personally, especially with a lantern style I find the clean look much better than a grooved / finned look. (but again thatā€™s just a personal thing)
For a possible ā€˜power upgradeā€™ it is definitely something to look at.

6060

Fantastic video. One question - how do I cover the bottom when powered with a power bank?