I have been looking for a good quality mid-size thrower for a while now and I just thought of bringing it up here. What I have in mind is a 3 or 4 cell Q8 style battery tube with a 2.8 to 3ā head. Throw in good heat management, an efficient driver and Narsil or other great UI and BLF would have a nice light that would fill a hole in my line-up.
How would that differ from the Q8?
Single reflector with a 35 HI or other throwy led. In my mind that was implied, but my mind is not always clear.
Iām sure there are lights like that already out there, they just need a driver swap. Maybe a Haikelite MT07S or Klarus G35 with one of Lexels drivers.
When his boost driver comes out you could build an even smaller thrower using a 26650. Like the Utorch uto2 which is very cheap.
Donāt wait for BLF to make it. Make it yourself! Lol
I have a MK35 that I might upgrade with a GT/Narsil driver and a 4000K or 4500K led swap. Wish me luck, Iām goin in! The 4000K in the GT has gotten me hooked. I just bought a MX30L4Cvn with XPL Hi 4000K which is now my favorite balanced light.
. GOOD LUCK!!! . :+1: . 
Extremely compact 21700 flashlight powerbank.
- USB type C
- Astrolux 22 mm quad lens
- Samsung LH351D, XP-L HI variants
- Texas Commander / LD4 style driver with FET on MCPCB, regulating the light all the way to peak output. Might place other components on MCPCB too it thatās needed to save space.
- Ramping UI
Initial, somewhat incorrect sketch:
I drew it without glass protecting the lens. Iām not sure it thatās a great choice especially that bezel blocks some light, just like it is with S2+ triples.
And there is no place to put threads between head and body tube, so this is a unibody light with press-fit driver. Not sure if thatās feasible with USB and maybe a button on the other side. You can remove the driver by poking it from the optic side.
Why did I say āmaybe a button on the other sideā? Because Iām wondering if a button assembly plugged into USB slot wouldnāt be a good idea.
It seems that āextremely compact for its battery typeā is a very common desire. In general, Iād like to see more lights which are barely bigger than the fuel tank.
Unusually, Iād like to suggest not a from-scratch project but a special edition of existing light.
DQG Spy Ti which has low-bin XP-G2 replaced with Samsung LH351D. Warm CRI90. Thatās it.
Well, extra points for shortening it to 10150 or 10160.
ADDED:
Or AR coated lens.
Or glow o-ring.
OK. There are a few things that could be done better.
But nevertheless this is a good light thatās extremely close to being a great light.
Iāve had the concept in my head for a long timeā¦I made some drawings beforeā¦but just couldnāt make it right.
Now I managed to put all the pieces together.
Welcome A7, a pocket hotrod.
Features:
- 7 LEDs, XP sized. Dedomed Samsung LH351D would be my pick.
- Though XP-L2 would turn it to a 5-second light
- 21700
- Texas-Commander / LD4 style driver integrated with the LED MCPCB regulating the light to 10+ amps. With Turbo above that.
- Unibody
- E-switch
- DQG style tail cap
Hereās the drawing, next to a rough outline of Emisar D4.
Inspirations (alphabetically):
DB Customās Titanium X6, DQG Tiny 18650, DQG Tiny 26650, Emisar D4, Led4Powerās works, Zebralights
Do you have a bigger picture to share? (pm?)
No, I donāt.
I draw stuff pixel by pixel in gimp. This technique limits me heavily, but thatās what Iām capable of.
If you need larger, simply zoom it.
Why not use something like sketchup or solidworksā¦
Sketchup doesnāt work on FreeBSD. I contemplated learning CAD before but never reached that pointā¦
If anyone needs me, Iāll be over here crying.
You could use Blender. Or FreeCAD. Or LibreCAD. Or OnShape. Or several others. If you donāt want to do a full 3D model, I find Inkscape is good for quick 2D stuff. Its grid options make it easy to build accurate scale models.
Yesā¦I know that drawing lights with 1 mm resolution is barbaric.
I just never got the motivation to learn something different.
After all, what I draw is good enough to show the idea.
It is good enough to make me encounter most problems.
Regardless what tool I use, if anyone was to actually manufacture one of those lights, they would CAD it anyway.
This is not good enough to draw an angle light though.
I need 3D to figure out internal layout. Iād like to draw one one day. Maybe then Iāll get motivated to learn some better tools.
When I see the word āDonationā in the thread title, I remember the only flashlight I have seen in the Third World village near me.
It was a broken, stubby version of the now famous light we see everybody trying to sell,ā¦this one with bulb battery, plastic zoom lens, gritty switch and corrosion from the penlight cells, (not even alkyleaks).
A foil covered piece of cardboard with a rusty spring on one side, an LED of sorts seemingly glued (?) to the otherā¦.it was the the ownerās pride and joy while it lasted.
Well, if youāre using GIMP, then you probably have a harder time penciling pixel-by-pixel than you would have just drawing a nice shape with smooth lines and curves.
Why are you not using windowsā¦