Well…. good luck convincing them of that. Most of the smaller chinese flashlight makers chase lumens instead. None of them want to make 1xAAA lights under 30 lumens. The Manker Boney was one of the last ones.
I’ve looked quite extensively for cheap dim single mode 1xAA and 1xAAA lights with good runtime. I want something that I can give away in blackouts and emergencies. They don’t exist. The closest thing are those 9 LED 3xAAA cheapos. It will be more than a simple LED swap to make it happen
The major brands still have them. Jetbeam NE01. Klarus Mi02. Sunwayman R01A. Fenix E01. Nitecore T0. Led Lenser P2BM. Nextorch K00. But most of these are on the way out. I don’t think they’ll be too open to making a limited run. Just guessing but the big appeal to producing these lights is that the design hasn’t needed to be changed or updated in a decade.
One thing that might help this project would be the larger quantities. If we can get the right design, I can imagine people ordering 4 or 5 to toss in go bags and cars all over the place. Not many people need more than one Q8, so the overall quantity could be higher. Maybe even work out a ‘bulk discount’? Not sure.
At the end of the day if Fenix doesn’t bite, it could be hard to make this happen.
Klarus’ Mi02 would be a good backup option. Plan C would be a custom light, and I’d have to guess between Lumintop, Manker, or Thorfire, but I think it might be harder to get a cheap fully potted light if this route is taken.
I agree that the appeal of producing these is the minimal resources it takes to keep doing so.
Still, if there’s enough people interested in the idea, I think it’s worth trying. The worst I could see happening is we spend some time discussing it, and Fenix doesn’t even respond to the solicitation, so we never know if they even seriously considered it.
Hopefully this is purely a drop-in replacement for the Nichia GS (I think the E01 is current controlled, and 5mm LED’s are fairly standardized, so it should be), in which case, it should be a matter of coordinating with Yuji for packaging that fits their assembly process, and a little distribution oversight to keep the specials from getting mixed up with the regular production.
By the way, my understanding is there are two official Fenix distributors in the US (who import the lights and wholesale them to the retailers): Fenix Store and Fenix Lighting.
Fenix Store sponsors a manufacturer-specific sub-forum on CPF they have stayed somewhat active in.
If nobody on BLF has any experience dealing directly with Fenix, then once the list has grown a little, I can volunteer to reach out to Fenix Store to find out if they can be of any assistance in this request. I’m unsure whether this is a better route on the whole than going straight to the parent company in Shenzhen, but it’s an option.
I bought the E01vn with the 3200k Yuji from Vinh just to see how this emitter looks like, and while the tint is much better than Cree 3000k that I’ve seen, it is still above the BBL whereas Nichia 219B, E21A, and Optisolis is at or below the BBL. My 3000k 219B has better tint, less yellow and more rosy.
organizing an interest list at CPF might be an option, although as I understood BLF is for the “budget” lights, whereas the people at CPF would probably just buy an HDS. Nonetheless an High CRI Fenix E01 might be a nice cheap backup light for an HDS
Just throwing this out, but would an AA be more practical? Still very compact, but with more capacity and uses a more common cell type. Also more likely to share cells with GPS devices for camping. I’m also a bit worried that the AAA might have too much of an overlap with the BLF 348 as a BLF special high CRI single mode light.
Think of a matrix that plots price versus reliability (meaning mostly drop resistance and general reliability in terms of low defects because of robust design). Price divided by reliability in this case defines value.
When you look at it this way, you see that the Fenix E01 takes a special place in an otherwise empty quadrant (perhaps only served well by PFlexPro by customizing Chinese flashlights to increase their reliability).
The only specific value problem for the E01 is that in stock form the tint of the Nichia GS Led is really bad.
Switch out the Nichia GS LED for a $ 0,116 Yuji high CRI 5 mm Led and you have a unicorn light in terms of value.
Value of mass produced flashlights defined as reliability/price