[Available again! - BLF special edition light] new Sofirn AAA twisty high CRI 5mm LED

I’m in for 2*3200K and 1*5600K

In for one of each please

ReyLights are custom orders from Lumintop, I think they use a 500 minimum order quantity.
Massdrop also does custom orders from Lumintop, and I also contacted them to ask about doing a Fenix E01 w Yuji. I have had no reply from Massdrop.

The Massdrop formula is like Kickstarter, first they get a bunch of people to pledge, then they get the money, then they pay the manufacturer, so no risk for Massdrop. If not enough people sign up, no money changes hands.

Good job @djozz for finding Sofirn is willing to do the Yuji cockroach idea. There should be no worry about PWM, as it is not used in single mode lights. How much money does Sofirn want to start production, what is their minimum order quantity, and who is going to pay for that?

as far as momentary on, all twisty lights have that feature/bug, due to slop in the threads, so if you only barely twist off, the light will turn on in pocket from side pressure… I do not care for the “feature”, so I turn off half a turn.

Sofirn already was wanting to make an AAA twisty, though perhaps not one with a 5mm straw led, so our request was welcomed and they ask no money for development. In fact they are happy with our input.

fantastic!
as far as potting, though I agree it may not be necessary, it is important to be able to say Yes, this light is fully potted, just like an HDS (or a Fenix)…!

I look forward to your success.

I’m interested in two 3200K.

I don’t know how useful this information will be, but yes I have some experience.

A Sunwayman R01A I had swapped a Yuji into died after a couple ~5 foot drops.

I opened it up again to troubleshoot. Everything is so small it was hard to tell for certain what went wrong, but I spotted a diode that appeared not to have been soldered well, and lifted slightly off its solder pad. I presume it was due to the circuit board flexing when the battery hammered against it. Aside from inertial protection, good potting could potentially also help minimize this flexing, but I believe even more important is a good assembly technique to ensure the solder joints are good to begin with.

I added a little more solder, and it worked again after re-assembling, although it still has occasional issues.

Here’s a macro photo I took of it. That’s a 0.7mm pencil lead in the upper corner for scale.

The inductor is still intact, although I don’t think this was a particularly hard hit. I’m not free of concern that in a harder hit, it might experience high enough G’s to pull loose.

I am in favor of recommending a potted driver based on the known ruggedness of the E01, but the way it see, if Sofirn is producing this light at their own risk instead of collaborating with BLF on a known quantity, it’s ultimately their call. I’ll buy several either way.

By the way, the Sunwayman drove the Yuji at 23mA, and the output was very appropriate to this size light.

No, it really is not. He says he wants “experiences from small flashlight users” and is completely ignoring all of that experience. There have been lots of destruction tests of inexpensive 1xAAA keychain lights. Skepticism in the face of evidence is not rational.

I agree the issue is the battery hammering against the board, causing broken solder joints

another light that is notorious for failing when dropped is the AA Illumination Supply L11c, and its twisty sibling L10. There is also an AAA version, the L08, though I could not find any reports of people dropping it, I suspect it has similar vulnerability

another possible advantage of potting, is it stops water from coming into the E01 around the 5mm LED, since there is no lens

other AAA lights known for durability, and they are potted, is the Arc AAA and the Peak Eiger

imo, when cloning an E01, it is very important to also clone the potting

note the lack of potting is one of the frequent objections to the Vinh E01, it may be just psychological, but it matters to buyers

btw, I think it is essential for the tail to have a keyring attachment point, I like it on the side of the tail, so the light can still tailstand.

It really can’t cost that much to stuff some glue in the head, and it certainly won’t do any harm (as long as the correct compound is used). Since the goal of this project is to make the most bomb proof light possible, there’s no real argument to not pot the light.

If Sofirn is unwilling or unable to pot the light and still wants to product it that’s their call, but I don’t see the point of arguing over whether or not added reinforcement is a good thing, regardless of whether you think it necessary. I know, for myself, if Sofirn is making the light and not potting it, I will probably opt to hold off on any orders until I can see some abuse testing.

If Sofirn can make a sampe, potted or unpotted, it would be great to see it run through a stress test side by side with the E01 this project was originally looking for - if the Sofirn light lasts longer or as long, case closed.

Normally ceramic capacitors are prone to break. Thats the reason their are ones for the automotive industry.

I googled for
g impact electronic components

and found sth. from the US Army 2006
http://www.arl.army.mil/arlreports/2006/ARL-TR-3705.pdf

There are g profils
4000g for a normal drop
(also 30 000g for a shot with a canon :slight_smile: )

At this high g loads things can simply sheare off.

Video on cracked ceramic caps

I was just ignoring strong language without reference, like “solder is weak” and “1000G is rather a lot” , “legendary” and “many tests” :wink: . And since I did not know examples myself I asked BLF for actual events happening, and now all sorts of detailed stories are seeping in and now my skepticism is being replaced by evidence in my face :slight_smile: . Sounds rational to me.

Im in for 3 times 3200K.

Thanks

So, still being quite ignorant about potting, what is the stuff that flashlight manufacturers use for potting drivers, so that I can tell that to Barry in case that the Sofirn engineers do not know that?

(in the meantime: Yuji led testing in progress)

I was going to say too, that “anecdotal evidence” isn’t the same thing as “rigorous testing” although both may be considered “experiences from small flashlight users”.

I’m interested in a couple of the lights if / when they are available.

I have no means yet to update the interest list, but since the Yuji AAA twisty was picked up by Sofirn, within 29 hours 47 people were added, for 135 lights. I think that if Sofirn does this light right they will get enough of them sold to justify the development. :slight_smile:

If this is anything like the E01, they will sell plenty, especially at $6 price point. I believe E01 sold very well when it first came out (despite its horrible tint) and still available today. If it was that bad, would of discontinued many years ago. Sofirn won’t be disappointed with this project.

Interested in 3 warm tint.

Interested in six (6) neutral white. Thank you.