An update from Sofirn. They made a first drawing based on the specs, so nothing is actually made yet and nothing is final. But pics are always very nice . In fact it is a 2nd drawing because it had one clip groove (I was pleasantly surprised by that they decided on clip possibility) and I asked if a second groove could be made to allow the clip to be reversed. A clip will not be standard but can be ordered separately, it is the PF04 clip.
So it is not much more than a E01 copy with some extra features but that may be exactly what we want.
This section is still without second clip recession:
Personally I like the tail like this but I see discussion above to make a central hanging point instead of one on the side. I stil think that the trit slot is a nice outstanding feature (Barry was less enthousiastic about a trit slot because he liked a standard Sofirn tail like the SP10 better, but I really would like to keep it in the design) so if a tail design can be worked out with a central hole combined with a trit slot and tail standing and still looking good that would be awesome.
Sofirn is going to look into if a parabolic recession at the front will do any good for the beam, but since nothing is made yet that is still ahead of us.
They are now confident that they will do the potting well (āthey will make it greatā)
Verry nice! The tail is perfect. Now a nice non black anodizing . I would skip the longitudinal grooves on the middle knurling, but that is up to sofirn.
I like the black anodizing, but they did already say they (possibly?) would do a few colors. Also, the longitudinal grooves break up the otherwise boring diamond knurling and make the tube more interesting. Iād like to keep them.
Iām hoping the reflector changes make a nice beam, especially if they ended up with the 60 degree emitters. And the tail looks fine to me. I like that style better than ācentral connectionā style. I donāt need a trit slot but I donāt mind it being there.
+1. :+1:
IMHO djozz did a fantastic job in transmitting/channelling our preferences to Sofirn.
And there is nothing wrong with some additional body colors
An AA version with still just one 5mm led at 8 lumen? I guess because of the runtime. If I may guess, that version would sell much more limited, but if this project is finished who knowsā¦
An AA vampire cockroach would be great for long power outages. I have handfuls of AAs just in the remote controls in my living room. Half-depleted AAAs are less common in my house.
Of course, most of us have plenty of 18650s and lights for power outages, but Iād give these to muggles as emergency lights. And Iād keep a few, obviously.
According to Engineering toolbox, seven 5mm circles will fit within a 16mm circle. An AA light could give us over 50 lumens of high CRI light that way. Maybe even put 4x 3200K with 3x 5600K for a blended tint nearer neutral.
EDIT: On second thought, that would be approaching those 3AAA 9LED lights. It would take some mighty fine engineering to make it not look super cheap. :confounded:
And with 7 leds and 50lm, it becomes tempting to go for one smd power led and a nice optic instead, TIR or reflector. And there you have the ToolAA, DQGtiny and many others: make the lens plastic, pot the driver and there you go.
Yeah, thatās probably a better direction to go if moving up to AA with this light. Yuji does make larger LEDs so they could still be the source if thatās what people wanted. The ābig brotherā AA cockroach light.
Reversible clip is, in my opinion, a must if a clip is considered at all on a small AAA light. Being able to clip to a cap or something for hands free light is a big bonus.