I am also a gas lantern collector & builder! meaning i have done many comparisons & developed this LT1 LED lantern to stand & run with the gas lanterns. ( here is a few of my restored vintage gas lanterns.
I imagine the firmware will be a version of Anduril, which does have a voltage check feature. Three clicks from off, and you get the voltage blinked out. 4.1V is four blinks, pause, one blink.
before Christmas, like on all BLF developments.
It depends on the quality and function of the production sampel. After that it depends on production capacities. No one can say when they are ready for sale.
Protected or non-protected cells will work fine. (the driver will have low voltage warning built in.) just make sure the four cells are the same type, same capacity & matching. The solder mod can be used to make flat tops work too.
Barry is keeping a couple for them to test themselves. 2700K & 5000K, high CRI, right now as far as i know they used the easiest to get in High CRI, SST20 2700K 95 CRI, and Nichia 219C 5000K High CRI.
Edit: Barry just informed me they used Samsung LH351D emitters for the test prototypes.
They probably have learned from the SP36, they made 2 prototypes and one was sent to me and the other to ToyKeeper, and then they had none left themselves. They could not even make pics in time for the website
This is super exciting. Seeing the video and pictures yesterday was nice, but I still wondered how long before others would get their hands on them to check out. I’m very glad TK will be getting one to finalize the firmware.