simple as dedoming an led

Ooooh, I like the change to a lightly frosted optic vs what they had before. That’ll be a good combo with the throwier emitters I think. Just enough diffusion to get a good close range beam with the throwier emitters this will probably ship with.

BurningPlayd0h wrote:

Ooooh, I like the change to a lightly frosted optic vs what they had before.

Streamtronics wrote:

BurningPlayd0h wrote:

Ooooh, I like the change to a lightly frosted optic vs what they had before.

The 10511 “frosted narrow spot” optics are the ones mentioned/specified in the OP, the prototypes had wider optics, probably because that’s what lumintop had lying around. Wouldn’t surprise me if they just changed the optics to fully clear ones without notice though lol.

The newest photographed one on TLF definitely doesn’t have clear optics, they’re frosted but its not nearly as aggressive as the earlier optics.

kanton wrote:

Lumintop’s attitude

It might appear that way, but I don’t think it’s really Lumintop. They’ve mostly just done as their client asked. What’s weird is, the way the project is set up, BLF/TLF are not the client. So Lumintop hasn’t been talking to BLF/TLF about this project, they’ve been talking to their client. This makes things a little frustrating for people on the forums.

Hmmmm…. Who is the “client”… Neil??

Put me down for 2 please

I’m being serious right now, do you think it might be a possibility to overcome the communication issues (which I’m assuming is mostly language barrier?) by getting texts translated “professionally”? Especially in the BLF → Manufacturer direction it might make sense. Now I have no idea how much that’d cost or who’d pay upfront for that (maybe a small non-refundable fee when wanting to be put on the interest list), but I think the translation should be done by someone somewhat experienced in technical translations, maybe could find people like that on sites like fiverr? I noticed how much work you put into making graphics to visualize issues you found with the prototypes, but sometimes you just can’t get around having proper text communication (as witnessed with this and probably some previous projects)…

Teacher, I was wondering the same, but yeah, I think it must be Neal.

‘Probably’ so cabfrank. Neal seems to be the common thread between BLF & TLF….

I don’t have a full set of pics yet, but here is a quick peek at the latest sample:

I’ve mostly just been trying to catch up on everything… too much to do lately. Hopefully I can get the interest list updated in the morning though, and get some other things taken care of too.

Thanks for the pic TK.

iamlucky13 wrote:

It very well could have not involved any overt decision. Keep in mind that although it is easily noticeable in the picture, and I’m sure will be easy to feel, the growth Toykeeper measured is only 0.3mm (0.012”) per side – equivalent to the thickness of 6 sheets of paper.

If they're sending out a CAD pattern to a vendor without tightly controlling the tolerance, the vendor may err on the side of providing too much material, especially with as thin as I expect the ring is. Or the supplier may have just ignored a specified tolerance.

Even in the US I've had suppliers miss or ignore tolerances they didn't think were important.

Sofirn had trouble with the clip supplier for the C01, by the way.

As far as clip color, in the pictures it looks just fine. When compared with the Zebralight clip in the bottom picture you can see the FW3A clip is not black. And thankfully it is not painted either.

The hole in the clip tip….. who knows?? All we can do is guess, & that changes nothing.
Yeah the clip without the hole (top picture right) would have been just fine… but apparently that is not gonna happen. We will survive….

my .02, ymmv

Pictures by Bluzie:

FW3A clip on left / Zebrelight SC 700d clip on right

ToyKeeper wrote:

…here is a quick peek at the latest sample:

I’d wish I never seen the original design which I can’t “unsee” because as it is, it looks great. Job well done
Without actual rival for such flashlight (featurewise), Lumintop will probably hardly keep up with the demand, it’s all the bad I wish for them.

Okay TK’s image of the latest looks amazing. LETS DO THISSSS

Yeah looks nice! I’m fine with either clip. Just want it in my hands!

Please add me for one more.

Amazing work, can’t wait to feel it in my hands! I’m interested in buying one (1).

@Toykeeper, could you please ask Lumintop/Neal if they could order LH351Ds from say Digikey/Arrow, and tell them that we are willing to pay a higher price for them if they can get it?

I know they don’t want to pay the 20-25% taxes in relation to this, but a higher priced LH351D might allieavate this.

I wish we knew how long it would be before there’s a high-CRI option. If it’s months after the XP-L HI, I might have to get one now.

ToyKeeper wrote:

 LH351D is still possible but it sounds like international relations may interfere with that.

BlueSwordM wrote:

@Toykeeper, could you please ask Lumintop/Neal if they could order LH351Ds from say Digikey/Arrow, and tell them that we are willing to pay a higher price for them if they can get it? I know they don't want to pay the 20-25% taxes in relation to this, but a higher priced LH351D might allieavate this.

Do we have confirmation that the issue is actually taxes (or even cost-related)? I would think they'd have mentioned that, given how readily they said "XPL-HI costs more". It would probably be pretty easy for Lumintop to sell a LH351D version for the same price as XPL-HI... 

Please put me on the list, I want two, thank you!

Please put me down for 2. Thanks!

I’d pay the higher price if that’s the issue. I just don’t want to existing pile of LEDs that will never get used for anything.

Please add me for one!

I see now why the FW3A clip (photo left) sticks out, probably because they needed it to be wider for strength. If flush to the surface the clip would be too thin and weak. My guess on the hole would be for some strain relief and flexibility. (I just hope that it’s an optical illusion or proto-type that the two edges of the clip aren’t equal width.) FWIW, Fritz’s original design stuck out too.

The ZL clip (photo right) is significantly wider and oriented differently. Some might find it too prominent on the face of the light.

I’m still hanging in.

zak.wilson wrote:

I wish we knew how long it would be before there’s a high-CRI option. If it’s months after the XP-L HI, I might have to get one now.

I was thinking the same thing.

Does anyone have any updates on the quest to source a good SST-20 bin?

At this point I wonder if Luminus has even managed to produce a single SST-20 in a "good" tint bin. Seems harder to find than Boost HX. 

Scallywag wrote:

At this point I wonder if Luminus has even managed to produce a single SST-20 in a “good” tint bin. Seems harder to find than Boost HX. 

I can’t remember what bin it is but the 4000K that Kaidomain carries look pretty good to me.

BurningPlayd0h wrote:

Scallywag wrote:

At this point I wonder if Luminus has even managed to produce a single SST-20 in a “good” tint bin. Seems harder to find than Boost HX. 

I can’t remember what bin it is but the 4000K that Kaidomain carries look pretty good to me.

They appear to be FB4. I have the same in my D4 and D4S and have been happy with them. I’d love to have some below BBL, but like Scallywag said, I’ve never seen one to date.

I should probably go ahead and get another one since I’d like one in the first batch and it sounds like the high CRI will be further down the road. So if you can put me down for two instead of 1 like in my original post. Thanks for all the amazing work guys!