*BLF LT1 Lantern Project) (updated Nov,17,2020)

I prefer the rounded font of the BLF Q8 (there are 2 font for the BLF GT and are different) and went throught a lot of messages to find its name without result. I tried to find an equivalent but none were as well ā€œbalancedā€ (donā€™t know if itā€™s the appropriate word).

I prefer the Ethnocentric Font i posted above earlier over the Unumtu one. The Ubuntu font looks to ā€œcheapā€ or plain, almost like an enhanced dot-matrix printer font.

I agree with DBSAR on Ubuntu.

Plus, Here is my overall preference in order:
Q8 style
Original/old font with the fat B fixed.
ethnocentric

Do not like Ubuntu or the rounded style of the quick test one.

For what its worth, I strongly agree. Ubuntu looks extremely plain to me, the Ethnocentric at least has character.

At the same time, and recognizing that in this post Iā€™m contributing to this as well, does it seem to anyone else that weā€™ve spent an inordinate amount of posts on the *font *of the lantern? I guess its a sign that people are excited about this project such that they want to discuss it even when thereā€™s nothing substantive to talk about, but stillā€¦

Please put me in for one lantern!

We spend an inordinate amount of posts on everything, the font of the lettering on a BLF light is actually one of the more relevant subjects we spend posts on :slight_smile:

Lol, you got me there.

Regarding the Q8 font. Iā€™m not sure which text youā€™re talking about, this one in the first image of post #2?

If so then Iā€™d say with 90% certainty that:
ā€˜BLFā€™ = Exo 2 Black
ā€˜Q8ā€™ = Magistral Cond Bold

Hereā€™s some quick and dirty mock ups
Exo 2 Black

Magistral Cond Bold

Exo 2 + Magistral

As far as these mock ups go the Magistral is a bit weird with itā€™s T and 1 almost touching and so on.
Mixed fonts donā€™t work here because of the Lā€™s.
And Exo 2 looks a bitā€¦ I donā€™t know. Itā€™s funky.

I donā€™t really have much of a preference on this, donā€™t really care. But if you want some feedbackā€¦
It should be something simple and monospaced. And since thereā€™s the line below the text the typeface should ā€œsit flatā€ on it instead of being rounded on the bottom.
Seeing most of the fonts thus far have been more ā€œin scaleā€ with the lantern in the logoā€¦

ā€¦how about the other features instead i.e. the rays of light and the line below?

Thatā€™s Roboto Mono. Still rather thick compared to the lines but overall Iā€™d say it looks balanced. (Youā€™d need to drop it from 350pt to ~250pt to match the line thickness)

Not sure what the size of the logo will be but scaling that image down to 5% on a 93 PPI monitor and leaning back to about a meter away I can still read it just fine.

I like that one :slight_smile:

That gets my vote as well.

This is the winner for me:

Easy to read letters and numbers.

It is balanced on both sides.

Powerful and correct boldness.

Same weight on both sides.

Consistent font.

Readable from distance.

BLF Family look. (Q8 esque)


At this point, I am as confident that the logo is in good hands as is the rest of this project. Whatever you decide at this point I am good with. To me the attention to every detail on this is exactly why I am going to end up buying more than one if for no other reason than to support the cause. This lantern is something to be very proud of and will be more well thought out and better than anything else on the market. More heads are better than one comes to mind here. It will be worth every minute of the wait for a polished end result.

One of my pet peaves is when I buy an amazing product, but the logo looks cheesy because the factory just didnt care about the artwork.

Cheesy logos and artwork always make me question the attention to detail on the rest of the product.

Thanks again DBSAR and everyone else who has contributed so much to this effort!


Holy crap, I have a lantern. And it works!

Sorry for the potato-quality animation. GIF isnā€™t good at subtle color gradients.

It still needs some adjustments, and Iā€™ve got a lot of catching up to do here in the thread, but I wanted to give people a preview of how the first manufactured prototype looks:

The charge port uses USB-C, with status indicators right next to the port:

It works on a tripod, too:

Dancing in the streets!!!

very nice!

About things for me to do to the firmware, this is what I have in mind:

  • Adjust candle mode to look better. It seems a bit flat on the lantern, and probably needs the amplitude turned up.
  • Unify the ramping code so all ramping functions are reversible with a hold-release-hold. Currently, everything except the main output modes requires a ā€œclick-release-holdā€ to ramp down, so a ā€œhold-release-holdā€ would go up twice instead of reversing.
  • Make the tint ramping also reversible in the same manner, if I can find a good way to do it. I keep wanting to release-and-hold to reverse it, but it currently requires ā€œclick, click, holdā€ instead.
  • Adjust the tint-mixing code to bump up output a bit in the middle tints. At the moment, the output dips a little, and I can probably fix it to make it more flat with a little bit of math. Itā€™s not really noticeable by eye, but itā€™s noticeable with a multimeter.
  • Add an auto-tint mode if I can find a good way to do it. This would be warm at low levels and cold at high levels. The implementation is easy, but making the UI intuitive could be a little tricky.
  • Add a blink at the ends of the tint ramp, because itā€™s not always obvious when it stopped.
  • Decide if tint ramping is fast enough or not, and maybe speed it up.

So there are at least a few things to do. But the lantern is looking good so far. The only ā€œissuesā€ Iā€™ve found so far are just little things which arenā€™t really broken but could still be improved.

Great to hear TK! all sounds good. :+1:

It looks great! I hope Denā€™s arrives soon! :partying_face:

This sounds great. Would it be an on/off toggle option somewhere in the config menu?

Could sunset mode make use of auto-tint if enabled?

Could sunset mode have an adjustable ā€˜startingā€™ output, and an adjustable runtime in 30-minute increments like candle modeā€™s timer?

Is tint adjustable within ā€˜specialā€™ modes, or is tint set where it was before entering them?

wow, great questions!

Thanks for the pics! I just ripped my shirt off.

Form following function -
This thing looks like business! No fake marketing, chrome, bottle openers, compasses or cup holders to add more useless ā€œfeaturesā€ to cover for inadequacy.

Love the tint ramping -
I will almost always use this on the warmest setting, but the fact that this will ramp is SO impressive.
I just got up and walked a circle around my chair for no reason at all!

The faint glow of the switch is a perfect touch.

I am in for the whole shebang, accessory kit and all.
I hope the optional accessory kit includes:

  1. EVA molded protective soft case (very inexpensive from China)
    ā€œā€

2. 4 18650 cells

3. MOST importantly a mountable shield/reflector to allow light management for something less than a full 360 field. Our usual crew doesnā€™t normally want 360 illumination. On most trips, we block 90 - 180 degrees of the output glare so our night vision is not impaired by the direct light while we sit by the fire. The ambient light from fire and lantern is more than enough to see by and walk around in indirectly lighted areas. With a white reflective surface on the non blocked (inward reflective) side of the shield the efficiency in the lighted areas would actually be higher allowing the user to select a lower output setting enabling longer run times and higher output to the lighted areas.

I am eyeballing the amount of frosting on that diffusor while confident this will be thoroughly checked.