I did a search for the physical dimensions of cells for this light and came up with nothing. Can anyone help with this? Size restrictions?
TIA.
Wut frenzy? I got a code pm'ed, ordered using the code - no frenzy, no rush, same as many, many BLF group buys before. I'm not bugging anyone here or at Sofirn either - they can ship it when they get it, I'm happy to wait a little more. I'm only on the list for one - want to see it/use it before committing to any more orders. I'm thinking I was one of the first to get a code since I was close to the top of the list at #100.
I didn't see anyone post they received their code yet, so thought I was doing a favor here.
I’m a bit jealous. It will be a week or three yet till I can order, then I’ll have a month or so delay for shipping. 
I’m I understanding this right?
People are purchasing on eBay now without a code and just mentioning their user name in the BLF thread? Then getting a confirmation that is shipped?
Or did I misunderstand some of the previous thread comments.
This group buy is a little different than the FW3A.
I would love that too — but I suspect I’ll have to wait for batch 87 or get some traffic-cone spraypaint.
I don’t see a frenzy either. People are excited after 3 years of watching this being developed. To bad the camping season has past (for me).
I have a code for a LT1 without batteries, I requested another code for the LT1 with batteries.
Four cells for an extra $12 is a good deal to me.
Tom what you don’t see as a frenzy with people scurrying around asking questions about ordering 1 light from Amazon with a generic (as far as I know) supplied code from a post here, I see as a frenzy. Different folks, different perspective, different lives. Doesn’t make either of us wrong as it doesn’t make either of us correct, or at least we’re correct from our individual perspective.
All folks need to do is to wait for Sofirn to PM them with their code when their order comes up. Yes, Sofirn HAS started to send out codes via PM . My first light was something like #179(?) and I got my first order code. That light has been ordered using that code and I posted that for anyone to read here:
With one very specific exception, the batteries need to be button top.
I’m unfamiliar with any protected batteries that are not button top, but there are button top that are not protected.
The exception - Sanyo NCR18650GA. It’s a flat top, but the top extends …just… past the insulation and will work with a multi-cell spin top light like the LT1 or Q8.
Just for the record, there was never a “generic code” posted in this thread that folks could use to buy a LT1 from amazon.
Sofirn clearly stated in this very thread in this post how to purchase from ebay or Ali, and in this post that Sofirn had started to send out amazon single use codes. Prior to Sorfin sending out amazon single use codes, SigShooter sent out a group of amazon single use codes. Things got a bit weird for a bit, and Sofirn, bless their hearts, took on the burden of dealing with this task from SigShooter.
Good question. This will be my first time purchasing something as part of a group buy and I am also a little confused. If we are buying on eBay do we have to wait or can we make the offer now?
The thing is that I could have sent out all the codes in 10 hours of so if I had all 2500+ codes (up to 2840 right now). And it wouldn’t have been a big burden since the process was automated other than loading the supplied codes into my database and then running a script to merge and extract a file to feed the program. Maybe 30 minutes tops to do that.
Oh well, sending out codes manually is obviously labor intensive and also prone to mistakes.
I don’t want one from the first batch, so I don’t care if there are “line jumpers”. I’m above #500 for all my LT1’s anyhow. Mostly because I don’t want the terrible and inaccurate manual that’s included in the first batch for lanterns I’m giving as gifts.
Why the manual didn’t get sorted out before the first batch is beyond me. I guess there just wasn’t enough time in the 3.5 years of development. Even after myself and others took to correcting it still had fundamentally wrong information about the operation of the LT1 because the people who knew how it worked and wrote the software or had samples didn’t bother to review the manual for basic correctness while we were tuning it for readability, grammar, and English.
I also don’t understand why the firmware is still changing. Why couldn’t it get sorted out before the light went into production? Did Sofirn put the light into production without telling anyone as a big surprise?
It will keep changing too. Do not stress about it. With the flashing key possibilities there is no reason to not keep developing it. The version that’s shipped should suffice either way!
There is a very long answer to explain the exact details of that Stereodude, but without being involved in the lantern the summary would be: it has to do with how little control we have over what happens in China, difficult communication over language and cultural barriers, and with launching a new product in general. Maybe also with group pressure getting the thing done before every last little detail was sorted out , which may or may not be a bad thing.
That said, it seems to me that this lantern still is the most thoroughly done BLF project to date.
It’s the nature of software to evolve over time. People request improvements which get rolled into future releases. In this case the changes are minor and I suspect that the vast majority of people will never know or care about the 2 versions.
Sofirn did not spring a surprise and put the light into production without the team knowing and approving it.
The LT team did bother to read it and saying that they didn’t is a big disservice to them. Rather than wait another month or 2 to have the manual catch up with all the corrections it was felt that it was ok to release batch 1 earlier so that people could start getting the LT.
I bet if the buy was delayed just for the manual changes that people would be complaining about the delay.
None of the LT team, other than Sofirn, is making any money off the lantern or is doing this as a job so the development time is largely due to that.
Besides, the updated manual can be download as noted somewhere in this thread. And it’s just a lantern, how complicated can it be to read the on-line instructions a few times and then configure it for what one needs? My guess is that for many users after it’s been configured it’s going to stay that way for a long time.
Just my thoughts:)
Please put me down for 2 more.
So, for example, why did the manual say the default mode was the smooth ramping mode when it is actually the stepped one? How did such a basic error not get fixed until after sbslider, myself, and others spent hours working on the manual?
Not everyone who is going to get one of these lanterns to use has been following this thread from the beginning. Someone who I give one of these lanterns to as a gift isn’t expecting to have to go online to read a corrected manual or flash the firmware in their lantern because the shipping product wasn’t quite done.
Reading it and having Sofirn make corrections are not one and the same. Also my career was in programming and I’ve seen many cases where manuals were wrong even when they were worked on by paid professional technical writers.