A 21700 tactical light would be interesting, and has not been done.
Dual springs + foam/rubber washers to protect cell from impacts/recoil in line with the tube.
Momentary switch, 500-800 lumens (whatever will run for at least an hour without thermal problems or dimming)
Preferred UI would have no mode memory, and a hard-to-access very low mode as well. A generic streamlight momentary switch UI that goes H-H-H-L with no memory would work and be difficult to accidentally activate low mode.
I think the idea of not wanting a FET-driver is that you rather have a lower output but constant and longer. The longer runtime and lower output can be had with a FET driver also, by adding resistance in the circuit (not often done but is a solution for those modern low voltage leds). This is just to point out that long runtimes and FET-driver can go together, but I do agree that current regulation is nice (which in a lineair driver is also done by adding resistance but it varies depending on battery voltage, to keep the current constant).
A boost driver is a different beast, I have not much experience with those, but I had one fail (a KD boost driver wrecked a XHP50.2 in one of my builds)
I have faith in the driver developer's or firmware programmer's creativity to indicate a depleted cell, e.g. by a blinking LED, followed by a hard stepdown to a low mode.
Meanwhile, I tried to reflect the desire for a more compact design with a closed ring clip mount and a rubber cigar ring (see revision 2), still not yet fully downgraded to 18650 size. Maybe 21700 is not so bad either. ;-) Using a TIR optic should hopefully save some space in total length. Provided that we go down to 18650 size, I wonder if a Carclo 10507 with 3x SST-20 or 3x XP-L HI would be as interesting as a single SST-40 with regard to throw numbers, power consumption and runtimes.
Notes: around FW1A size or would be nice (though probably not doable with a tail click. But at least as small as possible without further bulking it up with USB charging.
@Dual switch: If you have don’t have an e-switch on the back you need a clicky there. To my understanding: If you want this to have an always high or turbo momentary, it’s key that there is no mode memory or mode memory being able to get disabled/set to a user-configurable value.
That would be a solution I can live with though in my eyes not ideal (I still prefer rear e-switch) but I would definitely buy it if it’s a lot shorter than e.g. an Olight M2R.
@kanton: If we use an e-switch in the tail we probably need to go for a double-tube design. This would come with a big trade off in terms of higher impact / wear sensitivity and more complexity at higher costs. Regarding your prerequisites about the UI, I think the draft UI I posted in the OP should take mode memory on/off into consideration. Of course, any suggestions how to improve it are deeply appreciated.
You can have an eswitch in the tail with a driver-in-tail design. That necessarily means PWM, though, and something like 98% maximum on-time (thus ~2% off-time to supply power to the driver), and a small resistor across the LED to complete the circuit when the LED’s off.
Main concern, though, should be how to differentiate this light from all others already out there, so it’s not just another “me too!” light.
My $0.02… Nobody is going to be considering between this or a Malkoff/HDS/etc. Very different niches (pricing and country of origin mostly), so don’t go chasing the “simplicity” of those lights hoping to capture the same magic.
If there could be an Anduril or Bistro offshoot that allows for a quick and easy switch to a “tactical” mode (always 100% at turn-on, limited # of modes, etc.) you could still go crazy and have a full “enthusiast” UI.
Since I still don’t know myself, does anybody here know how Klarus and Acebeam implement their tail e-switches? Many lights from both companies have that feature and are marketed and used as weapon lights so I’d think the design is pretty dependable.
If you really don’t want to go down the back e-switch route, I think the UI you posted is quite good (I completely overlooked it, my bad!). There are some caveats though, as I understand:
You can’t switch the light on in moon or low mode via the side switch from complete OFF. You would have to carry the light in Standby. But then the rear switch does not act as a momentary anymore (you have to click it once).
You don’t have momentary high from rear switch when you are using the light in a lower mode, instead it cuts off power completely.
Those are some griefs I have with it.
I admit these are probably very me-problems and don’t concern anyone else. To me though it’s kinda ugly that the rear switch does something different depending on what mode the light is in right now (from OFF it is momentary then ON, from ON or Standby it does nothing then it cut’s off power) - that’s why I dig the dual e-switch designs I mentioned. No matter if the light is on or off, rear switch is always Turbo.
Completely agree, with a “tactical” style light you absolutely need the same function from OFF every time (preferably to 100%). That comes from either a tail+side e-switches or a tail-switch only design.
Klarus and Acebeam both use tube-in-tube. I can confirm this for the Klarus XT2CR and the Acebeam T36. Olight does so on the M2R but opted for proprietary batteries with an aditional pole in most of their other models.
Can’t we have a dual switch 21700 with usb-c recharge and power bank. The highly praised Wuben TO50R would have been a perfect light if it had the power switch at the tail instead of to the side. The switch is so freaking difficult to find it the dark that I don’t use it often. It is pretty much perfect in every other way.
I like the light design in post #1. However, being a tactical light, ditch the on-board usb-c charging port and put a ~6k emitter in it. I’m not looking to make sure the leaves on my boxwoods are color correct at night with this light…
Potentially interested in a dual switch 18650 (currently only have AA for dual switch), especially if:
Focus on efficiency over max output (I don’t want 10 seconds of burning my hand, I want 10 minutes of efficient bright output)
TIR rather than reflector (lets save size where we can, and I usually prefer the beam pattern with TIRs over reflectors anyway)
High CRI (my low CRI lights are almost never used at this point)
The logo or design aren’t too gaudy
Option to default to or start in low output (starting in high is a pain if you’re trying to use it around the house)
Sublumen moonlight mode
Emisar style flashing pins (realize this is a reach, but I would love to see them become an industry standard)
My personal preference for UI is a bit different than what is proposed in the OP at the moment, but that’s because part of my focus is on keeping it simple if I want to hand it to someone for use. I would almost separate it into “rear switch is on/off/momentary, front switch is cycle up/cycle down”.
I’d start with something like (assuming lockout is not needed):
Rear switch:
Tap: Momentary On (brightness i.a.w. mode memory settings)
Press: On / Off (forward clicky)
Default: Low (Mode Memory = Off)
Alternative: Last used mode (Mode Memory = On)
Side switch:
Hold = Cycle up
Click + Hold = Cycle down
Double Click = High mode
Triple Click = Change between stepped modes and ramping mode
Quad Click = Blink out voltage
Mode memory On/Off
Hold side switch + tail switch for 5s
This would also keep it similar to Anduril (but a bit simplified), for if someone wants to switch back and forth (assuming we don’t want to go full-blown modified Anduril).
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