Unbelievable! Certainly the best mod I have ever seen while lurking here, and imho quite likely the best flashlight mod ever.
The concept is also great. Basically every feature one could think of, all in the one flashlight.
I would love to have such a light and I suspect so would many many others on this forum and elsewhere. Seriously, it would be brilliant if you could design a BLF light in conjunction with Sofirn. I know I would buy one!
Thanks to this thread, the site is now over-budget for superlatives for the month, so I can’t use any of those, but this is [superlative] good and thanks for sharing it. [superlative]!
I’ve been contemplating adding one of those small OLEDs to a flashlight a while, just received some in a week ago. But I see you’ve beaten me to the punch… by 3+ years
I also just received some of those TTP223’s in two days ago and have been playing with them. Incredible little chips, I’m surprised that I just now found out about them. Amazingly low quiescent current, very responsive, and flexible (momentary/latching, high/low option, etc). These will certainly be making their way into some of my flashlights. Had I known about them earlier, one would be in this year’s OL competition.
I also continue to be impressed by your ability with the enameled/magnet wire. Might impressive using that teensy-tiny stuff and keeping it all straight.
Not much. Off the top of my head:
Display $3
Microcontroller $1
Power monitor $1
Touch sensor $0.1
7135s $1
Various passives, wire, materials $4
RGB emitters $6
UV emitter $10
Breakout board $0.3
So in total the added components probably cost less than the host light
Its not the parts costs its all the work and know how to make one
Also usual flashlights with more than one PCB and a lot of interconnection, flex cable is not easy to do in mass production in a small form factor
Could you please elaborate why? I see oshpark offering flex PCBs for a reasonable price and I before I saw your post I assumed that production volume would be significantly cheaper…
I can vouch for the wiring being a nightmare. I ordered some 36 AWG wire after seeing this, and had a use for it recently. It seems about as thick as a dog hair. I had trouble with a board mounted switch, so ran a couple 36 AWG wires to patch it up. The fix worked, but, wow, can't imagine doing a lot of these wires like done here.
Here's mine:
Dunno, maybe my 36 AWG is thinner than what he used. As you can see, it sure looks messy closeup but the tabs on top were recesses into the plastic, so some of the plastic got melted. To further complicate it, I tested the switch before applying the epoxy and it worked, but after installed in the light, it worked for 5-10 times, then stopped working. Letting it cool down, it would work again another 5-10 times... Strange, but the solder bond probably wasn't made. For switches like this, they need extra bracing, so I use extra solder on the front and epoxy on the baxk - never has one of these beefed up switches fail.