[Available again! - BLF special edition light] new Sofirn AAA twisty high CRI 5mm LED

All in all, this was a marvellous job! Thanks guys!! :+1: :partying_face:

Yes, great light, I’m not complaining in any way, and this makes sense…i really like not having to pay second hand market / nos prices for the fenixes!.

Love the pocket clip and will be adding magnet, although i generally magnet from the side by plastic tool clip or mag to pocket clip, which is thankfully now present!

Very pleased with these, and not having to be so scared to break one while releasing the potted ones.

Hope i didn’t sound like i was complaining! About the lights.

I tried to talk Barry into a brass version of the C01S a year ago, with extra deep knurling, I tried really hard but as I understood from him, Sofirn’s machinists were not equipped for brass machining. So while it seems routine for Lumintop, Mateminco and Olight among others to bring out copper/brass/titanium versions of their lights, that seems not so for Sofirn. I have not seen Sofirn lights in other than aluminium sofar.

They just launched their first keychain flashlight (SC01) made of stainless steel. Maybe it’s not only a matter of skills and machining but also a matter of their business strategy. Brass, copper and titanium are much more expensive materials that would eventually raise sales prices way above their usual (aluminum lights) prices. Expensive flashlights however could be leveraged by introducing a premium line next to their budget line utilizing expensive raw materials and more complex/more efficient (buck/boost) drivers.

Can any one post a link for the magnets again? Banggood?

I bought mine from FastTech, https://www.fasttech.com/p/4113703 (not sure how good they are, though).
They’re strong enough to technically hold the light at 90 degrees, but if the surface is smooth then the light will start sliding with a light tap.

And here’s the second mod that was needed, 10 minutes with a common solder iron, this is the easiest host ever.

The led is the bit higher current-capable RWN05-32K-C-EX from rngwn (see link), I measured 3007K, 97.2CRI, R9 97 and duv –0.0034 for this particular led ( :heart_eyes: , how nice can a tint get?)

The 220 resistor was replaced by a solder blob, the battery current went up to 135mA and the output was better than I thought: 25 lumen on a alkaline and 21 lumen on a old crappy NiMh. A major brightness update over the 7 lumen stock.

About the beam of the mod above. The RWN05-32K-C-EX led has slight tint unevenness over the beam, but what is more obvious is a ringy “hotspot” caused by the reflecting aluminium of the C01. I may lightly sand the led itself at some point to make the tint more even, but the hotspot was smoothed out very effectively by circular sanding the reflector with 180 grit sandpaper. The appearance of the reflector did not change much, but the beam did.
Left sanded, right stock.

With that resistor mod, how long does the light stay above the stock output Djozz? I assume it is still a battery vampire?

I should start with a fresh battery, but the light has been used for around 8 minutes now and I’m at 21 lumen. I will keep it on and see what we’ve got in an hour or so.

Edit:
–8 min 25 lumen
0 hrs 21 lumen
1 hrs 15 lumen
2.5 hrs 12.5 lumen
4 hrs 9.5 lumen

Yeah, that’s what I was up to :+1: .

I find the tint of the EX version nicer than both the other version and the ww Yuji. The spot is uneven, but that doesn’t really matter to me.

Think that might help the red C01 as well?

I doubt that (but I do not have one to check), the bad beam of the red C01 seems to me not caused by the reflector. I think it is because the light emitting area of the red led is much smaller than a white led because it has no wide phosfor layer. And small light sources need carefully manufactured optics to make a good beam, the top surface of a cheap chinese 5mm led is likely far from optical quality, or even 5mm Nichia leds.

Thanks djozz, I might try it tomorrow before I Scotch-Brite the led. Just to see if it helps.

Djozz, thanks for this, this will be a great little backup light for hiking, starts high and keeps it pretty good for 4-6 hours, that is what I was looking for. Much appreciated.

Measured up to 7.5 hours now, time to go to bed. Will have another look tomorrow if there is still light, I assume that just as the unmodded C01 it will drain the battery to completely empty. The runtime chart sofar:

Hmm…no regulation without a sense resistor to regulate. I guess I should have seen that coming.

I assume with something in between, like a 10 ohm resistor, we’d see in the ballpark of 12-14 lumens steady for maybe 2 hours or so, then the long decline.

Another datapoint, 14 hrs / 0.6 lumen.

Yes, no regulation, I already noticed that without resistor it does not light, it is simply is series with the led somewhere I guess (before or after boosting?, no idea how that works really).
I’m not fanatic in constant output, a steady decline is useful, like the incan days, there is not so much that demands steady brightness and a slowly fading light does not leave you with surprises.

I had ruined one black C01 while finding out about the potting. So it was spare for some fun. :slight_smile: (did this to a sk68 too a couple of years ago)