KC1 keychain light is available now

They look too pronounced to me. I am afraid that when I add a pocket clip, it will tear up my pocket due to the aggressive texturing. I will still buy one though, so if it is not possible to change them it will not affect my purchase decision.

And if multiple colors are a possibility, I vote for red anodizing in addition to black.

Then we hope an eventual 12.1 will get it instead… :wink:

SFT40 5000K doesn’t exist and Hank is not making them so easy …

Orange, please! I even have an open slot in my Ouch Pouch for it.

Subing to see what Hank has in store for us.

:sunglasses:

This suggestion might need its own thread, but I thought I would post it here as Hank makes (in my opinion) the highest quality and value for money Anduril based lights.

18650 tube lights with tail switches are massively popular, especially the Convoy S2+, and in the past we had the excellent BLF/Astrolux A6. The FW1A was a very popular “not quite a tube light” that was great until Lumintop recently stuffed it up. The Noctigon KR1 is awesome, but not quite pocketable/EDC as the head is 35mm. So what I’m proposing is for a flashlight manufacturer to step up and built an “modernized” Anduril based, single emitter, tail switch 18650 tube light.

Possible specifications:
Single emitter in deep smooth reflector >20KCD with XP-L HI (or TIR if this throw specification would still be met).
Support for SST-20, SST-40, Osram W1, W2, Cree XP-L HI emitters.
18650 Tube Body approx. 25-26mm diameter, maybe 21700 if the tube and head can stay within 28mm max (so that it can fit in all light painting systems).
Good thermal mass for sustained brightness.
Illuminated tail e-switch (illumination can be turned off if required).
Reversible side clip direction (2 indented rings for the 2 clip ring positions) desirable, but not essential.
Anduril 2 (of course) including all strobe modes!
5A+FET or 7.5A+FET depending on the LED (similar to KR1).
Range of colour options.
USB charging would be nice, but not essential.

Let me know what you think, of whether this needs it’s own thread.

Per Hank via email, K12.1 (or however many emitters it may have) will use three 18650’s for more runtime and thermal mass. Still many many months out and design is not finalized, but he is working on it.

whoa.... AWESOME!, TG!

And, YES!, i like the triple 18650 tube light size!

It’d be awfully difficult to make an illuminated tail e-switch. It’s difficult to get one wire to the back end of the light, but at least that’s reasonably straightforward since it can connect to a contact ring. With more than one wire though, a contact ring doesn’t work.

As for a clip, my favorite style is deep carry with the button end up. So for a tail switch light, it’d be a tail clip. For a head switch light, it’d be a head clip. That way, when you grab the light to unclip it, the button is right there without having to flip the light around.

Otherwise, I like it but I’d go for something narrower and less throwy. Like, 21-22mm in diameter (maybe 23 if necessary) instead of 25-28mm. And 8 to 12 cd/lm in a textured reflector/optic instead of 15+ cd/lm in a smooth reflector/optic. Probably a linear-only driver (or maybe a buck driver) with no direct-drive FET. Overall low mass for easy carry, even if that means it can’t sustain bright modes very long. It may even make sense to lower the power from 5A to 3A (or 2A, for a 219B emitter).

If it’s difficult to fit the parts on a driver that size, it could save a bit of space by switching from attiny1634 to attiny1616. It’s 3x3mm instead of 4x4mm, and needs only 3 pins to reflash instead of 6. This would mean using a different flashing kit though.

A tail switch light of this size would be pretty difficult, so it might need a slightly wider diameter to fit a wire or ribbon connecting the tail switch. A side switch version could probably happen in 22mm though, by adding a bit of length and allowing the button to stick out a little.

This wouldn’t have huge output numbers, but it would be very practical to carry around all the time.

Sounds like what I have in mind is pretty different… like a Mini-EDC-1 vs your Mini-Thrower-1.

You basically just described a Zebralight (save for lack of Anduril) :smiley:

I’d love to see a smaller single emitter tail switch Anduril light from Hank to fill the void that is left by the FW1A. Throw a buck driver in it and it would be the perfect EDC light.

My small but growing collection - magenta/violet/lilac/purple, I don’t judge - TrustFire MiniX & Convoy T3 in transit

Thanks for your input. My list is really a wish list for the ultimate Anduril light for light painting photography (hence “throwy”, single emitter, 5A+FET, and 24-28mm tube) - a sort of updated BLF A6 to some extent, or slimmer KR1, and to also fill the void from the FW1A’s demise. As you mentioned, having a tail switch would require an inner tube, so it would need to be slightly thicker than typical 18650 lights.

The S2+ meets my personal needs for floody illumination (I use 2700k/5700k LH351D in the 5A lights, usually on 35% output), but it would be nice to see a “sensible” Anduril based light in that market as well with no FET (max ramp at 150).

Except that Zebralights have very efficient boost or buck/boost drivers, that being the main reason I usually carry an SC64c LE (ergonomics and build quality are also big advantages). I’m glad to see Hank doing a little more of that (even though the K1/XHP35 is inefficient on high), and would love to see it it something EDC-size.

I don’t think Hank designs lights by popular vote (a good thing), but I’ll say what I want anyway:

  • A roughly EDC-shaped tube light under 25mm
  • 1x18650, with the option for shorter tubes
  • Pocket clip held on with screws like a Zebralight
  • I don’t care very much if it’s tailswitch or sideswitch, but the latter would help it be thinner
  • Recessed switch like a Zebralight if a sideswitch is used
  • Single emitter
  • Reflector (option of textured or smooth) or TIR with a reflector-like beam pattern
  • Boost or buck/boost driver depending on emitter
  • B35A option, various 3V options
  • Anduril 2 and flashing pads, naturally

With an illuminated side switch this would be about perfect. I would add that metal cover on the switch would be really nice to see. It would also be great to have a reflector in the same size as a standard optic so the two could be easily swapped out depending on preferences. A choice between OP or smooth reflector would be fantastic

But then, would it really still be a Hanklight? Sure it would be great, but it doesn’t really seem to fit in with the other deisgns, since it’s not a mega-lumen flood or super thrower… if Hank made this it would be super popular of course, but isn’t the D4 already his take on that style of light?

I think MCU-controlled flashlights these days have mostly moved to side switches because then they can be soft switches, controlling signals rather than switching large amounts of current that are easier to switch with a FET. The side switch connects the switch to the MCU without having to run a sleeve through the battery tube. The current itself is also a lot higher than in old lights, like 7+ amps in the case of the D4v2. High current lithium ion rechargeable cells let us do that. In the consumable cell era, even the insane Surefire lights that burned through two or three CR123A cells in 15-20 minutes only used 3 amps or so. The M6 may have used 6 amps since it had two sets of cells (6 cells total). So with the MN21 lamp (500 lumens) it cost around $30 an hour to operate. The tail switches on those lights (power only, no microprocessor) were quite massive. They were momentary-only pushbuttons which you could lock by tightening a lock ring. Surefire made several attempts to make clickie switches for its smaller lights, but afaik none of them worked very well.

Anyway I think an illuminated tail switch would take more compexity than we’ve seen here so far. I don’t mind the idea but it doesn’t sound like a big enough gain to be worth the increased diameter and other issues. I’m very happy with the D4v2, I can understand wanting a thrower of similar size, and I can also see wanting a thinner light, straight sided and maybe using 16650/16340. I do like the the coming SP10 Pro (dual fuel AA/14500) and would certainly buy a Hank light (i.e. same general idea but higher quality and minimal size) with that design.

Yes I’m in favor of switching to the Attiny1616 in future drivers even though it means a new flashing device. It’s a better chip in various ways.

Not sure how reliable it would be, but if the inner signal tube actually became bat+ powered from a current sensing circuit, and switch LEDs drew a constant baseline current which would be considered ‘0’ to the sensing mcu, then the switch would ‘short’ to gnd through a current limiting resistor, which would spike the sense voltage and therefore act as the switch signal. Maybe a zener could be utilized to differentiate between ‘baseline’ and ’ signal ’

There are plenty of side switch Anduril lights. For some use cases (such as my hobby of light painting photography) a tail switch is required as side switches are inaccessible when the flashlight is connected to a tool. Some flashlight users just prefer a tail switch. Hence my suggestion of an tail e-switch with Anduril 18650 tube light (approx. 25mm dia), as it simply doesn’t exist in the market right now. I think I can give up on the illuminated tail switch idea!

Oh, that is interesting about light painting needing a tail switch. Maybe what we really want is a remote controlled light? There are lots of lights with remotes these days. It would be great to have one with Anduril. Here is a Fenix remote switch that seems to replace the tailcap on some of their lights:

I guess for a side switch design there could just be a switch port on the side as well. I’d be supportive of this, especially with the t1616 processor, since it could be used for other stuff too, such as configuring or reprogramming the light.

Some light painters use remote pressure switches (notably Klarus, Nitecore, and Olight), and again they need to be connected to the tail as the head of the light is in the adaptor/connector and inaccessible. RF remotes are more of an annoyance than a help and only really useful in RGB lights. Personally I like the momentary mode on Anduril, as it allows fine control of on/off. My buying guide to flashlights for light painting is in my signature.

I’ve not seen any Zebralights with tail switches!