The next ZEROHOUR flashlight - Would love to hear your ideas, but...

LED Flashlights – General Info
11

I like the idea of lights with many capabilities in various situations from camping, search & rescue, emergencies, survival, SHTF, and so on.

- A light in the form-factor size of the D40A/F40A/EA41, etc.) that can use various different power-sources & cells, such as come with adapters or configurations to be able to use a single 18650 with sleeve, a 26650 and possibly even a 32650, a carrier for three or four AA Alcaline NiMh cells & one to three 14500 cells, and In emergencies be able to use a single D-Alcaline, single C-Alcalines with adapter sleeves.

- Also it should have the usable modes, particularly a Moonlight mode, a Low mode, medium mode, and a high mode, with a Turbo mode for momentary only. Also it should have several hidden modes, including a 2 second Beacon, the SOS, and an alternating Strobe.

  • the light should have two other colored smaller Emitters along with the main Neutral White emitter. A Red and a U/V. The U/V only needs one mode, but the red mode should have a high and a Low.
    The light should have two side electronic buttons, one for the modes, and the other for on and off, with a long press from off to select between the white, red and U/V. Also the light should have a tail switch for locking it out.
    It needs to be at least IPX7 waterproof, have HAIII Anodizing in satin/matte black, come with a belt holster, a lantern diffuser, and a rimmed tail cap with holes big enough for para-cord lanyard connection and still able to tailstand.

- If this light could be built for $150 or under, i would definitely buy one.

12

Some important points are named before - neutral white is a big plus for many of us, lanyard hole (550 paracord should fit), coated lens and different battery types (for me 18650/26650 is enough).

Please think about the max. battery size. 70mm protected 18650 should fit, maybe 70,5mm (maybe the batteries become a bit longer in a year).
Maybe it would be possible, to get a other color as black. Great would be blue or white. Awesomr would be a glow in the dark color, but I think this is much more expensive as a usually HA III coating.

13

and everyone is submitting their idea for nothing

why not get yourself a designer

14

Keron,

You’re missing the point here. We do have designers and engineers on our team. But there has been a change in the way we are going to do things on this particular project. We want to learn and hear it from true Flashlight enthusiasts so that we can grow the company in the right direction.

15

high PWM

neutral tint

smooth beam profile

clip

tailstanding

unglued ( easy to upgrade )

16

Multi led multi 18650 dive light with deep-ish reflectors. Basically a TK75 or X40 dive light.

17

Direct thermal path
Copper
Decent pill
Secret modes
3-3 5A
Xp-l or xml2-u3

18

I am less inclined to worry about the flashlight proper and want to see some serious “universal driver” development.

I want mode… programmable by the user! Something with a real PC “emulator for dummies” and a USB “send to driver” connection. I need runtime and awareness blink modes. Pulsing and strobing and randomness. Power consumption calculators and runtime estimators. Add a PWM limit to provide max output and not just 100% to the blink modes. What I am asking for is a reverse engineered programming UI for the user with massive flexibility and feedback!

The light isn’t as important. I prefer aspheric lenses with wide dispersion (90 degree cone angle minimum) and with the continued improvements in the larger cells, the “host” should be more Lego style design. Even “remote” cells.

Obviously I am not talking about conventional use cases. However, with this perspective, you could easily fit custom high performance builds into the same lineup. I need be-seen light for cyclists. Headlights and tail lights. Don’t forget the remote switch.

Anyway, that is what I need, not just want.

19

this may sound funny, but i prefer it to look
like a single 18650 cylindrical power bank
with interchangeable heads for flashlight,
electric screw driver/drill, e cigar, electric fan.

or make the flashlight tube adjustible in length
and thickness to accomodate all battery sizes

20

linear/boost driver and no pwm

21

My dream light…

  1. IPX7
  2. Wireless programming
  3. 2s2p MTG2
  4. Nice thick HAIII coating
  5. Copper DTP MCPCB on a slug of copper threaded into the host.
  6. Linear driver, no PWM
  7. Single side button
22

Hey ZeroHour,

From my standpoint, your lights are expensive, so I know you only reach a very limited market. Maybe you should try to expand into a lower priced market, which would have more prospective customers. Of course that means more competition, but life is what it it. As far as suggestions, other than the several hundred flashlight enthusiasts in forums, the rest of the buying public would probably prefer a light that ran on NiMH or Alkaline batteries, due to their ease of availability over Li-ion, which, from the way it's going, may not be a good choice of battery any more.

23

Did I miss something? whats going on with Li-ion?

24

I can give you ideas in general.
Your idea might be: “we carry a flashlight, the user can modify it according to his needs.”
So: standard sizes and interchangeable (Lego).
Many accessories available: different clips; different crowns; different tailcap; etc…
Accessories: To make the underwater flashlight; to merge multiple flashlights; rubber coatings for hard use, etc…
In short: if you do only a flashlight you will have a lot of competition; but if you take a flashlight + imagination, creativity, invention, inspiration, you do something that does not exist yet; or is very rare.
Do not forget that for us, the flashlight; not only serves to illuminate; need to have fun, to spend time. Make sure that your flashlights you can modify according to our personality.

Others: for flashlight powerful: use the cooling Pipeline

It’s just a personal opinion, however.

25

> i prefer it to look like a single 18650 cylindrical power bank
> with interchangeable heads for flashlight,
> … flashlight tube adjustible … to accomodate all battery sizes

What he said.

Build the important core — a ‘pill with radiator fins’ — as a carrier into which we can put any LED on one side, and a driver on the other.

Why? Because LEDs are changing very, very fast, so are drivers.
Heat radiators, not so fast. Put the money into thermal mass/fins.

Something like this: http://img.hisupplier.com/var/userImages/2014-07/17/125840565227.jpg

Modify that with the LED cutout on one side, the driver cutout on the other, and ways to attach a head and battery tube, maybe a module that’s got one or two or three switch buttons or rotary selection click rings on it.

Have a good copper/brass contact ring solidly press fit into the aluminum to make connection reliable, none of this stupid solder-to-aluminum.

Put a universal thread or a camera-type bayonet mount on each side of that core — that will accept adapters that fit various reflectors/optics/heads. Put a similar but simpler adapter on the driver side that will accept a range of battery holders.

Camera makers figured this stuff out in the 1950s — the late lamented Miranda SLR was just a fraction of a millimeter thinner than any other, and their adapters filled that space, so you could then attach many other companies’ lenses and have them at exactly the right distance from the focal plane.

Do an image search with this: camera bayonet lens adapter - Google Search

Same issue with LEDs, they have to be at exactly the right distance in the head of the flashlight. So make an adapter that will latch firmly around (not inside) the pill on the LED end and have a simple chunk of metal facing out that can be cut with whatever threads fit the desired head.

Battery side is simpler. Just do what Arc did with their flashlight — battery tubes for 1xAA, 2xAA, RCR123. And a third party even did a lovely little CR2 battery tube that fits the Arc lights.

Sure, I’m dreaming.

To improve on what Ray Bradbury said about writing science fiction:

“I write not to predict the future, but to prevent it [to make public and so prevent ideas from being patented and locked away]”

26

Basic stuff like an efficient, current controlled driver, good heatsinking and milspec type III anodizing.

27

Please—no crenelated bezels!

Bore the battery tube for 18mm wide cells, so that
16340 AND 18350 cells fit.
An extension tube would allow L2M type legoing ability—so it could use
16340&18350 cells in shorty mode, or 18650/2 x 16340 with extension.

Machined slots for 1.5mm tritium vials would be cool…if not a bit much :slight_smile:

28

That's not a big deal if they offer optional bezels like they do with their current flashlight. I wish that was possible with many more flashlights.

29

The original ZeroHour was kind of huge, bigger than a Skyray King. A 1x18650 light sounds much easier to carry, and the built-in charging function should make it appeal more to muggles.

The competition is pretty steep at that price range and battery type though… For example the Zebralight SC62 / SC600, which are both very nice. It would take something pretty amazing to beat those.

Alternately, the Convoy S-series of lights are pretty nice, only a fraction of the price, and are nicely moddable so they can be converted from “nice” to “awesome”. Great stock selection, and easy to mod in a wide variety of ways. Standard easily-flashable driver hardware too.

I suppose it depends on what type of uses you’re aiming for though… The above are all EDC-style, fairly easy to carry and useful for general purposes. But throwers can be nice too.

Two throwy budget lights which are particularly good for their class are the XinTD C8 and the Jacob A60. But up in the ZeroHour’s price range you’ve got items like the Nitecore CU6, featuring nice white and UV outputs plus basic r/g/b emitters, or the SRT7 which trades the UV for better white output and a smoothly-variable control ring.

I guess my questions are… What kind of market are you aiming for? And what will distinguish the ZeroHour 1x18650 light from established premium lights like the ZL SC62w or the NiteCore SRT7?

Charging from USB is an interesting feature, but isn’t particularly special. For some (like me), it’s actually a downside since I’d rather have a smaller light instead of carrying charging hardware with me. A decent charger is only about $5, and it’s hard to go through an entire 18650 cell in a day.

Things which would make it interesting to me are: Small body, made from bare titanium or copper or brass or maybe steel, high-CRI daylight tint emitter (for example, the Nichia 219B 92CRI 4500-5000K, or the awesome Cree MT-G2 5000K), very high and very low modes with a good selection between (like, 0.2 to 2000 lumens), either fast PWM (10+kHz) or constant-current output, nice interface (probably an e-switch with a relatively deep set of functions), a battery check mode, flashy bike headlight modes, high efficiency, smooth floody beam for up-close use (perhaps a frosted lens available as a choice), moddable, … I could go on for quite a while (I think I already have).

For some really interesting ideas, talk to tterev3.

30

Speak for yourself, i can go through 2-3 a day, but your point still stands, having the charging hardware built into the light will not help that problem and just adds weight