Where did you get those great grommets?
I am still impatiently waiting for my set, pacing, checking the box, checking the tracking… but I admit I am already very grateful as well. I feel pretty lucky. And it is not going unnoticed how the organizers are still working and troubleshooting, every day, through the individual issues members are experiencing with their new lights, teaching and offering corrective solutions, fielding all questions. When the time comes, I expect my hand might need a little holding as well, and their attentiveness to this project has eliminated all concern. Assuming the organizers don’t feel too beat up by the randomness beyond their control, all will be well. This has thus far been an amazing journey, literally an illuminating adventure.
Thank you, organizers… and Keep up the good work! We’re all counting on you!!
jk on that last part, I really hope there is no pressure felt from our ranks. We’re just not worth it. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and its all small stuff.
I received mine yesterday and WOW. Even the family agreed that they were nice lights. Thanks again guys and gal. Orsm team effort. I cant thank you all enough.
118/400 checking in finally!! WOOOOWWWW!!! These lights are amazing hands down the best looking lights I have and the brightest! Thank you to everyone who had anything to do with these masterpieces! Now waiting for the night to fall! And as a side note there is nothing wrong with my lights at all, BEAUTIFUL!
I got them originally from Alliance Express but that company has since changed to Essentra:
I don’t know about part numbers since they have probably changed too.
Funny you say that. My wife didn’t get too excited about them. She said they were very pretty but too heavy. Then again she doesn’t get too excited about any of my lights. My kids, on the other hand, won’t leave them alone. Between all the shiny metal and the neat lighted tailcaps, they’ve quickly become favorites. Little rugrats weren’t supposed to get these lights for another 50ish years but they’re trying to claim them early. I guess I shoulda ordered a couple extra sets
PS: Thanks to ToyKeeper for the muggle mode. Its definitely getting used at my house.
A5
I am in triple set al cu ss
Counting down for my numbered set…
Expected Delivery Day: Thursday, February 4, 2016
I’m out of state on a installation and yesterday evening my (2) SS/Cu w numbered box’s came in. I lost one of my SS/Cu w Box set to my wife! She owns a few Sinner, Over Ready,Vinh 54, PFlexPro, Surefire, and a few of my special Custom and Modded lights and upon her inspection exclaimed, “These are some bad azz light’s!!” I’ll have #50 thanks hun! Need I say more? I guess I get SS/Cu w Box set #139? Both set’s by her critical inspection are perfect! Zero Flaws! She is charging up the 14500’s I got from RMM as we speak! And here I am 2-3 weeks before I go home for a weekend off? :_( Thanks “Team KRONOS” outstanding job!!!
I have programmed mine to have mode memory…. is there a way to keep this after the tail has been unscrewed or locked out?
Light reverts to moon mode first and no memory when the tailcap is locked out and then re-engaged
I have programmed mine to have mode memory…. is there a way to keep this after the tail has been unscrewed or locked out?
Light reverts to moon mode first and no memory when the tailcap is locked out and then re-engaged
That’s weird, it shouldn’t. Locking out the tailcap doesn’t do anything different than simply pressing the switch.
Regarding a discussion from a few pages ago: I do not agree with TK, in principle, when well build (no light from the light source can directly shine at the detector), an integrating milk-carton should be better at integration (so more accurate with varying angles and beam profiles) than the bended pipe thing. What would help is sanding the inside of the carton with fine sandpaper to make it matt instead of shiny.
LOL, the post was entirely written for humor. Integrating milk carton sounds sillier than integrating tube.
In any case, my milk carton lacks baffles. I really should build a proper sphere sometime.
Can you recommend a holster for these lights? Links if you got them.
These holsters fit the lights really snugly.
It doesn’t protect them that well, since they’re left a bit exposed, but they function just fine to carry the lights around. They’re thick and feel very durable. There’s a belt loop, and a separate loop that attaches with velcro.
Left: Sunwayman Thickened Nylon Flashlight Holster (Large Size)
Right: Sunwayman Thickened Nylon Flashlight Holster (Medium Size)
I have a problem with the X5 that I can’t work out where it keeps stepping down, from lower levels.
…
21mA - 2.18 where it seemed to stabilise.
…
The stepdown almost seems somehow thermal in nature but this makes no sense at such low drive currents.
You probably need to calibrate or disable the thermal regulation, because it’s stepping down at room temperature. It’s config mode item 7. Either leave it on until you think it’s too hot, or… since it’s the X5 it probably doesn’t need thermal regulation at all. You can disable that feature by turning it off during the first second of the calibration mode.
I got the thermal regulation calibrated very carefully… then tried it on a different driver, and it stepped down at room temperature. So, basically, the variation between individual units (attiny25V chips) is large enough that any factory calibration is likely to be wrong. People will need to calibrate it themselves.
My Al set just showed up yesterday. These are really nice, and the size and finish is perfect. I’m very happy I decided to do this GB :bigsmile:. Just the X5 alone has me now considering buying a 2nd set of the Al.
The clip on my X5 is the same as others, too narrow of an opening beneath the bend to go all the way down in a jean pocket. No big deal to me since I’ve never used a clip so far, but I’ll still be watching in case someone has a decent fix for this sometime. I hadn’t really realized how small these lights were, especially the X5. Definitely a tiny monster. Now if only my batteries would arrive so I can fire them up. Not so patiently waiting……
There was another member who posted that bat check was giving low results on one of his lights. TK suggested that something may be wrong with his voltage divider and monitoring circuit. Can you try this on your light and see what it reports? As I understand the UI, it will step down for two different reasons; low voltage as measured by the ATTiny AND also high temperature. So if the processor thinks it sees a low voltage it will bump down.
Yup, low voltage OR high temperature.
Fortunately, it’s easy to tell the difference. If it steps down and then stabilizes at a low level, it thinks it’s too hot (and can be easily re-calibrated or disabled via config mode).
If it steps down and turns off, it thinks the voltage is too low.
Also, the LVP step-down uses bigger steps than the thermal step-down. But that can be hard to see.
on the A6 driver, when turbo steps down to high, a short tap will push it back up to turbo. is this UI the same way?
No. The A6 step-down actually simulates a button press and bumps it back to the previous mode… The X6v2 / bistro UI steps down (and up) in much smaller levels which are totally independent of the levels configured in the mode group, so it doesn’t try to update the mode index while this is happening.
The reasons for this are:
- If it changed the mode index, it would no longer be able to step back up after the temperature drops.
- Making the mode index track the thermal regulation would require enough extra room that it would have to drop some other feature(s).
So, if you want to make it go back up to maximum (or just stay at maximum), you’ll need to either do a med-press+short-press to go down and back up, or … disable thermal regulation. You can always regulate it manually.
I fully expect that a lot of people will disable thermal regulation. It’s mostly there as a safety margin for folks who don’t know enough to regulate the temperature themselves (or if you really want to run it unattended on turbo). Unlike the A6, these lights are very unlikely to cook themselves. The heat sink is too big for that to happen easily.
I am enjoying reading everyone’s posts. The excitement of it all is really fun to witness. I remember when my set came in, and all the other samples! This is such a fun hobby, and I am glad you guys ‘get it’
A lot of people have been thanking me, and I appreciate it…I really do! But you need to know something. The heavy lifting was done by the rest of team Kronos. There is just no way I could have done anything remotely this cool without TK, Dale, Jmac, Bugsy36, Neal, BangGood and Manker!
These GBs take a lot to pull off. The behind the scene challenges and stresses would have done me in a long time ago were it not for these awesome, passionate people. I’m so blessed and have all kinds of fun putting the pieces together and watching such a fantastic project come to fruition. Thanks also goes out to Pdog, wight, ReManG, Sully and countless other BLF members and buyers that helped us make something truly special.
krono
Just wanted to post what mine will look like
As for cost, compare the BLF A6 to Vinh’s SL2. They’re very similar, but one sold for $25 while the other starts at around $100. Or compare the copper X5 to a Sinner Cypreus… one is half of $85 for a complete light, the other is again $100+ for a complete light. I think my Cypreus came to about $140 total. And Sinner has some pretty decent prices for what he does. Or compare the aluminum set to similar products from premium brands — $45 for two versus $60+ for just one (with lower performance). So that’s a couple data points comparing previous items to the BLF group buys.
How is the price so much lower? Well… mostly, because China. And because of much higher volume, bulk pricing. Made in a factory instead of being individually custom-built.
What has never been done before? Let’s start with the BLF A6, which laid the foundation for the X6v2/X5:
- First mass-produced light with a BLF community driver (designed by wight, RMM, and quite a few people before them).
- First mass-produced light with BLF community firmware (written by me, based on JonnyC’s work, based on several before him).
- First group buy with a direct-drive FET, making it the brightest light on the market for its battery type.
- First group buy with a 2-channel driver, providing efficiently-regulated low-to-medium modes (and moon) in addition to the blinding direct-drive modes.
- Copper emitter star with direct thermal path, so it can handle dramatically higher power.
- Software-configured memory and mode group.
- First BLF light with visually-linear spacing between modes.
- Includes hidden modes: strobe, battcheck, bike flasher.
- First clicky-switch light with ability to go both forward and backward between modes.
- Fast PWM so the pulses aren’t visible even for people who are very sensitive to it.
- Completely open-source firmware and driver circuit, so people can modify them.
The X6v2/X5 add a few things…
- Upgraded to an attiny25 to enable extra features:
- Thermal regulation.
- Greatly expanded soft config options to cover more people’s preferences.
- Other subtle improvements like actual voltage readout, police-style strobe, and smooth level transitions.
- First BLF light with a lighted tailcap.
- One of the first lights to use the new XP-L HI, which gives much better throw and more even tint, allowing both lights to be good pocket throwers.
- The X5 is a brand new host, first of its kind, and probably has the most throw of any light its size.
- Beautiful, collectors-edition hosts in steel and copper (in addition to the more practical aluminum models).
- Nice wooden box available for collectors.
- Massive heat sinks largely eliminate the need to worry about heat, even on the highest modes.
- Huge upgrade in host quality compared to the A6.
The short version is: Non-modders can finally get retail lights which are nearly the same as the hot-rodded stuff people on BLF custom-build for themselves.
Wow. Alright…WOW. That is just incredible. I’m completely floored.
I HAVE to get this set now. There’s no option. I need to have TWO sets actually. LOL
When will the waitlist start getting codes?
How much time is left for the people that haven’t used their codes?
Thanks a lot for that excellent write up ToyKeeper. I really appreciate the time you took to go into so much detail.
I wish I found out about BLF sooner.