FWIW, I already have an adjustable power supply. Very soon I’ll have two or three, though they’re mostly for other purposes. And if things go well on my current project, my fancy work DMM should be freed up soonish for other uses too. But I normally use a battery instead of the power supply, unless I’m testing LVP or something.
It’s not that so much as that it’d probably go to waste. Money already isn’t a barrier, because most of the stuff involved in this hobby is actually pretty cheap. The barriers I run into are more about time, motivation, health, distraction, and always having too much to do.
It means a lot to me that people want to help, to donate, to show appreciation somehow. When I saw all this, I cried. But I also sighed, because these things tend to be more than gifts, they’re also obligations, and I’ve been trying to avoid those.
Also, there are a bunch of people who make large contributions around here, who probably have better uses for it than I do. For example, Tom E has been kicking ass on the Q8 project, turning an ambitious pipe dream into reality. Pilotdog68 has been cranking out innovative circuit designs for quite a while and not getting much recognition for it. Wight made a whole suite of drivers which became BLF’s new gold standard. Among other things, djozz painstakingly supplies the tests and data we all use as a basis for our projects. DB Custom is the single most active person on the forum, not only pushing the technical boundaries for what’s possible but also making huge efforts to keep the community healthy. Just to name a few. Perhaps we could split this among several people?
Uh, oh… Now that’s immortalized in web form for the rest of my life. To be fair, I appreciate all my gifts. And with all the choice these days you practically need the make and model on your wish list if anyone has any hope of making the same decision you would.
As for me, I’ve had sort of a BLF todo/wish list I’ve been dragging my feet about. It’s split into three categories — “give a man a fish”, “teach a man to fish”, and “ooh shiny”.
On the “give a fish” list:
- tiny85 FET+1 e-switch or dual-switch light to enable writing newer better code
- pd68’s tiny13-driven lighted tailcaps (and clear boots), because they’re just cool
On the “teach to fish” list:
- I hear circuits are dramatically easier to make with a hot-air soldering tool
- A bag of parts — resistors, capacitors, MCUs, diodes, etc
- Oshpark boards for new circuits
… and the “ooh shiny” list:
- Bare copper Olight S1 with the emitter modded to ~4700-5000K (like high-CRI Nichia 219 or XP-L HI) (I really should have bought one when they were available)
- Matrix-style download an electrical engineering degree into my brain
- More people to collaborate with on code
And maybe a reminder now and then to get off my butt and finish some projects. 
Or you could forget everything I just said… and send me a light saber. Light sabers are cool.
Sorry, Just trying to help out. Obviously my advice was not needed. I wont try that again.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I appreciate it. Trying to help is almost always a good thing.
I’ve just had a really weird day, been a little emotional. Two people died this week and two cool new projects started and I was sick a couple days and the thank-you gift ninjas got the jump on me and some other things are going on, and it’s a lot to process all at once. And after a joke about light sabers I discovered there’s a whole community built around those in much the same way BLF is built around flashlights, and some of what they make is actually pretty awesome, so instead of reverse-engineering an API I need to use for work I find myself paging through fascinating shiny things on another forum.
And run-on sentences. I may be a little frazzled tonight. 
Enjoy the moment TK and soak it up, nothing lasts. Dale ended up with a lathe purchased for Justin so if you end up feeling encumbered just re gift it. We all end up receiving more than we contribute anyway.
Yep, that’s a sure sign of mental fatigue. Take care, we’ll think of something to do with this activity.
Maybe it will turn out to be amazing. 
Make sure to get the programming cable for that light sabre
Wow. I just watched that video and the dude was getting choked up over his new toy. Good thing there’s no jealous girlfriend behind the camera.
I am recalling that scene from ‘EuroTrip’ where only one girl showed up to the nude beach, and she gets swarmed. haha.
Since we’re talking about light sabers I’ll just throw out that one of my flashlight dreams is to have a detailed, realistic looking light saber that of course is actually a flashlight but with an insanely intense laser like beam. Something along the lines of MEM’s work but with a UI developed by the one and only ToyKeeper. :money_mouth_face:
I’ll put $10 on this.
The closest I’ve gotten is a modded Jax Z1; it’s great as a light saber in the fog… especially when I go out in my wizard robe.
I set my lux limit about there though, 250 kcd, roughly twice as intense as direct noon sunlight. I have a list of cool things which are too dangerous for me to own, and really intense lasers are on the list.
I honestly wish I could contribute to this but I’m currently in need of a 21mm or 22mm driver to replace the ld-29 in my convoy l5 because I’m not satisfied with the 3A out or l-m-h and l-m-h-strobe-sos. Upgraded the u2 1a to u3 2c and did spring bypasses but the limits remain. TK’s bistro is impressive in reading about it and I respect both her participation and work but why isn’t it more readily available? Surely with the influence or demand of this community it should be possible for more options to be available.
BLF-A6 is like, if you have a bunch of people together for an event and need to provide food, and nobody can agree on what they want, it’s usually safe to order a bunch of plain cheese pizza. It’s not great, but almost everybody is at least okay with it.
Bistro is pretty much the same, only you can opt for pepperoni if you want. Still pretty bland.
But apparently everyone seems to think both are really good because they’ve spent so long eating nothing but sauerkraut.
I’m hoping that the firmware repository can become more like one of those world food markets where everyone can get something they really like — a wide variety of things appealing to various tastes instead of a single bland dish people don’t mind.
Great. It’s 11:20pm in small town California, I just got home from work, and now I’m hungry for pizza.