Howdy guys, I’m new to the BLF but have some experience in other flashlight places. For a school project I am designing a flashlight, the class is not about electronics, more of the overall design of products, I am in need of help of understanding where to get parts and the best way to put them together. I am currently still in the early stages of the project but before I start designing the flashlight’s body I was wanting to decide on some parts like the MCPCB, Drivers, Leds, and switch. This way I can have some real dimensions to base the flashlight around.
I was looking at Mountain Electronics and was trying to decide between the 20mm MTN Quad XP / 219 DTP Copper MCPCB and the 20mm MTN Triple XP / 219 + 3x XQ-E DTP Copper MCPCB. Either way I was wanting to use either SST20s or Samsung LH351D as the emitters. My first problem is I am not really sure with what driver board I would need, there are about 10 different options for drivers and I do not really know which would be most appropriate for my use case. Also if I was to get the triple emitter board, where do I get aux leds and would that make a difference to what drivers or firmware I need?
I was wanting to use a side mounted E-switch and could not find any information on how to wire it up or where to buy a switch similar to something on D4Sv2. I was planning to use a single 18650, or maybe upgrade to a 21700 if needed. If anyone has any advice for a flashlight novice I would be very appreciative.
As an aside, I saw that they was talk about the 2021 Old Lumens challenge, when does this start and end, if I can get my project done by then I would love to enter it!