Joined like 2 weeks ago. Been reading for a couple of months.
Saw - 9th annual old lumens challenge - going and had to participate. Everyone’s work looked super impressive and I want to learn more about this stuff.
Just bought my first overengineered torch like 2 months ago. The number of portable lights in my home has already more than doubled 
I already had several (they’re very useful tools, right?) And I don’t think one of the old ones cost more than about $20. Old xenon maglites and hardware store 2xaas, that sort of thing mostly.
Was looking for a new good light to replace an old Fenix that was given to me. It got lost in somewhere in a toolbox and batteries leaked and got stuck in tube. Just happened to see an ad for this pretty little red and gold Olight baton 3. The dragon and Phoenix with the case. It was on sale AND paired with a copper i5R (I love copper and silver). So, now I carry that i5R everywhere except work (it’s too heavy in my scrubs, so I bought an orange i5R at the Halloween sale)
Bought the wife and kids some obulb MC’s. Got like 5 Olight keychains. (i1r2, 2 of i1r2 pro, 2 of i3e) grabbed a thrunite ti2 off Amazon just to compare to i3e. Bought wife rovyvon aurora A1 in purple, and kids lumintop edc01 in pink and blue. Ordered Alonefire sv18 365nm uv because wife had “recovering feral cat” spraying in the house occasionally (easy to smell, but can be hard to find). Bought a little 3xaaa 365nm stumbled onto on sale for like $6 by register at autoparts store while waiting for that to get here… I think that’s all the new ones.
And - built a light - for old lumens #9! out of a broken disposable penlight and some junk. All in about the last 2 months. Think I counted 18 new lights in 2 - 2.5 months including the one I made.
That’s in addition to the 12-15 I already had.
I have some old LEDs, switches, miscellaneous parts, couple tools, even a couple of Raspberry-pi zeros that are still in their packages, so we’ll see, hope to build some fun stuff and learn some things while hanging out with the awesome people here at BLF!
P.S. Also, my wife has tasked me with building sort of “emergency supply” kits that she can give to homeless folks, so if anyone has recommendations regarding lights (or any supplies, really) that would work well for that circumstance, I’m all ears. (She gave some poor kids an old zoomie 1xaa I had in the car the other day because it was the only one I had with me, other than my copper i5R) She felt bad all she had to give them was a flashlight, I felt bad it was a crap one Best I’ve seen so far would probably be lumintop edc01 (easily obtainable 1xaaa battery, low modes last longer than Olight i3e or thrunite ti2). But something with a clip might be better? If I’ma do up kits with mylar blankets and all kinds of stuff, cost per component definitely becomes a factor.
