I’ll look for anything apparent when I pull the driver that lost some of its modes (and send it on to anyone with expertise who’s curious to diagnose it, if nothing’s obvious).
The reason I ask is the sheer number of reports about flashlights losing modes. If it’s all the modes lost, it’s probably just a dead short from negative to shell bypassing the driver, I understand.
But there are enough “some modes lost” reports to make me wonder. Search results for '' - BudgetLightForum.com
Sorry for the digression. No need to go further astray on that tangent.
It was good and fair question. There is no problem with that.
I wish I could say something to help with the driver issue. I honestly do not know except to look for anything that could weird or out of place. Those tiny parts are not my forte.
Love the idea of a 3D and the 7 modes! However the step down is never necessary in these non-modded single cell lights, except for idiot proofing, and idiots will always find a way around it…
I agree that it will be a good light BUT the D80 has a proven history. The EE A6 is a new light and no production light has ever used Wight's driver. I think...at least hope..that when the lights come and the drivers and copper get installed that people will take more interest. I think that is what has slowed the interest down, which I can understand.
Besides, the X6-SE took a bit to get rolling too :)
Edit: The LS.D80 is well worth $20 all day long...just an improved UI in addition to NW emitter makes it worthwhile gb :)
The only reason I’m in this GB is because of the power that the driver can give.
I would jump into more GB’s if they had it. Most GB’s are pointless to me as I don’t care much about a slight improvement here or there or a discount compared to everything else already available out there.
This tube light will be a big improvement over any other tube light remotely comparable at a reasonable price…no vihn plug here. I like his work but I won’t pay 100$ for a tube light.
I like this light a lot, but I have not decided yet to jump in this GB. One thing that would get me over the edge is if it comes with copper springs at both the tail and driver side. One reason the X6 from the GB refused to perform is that over 3A, resistances in the flashlight are getting a huge influence on the performance, and the main bottleneck are the steel springs. Copper springs (phosfor-bronze copper springs are dead cheap if produced in quantities, I found) have three times less resistance as steel springs, and that will boost the performance enormously, especially with these DD-drivers.
My estimate is that even with wight's driver, this flashlight will not pull more than 3.5A, if the springs are replaced by phosfor-bronze springs it jumps to 4.5A+
(copper braiding the springs will even be more effective, but then we are talking about modding the light, and that should not be necessary for an especially for BLF modified light)
Anyway.....All of you have good points to consider but without the samples here I cannot offer any worthwhile input/response. Also, while it is true that we have gotten the attention of the manufacturers (at least the lesser known brands) I am not so sure if a complete revamp of a lights internals are worthwhile to the manufacturers. The reason I say that is that because in manufacturing they count pennies, especially for $20 lights, and that requires buying in very large quantity. That is fine IF they were to plan on incorporating the "leftovers" in the everyday production...but when they are not and it is a "made to order" run then that requires that they be used up or charged against.
When the samples get here..and we demonstrate the numbers...and we can get a final tally of people that want this light..then we can see what can be added (if anything) and what the final cost will be.
Dunno about anyone else, but I already have more 18650 tube lights than I can find uses for.
The driver is interesting to me, but the host doesn’t seem like anything special. If it were significantly smaller, or had an e-switch / dual-switch, or was made of a bare metal, or came with a triple 219B and floody TIR, or had some other particularly uncommon nice trait, it would be more interesting.
Having BLF on the side is pretty cool, but that need feels sated for now with two new BLF X6 lights still fresh in their boxes.
