Indeed, indeed, Kemosahbee.
More thinking than doing, a perennial problem of mine. TIR or reflector? What type of switch?, and so forth. I will give the TIR the first go, in an upside down C8 pill, and a nice clicky 12mm smt momentary switch. Pics to follow when I git-r-done……. 
A small crumb………………………
7 segment display going (i.e voltage display), and battery pack done, see post #1.
Small progress, with pics in OP. Lots of stuff still to do.
It’s looking quite dangerous. Don’t carry it in a knapsack. And for gosh sakes
don’t put a count down timer in there. 8) Where does the solar panel fit in?
Tic, Tic, Tic….
PV panels fit on open side, you can see how they fit the opening at the top of the OP. Will use AL angle and backplate construction, then silicone caulk the panels to the backplate, another thing on the to do list .
Switch mounting done. Back plate support, for the PV mini panels, is done. Next up is the head, along with mounting up the Fet drive.
Looking good!
It's hard to believe solar powered flashlights are feasible now. When I was a kid they were jokes used alongside a screen door on a submarine.
Thanks RBD, unlike last year, I think this one will look more complete.
leaftye, the two 1/2W (2P for 1W total) mini pv panels should do some real charging. Hope to get a couple of days worth of data to see just how good a job they will do.
This flashlight is NOT in the mass lumens race :), and more about exploring the solar, and LifePo4 battery aspects of the lite.
For the curious about LifePo4 chemistry: The preliminary tests show the K2 18650 LifePo4 (2P) battery pack (right off the charger), FET drive, and Cree high CRI XML-2 led makes about 5W (1.6A) max of led power. My first test showed 1.2A, which seemed low. Put the battery on the Thunder AC6 charger, and found out the pack was two thirds empty, even though the resting voltage was at 3.2V!
I like it, good job.
Looking back at my post, I might have unintentionally sounded doubtful. I meant that I was impressed that technology (solar and LED efficiency) had progressed so far that an idea that was dubious in my childhood is now totally possible.
I understood you correctly about the technology advancements, it’s really amazing how far they have come along. I was just passing along the PV details for the readers, and my hopes for the build .
Beam shots up in post #2. It’s a warm fuzzy flooder thing.
I feel in my home reading here have been a lot busy lattely and it seem i have mised lot of nice things. I would like to see a review of this light if it is possible. Solar panels always intrigued me since when was kid.
This light could run forever. It just need a small amount of spill through an aspheric lens focused on the solar panel and there you go. 
Its nice to see your light up and running.
I like it so far :-) Great job.
MRsDNF: A solar concentrator, now I hadn’t thought of that
Ledsmoke: Going to work on the finish trim this weekend, and some driver things. Hopefully it will get wrapped up real soon.
Ervin: Let me know what other information on the lite that you would like to see, so that I can detail them. I still plan to get outside solar battery charge data.
Trials and tribulations. Solar panel setback detailed, minor inconvienance actually. Also, more build details (original OP) and testing post #1.
All done! The lite works great.
Summary:
The PV mini panels (2P) charge the 2P 18650 LifePo4 battery pack, momentary switch, NFet direct drive, XM-L2 hi CRI led, three modes (10, 30, 100%) no memory, battery voltage and mode display…….
Love that first picture in OP.
Well done!