i havent got any PM so i guess i just have to wait.
âŚ
Hey d_t_a,
Thanks for the review, it was very informative!
Although the high heatsink temperature is not necessary a bad thing. Whatâs actually important is to keep the junction temperature of the LEDs in the allowed range at all times.
Therefore a measurement of the MCPCB temperature would be more helpful, because from that, the junction temperatures could be calculated quite accurately. Any chance you could make some additional measurements?
Why do people keep typing this bs. Some people on the list after 500 have received codes and some people before 500 havenât received codes I guess it is at random?
Regarding the temperature readout of the lanternâs top, it does feel warm but doesnât feel âburningâ hot.
Unfortunately I donât think Iâm skilled enough to disassemble the LT1 lantern (or to assemble it back afterwards⌠the most I can do is unscrew the driver and flash updated firmware). Iâm no good at soldering eitherâŚ
I think others more knowledgeable than me will soon have the LT1 lantern, and they may make better measurements soon. 
Itâs been awhile since I checked the shipping status of my LT1 since it was being held for ransom (or so it seemed) in China. First there was tracking movement, then it stayed in place for 10 days. But today out of boredom I tracked it. Itâs somewhere in the USA . OK, itâs not in my hands yet and for the past 3 days, yet again, there has been no movement (not happy about any of the delays as there was no delay in me paying my $ or for them waiting to receive it), but itâs here somewhere on the left coast and thatâs at least something.
Once it starts to move Iâm at least 5 days away from getting it into my hot little hands. I eagerly anticipate them handing it over to a US company for delivery so that I donât see any more weeks with no movement of any sort.
I hope everyone waiting gets their LT1s without the delays that mine saw and that you get them very soon.
mineâs says, âflight landed in destination countryâ for a week now. Sort of thought it would have arrived by now when it was in the US a week ago, especially since Iâm on the left coast.
No worries! If you donât feel comfortable disassembling it, then you shouldnât. I am sure there are going to be plenty of reviews soon. I am just impatient, thatâs all 
Unfortunately it is going to be a while until I can get my hands on my units, because they are not among the first 500 list items.
You definitely have my sympathy.
If I remember correctly with the Q8 my first was âin quarantineâ* in CA for at least 3 days before being handed to UPS to take it across the continent. Once in UPS there were no more unexpected delays and shipping proceeded normally as one would expect.
*just a polite way to say it wasnât being shipped.
Finally ordered my first unit (176 on the list) with batteries on amazon.com using the PM code from Sofirn now that they are available to order once again.
I requested two via eBay and Sofirn said they would send out only one per username. It should be here in another three weeks. Total transit time, if it arrives per tracking info, will have been five weeks. Iâm hoping to get a colored one next time. Iâm sure hoping it will be available at the GB price. Doesnât matter. If itâs in the $60 range Iâll go ahead and purchase.
Interesting to me that, for the last twenty years, lantern offerings have been a bit stagnant and feeble. Shortly after BLF announces the LT1, the big players come in with ânewâ feature rich lanterns, hoping I guess get a jump on the LT1. Some of them expensive too. The Felix @ $100 or so. Once again the BLF designers are ahead of the curve. They always are. Thanks from me to all those who worked on this project, and equal thanks to Sofirn, a strong and dependable supporter of BLF. I appreciate it.
Which ones are these? I havenât seen anything on new lanterns from any big manufacturers, would be interested to check them out.
Yes, the BLF lantern is certainly ahead, there are so many little things to do right about a lantern, the LT1 did them all thanks to Den, and all the other manufacturers will, unknowingly or to cut corners, do it a lot less well.
Well, I was stupefied after coming home from running errands today. The LT1 was waiting for me to take it out of my mailbox and last night it was still on the left coast. That is some sort of shipping record (air mail via SR71?). I havenât even put cells in it yet. Iâm going to do that now. But really? I get mine here in Maine before others in California get theirs? Thatâs unheard of. Needless to say after 4ish years this is definitely welcome.
Whoops⌠Unpacking it showed that plastic had been wrapped around the âglobeâ to protect it. No surprises in packaging. No frills, just common sense packaging designed to get it here w/o damage.
I took 4 NRC 18650GA (3) cells out of storage and put them into the LT1. They are at half charge so the USB charger is in use as I write. Itâs plugged into a 1 amp charger.
A few observations on V1 (the first 500). I expected a green light to indicate âonâ. Mine is orange and it goes red when charging. I donât care about the orange, itâs just an observation. Nice light. I immediately took it out of step mode and put it into ramping mode time will tell which I like best. Also changed to a more âdaylightâ tint. The UI is easy to use (similar to the Q8) but I didnât get into any of the higher functions. Itâll start doing itâs job tonight. Cool, the light works even when charging.
I already like it. Itâs nicely designed and I never say that lightly. Like the Q8, one can instantly tell that folks who know something about lights designed it and that includes the software. I canât imagine anyone new to this UI having any problem picking it up and not instantly knowing how to use it. WELL DONE TO ALL INVOLVED!
Now Iâm curious to get batch #2 to see what was changed for the better. I canât imagine it.
Iâd like to see the board, I wouldnât know what Iâm looking at, but thereâs a lot going on under the hood, thatâs clear. But since I donât know what Iâm doing Iâm leaving it alone.
Itâs not surprising either. Having the heat sink at 60 C is about what was expected, when running at full power for a long time. Itâs similar to the heat sink on many LED light bulbs â itâs within normal operating temperature, but donât try to unscrew the bulb until it has cooled down a bit.
The number of 7135 chips can be adjusted depending on the the userâs preferences â dimmer/colder with longer runtime, or brighter/hotter with shorter runtime. The default was chosen to provide a good balance⌠approximately 8 hours of full power at ~60 C, when using 4x3500mAh cells.
For extended use though, Iâd generally recommend a somewhat lower level. Step 4/5 looks almost as bright, but should get nearly twice the runtime and shouldnât get uncomfortably hot.
The light itself uses an orange-ish amber LED to indicate status. The charger has a red and green LED to show what the charger is doing⌠red for charging and green for full. These operate completely independently, but theyâre all under the same button.
Donât blame you for being excited since you were able to jump the queue at #1664 on the list.
Thanks TK.
BTW, good work on the UI. I do see your hand all over it right?
I received a LT1 today.
When the sales started I ordered from aliexpress and mentioned my user name, I got the discount and so it went. I âm reluctant to say that I am 700-something on the list but I justified trying ordering because there was a lot of talk of people wanting to wait for batch2 and I do not mind a batch1 lantern with slight imperfections. This was well before âAlex-gateâ and the widespread confusion about getting and using the codes or I would have waited before ordering. I did not expect to be one of the first to actually receive it.
All seems to work perfectly well and even living in a country where is electricity always and everywhere I can see how immensely useful a lantern like the LT1 is. It may be expensive for many people of developing countries to buy one together with a suitable solar panel, but even for people with limited financial resources I can imagine it is worth spending some savings over this. The tint ramping and the nice smooth beam may be a bit of a luxury, but it being luxury adding to function it is not wasted on any owner in my opinion.
I have no time for a teardown (yet) but I can share a few observations about output and tint of my lantern.
First the output, measured by sticking the lantern head fully in my big sphere and compensating for the reflectivity alteration using the auxilliary light of the sphere: at maximum I got 320 lumen for the warmest setting and 240 lumen for the coolest setting. This sounded not correct so I had a look at the driver board:
Iâm not sure which amc is which and which gaps are exactly closed, looks like some pretty random soldering so Iâm not surprised that I get quite random outputs. So I just solder-closed all the gaps so that now I assume all amcâs are engaged.
Now I get 425 lumen for warmest max and 550 lumen for coolest max, sounds way more like they get the same current.
Here are some tints, at maximum warmest and coolest tint settings, and two settings somewhere in the middle:
Warmest setting: CCT=2610 duv=+0.0004 CRI=97.4 R9=81
Coolest setting: CCT=4740 duv=+0.0043 CRI=93.6 R9=62
Mixed tint 1 : CCT=3550 duv=â0.0011 CRI=97.5 R9=85
Mixed tint 2 : CCT=4020 duv=+0.0004 CRI=96.6 R9=79
So the tints are very high CRI, and at least up to 4000K the tint is very close to the black body line. For the coolest setting the tint is a bit above the BBL, but it still looks good to me and at least I see no green. It is not surprising that the CCTâs are a bit lower than the led ratings because diffusers always lower the CCT.
I may later add some tint measurements at lower currents but I expect them not to be hugely different because at maximum output the leds are already well below their maximum ratings.
Djozz when did yours ship?
Mine shipped the 17th and should have left china the 18th and since then no tracking updates.
Ha Michiel,
Ordered Oct 11
Shipped Oct 14
Arrived Oct 22
Ordered Oct 13th
In USA this morning Oct 25th