1, Side by side AA without battery case to break .
2, Three simple modes, no blinking modes.(200, 50, 5)
3, Metal body with rubber grip.
4, Neutral or warm white emitter.
5, Tail stand (with defuser maybe)
6, Two button end switch one power the other mode.
7, Under $20
1. Side electronic switch near the front of the light. Switch should be slightly recessed and stiff enough it won’t turn on accidentally.
2. Waterproof
3. neutral white XPG or XM-L emitter
4. 1xAA or side-by-side 2xAA with no battery carrier.
5. Light should have option of tailcap lockout to disable parasitic battery drain and prevent accidental activation when desired.
6. Modes: moonlight, 5, 20, 100%.
i dont mind strobe, but yea its better has a hidden feature, sometimes its fun to use, everything else sounds good
Side switch - make this the glow part
AA battery format
retro styling
I don’t mind the strobe or SOS if it can be hidden. A tail switch is more appealing for me. A square design I think may not be easy to handle.
What kind of volumes are you looking for that price and is there in-house expertise for microcontroller/circuit development?
Perhaps the “best” lights in the biz are the zebralights. Part of the reason for their high cost is the build quality and sophisticated electronics. However, I’ve always felt that it’s possible to emulate much of their UI at least with a simple PWM circuit + electronic switch and skimp a bit on a build. If the expertise for developing a ultra-low power parasitic draw (for electronic switch) doesn’t exist then some of the ZL UI features are right out.
IMO, this suggestion is worth investigating because the best way for a project to be successful it to distinguish itself from the crowd. Multi-mode CNC AA lights are dime a dozen on the market right now. The GLOW + ZL-like UI for <$20 would make this an instant success.
I’d have to ask the higher-ups about sales volume goals, but I can say with confidence that we have some exceptional in-house electrical design talent. Our electrical engineering and chip design guys, Kim and Roger, are responsible for (among many, many other things) the chip design that creates the realistic candle flicker in a large number of the products in the electric candle market. If there’s a way to make a quality UI that’s low cost, low current, and highly effective, they can put it together. I know Roger in particular has quite a thing for squelching passive power draw.
Thanks for the suggestions, Agenthex, and everyone else who’s responded so far.
As a side note I’ve now got myself wondering if I can prove my claims about our design prowess to a potentially skeptical internet audience. After all most of our work to this point has been for contract partners, so our name never gets to the consumer. So with a little self-imposed “pictures or it didn’t happen” kind of thing I dug up a few of our 30+ patents , including the battery powered flicker candle design I referenced.
If that’s the case, I’d strongly suggest they take a look at the ZL UI for some inspiration. Corners can be cut on the stuff non-flashaholics don’t care about like current regulation, HAIII coating, or any of the tactical nonsense.
A significant part of the reason why ZL price is high is due to low volume, but pretty much everyone who gets one of their lights loves the operation. Their AA designs are prized. The default UI they use might be too complex for a causal consumer (IMO it’s designed for a “prosumer” user), but a simplified version which retains the best features (double click, click&hold) would make it stand out as a “premium” product among the riff raff.
The other direction to look for inspiration is the Thrunite TI, whose sheer simplicity is unparalleled: twist for low, twist more for high. Such a design cuts the cost/space for an electronic switch. Though that’s nice, it wouldn’t be head and shoulders above the competition at that price segment.
For the other technical stuff, a decent led like xp-e in 1D to 3A tint would be nice, not too blue. It doesn’t really have to be too bright, or especially efficient. A competent product with veneer of sophistication at a customer-friendly price is what’s missing in this product category.
Considering that you’re intending to have a selling price of $15, I don’t think you can get too elaborate with designs and features.
Hope this helps. 
Agenthex, that’s a fantastic quote. I’d like to put in our letterhead and write it over our office door. It’s exactly what we try to do with every product we’ve put out. It’s a lack of innovation, design competence, and aesthetic appeal among the big players in the market that allows Jenesis to exist at all.
with your collective suggestions and Kim and Roger’s experience the “competent product” part is well in hand, and my brother Mark (our mechanical engineer) is already starting the 3D modeling work for that “veneer of sophistication”.
I’d hope the veneer includes UI and component quality . . something beyond the 3D modeling aspects.
Very interesting, but I have one question, how can low-glow produce a glow for a longer peroid of time than an alkaline shelf life? That’s quite a long time and it sounds cool!
Side button, no interest whether there is one or two.
Tail stand and anti-roll body/head would be awesome.
I would certainly choose AA over C.
Absolutely! Shoddy workmanship just isn’t our style. For example, CarpentryHero picked up a couple of our Glowing Key Fobs and immediately noted the attention paid to design quality, even on such a simple product.
Or to put it another way, here’s Mark talking about the level of thought and consideration that went into design of one of our other products:
Sounds like a pretty cool project!
A 2C light might be nice to make. There are many D and AA cell lights but C cells don’t see much use. IMO, they fell pretty good in hand while not being too big and still have decent capacity.
I was thinking:
* 2 C cell light
* Side clickie and a shorter electrical switch to change modes, preferably forward clickie for the main switch. If component price doesn’t allow it, then a reverse clickie works, half press to change modes.
* No mode memory, starts on low mode
* The body can be any material, preferably aluminum, but plastic good too
* Neutral white LED, Maybe the Cree XB-D or XP-C since they are usually cheaper and still offer good performance
* Medium range beam, decent hotspot with a smooth transition to spill (maybe a wide optic or a orange peel reflector)
* 3 modes (off would be your low glow)
- Low = 5 lumen
- Medium = 25 lumen
- High = 100 lumen
Best of luck with the project!
I know when I first started looking into higher power LED lights, I didn’t understand Lithium cells, and spent quite a while looking for 3AA side by side formats. Single AA lights are a dime dozen and I would love to have a good, safe, pleasingly blinding option to buy for family and friends I don’t trust with lithium’s. Three AAA arrangements just chew batteries and are wasteful, but three (or four) AA allows good power, economy and runtime, at only a little bigger overall package. C cell would be nice, but I can’t remember the last time I bought one of those, and AAs are ubiquitous.
I think an excellent piece of design is the SkyRay King I have (copied from Nitecore TM 11), 4 cell side by side format, and surprisingly compact with no battery caddy. Side switch means the body is a single piece and shorter from no tail clicky, with a very handy twist of the head to lock out. It can also run on 1,2,3 or 4 batteries (not that you want to run it on high with one battery, but it can and I do sometimes use it with 2 or 3). A one to four cell option in an emergency light would be awesome! The wider body would also allow you to incorporate a wide enough reflector to get some good throw (about c8 size?). Also a magnet in the base would be good for an emergency/house/car light and work perfectly with the TM 11/King design (imagine sticking it to the underside of a lifted car bonnet, side of a car when camping etc.)
I know when I show a R2 C8 thrower at 1.3A or a XML C8 at 3.0A to non-falshaholics they seem to be more impressed with the superior throw of the R2 (even though the XML is putting out triple the lumens!!!). Throw = easily understandable consumer appeal. I’d steer clear of aspheric zoomies due to the design compromises and stick with a reflector, but I wonder if you are clever enough to incorporate some twist focus maglite style? (far from a dealbreaker though).
So, in short, if you can come up with an general use/emergency, semi-thrower, decent LED (XPG?), using 1 to 4 AA alkalines, in the TM11/SkyRay King format with side switch, with a magnet in the base (optional), for anything near $15, I will buy one for my car, one for the wife’s car, one for the house, and one everytime I have to give someone a present. No flashy modes and 100, 30, 5-2% same as everyone else. And waterproof too! What could be easier? 
Best of luck with whatever you come up with!
It should be upgradeable, today we use xm-l chips, who knows what efficiency and improvements tomorrows chips will have, a modular light with an interchangeable driver (if needed) and the ability to easily replace the LED would be very nice.
This is a good point. “Premium” 4AA lights tend to be quite expensive. Nobody really makes a budget PA40 (or the Fenix version). Such a thing with a good electric side switch interface isn’t even available much less anywhere near 20 bucks.
Maybe to keep price low, you could skip the microcontroller and use a switch to change a sense resistor of the driver. Not sure about the cost difference between these two methods.
Is $15 the sale price or the manufacturing + material cost?
I’ve just been looking on Mouser and Digikey for prices for components. Doesn’t seem to be many 1-3v boost circuit ICs with over 200mA current and around a buck a piece. 3 cell light might be a bit easier, since you won’t need a buck or boost circuit to run it, but not having a circuit means you can’t suck a battery dry (past the 0.9v end of life).
Decent neutral white LEDs are ~$1-2 per piece, Boost IC is also around the same price (was looking at the MPS MP3412), buttons are under $1 each… It’ll be tight for pricing.
First:
Welcome and TONS of luck for your effort!
It is not going to be easy to make a break through but this is a good start.
To be short:
Strobe & SOS are pretty much no-no. If you want to add them for some reason, think of getting them “hidden”, activated only with some series of clicks / longer click or so.
Tailstand is a plus, side-clicky is a bit rarer than tailclicky but IMO pretty highly regarded.
Lanyard hole is good thing also.
About runtime I would personally say, that I dig lights that are VERY powerful but I also like lights, that run with great efficacy.
If you are not going to make very High Power light, I suggest to think about making one, that gives reasonable amount for very long time.
I’m thinking for example my DQG Tiny AAA, which can give pretty good amount but for one AAA, IMO it gives it for spectacularly long.
One more thing:
Please, use Current Control on whatever you decide to design!
PWM and especially Low PWM is a terrible yet very common feat.
Well, it’s been a long time, but the day has finally come, we’ve posted our first flashlight project to Indiegogo for funding: Nite Finder.
It’s not quite as elaborate as we discussed here, but it’s a start. If we can get a foot in the door we hope to be making a lot more contributions to the flashlight market soon.