Future project proposal: the A-family

[Agro]

Thanks for the input.

@Enderman

Personally not really a fan of all those designs.
I only like tube lights.
If I can fit a flashlight with a bigger diameter head in my pocket, then it would make no difference if the whole light was that diameter.
Even a 26650 light can easily be gripped in one hand so the only reason to have a non-tube light is if you need a head bigger than like 40mm.

If BLFers in general would like A-lights with 26650, that could be changed easily.
Personally I EDC lights in a backpack, so for me weight and overall volume are more important than any individual dimension. Larger head doesn’t add much to volume, but can nicely improve performance.
BTW I may draw a near-tube A-light later, still with 21700. I’m not sure, that may be applicable to more lights, but not having actual driver design I was pretty conservative with sizing. But aspheric zoomie should be doable.

Removing powerbank would help as well. That may be a good light, but not an A-light.

@Enderman

Also, even though getting high numbers is cool for marketing, it’s pretty much useless for a regularly used or EDC flashlight.

It may be useless for you, but is not in general.
I love my D4 and use its Turbo a lot.

@Enderman

Having long battery life, stable output, no drop down or FET or direct drive, is what really matters.
The longest runtime would be using a shockli 26650 5500mAh cell.
The longest runtime while minimizing mass and size is a samsung 18650 35E.
Maybe in the future 21700 cells will get better but currently the highest capacity one is the samsung 48G which is slightly worse in wh/kg and wh/L than the 18650, but it is still very close (a lot closer than the best 26650) so if you need more capacity it’s definitely the best option.
.
I don’t think anything below 18650 is worthwhile even considering, having looked at the wh/kg and wh/L of the best 16340, 18650, and 14500s.

On low currents, LG H30 or Acebeam “5100 mAh” (which uses a cell I failed to identify) are the highest capacity 21700. For moderate currents that may be either 48G or Acebeam.

There are uses where Wh/l and Wh/g are meaningless. That is - when you have enough energy. Beyond that every size increase is a waste, regardless of how it improves power density. Personally I love 18350 - runtime is good enough for my EDC, the best cell has good IR and it’s significantly smaller and lighter than 18650. Even DQG Tiny 18650.

Powerbank function may be an excuse for some to go up with the cell size from what they use now.
For others - recharging that comes with it may be a good reason to go down.

I’m a huge efficiency geek. But sometimes less efficient solutions are simply better.