A few more dollars for a light that most everyone wants doesn’t seem to be much of deal breaker. I got this from reading this entire thread (whew!). The BLF members have spoken. They also want it there way! (remember those Burger King commercials?). So I hope Eagle Eye is listening when I say, “I hope they they can source the right drivers!!” If they can, it would be a great way to become that company with great name recognition they probably desire. All without spending large amounts of money on advertising. It would be a win-win situation, which makes for a great business deal. I have all the confidence in the world in Krono, JM, and Tom in looking out for our interests. But let’s remember people, IT’S ONLY A FLASHLIGHT!! Personally, I don’t mind waiting. Realistically there’s probably a bunch of obstacles most of us don’t realize. Most group buys are about buying a preexisting flashlight. This isn’t that group buy.
+1 Dale. We are so close, it couldn’t be simpler than this.
Thank you so much for this post. Exact on point. For those of us on BLF that cannot mod, we were also hoping all along for a “Factory Hotrod”!
As Ejected Filament mentioned, ALL of it. That is the greatness of this group buy light. There should be no need to mod this final agreed upon light, and at a truly budget price, even if it ends up a few dollars over the $20 expected price.
I am getting so excited….
can we get “ALL OF IT”?
Edited,
Not worth it….
Continue on good people, hope the lights turn of exactly what you expect, as for what I want them for, no possible way any factory config could offer that…
Ordered the Adega hosts (if anyone else is interested I can’t post what I paid but if you’re looking for quantity definitely get in touch with them!)
It seems to me that EE buy in their drivers in and have no reason to have staff capable of reflashing drivers hence,reducing medium mode would be done at source.An off the shelf driver becomes a custom order with consequent price hike for EE.Once it’s a custom order,resistance mod as well and if it comes to no more than $2 more to us,I’m good with that.Just my $2 worth 
When you are the manufacturer every step of the build is from the ground up. It shouldn’t be about “re-flashing” drivers, but flashing them right from the beginning. All this is typically an automated system, so the MCU or PIC should be flashed with the proper UI in the original sequence when building the 1000 drivers from the get-go.
This will all result in a better light for EE in the long run, the purchases won’t stop with this group buy…only the BLF Special Edition engraving will be a limited run. The way I see it, they can continue to make profit on this as an enhanced or V2.0 version of the original product and even sell the drivers once finalized. Win win all the way around.
Thats a very north american viewpoint, thats how we (try) to do business, but their rules are very different from ours, what makes no sense to us is second nature to them and vice versa
and how are Europeans rated in your world Bort?
i assume very well, i was referring to DBCs location/viewpoint compared to the chinese one
Bort, I’m curious about how you’ve developed this expertise in so many cultures.
a year or more ago someone here posted a long thoughtful observation after he worked in China for a European buyer.
Wish I could find it again, it was a good example of the difference between expectation and result. He talked about the difference between establishing a longterm trust relationship (what he expected) and establishing trust long enough to acquire a large order then screw the customer on it (what he experienced). YMMV as always.
Here’s another: How to Find a Supplier in China: A Complete Business Guide
which includes considerable advice, along with a section on warnings, e.g.
Does Adega make the hosts for EagleEye?
Bort recommended to me a whole book on Chinese business practices written by a westerner who has lived in China for 20 years, speaks the language and represents western companies in dealings with the Chinese. The book is “Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the China Production Game” and it gives a very interesting and educational look at how Chinese business works.
IMO a very different manufacturing philosophy rules in China and there seems to be little of businesses and their management taking the long term view on business relationships. Totally different from either Japanese, European or old time American business attitudes and practices.
IMO until the Chinese government does what Taiwan did with their bicycle industry back around 1980 or so I doubt things will change. In Taiwan the government shut down the junk manufacturers of components and bicycles leaving a few quality oriented companies such as Giant. Last I knew they were the world’s largest maker of high grade bicycles.
I’m pretty sure that take on doing business with the Chinese has around since the British were working to get the Chinese hooked on opium so they had something to trade for all the tea in China.
I’m not sure if it matters for the total, but I am on the list for 1 light. I’d like to add 2 more.
168 richnpc nw
I’d like to add one nw
plus one cw,
for total of 3 lights
Any update on the lights?
From last Friday til now, JohnnyMac should still be waiting for the sample to arrive for qc and evaluation. My guess it that we will not have any useful news until next week and that would be if it (the sample) went out and through customs today.
Two identical new samples are being shipped out…one to JM and one to me. They should arrive via DHL sometime next week. Here is the amp reading on this current batch of samples:
As soon as we have had a chance to look them over, we will pass along the results.
krono
Looks good. Is that still on 1 cell?