A tail e-switch would be increasing size, cost, complexity, and I don’t see how Anduril adds to what IMHO are the goals of this product.
BearBreeder, Boaz, agent80: A USB-rechargeable 10440 light is a good idea for a different project. Consider starting a proposal.
A 10280 battery is intriguing but really pushing the limits. It would add at least 10mm to the length and probably 10-20g to the weight, doubling it. That would be a significant departure from “tiny”.
It’s great to see so many ideas, though please try to stay strictly focused on the typical use-case for a keychain light. This is why I made a detailed description of what I think is the core goal.
I think the best products are purpose-driven rather than feature-driven.
Although I must admit being a bit spoiled by the Nitecore keychain offerings with over 500 lumens, which makes 100 seem rather low, at least on paper.
I don’t like twisties very much for anything, and especially not for a keychain light, because for that usage scenario it seems best to allow one-handed operation.
4000K sounds perfect, and would be a major attraction in a world of cold tint keychain lights.
I can speak only for myself, but I am always curious to see beamshots, if it’s not too much trouble for you. Maybe it improves design, or in the worst case at least we learn something.
Great feedback and suggestions. I would love to respond to everyone’s posts but I don’t want to flood the thread!
For those who don’t like twisties, do you have an alternative that does not introduce significant disadvantages with size, weight, cost, or drain? I would think a twisty is ok for single-handed use.
For peace of mind, I have requested a captive head (double threaded sections).
I recently replaced my handsome Cooyoo copper 10180 keychain twisty for a Nitecore Tube (with 3400K high CRI led). For one simple reason: a twisty requires some awkward fingertwisting to switch it on (I’m lefthanded, that proably does not help) and since I use it daily to check my mailbox I began to hate it. The Tube has an easy button, it is ugly but also it is very small, weighs nothing and it is a pleasure to use! Going back to a twisty is a no-go.
So my vote goes to an easy to find button-switch on the side, and not on the tail (imagine how that operates when it is on your keychain).
Bonus: the twisty version is available in almost every brand, a button version is new.
Button on the side - on a keyring that will be jammed into a pocket. You’d have to have a physical interlock to stop pocket activations, and that gets you right back to a twisty.
The bar I will measure this against is my old favorite pocket light - Thrunite Ti3.
- shorter - this is good.
- USB charging - enough of an upside that I’m willing to give up runtime. I too would like USB-C - We seem to have figured out the only Gotcha with the LT1, so why not, unless micro shaves dollars or millimeters.
- 100-ish lumen High - This is a keychain light, not a damn D4. There’s no need to whip out our keychains and measure our lumens. 100-ish is good for most tasks you would not grab a ‘better’ light for anyway.
- twisty - I’m fine with this
- emitter - NW, power efficient & floody. CRI would be nice, but compromises have to be made.
Case - plain aluminum - Go the Astrolux A01 route and offer a rainbow! (or at least shiny green)
To be honest, the only selling point this has for me over the Thrunite Ti3 is the USB recharge.
I bought my wife a pink Tube. It lasted a couple of months. I opened it up, and the plethora of nasty cold solder joints makes me wonder how it ever worked. Not impressed. Their chargers seem to be decent, though.
djozz To my mind, left-handed operation would be easier for clockwise twisting, no?
A button is interesting, but has several disadvantages as pointed out. If going for a side switch, the cylindrical battery might get in the way, and thus be switched out for a pouch battery, which then turns into a completely different product… like the RovyVon A series?
Btw, I am very happy with the ~80/20 split of the poll results. It is precisely what I was aiming for. Trying to please everyone results in a product that disappoints everyone. The use-cases and preferences not met by the core goals of this design could then motivate separate interesting products of their own.
Requested, with double-threading. I hope Sofirn agrees.
Completely agree. Type-C has its appeal as it’s the future, but if it increases cost or size, then I think micro USB would be better for this case. I would really want to know the tradeoffs in this choice.
Also strongly agree. Recommendations welcomed. I’m very curious whether emitter choice has any appreciable impact on battery runtimes.
Yes! I’ve been thinking a lot about brightness levels. Possibilities include having High ~100LM to offer ok battery life ~20-30 minutes, or High ~200LM to make marketers happy and impress friends but have comical runtime and brightness dropoff.
Increasingly, I think the choice of the Low brightness is critical. If this is done right, then either of those Highs could still work fine as long as Low is the workhorse and Moonlight is the endurance mode. If going for high lumens on High, that could/should only be used as a “Turbo”, so that option might still have its (limited) use.
My big question to you all: What Low brightness do you think would be optimal for balancing usefulness and runtimes?
That’s probably somewhere in the 15-40LM range. Is 15LM something you use? What runtimes could be expected at 40LM?
How populated is your keyring, and do you pocket it?
For people with a housekey or two and a remote car fob - their experience will be a lot different than someone with a loaded ring.
I have 2 sets of keys (one in each front pocket) each has a tube attached both are currently dead because they activate in my pockets. This happens more often than not. At this point I am not even sure why I still carry them.
