I of course nominate my favorite LED, the Luxeon V. Very efficient, floody, 4000K with a nice tint and even beam profile. Luxeon V2 would work, too…
Interested in one.
BLF, all the way!
Interested.
10180: In for 2 @ $10, maybe 1 if they’re $15. I’d probably gift them after playing with them. Liked my Lumintop Pico but didn’t bother to replace it when it died.
14450: Probably the same.
I’d be in for a Ti under $40, maybe an alu if under $20 depending on features.
So maybe it’s a lefty specific thing, since I’m also left-handed and have the exact same difficulties with twisties and successes with my Nitecore Tip. Although I do have fairly frequent accidental activations in my pocket. But to mitigate that I put it in the mode where it automatically shuts off after 30 seconds after a single push of the button. Also has momentary mode, which I love— just hold it down for a few seconds as long as needed, then let go and it turns off.
I currently keep a rovyvon A5 on my keychain and frankly it’s going to be difficult to beat. That said, it did just die on me so something more reliable would be nice. My only complaints are CRI and color temperature, if I could get something similarly small with a decent warm white, high CRI led I would jump on it in a heartbeat. I do not like twisties, I’ve lost too many heads on keychain lights and they are akward to use. Some sort of clicky, side is best but tail is fine as well. It can be recessed to protect from accidental activation.
I love the idea of BLF keychain light though so no matter what, I’ll probably jump on a few if they are a decent price.
The market of small 10180 lights is quite crowded already, but I think it is still possible to design an affordable light that stands out.
My preferences in short:
- stainless steel and/or titanium
- knurling (or something else grippy) on both head and body
- All-in-one tail design from C01S
- USB-C (ideally with two 5,1 kΩ resistors)
- "captive" head
- high CRI (LED and optic from C01S)
- LVP
- decent regulation
- visually linear mode spacing (e.g. 1,5 | 15 | 150 lm)
Here is my reasoning:
Aluminium is usually the best choice for flashlights, but on small keychain flashlights I prefer stainless steel or titanium because it wears better and has higher durability. Anodized aluminium lights will quickly look ugly if they get banged around on a keychain and rub against pointy metal keys all day, SS or Ti lights on the other hand will usually look fine, even after years of keychain duty. While an Al light is always lighter than the exact same light in Ti or SS the absolute difference is very small on such tiny lights, almost to the point of being negligible (e.g. Klarus Mini One Al and Ti are 13 g and 16 g respectively according to the manufacturer, a mere 3 g difference). Another aspect worth considering is the strength of the material. Ti and SS are stronger compared to Al which allows for a reduction in wall thicknesses which in turn helps mitigate the weight difference.
Twisty lights with smooth head and/or body can be difficult to operate in some situations, even more so when they are as short as these 10180 lights. A grippy surface, standard knurling, longitudinal knurling (like on the Olight I1R) or something else entirely, is therefore a must IMO.
Since the diameter will be the same, why not use the all-in-one tail design of the C01S on this 10180 light as well :innocent: ? After all it has everything (slot for magnet and trit, tailstand and central hanging), plus Sofirn could simply copy paste it from the C01S.
USB-C, as has already been mentioned, would be great for future-proofing and a stand out feature (for proper future-proofing two 5,1 kΩ resistors are necessary, as has been discussed in the LT1 thread).
A captive head, or more accurately, a head that doesn't need to be fully separated from the body to be able to plug in the cable would be nice (e.g. small threaded section, then a smooth section with USB-C port and then a small threaded section again).
High CRI is IMO a must, too many 10180 lights come in awful low CRI cw only (plus they are often difficult to mod due to the LED being on the same board as the driver and/or unusual, non 3535 LEDs like Luxeon TX in the Olight I1R or XQ-E in the Sunwayman Comet). The simplest (and probably most cost effective) solution for Sofirn would be to use the same LED (SST-20 4000K 95CRI) and TIR optics as they use in the C01S. I for one really like the beam profile of the C01S, large and smooth hotspot with decent candela/reach.
Low voltage protection (or warning) and decent regulation is absent on most cheap 10180 lights. Often the "driver" consist of simple resistors (like on the Olight I1R or Astrolux M01), resulting in a runtime graph that is simply a copy of the discharge curve of the battery. On such lights full brightness is only achieved once when first turning it on after charging the battery, plus efficiency isn't very good (not nice considering the battery capacity is so low). LVP and an actual driver with some sort of regulation would be really niche and make the light stand out from the crowd.
When it comes to the number of modes and the mode spacing there are many opinions and preferences so it might be a good idea to make some sort of poll. With 3 (or more) modes I strongly prefer a visually linear mode spacing (constant factor between the modes), e.g. 1,5 | 15 | 150 lm or 2 | 20 | 200 lm. The questions is weather or not 3 modes might already be one too many, usage could be a bit cumbersome if you use high often. I really like the simplicity of only 2 modes on the C01S, on the other hand 3 modes gives more flexibility, you might be able to get by with using medium where on a 2 mode light you would have used high, giving you more runtime overall (important on a small capacity battery). I'm still undecided on 2 vs 3 modes.
Most important first
- High CRI
- 3500k E21a
- No modes, think progressive QTC
Very well reasoned post. Especially the point about the materials; if they want to offer it in HA3 as a cheap option that's fine but I'm primarily interested in the Ti. It would be in my pocket with keys, and needs to be able to take that abuse. At the brightnesses we're discussing, the thermal conductivity problem with Ti/SS is a non-issue.
The neutral white is an absolute must, and high cri would be very nice but I would still be interested in low CRI with a pleasant tint.
And here’s my vote, also, for a Ti light with a proper NW tint. 
+1 for something more durable than alu.
Lost me at 10180 battery, no way.
Flat pillow/pouch battery like Manker LAD is more suitable.
I would prefer the Nichia 219B. According to the graphs I’ve seen it seems to be under 10% less efficient at these levels than the SST20 4000k and obviously less throwy but I don’t really care about throw in a light like this. Personally I would like to see it longer with a bigger battery. Maybe there could be two versions.
Short as possible for me
https://www.arizonacustomknives.com/la-petite-killer-custom-titanium-keychain-light-1006217.html
that one is sold, but it brings up the question of Which Battery Type, as that determines the size 
I don’t understand the point of a light that small. You have to end up attaching it to something so you don’t lose which kinda defeats the purpose of it being so small. Well I guess I don’t even know what the purpose is in the first place so yh…don’t even know what I’m saying anymore but you get what I mean…or do you?
he wants shorter and you want longer?
“The Tifli is a small, everyday wearable light loosely based on the CPF classic, the FireFli. It is painstakingly hand cut from solid titanium, and o-ring sealed. It uses a white 30 degree flood beam 5mm LED running off 4 #10 zinc-air hearing aid batteries and operates with a simple “tighten for on” interface.”
pic is a link:
I like it. For me this is not a light that needs to be very bright or have long run time, I have lots of other lights that do those things very well, so smaller is better. All I really want is a low moonlight an a useful high 100 LM is more than enough. but I do prefer a battery that can be recharged and high CRI if possible. These are as close to what I am looking for as I have~~