Idea for a torch database

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hello

I thought it would be cool if there was a torch database website that had torches from all different brands indexed by searchable metadata such as battery type, dimensions, brightness etc etc. I started with Nitecore, their website was pretty easy to scrape and exposes a reasonable amount of metadata for all of their products, even the discontinued ones. Fenix however is more problematic, for some annoying reason they display most of the specifications as an image rather than as parseable text. I tried running those spec images they have through a OCR library but it only got about 80% of the text so wasn’t very reliable. I might look for another OCR library if other avenues don’t pan out.

I’ve scoured a few other websites looking for a good source of data but haven’t found one. I can get the model names from fenixlighting.com easy enough, but then getting the rest of the metadata is tricky. Hennie Haynes has good metadata but they don’t have all the fenix torches and also matching products between the two is clunky and unreliable.

If anyone has suggestions for good sources of data for Fenix or even other brands I’d be most grateful. I’ve looked at most of the shop websites I can find but couldn’t find one that would be easy to parse.

My plan is to scrape as much data as possible to the point where I have a reasonable level of data for most of a given company’s products, say 80-90%, and then build a user-submission platform where people can add extra or missing stuff or correct things, kind of like a wiki, but search will be the key thing. All fields will be searchable so you could say “find all 18650 torches with at least 1000 lumens and candela above x” etc.

The best possible data source would be some kind of shop website I can scrape that has lots of brands and has easily parseable metadata for all of them.

2

You’re too late. :wink:

http://flashlights.parametrek.com/

3

Awesome :slight_smile:

4

But don’t let my site dissuade you from trying. Though if I may offer some advice: OCR is a waste of time here. You’ll spend at least as much time proofreading and correcting it as it would have taken to do everything by hand.

The “user submission platform” is also a deceptively hard problem for highly structured yet open-ended information like this. I’ve been working on various ideas for years at this point. (If you are thinking “just use a spreadsheet” I can point you to numerous dead community database attempts that never even got past 50 items.)

5

I think there’s room to compete with Parametrek, because that database nearly completely skips Chinese brands.

6

There are 1348 models of lights made by chinese companies such as AceBeam Fenix INTL Outdoor Jetbeam Klarus L3 Lumintop Manker Nextorch Nitecore Niteye Olight Rofis RovyVon Skilhunt Sofirn Sunwayman ThruNite UltraTac Viltrox Wowtac. (That expands to 2202 models of lights if you include brands that have factories in China.)

I only completely skip brands that don’t have websites with accurate specifications. If there aren’t good specifications then there is nothing to put in a database.

Convince your favorite chinese manufacturer to get their act together and I’ll probably add them. I keep bugging Wurkkos about it to no avail.

1 Thank
7

I wish some of the vendors that are basically just on aliexpress made it, but I understand how much work that would be.

Looking at Convoy and Jaxman.

8

Wuben normally has things clear. Not sure if all are clear enough for you to fill the parameters, though!

9

Honestly, I fail to see why having a website would matter.
OK, it has some additional source of truth about a light. And it is nice to be able to link there. But neither looks like it would be worthy being a strict requirement.

I have to say that you indeed made some progress. Still, I consider Chinese brands to be woefully underrepresented, considering their mindshare here at BLF (though I don’t know how relevant it is).

I spent a couple of minutes to compile an incomplete list of brands that I know to have recommendation-worthy (which is more than mention-worthy) lights yet are missing from your database. Most actually have websites:

Amutorch, Astrolux, Boruit, Brinyte, Convoy, CountryMan, DQG, Eagle Eye, Emisar, Enogear, Fireflies, Fitorch, Folomov, Haikelite, Jaxman, JKK, KDLIGHT, KDLITKER, LivarnoLux (OK, it’s a german brand), Mateminco, Maxtoch, Meote, MHVAST, Nealsgadgets, Nightwatch, Nitesun, Noctigon, On The Road, Reylight, Skywolfeye, Tank007, Thorfire, Ultrafire, Uniquefire, Utorch, Wuben, YLP (OK, it’s a russian brand), Zanflare.

And a few more where I don’t strictly know of any recommendation-worthy lights but I believe it’s just lack of my knowledge because they seem OK:
Nicron, PeetPen, Supfire, Warsun.

10

YLP has a EN version of the site.
PeetPen is associated to Wuben.
On The Road has a chinese version at zlsh.net .
Mateminco has an AliExpress store. (as with other brands, such as Convoy and Jaxman)
Meote has a store too, but it is a brand new brand.

11

I was preparing another round of messages to bother them about getting a website. But I had figured I should check 1st :slight_smile: It turns out they just got a website this month! So I spent the evening typing up all their products and here are the results.

Thank you. I am glad that some people get it. I agree about both of them. Convoy in particular has so many clever models of flashlight but people only seem to be aware of the 3 most popular.

Try making your own database. You have dabbled a little but that is only 34 lights with 16 specs each and hasn’t been updated in a year. I mean something serious. Type up that much information every day. Forever. You will very quickly appreciate good websites.

Several of those are house brands instead of real brands. Some of them are already in the database. And some of them are the same brand repeated multiple times.

Unfortunately my goal of “be all things for all people” means that the next brand I add will probably make you very upset. It is likely to be either Prometheus or Lupine :smiling_imp:

12

Perhaps a Collaboration would be helpfull?
I`m sure it would take at least a lifetime to do if you lone-wolf it, but working as a Team… well that would likely make something Truly amazing! :wink:

13

I care about Lumens per gram of weight of the total package of the light with battery. Could that be a column you ad to your site??

14

A question is no more of a question the more question marks you use. Not all lights come with batteries so the weight of the battery will depend on which battery is used.

15

Do they weight that much diff

I mean perhaps a gram or 2 right ??

16

Too much of a question for me to answer.

17

Is there a way to search by UI? I didn’t happen to see one but then again I’m not the brightest light in the drawer either lol.

18

It would be a lifetime no matter how many people are involved. There is a never ending stream new lights being released and missing details to chase down.

There are several mechanisms for people to contribute. Every light has a “report issue” button in the expanded details. Or you can post in bulk here.

If someone really wanted to go above and beyond then I would recommend making a website for a company that refuses to do it themselves. A website doesn’t have to be official to be an authority. Plus your website would help more people than just myself. (You running your own website would be exactly the same amount of work as you putting information directly into my database.)

You would be the 1st person to ever request that. I’ll take a note of it and be on the lookout for any communities of like-minded people.

Not directly no. In my very early days I tried to make a taxonomy of interfaces. But UI is software and software is infinitely malleable. Besides you guys would take any UI classification system as an inspiration/challenge to create new and original UIs that would completely break any system I come up with :smiley:

Instead you can search by certain UI features that people have expressed interest for. A partial list:

  • broad types such as police duty UIs

  • switch layouts such as dual side or control rings

  • momentary switches

  • number of levels

  • or infinite variable levels

  • type of blinking modes

  • features like aux colors or battery check

I add more depth when people come up with interesting requests that the database can’t handle.

19

I did 3 compilations more or less like that. In all cases I did it for myself because in the limited areas of interest there was no comprehensive sources of information. But I chose to extend it a bit and share so it was useful for others as well.
I believe this experience makes me one of the members who are well aware how much effort it takes.
Much.
I never wanted to build a database like you because I know the effort is higher than I would be willing to spend. Also - a part of the drive for me was just that I wanted to quantify certain properties to be able to make better judgements. I was not able to do it with other available sources (including your database) so I needed to do searches myself. I was willing to list some lights that I was not personally interested in but if that was to be a bulk of my additions I just wouldn’t want to take this task.

You may remember that some time ago I offered you collaboration because I believed that duplication of effort was just not worth it. You
rejected my offer and I chose to reduce my activity in this area - that’s a part of the reason why I don’t update any of the compilations that I made.

As to appreciation…I do appreciate what you’ve done. I use your search engine and I show it to others from time to time. There is nothing close up there.
But at the same time I know that it’s still very incomplete and every time I search for something - I’ll miss a lot of other lights that would match my criteria just as well or better.
So when I actually care about a search - I need to do lots and lots of manual research.
This incompleteness coupled with the feeling that I am unable to improve the situation frustrates me.

Whatever. They all sell real lights and that’s all that matters to me.

Thank you for pointing this out. I wonder which are these because at the time of compiling the list I checked every one and couldn’t find them.

I believe you’re mistaken. It’s hard to discuss it without knowing which ones do you mean though.

You’re wrong. I’m not upset by you adding whatever brand you find the most worthwhile. It’s your database after all.

20

That wasn’t what happened at all. You claimed that I never corrected manufacturer specs. (That is false.) My exact words were “You are welcome to provide corrections.” Seems like the opposite of rejecting.

What exactly would you have considered a collaboration? I’ve described several ways for people to assist if they want to. Other contributors volunteer their time those ways.

So let me get this straight. If you had a child and I couldn’t babysit your child then you would abandon your child. And partially blame me.

As I have said many times that isn’t good enough for a database.

Emisar and Noctigon are not brands. They are product lines of the same brand. They are also in the database despite Hank discouraging 3rd party vendors. (Usually doing questionable stuff like that is grounds for not including a brand.)

Enogear and Fireflies are the same brand.

KDLIGHT and KDLITKER are the same house brand but the OEM is unknown. JKK also seems to be another Kaidomain house brand.

Nealsgadgets isn’t a brand and far too many people have had horrible experiences with him for me to even consider linking to his site as a place to buy a light. There are about 5 more brands in the list that I would also consider “too risky” to recommend to people but Neal is the worst offender.

Wuben and PeetPen are basically the same brand but Wuben makes the products different enough that it could go either way.

Unfortunately this scene isn’t my strongest focus. There are another 5 brands on your list that I had previously never heard of.

That rings hollow when you accuse me of “nearly completely skip[ping] Chinese brands” and making you abandon your own efforts.