Buy a TN42 in the mean time and Carry extra batteries with you on your next rescue mission? 
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I dare to question your believe (in reflectors…), just look at the WW2 anti aircraft searchlights. Big, wide, shallow.
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Anyhow, whether the reflector will be deep or shallow is not that important to me.
The quality of the reflector is much more important and it’s ability to properly focus the light into a tight beam.
The need for a good quality AR coated lens is without discussion.
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The light is going to be quite big and heavey anyway, and that’s ok. After all, it’s not a common household light but a BLF special edition, right?
For enthousiasts and professionals.
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The more I read thru the thread, the more I agree with the large head, 8 cell, one-pieve body concept, with a carrier, so you can choose to use either 8 cells or 4 cells + dummies.
It would be nice if the light will have great heat dissipation so it can be used on full power for a prolongued period (2,5A +?)
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I just hope that we will not be discussing the design, reflector, driver and other stuff for too long; let’s get on with it!
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Grtz
Nico
Like I said before, DUMMY CELLS WILL NOT BE NEEDED. The carriers are planned to be setup in parallel like the TK75 so that they will work with or without cells installed.
Sorry, you missed one detail. The military spotlights are recoil-style. In other words, the light source is in front of the reflector, not behind it.
Even better! :+1: :+1: :+1:
Yeah but all input is valuable, and make it a true community light, a major goal for me personally (you know just presenting something is easier but this is so much more fun!)
Interested. Please add me to the list
After following this topic for some time I also made the decision to buy one if the price is not getting to high. So please add me to the list.
And did someone already contact the software develepment guys for reflectors to get the best reflector? Maybe they are interested and like to work on this lovely project :nerd_face:
I would not define either of them as “short”
And it seems to me you like this GT, but somehow you don’t.
If you dont like some aspects of it - no one is forcing you to buy it :money_mouth_face:
Just sold my TK75, have 2 extension tubes but not the carriers. (other projects) So I can’t check a carrier to see how it tests out with no cells installed. I’m thinking, from when I modified one before, that while the negative carries through via the brass rods the positive would have to flow through installed cells. I could be remembering wrong, of course, but it sure seems that it had to be populated to flow current. Without cells in place, there would be no throughput at the positive end. Like I said though, I no longer have the carriers or the light so I can’t be sure. (Or DO I? Might not have shipped the TK75 yet, will check…)
Edit: Sorry, it’s gone.
Even if the TK75 isn’t exactly how TA is envisioning, it’s possible to do our own thing. It’s is doable.
I highly doubt we will be actually using TK75 carriers due to cost. I think they will be more along the lines of the Thorfire S1 carriers but with a second contact ring added around the outside edge. The current would then pass down through the metal connecting pins. The PCB in each carrier would be setup to connect in parallel. So if not all cells were installed or even no cells power would pass right through them as if nothing was wrong.
The other nice thing about doing it this way is that all 8 cells would not HAVE to match, while a good idea the most important thing would be for all the cells in each carrier to match. Since the carriers are setup in parallel it would be just like RC batteries when they are used in parallel.
I actually never planned on actually using the TK75 carrier, it was just the only example I could come up with. The carriers have been planned to be custom made all along unless the manufacture just happened to have something that would work.
FWIW, this is going to be tough.
I put a single R140 resistor on the bank of the TN42’s driver, it’s now doing 710Kcd on LG MJ1’s and 722.5Kcd on 30Q’s. With some 2500 lumens, it could probably stand a wee bit more…
Will update list later
Yes I contacted them via theri website and got a standard “thank you for showing interest in our software blabla please contact us at X@X.com” reply
So I send an email to the address asking the same, no reply yet
Aren’t the carriers going to be in-series in the tube though?
I am most likely too late or way off base to mention this, but what about a battery tube that can house 2 rows of 4 cells?
Line up 4 in series on one side in a battery slot, and if you want to run 8, line up 4 more down the other battery slot.
All of course housed within the battery tube still exactly how it looks from the outside, in the GT renderings.
Just because the carrier are physically stacked on top of each other doesn’t mean they are electrically connected in series
With the way I have it planned out each carrier will be it’s own 4S “battery” (which is what it technically is) and they will be electrically connected in parallel, giving you 4S2P. If you leave one empty, it will simply be 4s1p
The carries are “stacked” on behind the other but with two contacts on each end (or three if they end up putting a tail switch) the voltages will add up in parallel, see this post here: [PART 1] Official BLF GT Group Buy thread. Group buy officially closed! Lights shipping. - #750 by Enderman
Each carrier is 4s1p, stacking carriers increases the p, not s 
That is the way Fenix has been doing it, except 2S2P, with stacked carriers.
I’m interested depending on the price.