Ok guys I want to be straight up with you all on this; yes I had to raise the price of the drivers from the original post. I’m sorry about that, the light prices will not change.
I sat down and added up the cost (and you’re welcome to price this stuff from Digikey yourself) and the cost for parts for one single driver is $9! I’m selling the chips for $10 (meaning I’m selling the code for $9 since the chips are $1/ea) thus I’m only charging $2 for my time to build these.
Pricing structure:
12F617 MCU = $1 (but you dont buy this since the code comes on it)
Board per set of 3 = $2.30 ($.76/ea)
8 sense resistors = $4.48
5 other resistors = $.10 total
4 sets of FET/BJT = $2.15
CAP = $.50
Code = $9 (plus $1 for chip)
Again I’m sorry I posted a cheaper price initially but in my excitement I didnt take the time to price the stuff out on a per unit bases and I would literally be loosing money doing that. Yes this is a good amount more than the I.O. driver but you’re supporting your fellow BLF member and you’re getting a driver that’s smaller (easier to fit on your pill), much more capable in terms of output and has a much more refined and easier to operate UI and did I mention you’re supporting a fellow flashaholic and BLF member! (thats always important to me)
Remember that you will pay a good amount more than $9 to buy all the parts yourself, you’d have to buy 3 boards (I figured them into that $9 as a single board @ $.76, the set would be $2.30) and you’d have to pay around $6 shipping from digikey so even at $20 you’re saving money over DIY.
One option to make it cheaper is building a 7135 driver (hell the sense resistors are $.56 each and there’s 8 of them per driver). As with everything Mattus actually has a board for this already. You can order a set of 3 of them for $2.30 (they only have pad’s for a single 7135 per channel) but you can use my chip with zero changes, the CAP and cap-drain resistor then stack 7135’s as high as you’d like and try to save money that way. This is not something I’m currently offering (tho a 7135 driver is in the works) I’m *only *listing this as a DIY option.
Allright guys the first batch of A6’s are all sold!
I’m waiting on parts to build a 2nd batch (well I have all parts, just waiting on hosts). If anyone wants to pre-order one I will take $75 pre-paid for the A6.
Also I have a pass-around setup for the balder clone and also for the original pukelight. See the commercial sellers spot for the thread with all details and to sign up.
Bump, turns out one light is left, after seeing build pic’s with an XML color light one of the pre-order guys changed his mind and went that route over the 4-up setup. I have one of these now ready to ship. To get it into someone’s hands wanting one sooner and so I can move on I will let it to for the $80 CONUS and will ship I international for only $5 additional!
Allright guys! First batch is gone (including the one I planned to keep). I was demoing pukelight to a group of officers tonight, one of them noticed it and bought it on the spot. He had a Quark RGB in his bag (which I tried to trade him straight up for so I could use it as a “look how much better my light is” lol). He wasn’t actually carrying it cause it wasn’t bright enough on white or easy enough to use but he had it cause he said he often needed both red and blue lights and couldn’t get over this thing when he saw how simple it was to use and to access the color modes.
Before I told him the price I asked what he though it should be priced at and he instantly answered $125 so he couldn’t believe it when I sold it to him for $75.
Like I’ve said I have more A6 hosts on the way, I also have some other nicer hosts coming (including a sinner custom host for an XML-color build) and a couple different 14500 hosts. The others I’m gonna keep quiet till they’re built and ready however if you want to pre-order an A6 for $75 and you turn out wanting one of the others over the A6 I will definitely hook you up.
The sinner build is the 18650 aluminum host (with rubber Sw boot). It will have the same driver @ the same power with a gen 2 XML-color. I will go ahead and list it now too, price on it is $130 shipped (+$5 US for international) and you can again knock $15 off by pre-ordering. The white of these XML colors is NW, much harder to source, most places only stock the CW’s.
Thanks for the interest so far guys, I don’t know if the first pre-order guys want me mentioning who they are so I’ll just say thanks to everyone!
I have a bad feeling this is going to drain my wallet repeatedly over the next month.
Suggestion for you... can you please post pictures of the finished lights? With description, price, and maybe a quick UI/demo video (if it's different from the ones you already posted).
What about the driver only? Any short list of features, etc.? I mean very short - something I can read in 5 mins or less . Any pics of the driver? Dimensions? Think cost is $20 assembled? Is that with or plus shipping?
. Any pics of the driver? Dimensions? Think cost is $20 assembled? Is that with or plus shipping?