The 10th annual Old-Lumens challenge - People's Choice Award - Choose your favorite!

Giveaways and Contests
1

You can see the archived poll results on the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221220093741/https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/72972

2

Vote for your favorite build of the The 10th annual Old-Lumens challenge! This poll will close after 14 days.

Please familiarize yourself with all of the build threads before casting your vote:

Top row, left to right:
MtnDon, YuvalS, Skylight, Haukkeli, Tomogchi

Bottom row, left to right:
MascaratumB, everydaysurvivalgear, MashedPotatoJeff, The Whispering Gallery, FearOfTheDark

Summary of builds:

MtnDon created a shoji lantern with a wooden housing.
YuvalS created a multi-channel voice activated caving head lamp.
Skylight heavily modified a Sofirn SF22.
Haukkeli built and tested some new boost drivers from TheFreeman and installed them in a Noctigon KR1 and KR4.
Tomogchi built a fresnel lens thrower from cans and parts on hand and dubbed it “Frankinbeans.”
MascaratumB turned a Fenix E12 V2.0 into a mule, running Bistro HD OTSM.
everydaysurvivalgear made a clicky light with copper tubing.
MashedPotatoJeff converted an FW3A, which is a triple, to use a single emitter and reflector.
The Whispering Gallery designed and machined two P60 drop-ins.
FearOfTheDark rebuilt a Nitecore HC90 with a made from scratch driver and custom firmware.

3

Thanks for opening the thread and “summing up” the builds :wink:
I voted already when the thread opened.
I hope this is brought to the attention of more members by BUMPing it up :sunglasses:

4

I have no idea why, but it seems like most BLFers are not interested in the Old-Lumens challenge. Not as participants, not as judges and not even as voters :(

5

Sadly I believe that also. Those who have participated more than once seem to be members of an ever-shrinking niche group.

6

I don’t blame them why would you mod when you can buy most lights already made? The forum is a victim of its own success lol.

Just the other day i built a S2 style flashlight to turn into a quad took a few hours to prep the pill and build it. You can go on Aliexpress and one click and its done.

7

Well, I wanted to participate with one project but I couldn’t find the time.

8

9

The poll has but a couple of days remaining.

10

Even if many folks prefer to buy, it is good to see the skills being used here. Well done to all.

11

I guess the new stage of this competition will be “what do you do with your built/modded lights?” :wink:

Both my first and second entry (AmuLuxeon and WoodJewl) are sitting in the drawer or in the flashlight box.
But The Bistrix Mule has been on my EDC rotation :wink:

So it is always nice to do something for the contest that then gets to be used :sunglasses:

12

4th… Shelf storage with cells ready; was used during a power outage.
5th… Gifted to wife. In use on night table
6th… Gifted to son. Prominent place in home dining area.
7th… Mostly on shelf. Gets some use if walking on country road at night
8th… Shelf display.
9th… Gifted to son. Gets used inside home.
10th… To be gifted to son this Christmas.

13

You guys are lucky to have friends and family that can appreciate a good flashlight.They are hard to find.

14

My lights are in constant use, people are waiting for the annual BLF/OL in order to get my previous year build :)

15

:+1:

16

It seems that all my challenge entries include wood. I have made assorted wooden things over many years. Here are twenty wooden things I have made, and kept, some going back 46 years. Most of these were gifts to Karen. Some were very simple. Six incorporate led’s. Nothing shown was an O-L Challenge entry. I have another underway and almost done.

I have enjoyed being able to meld the hobby of woodwork and flashlights. I do own a few lights that have no wooden parts, many modded with emitter and driver swaps.

17

I followed the builds for this contest, even those which missed the final deadline.

They were interesting and made me contemplate what I might be able to do, since I have not done any mods yet.

The contest also prompted me to search this forum to discover who "Old-Lumens" was and then I read some of his posts and watched the videos on his YouTube channel which still exists.


Sorry I did not post in any threads, but I do not usually post unless I have something of value to add and since I am a flashlight novice, I prefer being just a casual observer and not a judge.

Thanks to all of the contest participants and rest assured that your efforts are keeping the legend of Old-Lumens alive.

18

Just speaking for myself, not others…

It’s hard to keep track of all the entries. If 10 people enter, that’s 10 separate threads, starting out with “Bozo Joe’s OL Contest Entry”, and you have to sub to the thread or post something. Then if you miss one, or more, you’re not seeing everyone’s. Ie, you have to hunt them down and hope you didn’t miss a new thread/entry. And to be “fair” to everyone, you have to follow all the threads.

I used to (like I’m doing now) run through the main page and look for threads that are new. Might be someone asking for help, a new product announcement, a review, etc. Just keeping up with the thread update notices I get in email, I often can’t keep up with new stuff, or just plain forget.

It’s interesting to maybe follow 1-2 entries if unique in some way, but to follow all of them approaches being a chore.

As for doing an actual build myself… ugh. I get sidetracked with other stuff that regular things just fall by the wayside.

19

Everyone gets my vote, and kudos to Hoop for making it happen and the sponsors for getting involved.
(I did actually vote btw cos it’s the proper thing to do :smiley: )

Because of the way i use the forum the challenge gets lost under everything else that gets posted, i would need a prominant link on the home page to the subforum to remind me to keep up to date when i check the forum.

But then i barely remember to check threads i’m actually involved with so that’s just me :slight_smile:

20

Looks like it ended up being a TIE, for the first time in the history of the Earth (will need to verify), between MtnDon and YuvalS!

You will both receive a special prize, which for the moment shall remain a secret due to its exclusive and proprietary nature, among other reasons, such as that it does not possess the degree of tangibility usually assigned to things which are said to tangibly exist. Oh, but it will!