The 13th Annual Old-Lumens challenge- 2025- Official thread

Giveaways and Contests
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The 13th Old-Lumens challenge 2024 is officially live!

Please leave your entry details in this thread, the contest will run for 90 days starting on the 1 of November 2025 and will finish on the 30th of January 2026. Once the contest is finished, judging will commence, and this process can take up to a month or even longer in some circumstances.

What is the Old-Lumens Challenge?
This is a contest which challenges BLFers to build a lighting device from scratch! All skill levels are welcome!

Why the Old-Lumens challenge?
Old lumens was a long time and much loved member of the BLF community who unfortunately passed away in 2016. Old loved building and modding flashlight just like us. The old lumens challenge is named in memory of Justin (old lumens), a man who was always willing to help others. He’s legacy lives on with this contest.

CONTEST RULES:
You may enter a single build into one of the following three categories, one judged entry per person: (you are allowed to change categories during the contest).

  • Hand Made (Basic Tools)

Your light must be made from scratch.
You must make a build thread, show images, and explain the build as it progresses towards completion.
No outside services are allowed.
Entries should be portable and battery operated.

All small hand tools are acceptable, as well as these power tools:

  • Soldering irons and other heating equipment (Heat gun, Hot Plate)
  • Electric drill / drill press
  • Dremel style rotary tool
  • Electric saws
  • Disc or belt sanders

The more basic the tooling, the better!

You may use some manufactured flashlight components: reflectors and other optics, drivers, LEDs and MCPCBs, O-rings,centering rings, springs, switches, switch boots, pills and pocket clips.
You may use any PCB whether you designed it or not, and you may acquire it from Osh Park or elsewhere.
You may use any firmware, or code whether you wrote it or not.
You may not use manufactured flashlight parts such as a bezel, head, drop-ins, body, or tail cap.
All kinds of raw materials can be used: sheet metal, wire, tubing and pipe, metal and plastic containers, bottles and jars, extrusions, wood, plastics, fabrics, epoxy, glass, stone, leather, rubber, etc.

  • Machine Made (Advanced Tools)

Your light must be made from scratch.
You must make a build thread, show images, and explain the build as it progresses towards completion.
No outside services are allowed.
Entries should be portable and battery operated.

All manually operated and computer controlled machine tools are allowed, such as:

  • Lathes
  • Milling Machines
  • 3D Printers
  • As well as all hand tools and other fabrication equipment.
  • You may use some manufactured flashlight components: reflectors and other optics, drivers, LEDs and MCPCBs, O-rings, centering rings, springs, switches, switch boots, and pocket clips.

You may use any PCB whether you designed it or not, and you may acquire it from Osh Park or elsewhere.
You may use any firmware or code whether you wrote it or not.
You may not use manufactured flashlight parts such as a bezel, head, pill or drop-ins, body, or tail cap.
All kinds of raw materials can be used: sheet metal, wire, tubing and pipe, metal and plastic containers, bottles and jars, extrusions, wood, plastics, fabrics, epoxy, glass, stone, leather, rubber, etc.

  • Modified Light: (Anything Goes!)

You must show us something that was made or modified by you and how it was done.
You can make a new thread or link to a mod you have posted on BLF within the stated time frame of the contest.
You can build or modify by any means at your disposal and your mod can also be some form of self built flashlight attachment(s), clips, lanyards, paracord wraps, pouch, or other related paraphernalia.
If your build breaks the rules of the other categories, you may enter it in this category.

HOW TO ENTER:
Create an appropriately titled build thread in the Giveaways and Contests forum category.
Please include your username, the name of the contest, and which category you are entering. (You may change categories if you wish.)
Reply to this thread with the link so that organisers can add your build to the list of entries.
Links to mods may also be entered by replying to this thread.
All entries will be listed in post #2 of this thread.

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, AND CONCERNS:
Feel free to reply to this thread. If you wish for a private exchange, please PM The_OL_Contest or everydaysurvivalgear account.

Judging and prizes are still to be finalised, so these are subject to change. The judging criteria will remain the same as always, just how it’s judged could be changed.

JUDGING CRITERIA: (maybe subject to changes)
Up to 10 points are awarded in each of the following five categories:

  • Skill Level / Build Quality: Judged with consideration to the person’s access to tools, materials, and abilities. Is the finished build functional, looking good? Was it difficult to make? Was the craftsmanship top-notch with the tools used?

  • Uniqueness / Inventiveness / Innovation: Is the light unique, one of a kind, or does it operate in a special way? Can something similar be readily purchased? Were new technical innovations introduced? Were new firmware, drivers, or PCBs created?

  • Build Thread Quality: Did the contestant do a good job of showing and explaining the steps involved in the build? Were the difficulties encountered along the way documented and resolved? Was it easy to follow along?

  • Shown Operational: Did the contestant show the light operating, describe its functions, take beam shots, videos, etc.?

  • Subjective Evaluation / Bonus Points: The judge may assign these points at their discretion.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS:
There’s more than one way to win! In addition to the official judgement, a thread will be created which contains a poll, and the BLF community will vote for their favourite build. This poll will run for fourteen days. Contest participants may vote for other entrants, but not for themselves.

PRIZE SELECTION:
The winner of the Hand Made category has 1st choice of prize, followed by winner of the Machine Made category, followed by winner of the Modified Light category.
Runner-up of the Hand Made category has the 4th choice of prize, followed by runner-up of the Machine Made category, followed by runner-up of the Modified Light category. Prize selection will continue in this way as long as any prizes are left to award.
A special prize will be awarded to the winner of the people’s choice awards.

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Thread need for entries

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backup

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Thanks for organizing this again this year. I had so much fun doing it last year and will be posting my submission/creating my thread later today.

Good luck to all that enter!

Edit to add my entry to the challenge

Worrub918’s 13th Annual Old Lumens Challenge entry

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Thanks very much for anyones involved in running the competition another year :+1:.

As mentioned in another post I have just relocated and don’t have any tools or components here with me so I can’t build anything this year.

I do think on maybe write some FW but not sure if it fals into the modifications category.

Anyway, I am really curious to see what people will build this year and whish everyone good luck and a lot of fun

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heres my entry Ruckusmattster's 13th Annual Old Lumens Challenge Entry - undetermined
im not fully decided on what to build yet

@The_OL_Contest I was thinking of building a battery powered, but static system, it could be used on the go but would be significantly less cool. if i demonstrate that its a portable unit can i mainly show it in its static form

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Yea, just as long as portable and uses a battery power, it sounds fine.
Lantern are portable but usually used static.

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Here is my thread

Is it eligible for the modification category?

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Adding a “Complimentary Accessory” category to the “Old-Lumens Challenge” might lead to more participation and generate some interesting concepts.

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Hey mate, you need to implement the software into a working light for me to enter it,

Cheers

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If YuvalS can find a maker, will a team entry count?

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My 2 cents: Since a team always has an advantage over an individual participant in terms of additional manpower and opportunities, I would support this in a separate category.

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If anyone likes my idea, they are more than welcome to build a light based on the board I choose, generate the code, and use it for their own entry.

Both the Hand Tools and Machining categories allow outsourcing the PCB and firmware, so it would be a valid entry independent of mine.

I’ve just updated my thread with the final candidates for my board, so this is a great opportunity to get any input from the community before I make a final decision.

Personally, I think it could be really cool to have a kind of “community light” built together - me handling the firmware, and someone else (or even multiple people) building a functional torch using the concept of firmware burning via USB and the code generator.

All the boards I’m considering support USB charging and have multiple GPIOs, so they can easily handle multiple channels (different optics, color, or CRI) as well as auxiliary lights and effects.

My only concern is the sleep current, which could be too high. However, this can be solved simply by adding an on/off switch to the design.

If anyone is interested, I’d be more than happy

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i have like 3 different builds in progress independent of the OL contest, im happy to build one out woith your fw

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Hey mate, no this is not possible, but entrants can use the firmware or a pre-built driver board in your build. In any category, you can use either a prebuilt driver or firmware.

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Welcome to BLF and the contest, how did you find out about Budgetlightforum and the Old Lumens contest?

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me! i told him to post from the reddit

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That you did!

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Thanks for organizing this year’s challenge - I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s creativity!

Here’s my entry: Serlite's 13th Annual Old Lumens Challenge Entry - Hand Made

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