Due to being absent for over a decade, I thought it’d be best to start off here…
My name is Match (momma had a sense of humor), and a long time ago I was bitten by a bug to mod flashlights. That bug, while not radioactive, did turn out to be oddly infectious and turned into quite the hobby for me.
I had a great time, did some things, and posted here on such. Though as often happens, life got in the way and I stepped back. Here recently I’ve been blessed enough to retire early (49) and thought it time to get back into some old hobbies. The main one currently would be homesteading on a 30 acre mountain parcel. Oof-Da, that’s a lot of work! Going forward here, please be gentle if I ask silly questions as a lot has changed.
Turns out I missed the passing of a good friend (Old Lumens) and found out about it ~ 6 months after. Sad day indeed. I often wonder how some of the other old lads are doing… @Boaz, @Don, @JacktheClipper, @JohnnyMac, @Foy, @Chicago_X, @TexasPyro, et al… Hi Bois! (apologies if I missed anyone…memory is the second thing to go)
Oh, and JohnnyMac, I’m still using that amazing leather holster you made for me for my Victorinox all those years ago.
Last note: Boaz…this is your fault. You’ve broken my sabbatical via a random inbox notification. Bad Boaz, Bad! LOL.
If I recall correctly, you started the proud tradition of doing empirical stress testing on new LEDs and posting the data. This practice has become the foundation for most of the lights we use these days, since the data is much more useful and relevant than what the manufacturers publish in their data sheets.
After you left, a few other people have carried that particular torch… since it’s so dang useful. Many of the creations here wouldn’t exist without it.
I remember the Match Mod that you made that involved QTC material.
I initially thought it would revolutionize flashlights, but then I learned (from you) that QTC material is just too fragile to be practical.
That’s kind of you to say, @Toykeeper… thank you. Btw, I just found your Anduril driver thread. Wow…I kinda want to try playing with it now. Outstanding work!
@raccoon Ya, that QTC experiment turned out to be a bust. I still have the mechanical light I made to test it (along with dozens of other unfinished projects that never saw the light of day). I still like the concept.
I know, right!
I think the longest I’ve gone without accessing BLF is about 10 days.
I went on vacation in Hawaii one time, and our internet went down for a while another time.
I don’t want to be a downer, but I don’t think flashlights will ever improve as much as quickly as they have in the past decade or so.
I’ve rambled on the topic before, but the short version is… technological progress in any given field tends to follow a sigmoid curve, where things improve faster and faster every year at first… but eventually what remains to be done is less than what has already happened, so improvements begin to slow down.
For flashlights, I think we recently passed the mid-point of that curve and are now in the stage where further developments are subject to diminishing returns. I think there will still be big improvements, but… not as dramatic as what has already been accomplished. Like, we’ve lived through a 20X improvement in efficiency, but what remains from here is only about 2X or maybe 3X before it runs into hard limits from the laws of physics.
I think the most exciting times are probably behind us.
Also a More’s law, where you buy one, and then another, and another, and it never stops.
Anyway, Welcome back Match! I’m too fresh to the forum and scene in general to remember you, but looks like you contributed a lot to make the scene what it is today
