Hey everyone,
I’ve been thinking about this for a while — we’ve seen tons of new models come out every year, but I’m curious: What do you guys think is the hardest problem to solve in flashlight design right now? Or what kind of flashlight do you feel the market is still missing?
If you could describe your idea of a perfect flashlight, what would it look like?
Something compact but super bright? Long runtime with no heat issues? Or maybe something totally new that doesn’t exist yet?
Some high-performance Convoy lights don’t have sufficient heat management.
That’s a rather specific unsolved problem because other flashlight brands have solved this issue.
I love Convoy flashlights, but I admit that they can be improved.
Until something replaces the LED and the lithium battery, I think flashlights have peaked. Yes you will have small variations in driver and LED types but nothing revolutionary.
I wondered what would come next about 10 years ago after I stopped buying flashlights to use while bike commuting. I’d seen the introduction of Li-ion batteries and the led eventually lead to the xml2 emitter during that time which allowed me to have enough light to oversaturate my night vision. Longer run times was the #1 thing I wanted then with a better beam being second.
That’s still what I would want now, I still don’t need more light after retirement. I’ve bought a Workkos TS10SG and a Convoy T3 in the last month and they both provide enough light for me with the Wurkkos having a display of the battery voltage it’s going to make it easier to know when to recharge. But I’ve got nothing to complain about when it comes to run times now.
Safer battery chemistry would be second, and that hasn’t been a problem for me personally. If someone could come up with an affordable battery that has the safety of NiMh with the run time of current batteries it would be great for everyone. I’ve never really had a problem with Li-Ion safety, but I did buy an Xtar charger that tried to charge NiMh like they were Li-Ion cells and found out that using a 2A USB charger that can safely charge the battery in a small car toy to charge the 14500 battery that came with the TS10SG was a bad idea and I don’t want to end up like the people with their scooter batteries burning down the house.
I think some gains in luminous intensity while maintaining quality light would be a nice improvement (to use an extreme example: high CRI, 4000K LEP, anyone?)
I’d also be happy to see some capacity improvements of cells, even at lower (sub 2A) currents, particularly smaller formats like 14500 and 18350 for long run-time EDC lights.
When Acebeam came on the scene with the W30 LEP it was available in three separate models. 6500k, 4000k, CRI (high). I don’t recall anybody measuring and reporting the color temperature of the high CRI model. I would guess it was 5000k.
I have the 4000k which is a very yellow color and it’s been a few years since I measured cri but I believe it was in the high 50s or 60 range.
I don’t know if a high CRI would work better for most of the things I use it for but I would buy it. Even with a slight throw “penalty”. I don’t have any other leps to compare it to.
Thereis an 18350 1600 mha battery available from two re-wrappers at this point. Vape cell and keep power. 5a cdr. I wish I didn’t have to charge it as often though.
I don’t disagree the highest capacity 18350 and 14500 cells are “okay”, I just want a little more capacity!
Vapcell F12 14500 is 1250mah.
If my calcs below correct, a 2000mah cell is 7.4Wh which would theoretically allow (at 150lm/W):
~1hr at ~1000lm
~5 hours of ~200lm
~ 22 hours of ~50lm
These output levels would be awesome for compact headlamp/EDC use imo.
Obviously we can all wish for Chinese advertisment levels of capacity (9,000mah in 14500) but I think 2000mah is somewhat achievable within the medium-term future and would hit those runtime benchmarks above.
If you are a company and want to develop lights, the BLF comunity deserve some giveaways for helping with ideas
Anyways, IMHO what is missing is configurable UI so the user have a lot of freedom to configure behavior, modes, indications etc.
Can be done using clicks of the light swich but much better if it could be done using Bluetooth and a dedicated phone application or by type c connection and a dedicated computer software.
The biggest hurdle for modern flashlights, since the LED has replaced incandescent filament and gas discharge lamps as a light source is heat. As LEDs get more powerful and larger with higher power-handling abilities (the LMP, SFH, SFP, NBT160 etc) that problem is exacerbated and the only recourse is a larher host/more batteries or 46950. Smaller lights are even more limited in usefulness at high outputs over 1,000 Lumens. We can do all kinds of things with ATR and firmware, but we cannot get around that limitation. There is no answer for it.
People want the complexity flexibility in a light that needs a 747’s control panel to operate, but demand the simplicity of a doorbell to be able to use it.
“Enthusiasts” might be okay with using Morse code to get it to do what they want, but normies still want that doorbell.
So, if you ain’t got the midichlorians to work it, Morse code it is.
Yeah I’ll bet you a battery that all three are the same. Keep power sells it with a protection circuit or flat top. KP says 8 amps pulse.
Note that fenix says that their laboratory tested it at 7a. And it’s only available with a protection circuit.
Even flat tops are kind of tight in a convoy s6 short.
Thanks. I ordered a Vapcell 14500 with USB charging when I ordered the T3 but haven’t used it enough to recharge after topping it off in my Nitecore charger. I’m going to have to experiment to see if I have a better option.
Right!! THEN you end up with an AP for every different manufacturer + the hacked, re-branded, or stolen aps from the knock-off generics.
Technology is getting ugly. Ai powered light anyone?
What do you guys think is the hardest problem to solve in flashlight design right now?
