GatLight V2 - now with unlimited brightness levels

[kevindick]

I'm not sure. I can see how it might help the sensitivity in adjusting the brightness once it's on. But it's unclear to me how it would change the amount of turning to go from off to on.

That's the big deal for me. Even with two hands, it's a couple of cranks. So it takes almost two seconds for me to get light out of the Gatlight with two hands versus a quarter second one handed with the PD.

Not a big deal at the bedside. But crucial when I'm trying to see if that jingling sound is another dog running towards me in the park at night while holding on to my straining dog's leash with one hand.

[mpteach]

I wish that there was a feature where you could manually push down on the knob to turn the light on momentarily. obviously there would have to be a decnt amount of force to the spring so it doesnt happen accidentally. I know i would love that feature.

[kevindick]

That's what I was thinking of as well. Perhaps an "inner button" with a plunger, a la the PD. It would give you instant light in proportion to the amount you push. If you wanted to achieve constant light, you would use the screw.

[Panzergrennie]

Hi,

i just want to ask if there is a schedule when i`ll receive my gatlight.

I know i was one of the last who signed on, but....

Thanks,

Bernd

[mpteach]

The inner button/plunger would need a seal to not let water in. Would a tiny inner buton be too small to hit with your finger kevindick?

I was thinking of changing the knob so that you can push down on it directly, which would push the cotact screw in. Also, the bottom part of the knob, which is smaller in diameter and threaded would have teeth instead of threads, but would sit inside a ring that has threads on the outside and obviously has teth in the inside. The vertical grooves (teeth) would allow the knob to be pushed up and down in the middle while also being able to rotate the ring which would turn in the threads and push the contact screw up and down on the outside

EDITED to make sense.

[kevindick]

I'm actually not terribly concerned about implementation mpteach. I just like the interface of: push a little bit for momentary dim, push a lot for momentary high, and twist for constant on.

I actually tried it with my GLv2 last night. As long as you turn the screw until just before there's any light and you have a very strong thumb, you can get it to produce momentary light in proportion to the force. But it takes a fair bit of fiddling to get the screw to the right point. Moreover, the light is almost certainly draining the battery at that point so you can't just leave the light in that position.

[LumenCraft1]

Panzergrennie,
Yes you were one of the last ones, but your Gatlight is on its way. It was sent out last Friday.
Thanks,
Kyle

[LumenCraft1]

kevindick, mpteach,
Walter and I agree that the momentary on would be nice. It will definitely be considered for the future. The best way to get the V2 to operate in momentary mode is to adjust it to a low level brightness then when you need full power just push down with your thumb to one side of the knob (not directly over the center).

-Kyle

[mpteach]

Do you know if the next run will be V2's or improved V2.x's, and if its V2.x's how many weeks the R&D would add to the next run???



On a side note, an improved battery cover/knob that alllows momentary mode might possibly be retrofited to the existing gatlights. Possibly.

EDIT: Transition to the K2 ?

[GhostReaction]

My gatlight didnt light up Dad tried it with both the included batt as well as a SF batt, and nothing.

[arewethereyetdad]

Walter/Kyle, I received my package with the drill bit, washers, screws and seals. I've performed my little operations on both Gatlights to correct the battery drain issue and......all good! Both working splendidly with RCR123's and no battery drain problems! Thank you for the fix!

[mobile1]

GhostReaction: Your light likely had the battery drain issue, it likely just needs an adjustment with washers that came along with the light. I'll send you an email with direction how to do it which should solve the issue. Sorry about that but we can fix this without you having to send it back..


GatLight Shipping: All individual GatLight V2 orders have been shipped, the last ones (multiple lights orders) will go out this week. The next couple of weeks we might have a couple of extra GatLight V2s from this production run left. I'll send out an email to people on our notification list once we looked at the extra parts to see how many full lights we can build.


Than the most stated question, what's next regarding the GatLight and other lights?
First regarding other lights. Kyle and I are currently working on a new light which we think will push the current boundaries of that particular type of light in several ways. It will be smaller than the GatLight, very portable and bright. It will be priced at significantly less than the GatLight.

However, so far it only exists on paper. First we want to build a prototype to see whether we can actually make it work. We'll reveal more soon (once all the GatLights are shipped and all issues of the first batch lights are fixed - conductivity / drain). We want to make sure our existing lights work before focusing on the new design.

Than we have been toying around with a variety of new and exciting technologies which we are eager to use... however we first need to sell more GatLights and lights for the new design before we can tackle the really mindblowing stuff.

Regarding the GatLight. With the V2 there are a couple of things that we feel can still be improved. These are:

• The rotation required until the light turns on (now typically half a turn/180 degrees) - we would like to minimize this. The second is the rotation required until the light hits full brightness from when it turns on at low brightness. This is now plus minus a 180 degree turn, here we would like to see a full 360 degree turn. Then there will be a lot of improvements to make our lifes easier when assembling the lights (to reduce the 3h it takes now to assemble/build each light (excluding milling and metal operations).
• We also noticed that the V2 has a lot of features which are extremely complex and labor intensive to implement, such as a super efficient buck boost converter, a special temperature sensor to monitor the LED junction temperature and which shuts down the light when the temperature gets too hot. These features allowed us to savely overdrive the LED (not as usefull with the Lux III) however might be with the K2 once the K2 live up to marketing claims (each V2 can be upgraded to a K2). As nice as these features are they are very labor intensive to implement however they are not a deciding feature for which most GatLight customers would pay a premium.

So to summarize it, future GatLight versions will likely have an improved user interface, however will likely have less of the many little electronic features the V2 has. The V2 will probably remain our most feature rich, raw power, "save LED overdriving" version.

Those of you who have a V1 and a V2 know that they are both very different lights in how they feel. The same will likely be true for the V3, where its less a light that replaces a V2 or a V1 but it will be a slightly tamer light compared to a V2. Also for use with rechargeables the V2 will remain one of the most efficient and ideal lights to be used with RCR123 3.6V batteries.

[flashlight]

Looking forward to your new creations!

[GhostReaction]

hey my light worked! It is indeed a battery drain issue.

[mobile1]

hey my light worked! It is indeed a battery drain issue.

Good...easy to fix.. I'll send you some small washer and directions how to fix it yourself. Just unscrew the battery contact screw with the little tool and you can than add the washer I am gonna send you (while removing a washer or two). That will permanently fix the drain issue.

[GhostReaction]

Thanks. The gatlight will be a shelf queen for now till I fix it. The Gatlight is an excellent piece of work

Good...easy to fix.. I'll send you some small washer and directions how to fix it yourself. Just unscrew the battery contact screw with the little tool and you can than add the washer I am gonna send you (while removing a washer or two). That will permanently fix the drain issue.

[cqbdude]

Where's the link to the gatlight photo contest?
I need to know the size of the photo and the email address.

Thanks...

[cqbdude]

Looks like my new gatlight is also draining the batteries while its supposed to be off..

Could you please send me the washers and directions?

[mobile1]

hi cqbdude... email me your address so I can send you the washers and directions to fix the battery drain. I'll than also send you the ftp upload instructions (they should have come with your light). For size please upload the highest resolution originals...

[mobile1]

hi cqbdude... email me (to info at gatlight dot com) your address so I can send you the washers and directions to fix the battery drain. I'll than also send you the ftp upload instructions (they should have come with your light). For size please upload the highest resolution originals...

[Stillphoto]

So when will the photo deadline be? Had I known it would be this long already, I would have held on to some of the ones I already sent...its cool though, more brewing with my v1 since thats what Ive got to photograph

[Miciobigio]

As for the Photo-contest , are allowed only photo of the V2 ?

V1 + V2 photo are allowed ?

[flashlight]

Nice photo Marco.

Here's my Gatlight V2 mounted on a freebie mini tripod I got from the Sony alpha100 Digital SLR camera launch recently.



Not quite a contest quality photo though.

[Miciobigio]

Nice Pic Cyril,

how do you fixed the Gatlight to the tripod ?

[flashlight]

Nice Pic Cyril,

how do you fixed the Gatlight to the tripod ?

It's just resting on it.

[AW]

Just wondering whether the circuit of the V2 will handle a Lux V .......

[EricMack]

Both those photos should win something!! Those are really great, fellas. Really nice shots! Thanks!


EM

[LumenCraft1]

AW,
The driver could be reconfigured to handle a LuxV. But the current design is limited to LuxIII voltage levels.

-Kyle
Lumencraft

[EVAN_TAD]

How much do they cost and can we still order them?

[mobile1]

Evan_Tad if you send an email to info at gatlight dott com, I will add you to our mailing list to be informed when we come out with the next version. Regarding the V2s we just sold the last batch of them, we might have a few extra left once we count the parts, or if someone doesnt pay, but the V2s are pretty much all spoken for.

However there will likely be a V3, which will be the similar but will be quite a bit different - similar to how the V2 was quite a bit different to the V1.
However we probably need about 2 more month to finalize things. Maybe we will start discussing some of our ideas here on cpf, to see what you guys think or get some feedback.