Hi guys,
I simply can't compete in the aluminum based flashlights anymore. The economies of scale are such that I would have to commit to and then assemble a whole bunch of these lights to be able to offer them at a reasonable market price. I am not willing to devote that much labor time at a minimum wage as would be required nor could I afford to. An aluminum PD would need to be made by some sort of factory at this point, to be viable. I had that perception back when I switched to the small numbers and niche of titanium a few years back. I also thought Arc would essentially carry the baton forward with the ARC 6. IMHO, the converter in the ARC 6 is overkill and Peter's desire to make the ARC6 smaller than the aluminum PD required additional expense in machining. The ARC6 is significantly more sophisticated than the PD and the value in this is up to the user to decide. Ironically the smaller light which is easier in the pocket is not so ergonomic when in hand; as commented on by fyrstormer.
Back when Peter took on the PD platform to be integrated into the ARC 6, J.B. Sydney also expressed a desire to take on the aluminum PD itself. His plan was to go into a more conventional production mode with the light and I gave him the go ahead. Well that never came to pass.
At this point in time, I think a three speed is justified by the flux available from the LED's and I think the design in my Haiku has more merit than the PD platform. Even in titanium, I left the two speed, two level afforded by the PD platform behind and went to the LunaSol concept with two speed/ two sources of light.
It was before many of you were members but the final 50 or so aluminum PD's sat on my shelf for quite a while. I was eventually able to get them out by converting them from luxeon based to Seoul based lights.
Even though the PD has been around for a number of years now and there is justification for more than two levels, I too believe it still has its place and merits. However I can only do so much as an individual and I have to be selective in what projects I take on. If I had a factory to make these lights, it would be a different story.