Relio - 3000K, 3500K, 4500K 96 CRI + XP-E2 Color in a small 35mm cube

[marco1988]

Hi guys, long time lurker here.
I've been subscribed since 2009, bought so many flashlights don't want to remember..


Premise: I asked CPF MegaAdmin Greta how to cope with that. If I'm wrong please notify me, move it, change it, do what you want but don't delete it, pretty please

If this is not in production yet but still in the development stage with Kickstarter, then you would post in the appropriate forum that best describes the product. I will leave that to your determination.

Ok, facts: I spent the past year (nights) developing a sort of "flashlight" to bridge a gap i couldn't fill with anything else on the market.
It's now on Kickstarter. We are taking orders/pledges till July 23rd (then no-more).


I love flashlights, but:


- I hate batteries (=determined runtime)
- I hate low-CRI
- I hate poor collimation engineering
- I hate linear regulators
- I hate o-rings and grease
- I hate switches
- I hate non-standard connections


So this is what I came up with. I called it the Relio.

It's not properly a Flashlight in the common sense, it's like a flashlight without the common features/issues of a flashlight.


It has been prototyped by me, with my finances, I self-made the design, the website, the engineering, the step-down electronics, everything.


I tried to make it as nerdy as I could, like if I were asked to put into it everything you cannot find on other flashlights.


So, here it is:

- 35mm x 35mm x 35mm
- CRI up to 92 @ 3000K. Based on special bins of Cree XP-G2.
- CRI up to 96 @ 3500K, 4500K. Based on special bins of Osram Oslons.
- Color versions in Far Red (670nm!), Royal Blue (455nm), Green (535nm), Phosphor-converted Amber (595nm). All Cree XP-E2 Color (except Far Red, which is XP-E Color v2).
- Step down 850khz driver, 1.2A, <2% ripple. No flicker even when filming at 240fps
- TIR lenses with external honeycomb pattern: not a single trace of aberration, hotspot or coronas. Hyper-smooth beam!
- Swappable lenses
- 100% duty cycle
- UNC 1/4-20 standard tripod mount
- CNC machined from solid aluminum, hard anodised
- MicroUSB power, 0.9A input
- Strongly ESD protected


On our website and Kickstarter campaign I tried to explain complex concepts like Color Rendering in a fashionable and easy-to-understand way, so don't be bothered if you find some over-simplifications, not everyone is a flashaholic!


That's all. I'm really proud to present it here, hope it won't be smashed. Be kind, it's my first self-produced lamp.
I wanted it to be simple, so it could last ideally forever, maintenance-free​.
Oh.. it’s made in Italy
And I won a Silver Medal at the 2015 A'Design Awards with it

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Thank You so much for sharing this. Going now to check out your Kickstarter information.

 

[marco1988]

Thank you
I was a little hesitant on publishing here at CPF but.. it had to be done.

 

[calipsoii]

Very nice marco, thanks for sharing and congratulations on all your hard work paying off! Oh, and I approve of your use of the Oslon emitters.

 

[marco1988]

Thank you so much!
I am a Cree lover (I was even invited at Cree Italy to show them Relio!) but these Oslons are astonishing.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

500 lux @ 1m, so I take it that it's not a very bright light, or perhaps really floody. How many lumens output?

 

[marco1988]

500 lux is measured with the wider TIR lens.
We have around ~150 lumens OTF, 200 at the source, but these figures were taken on a pre-production model set @ 1A (now 1.2A).

Actually it's pretty bright, but the lenses we used smoothen the beam very much, resulting in less perceived brightness at the center.
To give you a very quick example (1x Relio 3000K):

 

[Ironside]

I am a visual artist and I recently noticed when I moved some paintings out of the studio into daylight an odd tint to the work - I attribute this to my changing my lighting to LED (workspace has some indirect sunlight but I have to rely on artificial light most of the time). This occurred despite being careful about selecting the colour temperature of the bulbs. your product may be exactly what I am looking for this task lighting.

 

[KDM]

Very nice looking product! Going to check it out.

 

[marco1988]

Thank you! It's very very small

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

I'm not entirely sure I understand. You say you hate batteries, so how exactly is this thing powered? How is it operated without a switch? Is this meant to be a handheld device or something you attach as a work light? Is the cube the final form or just a proof of concept that will be housed in a more traditional flashlight tube? I'm just not clear on the intended application.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I'm not entirely sure I understand. You say you hate batteries, so how exactly is this thing powered? How is it operated without a switch?

It looks like you just plug it into USB power, and it comes on in 1 mode. (Though he talks about 850kHz and no flickers at 240fps video, so I'm not sure if that means he's using PWM or if it means something else. Why use PWM on a single-mode light? Is it because he wants to make sure there's no tint-shifting?)

Anyway, the USB power looks interesting, but it's also a weak point of the light. You'd have to either couple it with a bulky USB power box, or have long USB cords to plug into the wall (with a USB adapter). From the looks of it, it's being targeted as a portable light, which doesn't really lend itself to corded USB power. But I could see the benefit as a desk lamp; no need to change batteries.

 

[chuckhov]

If you've got too long of a cord you're going to have a lot of voltage drop with only 5v doing the 'pushing'...

-Chuck

 

[drmaxx]

If you've got too long of a cord you're going to have a lot of voltage drop with only 5v doing the 'pushing'...

...or get a better cable.

 

[marco1988]

Hey guys
I'll try to explain the philosophy behind Relio.

Relio is born as a tool.
As I expect from a tool, like a screwdriver, a hammer, or scissors, durability is the key.
So the aim was to make something extremely streamlined and simple.
Simple products have sometimes a problem: they tend to close you in their ecosystem.
So, the choice of external power via universal microUSB seemed the most reasonable and honest.
For the very same reason I tried to make perfect couplings so not to use grease and o-rings that wear after some time.
For the very same reason, there's a standard tripod mount on the bottom.

No battery: Why? Because a removable one (e.g. 18650) would have made it way bigger, and an integrated one would have made it unreliable in the long term, with terrible runtime.
Relio is born to be a desk steady light, with the plus of being able to be mounted on camera attachments.

With 30 USD on Amazon you can buy a dual-output portable usb battery and power it for 10 hours.

Portability comes from the small size and from standard way of powering.

Electronics: we use a step-down buck current-controlled driver, that means it works at a certain frequency and generates some very minor oscillations in output (it's the way these drivers work).
These oscillations occur at ~1MHz and make the light fluctuate for less than 2%. It's totally unnoticeable even when filming in slow-motion.
The best part is that this kind of driver has only 0.08v of voltage drop, and that is fantastic because it allows you to use long / less than desirable USB cables without any luminosity drop.

To sum up: 99% of 5v powered lights use a linear current limiter, wasting the excess voltage in heat. We use a step-down driver

Here's, for example, a macro shot made with 3 Relio, taken with an iPhone 6.

I never like to suggest people how to use Relio, it's like a bridge between a light bulb and a flashlight.
The world is full of "standard" flashlights, why not to build something totally different?

What do you think?

 

[saypat]

Wow! I will take (5), 1 of each color and a white. Very, very, nice! Award worthy. Thank you.

 

[kreisl]

did anyone say 200 lumens?

 

[marco1988]

did anyone say 200 lumens?

Hi Kreisl, I don't understand the nature/meaning of your question.

 

[marco1988]

Wow! I will take (5), 1 of each color and a white. Very, very, nice! Award worthy. Thank you.

Hi saypat, you'd have to make a pledge on the Kickstarter page, unfortunately I cannot distribute them here on CPF.
To be honest I don't know whether I'll continue production after Kickstarter or not.
PS thank you for your kind words

 

[Tixx]

Very cool and I know I could find use for these. The power would just be an issue for me. Would have to get USB outlets I guess where I wanted them?