The official PKDL thread

[RLDubbya]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

I was talking to PK last night about a raffle for the mileofibrosis(spelling?) foundation with some FL2's as part of the purse and he spoke of the lanterns. He mentioned they are the ones on his facebook page from like 015. And how they are finally close to reality. The pics are from his facebook page.

And he asked me to tell the folks at CPF hello for him because he's hardly got enough free time to answer the phone these days, much less emails etc.

We talk in short chunks where he says what he's got on his plate, then we laugh about life briefly, then he asks a few questions and goes back to work. The 1aa light didn't come up in conversation. But with all the things he's into I feel confident it's on his list of things to do... just that as soon as it nears the front of the line other stuff jumps in front.

That would be myelofibrosis; my thanks to both you, and PK for your help. One of the things the foundation has to do is raise awareness of the class of cancers to which MF belongs. Many hematologists do not even know what it is, and that means their patients suffer.

You and PK are a class act. Both of you have helped this fund-raising effort in a huge way; thank you!

 

[tab665]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

i guess it'll be a tacti-cool lantern. thought itd be nice for power outages at the home if it was either neutral or warm.

 

[Bdm82]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

That design has a lot of great features. Built in hook, adjustment dial (better than buttons), etc. Lots to love.

Other led lanterns are mostly cool or neutral already, so being cool isn't a demerit so much as not a merit, so to speak.

I'd love to have a warm led lantern. I don't have one. Would I go buy this one as a cw? Probably not; my others are fine. If this was warm it'd be a standout and justify buying another!

 

[bykfixer]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

After working with PK for a minute or two I can only surmize that his lantern is probably meant as a source of light in emergencies. The sort of thing a family of four would use to light their den and recharge their celphone while hunkered down and praying hurricane Dave doesn't rip the roof off their home.

I got a phone call, we talked about stuff completely unrelated, he casually mentioned briefly before hanging up his lantern was near completion and I snagged some pix from his facebook page. That is the whole thing in a nutshell.

For all I know it may be neutral. But looking at the photos it seems to this guy that it is probably PK's favorite flavor of photon emmisions designed to put out as much brighness as practical while being able to be throttled to a nearly exact amount of illumination necessary for said family of four to be distracted from the perils outside while playing Uno, using a battery sipping feature.

In that situation a tint or color rendition is not way up on my list of needs. And I'm honored to know there is a guy who cares more for that family of fours well being than he is about what color the beam is.

 

[tab665]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

so your saying that there's a chance! i do appreciate your creativity in taking a discussion suggesting a warmer color temperature and turning it into a life or death hurricane scenario; but you forgot about the family dog!

 

[Tachead]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

Good quality light is nice in emergency situations too. And, it is not like it takes much effort to simply source some better quality emitters that better suit the application. Maybe if PK would spend less of his time on his cad program perfecting his highly stylized designs to look like something out of a dragon ball Z cartoon, he would have more time to work on things that actually matter. If he ever wants to grow his company beyond the what 27-28 lights he sells a year now, he has to start looking at marketability and giving customers what they want. There is a reason why most of the new lanterns being released are coming in neutral or warm white. Maybe you could mention that it would be a good idea or option for this lantern to PK bykfixer? I for one would likely purchase one of these as it looks nice but, only if it is available in neutral or warm white and it looks like I am not the only one.

 

[bykfixer]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

so your saying that there's a chance! i do appreciate your creativity in taking a discussion suggesting a warmer color temperature and turning it into a life or death hurricane scenario; but you forgot about the family dog!

Many folks do not understand PK has life or death scenarios in mind with everything that will bare his namesake. It's an art form to him. It goes back to his roots at SureFire.
When he did the Icon lights most mistakenly labled the self-aspect as avant garde. And with PKDL that tradition continues like the little patch on the back Levis jeans.

Now regarding the dog... I cannot speak for the family of four's dog, but in cases of hurricane Dave going overhead my dogs are cowerd in the bathtub shaking like jello in a SanFransico earthquake.

I aslo think back to being in a drunken poker game once in a shed where the stakes were pretty sizeable and the players were expecting to be robbed again. That lantern would've been way more enlightening than the Coleman propane unit they had if and when the masked bandits showed up.

When I saw pots reaching in the tens of thousands I decided it was a good time to leave. Luckily the fellow who brought me was able to convince one really big fellow with a chrome .357 that my wife (at that time) was expecting me home by 2am. The guy was apparently thinking I was one of the bandits acting as a signal guy.

A nice blast of cool white tint bursting into the night adapted eyeballs of those bandits may have allowed those drunken and well armed card players a couple of seconds to do what comes natural in those circumstances where that Coleman lantern would not.

 

[Tachead]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

Many folks do not understand PK has life or death scenarios in mind with everything that will bare his namesake. It's an art form to him. It goes back to his roots at SureFire.
When he did the Icon lights most mistakenly labled the self-aspect as avant garde. And with PKDL that tradition continues like the little patch on the back Levis jeans.

Now regarding the dog... I cannot speak for the family of four's dog, but in cases of hurricane Dave going overhead my dogs are cowerd in the bathtub shaking like jello in a SanFransico earthquake.

I aslo think back to being in a drunken poker game once in a shed where the stakes were pretty sizeable and the players were expecting to be robbed again. That lantern would've been way more enlightening than the Coleman propane unit they had if and when the masked bandits showed up.

When I saw pots reaching in the tens of thousands I decided it was a good time to leave. Luckily the fellow who brought me was able to convince one really big fellow with a chrome .357 that my wife (at that time) was expecting me home by 2am. The guy was apparently thinking I was one of the bandits acting as a signal guy.

A nice blast of cool white tint bursting into the night adapted eyeballs of those bandits may have allowed those drunken and well armed card players a couple of seconds to do what comes natural in those circumstances where that Coleman lantern would not.

Yeah, I get that but, different CCT's work fine in life or death scenarios. In fact, warmer temperature light is known to improve mood and moral so it should actually help in dire situations like the hurricane scenario you listed. Remember, we are talking about a plastic lantern here not a firearm mounted tactical flashlight or a Kubotan inspired self defense light. Also, remember that 99% of this lanterns service life will be spent camping, hunting, and maybe lighting around the house during a short power outage. It's not like this plastic lantern is going to spend any time lighting some operators base of operations in Afghanistan lol.

 

[ven]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

I know PK does enjoy his hi cri , i remember him telling me about his plants and reaching for an old surefire incan to enjoy the colour more true to life. Guess it comes down to what he decides at the end of the day, would be super cool if he asked here.

Couple of lanterns i have here, the fenix CL20 and nitecore LR30, the CL20 appears slightly on the warm side of neutral, the LR cool white hi cri. The latter glares and does not agree with my eyes.................cold. All subjective, i would say 5000k plays it safe for most .

Pretty excited on this as i do use lanterns regular, dont care for 1000lm as painful imho, 200-500 is more than enough. Especially as your eyes fall on it regular during use and it putting light out 360 degrees.

 

[Tachead]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

I know PK does enjoy his hi cri , i remember him telling me about his plants and reaching for an old surefire incan to enjoy the colour more true to life. Guess it comes down to what he decides at the end of the day, would be super cool if he asked here.

Couple of lanterns i have here, the fenix CL20 and nitecore LR30, the CL20 appears slightly on the warm side of neutral, the LR cool white hi cri. The latter glares and does not agree with my eyes.................cold. All subjective, i would say 5000k plays it safe for most .

Pretty excited on this as i do use lanterns regular, dont care for 1000lm as painful imho, 200-500 is more than enough. Especially as your eyes fall on it regular during use and it putting light out 360 degrees.

Yep the CL20 is a nice temperature and a great lantern imo(I have 3 of them). It is around 3500K. I wasn't a fan of the LR30 CRI or LA10 CRI either, too much glare and too cool:thumbsdow. They are around 5000-5500K. I think 4000K is a good middle ground for a lantern and is pleasing to the eyes at night because it closely matches moonlight.

I like the look and features of this lantern too and use lanterns a lot. I agree, 200-500 is plenty. I just hope this is offered in at least neutral, if not warm, CCT. If it is, I just might have to get one.

 

[bykfixer]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

I know PK does enjoy his hi cri , i remember him telling me about his plants and reaching for an old surefire incan to enjoy the colour more true to life. Guess it comes down to what he decides at the end of the day.

That was a special time for me as I was just getting to know him back then. He had been working a particularly long set of days in a row and had 3 backup servers and a printer fail in a single day. He had been power napping on a cot next to his desk for like 17 days... Then his laptop went kaplooyee and server #4 (the last remaining backup to the back ups) went down. Yeah, he really needed to find some peace in the center of a well lit metropolis.

It was pretty amazing to find out the Photon Kings go-to light at that time was a late 1990's tech product hidden in a drawer. At 2am he had to find some batteries if I recall correct.

Glad you brought that up Ven.

 

[roger-roger]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

The right tool for the right job. On a cool pre-sunrise morning out in my yard especially after a rainy night or with a heavy dew, even a neutral white light creates reflections that impede visibility. Cool white exacerbates those reflections.

 

[bykfixer]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

The PK lantern prototype has arrived:


Nice yellow difuser.


Daytime so the jury is still out.
When beam was aiming at my wall next to the very neutral, edging to warm beam of the Bones the beam of the lantern was just a hint more yellow... now keep in mind that's in my sunlit kitchen.


Rechargeable 4400mAh with output for powering devices.


Shield can be raised or lowered


Adjustable brightness.


Charger port cap storage.


References

PK says it's 260 lumens for 8 hours. At 50% 21 hours. At 20% (52 lumens) 102 hours.
Battery rated to recharge minimum 500 times. Base can be removed and battery swapped with another 18650.
Input voltage 4.2VDC 500-1000 mA
Output voltage 5VDC 500-600 mA
395 grams (just under 14oz)
Available colors are gray, green and pink.

Red light indicates charging, green is charged. Reccomend 8 hour charge 1st use. If not used 60+ days it is reccomended to fully discharge the battery and do the 8 hour charge.

Ok that's the details:
It's plastic, it's lightweight, comes with a folding nail hook with rubberized strip for gripping a pole, branch or whatever plus a V for a nail.
It clicks off and infinite brightness is easy to tailor. The sliding shield makes for lots of light but not in your face if you choose.

This is a sample of what PK does for a living. He designs lighting devices for a multitude of DC applications and in his spare time does those PK Design Lab masterpieces.

At some point he'll release a catalog of all the things he's been up to since leaving SureFire. This is just one of many items he has designed.

I do not have any confirmed release dates or prices but will share that info asap.

 

[Woods Walker]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

My attention is peaked!

 

[ven]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

Awesome, not only me who is interested, but Madison(loves her lanterns) wants one! Perfect for her animals.................

 

[irongate]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

Pocket torture test update.


PR-1 after 9 months of daily carry.


PL2 after 5 months.

The really true edges on the PR-1 have begun to show some wear, but smooth edges remain blemish free.
The much less rugged edged PL2 remains nearly blemish free except the hard edge at the tail end.

Now I could drop these babies off a building, throw them in boiling water, use them as golf balls etc, but prefer to place them in real world scenarios... pocket lint, old, stiff lube, grit, and a host of host of jossling around with coins, keys and other items everyday at whatever temperature the typical trouser pocket offers.
Except for the ocasional need for a battery swap they fire up flicker free every time.

Oh, and in product news...




These babies are now gone from napkin drawing to 3D PDF to production samples.
Details soon.

A nice looking product

 

[bykfixer]

Got a chance to see it after dark and well... it's a lantern alright.

Did some side by side action:

The fairly neutral G2x Pro


The white PR-1


A 1 double A incan with an old battery


The settin it on a picnic table view


The hanging it over head view.

Yup PK knows a thing or two about lanterns too.

 

[Offgridled]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

This is a must have. Great comparison pics. [emoji106]

 

[bykfixer]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

Well it's not quite as easily "end user serviceable" as I had indicated above.


Field swap of the fuel tanks is out.
But with a little know how this thing isn't disposable either.

 

[tab665]

Re: Paul Kim's PK-PR1

thats great news on it being a warmer temp! why dont you knock out a drop test and your proto bykfixer? nothing crazy, maybe just a few 4 foot drops in the grass.