Whats your ideal 'theoretical' keychain light?

LEDBE
H

hazna

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 24, 2007
Messages
610
Location
Australia
I would love it if someone made a keychain light, something on the lines of:

Size: I love the tiny size of the drake. When it comes to being on my keychain, space and weight comes at a premium. I find AAA lights slighty bulker and heavier for my preference.

Battery: 10180 Li-ion. Helps to keep the size small, but the 4.2V can pack a punch. I like rechargeable as well.

Interface: 3 mode IBS or LF2XT interface with a lowlow would be great. Keeping in mind a 10180 battery doesn't have much capacity, selecting your own levels gives you greater control over runtime/lumens. I like the perfectly flat regulation with my L-Mini II. I like that it only drops it output after a certain voltage to give you a low battery warning. If it's possible to encorporate it into such a small package, that would be great! However most smaller lights have PWM regulation, so I'm not sure this last request is possible

LED: CREE R5. Currently the R5 seems to be most accessible efficient LED. I feel the extra efficiency is important for something that runs on such a small battery with limited capacity. There are rumours of a neutral tint R5 coming out in future. For keychain lights, I don't mind whether its a white or neutral tint as I don't normally use it for long periods. I prefer whatever is most efficient and offers greatest brightness.

Beam: Large hotspot, wide spill, floody are my preferences for a keychain light

Switch: I like clickies, but to keep size to a minimum, it would have to be a twisty. Clickies might have a higher chance of turning themselves on as well.

Surface: Well placed knurling is important for one handed operation. One of the issues I have with my drake is that I wish there was more knurling at the head. Surface treatment with chrome, AlTiN or TiCN would make it less likely to scratch and wear. My illumanti has gotten scratched up pretty quickly in a few weeks, so not a fan of bare/polished Ti. My HAIII anodised Fenix LOD has received a bit of wear around the edges and knurling.

Additional: Lots of tritium slots to make it look pretty... well maybe at least one tritium slot?


Now is this all just an impossible dream, or can someone actually make such a light?

This is my ideal keychain light... whats yours?
 
Last edited:
Tell you what. The variable brightness Wee that Rob was showing in his Lummi forum scores a lot of these points.

Talk him into putting them into production and you'll have a lot of thanks from the rest of us.
 
I would really like to see a keychain flashlight with an unfocused aspheric, if that would work. For close up use I think the smooth flat beam is perfect. If I could have this in a cr123 light like the quark mini, that'd be awesome.
 
Cold fusion reactor in a button battery size. 200 degree to 1/4 degree variable focusable beam with adjustable tint. Infinitely adjustable from 1/8 to 10,000 lumens. :paypal:
 
hazna said:
This is my ideal keychain light... whats yours?
Click to expand...

That's a very good list.

The only difference for me is that two modes would be sufficient and the "high" doesn't need to be real high.

I'd also love a secondary red mode as well but that's pretty much impossible for a tiny, tiny light.
 
Last edited:
New reflector design. Attached to the head assembly would be a solid inverted pyramid shape.

This would be opaque.

You can then slide a tube over the sides of the solid shape to focus the light forward or pull it back to make it into a diffuse area light.

What I find is that sometimes I need direct light and other times I need to get a glow going in the general area.

Battery, LED type, etc. is up to the individual creating the light and what use it is for.
 
sqchram said:
Cold fusion reactor in a button battery size.
Click to expand...

A cold fusion reactor is still a heat engine in terms of producing electricity. Not very practical means of generating electricity in a small package. It would get hot in your pocket. You'd need cooling fins on the case to dissipate the waste heat. Hot plasma fusion would work better due to the higher Carnot efficiency limit, and less waste heat.

Probably better to go with some sort of zero point energy source.
 
Apollo Cree said:
A cold fusion reactor is still a heat engine in terms of producing electricity. Not very practical means of generating electricity in a small package. It would get hot in your pocket. You'd need cooling fins on the case to dissipate the waste heat. Hot plasma fusion would work better due to the higher Carnot efficiency limit, and less waste heat.

Probably better to go with some sort of zero point energy source.
Click to expand...

Finally, a voice of reason enters the conversation
:nana::whistle:
 
My ideal keychain would be the exact dimensions of a credit card, with the emitter on the long edge. 5-50 lumens, with 0.5-20 hours runtime. squeeze the card to activate. the case is a long life lithium polymer cell. when it runs out of battery, replace it.

i would buy these by the case!
 
Last edited:
hazna said:
I would love it if someone made a keychain light, something on the lines of:

Size: I love the tiny size of the drake. When it comes to being on my keychain, space and weight comes at a premium. I find AAA lights slighty bulker and heavier for my preference.

Battery: 10180 Li-ion. Helps to keep the size small, but the 4.2V can pack a punch. I like rechargeable as well.

Interface: 3 mode IBS or LF2XT interface with a lowlow would be great. Keeping in mind a 10180 battery doesn't have much capacity, selecting your own levels gives you greater control over runtime/lumens. I like the perfectly flat regulation with my L-Mini II. I like that it only drops it output after a certain voltage to give you a low battery warning. If it's possible to encorporate it into such a small package, that would be great! However most smaller lights have PWM regulation, so I'm not sure this last request is possible

LED: CREE R5. Currently the R5 seems to be most accessible efficient LED. I feel the extra efficiency is important for something that runs on such a small battery with limited capacity. There are rumours of a neutral tint R5 coming out in future. For keychain lights, I don't mind whether its a white or neutral tint as I don't normally use it for long periods. I prefer whatever is most efficient and offers greatest brightness.

Beam: Large hotspot, wide spill, floody are my preferences for a keychain light

Switch: I like clickies, but to keep size to a minimum, it would have to be a twisty. Clickies might have a higher chance of turning themselves on as well.

Surface: Well placed knurling is important for one handed operation. One of the issues I have with my drake is that I wish there was more knurling at the head. Surface treatment with chrome, AlTiN or TiCN would make it less likely to scratch and wear. My illumanti has gotten scratched up pretty quickly in a few weeks, so not a fan of bare/polished Ti. My HAIII anodised Fenix LOD has received a bit of wear around the edges and knurling.

Additional: Lots of tritium slots to make it look pretty... well maybe at least one tritium slot?


Now is this all just an impossible dream, or can someone actually make such a light?

This is my ideal keychain light... whats yours?
Click to expand...
Theoretical?
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=200705
Too bad this is scraped :shrug:
 
yeah I saw that project... I was quite interested in it, except my main issue would have been the size of it. The liteflux head takes too much room, ideally I'd want something the same size a drake.
 
For me I prefer coin cells on my keychain. I always have a torch in my pocket so I like a super small form factor, and round of any kind seems to be to bulky. I would like to see a metal coin cell with a powered LED instead of 5mm that turns everyting blue. Coin cells have dimensions similar to other keychain items and lay better in a bunch.
 
Jay R said:
Tell you what. The variable brightness Wee that Rob was showing in his Lummi forum scores a lot of these points.

Talk him into putting them into production and you'll have a lot of thanks from the rest of us.
Click to expand...

WOW!! AGREED 100% YES YES YES!!!
 
Hello,
On my keychain hangs the same Maglite Solitaire since 1991.
In 2006 it I got it upgraded with an SMJLED kit to bring it to some 5 (?) lumens.
It does well what it needs to do and it has gone to all the places where I have gone. I guess it is good for another 19 years.

Keep well,
Joris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
Show your AA flashlight
2
Replies
34
Views
3K
dc38
dc38
J
Whats it gots in its pocketses today?
6 7 8
Replies
158
Views
16K
jz6342
jz6342
O
Light for dog walking
Replies
11
Views
1K
Sabrewulf
Sabrewulf
A
Shortest AAA light?
2 3
Replies
49
Views
5K
jabe1
J
J
Dealspotting, a warm plus cool, plus red Lantern that can also charge your phone
Replies
9
Views
921
jon_slider
J

Latest posts

Top