CPF-biased Acronym & Phrase FAQ

Ok, I've decided to collect in one place many the more common acronyms and terms we tend to throw around. I'll see what you guys come up with, and compile it in some way that makes sense, and we'll see about incorporating it into a FAQ at some point.

Even things like "E2" get confusing when you haven't heard about Surefire. So I've already got the most common Surefireizms (LOLA, HOLA, etc). And my new favorite "LI" for Lambda Illimunator. I also have the common Arc terms down.

What else have you got that newbies (or even oldbies who missed a thread here and there) may need to know?

Bring 'em on.

*** Edited to include current list as of 20-jul-2002 ***

ARC
Arc - mfg of small, durable, bright LED lights. The "light denisty" king.
Arc LS - Luxeon Star LED light from Arc
Arc SLS - A Second Quality Arc LS
Arc LE - Limited Edition Arc AAA with a white SB1 LED and natural HA III finish
Arc AAA - Standard Arc AAA LED flashlight
Arc CPF - CPF version of the LE. Blue case and special engraving, otherwise same as Arc LE
Turquoise EV - Brightest 5mm turquoise currently available (though nobody seems to know what "EV" stands for
Gransee (Peter) - Mr. Arc

Surefire
Surefire - mfg of high-end tactical and executive lights
LOLA - Low Output Lamp Assembly
HOLA - High Output Lamp Assembly
LOTC - Lock Out Tail Cap
ARB - Anti-roll bezel (hex shaped)
SIB - Shock Isolation Bezel
E2(e) - Executive series 2-cell 6v light
PK (Paul Kim) - Mr. Surefire

Batteries
(mAh for Alkaline, typ.)
AAAA 595mAh at 1.5v
AAA 1150mAh at 1.5v
AA 2750mAh at 1.5v
C 8350mAh at 1.5v
D 18000mAh at 1.5v
123 1300mAh at 3v
9v 595mAh at 9v
Li - Lithium
Li-Ion - Lithium Ion
Nicd/Nicad - Nickel Cadmium
NiMH - Nickel Metal Hydride

General (light specific)
CPF - Candle Power Forums (where you are RIGHT NOW!)
NV - Night Vision
LEO - Law Enforcement Officer
LS - Luxeon Star LED
LS/O - Luxeon Star LED with optics
LS HD(LD) - Luxeon Star LED High Dome (Low Dome)
LI - Lambda Illuminator. 2-AA Legend-based Luxeon Star mod
PT - Princeton tech (mfg)
UKE - Underwater Kinetics (mfg)
HA - Hard Anodized
EDC - Every Day Carry
GITD - Glow In The Dark
HID - High Intensity Discharge
DB - Double Barrel (side-by side battery compartment light)
mod - modification or moderator depending on context.
LED - Light Emitting Diode
FED - Flame Emitting Diode (Don't try this at home please!)
WA - Welch-Alleyn (bulb/lamp manufacturer)
LASER - Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Light Measurements
lm - lumen
cd - candela
fc - footcandle
lux

where:
lux = lm/m^2
1 lux = 1 cd @ 1 m
fc = lm/ft^2
1 fc = 1 cd @ 1 ft

Not specific to this site, but fun nonetheless
UPS - United Parcel Service
USPS - United States Postal Service
BTW - By The Way
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
ROTFLMAO - Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A** Off
FUBAR - F'ed Up Beyond All Recognition
SNAFU - Situation Normal, All F'ed Up
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IIRC - If I Remeber Correctly

For more fun with acronyms that are not light-specific, visit this SITE

Flashlights can be considered to be -
Simply
Handheld
Illumination
Tools

SureFire has a lot of acronyms...
LOTC is pretty important.

Things like HA, EDC should be explained too.

Al

Glow
In
The
Dark

High
Intensity
Discharge

"DB" as in Energizer Double Barreled flashlights, but occasionally used for various double barrelled dive lights from:

"PT", Princeton Tec,
"UKE" Underwater Kinetics and Ikelite.

"C" as in the capacity in "mAh" milliamperage hours of battery output. With rechargeables frequently used to discuss the multiples or fractions of C at which satisfactory drain rates and charge rates can be applied.

"L"or "Lu" for lumens, what appears to be the favorite measure of total light output of a device for this group...

"Cp" the potentially misleading measure of device light output that is vilified on this board more than it is referred to with respect.

Great stuff guys (I mean except for Al's contribution :rolleyes . Exactly the stuff I was looking for. Keep it coming....

In no particular order, here is what I've got so far:

ARC
Arc LS - Luxeon Star LED light from Arc
Arc LE - Limited Edition Arc AAA with a white SB1 LED and natural HA III finish
Arc AAA - Standard Arc AAA LED flashlight
Arc CPF - CPF version of the LE. Blue case and special engraving, otherwise same as Arc LE
Gransee (Peter) - Mr. Arc

Surefire
LOLA - Surefire designation for Low Output Lamp Assembly
HOLA - Surefire designation for High Output Lamp Assembly
LOTC - Lock Out Tail Cap
E2(e) - Surefire executive series 2-cell 6v light
PK (Paul Kim) - Mr. Surefire

LS - Luxeon Star LED]
LS/O - Luxeon Star LED with optics
LS HD(LD) - Luxeon Star LED High Dome (Low Dome)
LI - Lambda Illuminator. 2-AA Legend-based Luxeon Star mod
PT - Princeton tech (mfg)
UKE - Underwater Kinetics (mfg)
HA - Hard Anodized
EDC - Every Day Carry
GITD - Glow In The Dark
HID - High Intensity Discharge
DB - Double Barrel (side-by side battery compartment light)
mod - modification or moderator depending on context.

Darell,

As a newbie, I think this is a great idea. Where will this reside? In the FAQ's that explain the BB? Perhaps you moderators can establish a CPF FAQ and I'd like to suggest a links page as well if that's doable?? I've seen some interesting links in threads but then lack of STM kicks in and I don't know where to go.

- Don

Damn you guys are fast. You might not have noticed the list that I was editing into my post above while you guys were posting.

As for where this will reside, I have no clue. Haven't even talked to David about it. Just an idea I had that won't go stale, and can only improve with age. By the time I figure out where to put it, it should be fairly complete. Soon as David has more time on his hands...and we have new BB software, we'll see about finding a good home for it.

A links page is also a *great* idea.

Reminds me a bit of "FUBAR."

F'ed
Up
Beyond
All
Recognition

'nuther "war" term.

I think there might be a place for this sort of stuff in any FAQ that *I* maintain.

Darell:

I thought FUBAR was an early computer programmer term.

the only military originated term that comes to mind is SNAFU:

Situation
Normal
All
F*****
Up

You could have me there. Now that you bring it up, I could easily be convinced either way.

...and thanks for your contribution!

This is one that most science fiction fans should know..

TANSTAAFL

There
Ain't
No
Such
Thing
As
A
Free
Lunch

I should probably add the very obvious one..

FAQ

Frequently
Asked
Questions

How about one that is painfully obvious:

Light Emitting Diode

And of course we shouldn't forget the flashlight mod-builders' favourite:

FED

Flame
Emitting
Diode


Graham

Arc Turq EV

How about 123 refering to those wonderful "camera" batteries.
Obvious to most but AA, AAA, AAAA, C + D as batteries not a rating.

IMHO
TANJ
Neither specific to this board but IMHO caused confusion on another thread.
In
My
Humble/Honest
Opinion

There
Ain't
No
Justice

The F in SNAFU and FUBAR can be for "fouled", keeping to the high road in language generaly prefered in this forum

Good stuff. Especially the 123.

I remember when I first started reading posts here. The term that kept bugging me was E2. Everybody was talking about the E2. Took me DAYS to figure out that Surefire was the mfg! I keep thinking back to dig up the terms that baffled me those first weeks.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by witsend:

The F in SNAFU and FUBAR can be for "fouled", keeping to the high road in language generaly prefered in this forum<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Who's to say that "F'ed" doesn't stand for "fouled?" Where the heck is your mind?

Sure, the F could be for "fouled" but we also have some responsibility for accuracy . It can stand for what ever makes the reader the happiest.

CPF - Candle Power Forums
WA - Welch-Alleyn (bulb/lamp manufacturer)
LEO - Law Enforcement Officer (this one really stumped me when I first joined
TLA - Three Letter Acronym

SHO (super high output)

Here is a good list. www.thefiringline.com/Misc/library/TFL_Primer.htm