Just one difference: a complete curl has been added to the PCB crimp. This is achieved by a new press die that we just finished testing and which is now on the production line.
Currently, about 10% of our AAA lights experience a flickering/bad ground after about 3 months of use. This new crimp is designed to reduce our incidendence of, "flickering/bad ground" issues by more than half.
Other than that, the rest of the light is the same in appearance, brightness, tint, run time, etc. The blister pack insert however, is redesigned. It now has French instructions and some of the english has been updated as well. It now says, "50 feet water proof". It is not that we changed the light to make it more waterproof, it is just that better testing came along which showed that the light is consistantly able to exceed 50 feet.
Anyways, if your package has french and english text, chances are it is the 3.1 version.
Not all the colors will be in 3.1 at the same time. We are making 3.1 white later this month but the EV turquiose and UV will not be 3.1 for several months to come.
It will take awhile for this new version to make it into all the dealer inventory. We will continue to see the older 3.0's pop up here and there for another 6 months even though we will began shipping at the end of June.
I shouldn't tell you about this new version because human nature is to only want it and to look down on the previous version. There are thousands of the previous version in good service and those people have had no problems with the light. I have an old LE on my keychain that works everytime I use it, so I have no reason to "upgrade". But if it does fail, I would certainly want the replacement to be latest version so I don't have to mess with it again.
How did word of the 3.1 get out prematurely? I think I mentioned it to one of the CPF'ers when they called. I later referred to it here to address some concerns about the flickering issue.
So... You now know about the new version coming up. But you also know it will be awhile before they are available.
Peter Gransee
