I would love an LS 20 if it had different LED's.
The main emitter is an oddball in my eyes, why is nobody else using it, an XP-E would be good for future lights but right now a regular cree or seoul would be great. Especially if it's a warm variety! The uber cool 3mm are not flattering at all in a light of that price, to me anyway.
If you had different emitters the rest of the light would be a joy to own.
I guess I fall into the category of people that think for that much money I should get what
I want from a light instead of the light that the maker is interested in and believes in.........:laughing: That line of his gets me every time!
McGizmo also says that 18650 Li-ions not suitable for general consumers and that statement makes me curious. That's how he feels but I think CPF members are not general consumers by any stretch of the imagination. $500+ Ti lights are not being used by general consumers either. Unless they are gifts given by flashaholics and in that case they should be responsible enough to explain everything. If a dozen light makers can make a safe 18650 flashlight I think he can manage.
I think he just doesn't believe in Li-ions.
One day maybe the battery tech will catch up to his safety goals.
The LunaSol 20 was originally designed around the Lumileds Rebel LED. I had a reel of premium Rebels mounted on custom MCPCB's and prior to actually starting to build the lights I was informed that the Rebels were subject to a recall and likely faulty. Fortunately, during the same time frame, I had been sent some samples of the Osram Dragon LED and I found that due to the lack of dome and the small die in the Dragon I could actually fit this LED into the already designed and in process LunaSol 20 package. When you design and build a light, you are constrained by the physics and geometries of the real world and stringing a concept together with words identifying components does not insure that the concept will actually work. A Cree or Seoul LED will not work in the LunaSol 20 or with its reflector. IMHO, the Osram package is a very solid and nice design and it it is an oddball because others aren't using it then so be it. I would guess that others aren't using it because it is a recent addition to the line up and it is not on par, flux wise, with the LED's using the Cree EZ1000 chip. I have found that the dragon has worked quite satisfactorily in the LunaSol 20. I suspect the Nichia 3 mm LED's are really more of an oddball than the Dragon if the basis is use and familarity in the flashlight market.
I guess I fall into the category of people that think for that much money I should get what I want from a light instead of the light that the maker is interested in and believes in.........:laughing: That line of his gets me every time!
I think if you spend $.50 or $5000 on an item you should get what
you want. Further you have the choice and it is a choice that should make sense to you and one that possibly you might
believe in. If you find humor in the fact that I build lights that I am interested in and I believe in then so be it. I would suggest though that having these motivations go a long way in terms of feeling satisfaction and justification in ones efforts; success or failure aside. Instead of designing and building something that makes sense to me are you suggesting I should take direction instead from a comment like yours above and attempt to build something that won't work properly because it is something
you want?
In regards to Li-Ion, I am a firm believer in the potential and desirability of such an energy dense battery. I will and have paid a premium for Li-Ion in some of the tools and devices I have. My cameras and phones and lap tops have been powered by Li-Ion for some time now. There was a time, before your time, when it seemed from some vocal CPF members that a good choice of battery was the 17500 Li-Ion battery and there was some good reasoning behind this. I had a bunch of Aleph tubes made for such a battery. I believe the Shoppe still has some of these available and I think I gave them a whole slew of them when I left Berkeley. I designed a couple battery tubes based on the 18650 but came to find that at the time various offshore manufacturers were just ading their labels and wrappings over the manufacturers and some of these batteries were too damn fat to fit in the battery tubes. I want my designs to work on proven and internationally acceptable and available batteries. The CR123 is available from well established manufacturers and there is some good value offered by some of our CPF vendor friends on these batteries in addition to the common store offerings. Is an 18650 and approptiate charger available in brick and mortor under a well known brand? If I sell one of my lights to a LEO or fireman can they get batteries for it locally or online from a general consumer based supply or do they need to immerse themselves in CPF or hobby RC to find a solution?
All of the titanium lights and the majority of the Aluminum lights I have designed and built are based on a 13/16"x20 thread geometry that mates the head to battery pak. An 18650 battery will not pass through this coupling. The converters and driver packages I have been working with are based on this geometry as well and to go to the larger diameter dictated by the 18650 would require new geometry for the electronics as well. For me to commit to using the 18650, I would need to start over and this includes sourcing new converters based on new critical diameters. I am not against doing this but I am in no rush to do so and I would be more inclined to do so if there were an accepted mainstream 18650 on the market. In the mean time, there are the R123 cells that are compatible with the present geometries and on occasion if one is lucky, there is the 17650 or 17500 that will also work. The fat ones push the diameter restriction too far.
We all have choices and I am a firm believer in making choices that make sense to us regardless of how goofy they may seem to someone else; unless we aim to live our lives by the standards of others and not our own. :shrug:
Criticism, constructive or otherwise, can be quite beneficial but it has the most merit when it is based on a firm understanding of what is at hand and the realities present.
Since I have now posted in this thread, I should at least address the OP.
The Nichia 083 LED has 6 dice and it is not well collimated nor does a collimated beam hold up to present standards as set by the other contemporary LED's. Tint and actual color rendition are much more independent of each other than many believe but that is not to say that the LED manufacturers can't and won't continue to improve these LED's to the point that we can make assumptions based on tint and find that the assumptions do hold up. By the same token, I am hoping to see some cool white tint LEDs that don't fall apart and leave us wishing for better color rendition and warmth. The reflector in the LunaSol 20 requires a flat LED package with reasonably small die to perform as designed. The most popular LED's today do not meet these requirements.
Sadly cool tints keep me away.
It's a deal!
