Next Major Leap in Technology ?

I've upgraded my lights over the years. 10yrs ago a 4D Maglite was the thing to have, then I moved to a Stinger, then the early generation LEDs with about 60 to 80 Lumens output.

For the last 6+ months I've been using TLR-1 C4 as a handgun light, and Fenix TK10 on shotgun. Various similar tech lights for hand and bike use. This generation of lights are a big step forward in terms of runtime and output (130 to 230 Lumens) over the previous generation.

My question is - when do we see the next major step forward and just how significant will that step be in terms of Lumens and/or runtime ?

One word.


Are you listening ?


Pay close attention.


Here it comes . . . .



Plastics




_

Mr Robinson I presume.

But to your question ... I'm going to guess runtime will be the next benchmark. Just for a goal.... how about 200 lm for 2 hrs on 2 AA ? --- Now if that light were to be built I'd have to leave this forum.
:mecry:

Sarratt said:

Mr Robinson I presume.

But to your question ... I'm going to guess runtime will be the next benchmark. Just for a goal.... how about 200 lm for 2 hrs on 2 AA ? --- Now if that light were to be built I'd have to leave this forum.
:mecry:

Click to expand...

Well, the Quark Ti AA^2 with an XP-G R5 should come VERY close to that on high capacity cells.

Edit:
Looking back, I think it will in fact meet 200lm for 2 hours on L91's.

Runtime and battery efficiency definitely.

With the boom in battery engineering for cars and home storage the smaller sizes will benefit from the research.

Does anyone have the article about the nuclear battery that runs off the decay of radioactive material where a button sized battery can hold 1 million times the power of a regular lithium?

batmanacw said:

Does anyone have the article about the nuclear battery that runs off the decay of radioactive material where a button sized battery can hold 1 million times the power of a regular lithium?

Click to expand...

Here you go :

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021018080122.htm

That's from 2002 and nothing much has happened since then...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091007124723.htm

I think we'll still wait a moment to get our flashlights with built-in battery which has a power-on lifespan of 50.000 hours!

Battery will not change much unless everybody using Li-ion. 1AA light cannot provide enough juice for current LED.
I wish manufacturers begin to make better beam pattern or focus adjustable lights.

I recently read an article/advertisement about 5.11 Rechargeable Flashlights. They say they use a new battery technology. Is this something new or of interest? This was part of their ad I just found searching the web. I originally read the article in a 5.11 product catalog:

START
Powered by FlashPoint™ Power Technology, a new sophisticated energy management system... not batteries!
FlashPoint™ Power Technology utilizes environmentally friendly ultracapacitors to quickly load and unload energy without a chemical reaction
Ultracapacitors work together with revolutionary computer circuitry to efficiently manage how energy is loaded into the flashlight
Ultracapacitors optimize how the energy is dispersed to maximize both performance and runtime
Temperature-tolerant ultracapacitors are rated at -40°F to 149°F (-40°C to 65°C)
Made primarily of carbon and aluminum – contains no heavy metals
Advanced power management technology has been developed over the last 10 years
Expected lifetime:
Precision engineered to offer at least a decade of maintenance-free operation under typical conditions
Rated for 50,000 charge/discharge cycles – that's one charge a day for more than 135 years
No degradation and no memory effect – even in severe temperature conditions

END

There *COULD* be some huge revolution in capacitors but unlikely. The 5.11 light wasn't really that great, I think they ended up discontinuing it before it ever really came out. Few people did get them tho I think. Capacitor's energy density is just too low.

One day Fuelcells could reach the point of being used in flashlights. Fuelcells would be able to have a higher energy density than any current batteries. Its just an engineering project. Capacitors however needs some breakthroughs in science still.

I'm thinking that the next thing would be more efficient dies and quantum dots.

I would like to see increased surface brightness from all the emitter packages... MCE, XRE, XPE and XPG... particularly the XP-G, its relatively new so I think theres some room there for improvement and refinement.

How about a 200 Lumen XP-E-R5 aspheric thrower that only draws 1A
How about a 350 Lumen XP-G wall of light flooder that only draws 1A

I'd like to see efficiencies increase to the point that it makes the IMR-18650 extinct... LOL

Would love to see the XP-E's and XP-G's continue to get more efficient. Be neat to see AAA keychain lights putting out 150-200 lumens without a 10440.

bexamous said:

There *COULD* be some huge revolution in capacitors but unlikely. The 5.11 light wasn't really that great, I think they ended up discontinuing it before it ever really came out. Few people did get them tho I think. Capacitor's energy density is just too low.

One day Fuelcells could reach the point of being used in flashlights. Fuelcells would be able to have a higher energy density than any current batteries. Its just an engineering project. Capacitors however needs some breakthroughs in science still.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. :twothumbs Very interesting...it sounded too good to be true...Oh well.:thinking:

Fuelcell...Hmm, don't these cell genearte H2O after some use?
Technology progress in Chemistry, material field is slow compared to Electrical, I don't think there will be any big LEAP in recent future.
However, there is still a lot can be done in flashlight.
Like better UI, not click, double click, triple click, hold, etc, like a selector ring (there are some lights using selector ring, but maybe its too bulky and expensive to be used more).

Fuel cell =

I think emitters will continue to trot along nicely with improved output/efficiency (as illustrated by the XP-G), but another big advance will perhaps come with Li battery technology, driven (pun intended) by the huge research effort the car industry is undertaking to improve energy density for batteries in electric/hybrid cars.

Daylight-white tritium emitting 500 lumens of focusable light without any heat.

Ok, I can dream, can't I?!

With wireless power coming along, it would be neat to have rechargeables that are continuously topped off (while in the flashlight) while you are indoors.:bow:

-Hitec-

Why don't charge them outdoor with satellites?

Just stop it! I want to think that my next flashlight is the last one I'm ever going to need!