Torture Test: Frozen in ice for 8 hours

I've had some personal concerns, and I've had some people ask, about cold weather performance. Full of confidence coming off of my 300 ft pressure test I decided to create a new "torture test" segment. For my next act I will freeze my light into a block of ice...and really cross my fingers.

The Short Story: Takes a freezin' and keeps on tickin' 

There is a lot of risk here: my ego, the flashlight's reputation, and the flashlight itself. Sure, if the test fails then I just never tell anyone I did it right? That's not how this works. I've made the choice to be transparent with this process and you will see my fails along with my wins. For the startup/small business owner, it's kind of like riding a tiger through a hoop of fire. So far I've been pretty lucky AND I'm trying really hard not to fail.

FINAL RESULT:  I let the light run on "high" until it melted itself free from the block of ice. That took about 20 minutes and meant now it was sitting in a cup full of ice water. I shut the light off and let it sit for another 20 minutes. I pulled the light out and inspected for damage to the lens or water intrusion into the light and found none!

Customer Review: "The Coach" on his brushed MC18-B

Hi folks, I'm excited to announce I recently received my first customer review! "The Coach" from CandlePowerForums ordered one of my lights and posted some thoughts, along with some great photos, to the forum. Here is the original link. With his permission, I have duplicated his post here: 

 Dark Sucks MC18-B

So, here is what I found in my mailbox this morning. This is my new Style 3 MC18-B from Dark Sucks (I'm SO glad Jason didn't laser etch that on the side of this light ). It has three speeds, kind of bright, bright and VERY BRIGHT. 

It is well made with very few machining marks on it. I really had to look with a magnifying glass to find 3. Everything is well put together, no sharp edges and the fit is outstanding.

Drivers in stock...new inventory available!

>>> ENOUGH TALK, TAKE ME TO THE STORE! <<<

The good news is, my LED drivers finally arrived! The good news is, I have more lights available. There are five more bead blasted lights and five of the new tumbled lights. For the time being, no bad news :)

100 pcs of 2.8A LED drivers

This is the last of the pre-production lights! I'm starting the machining on the first run of serialized and maker's marked lights...that sounded awkward but you get the idea. Just head on over to the store and bring your (digital) wallet! As always, let me know if you have any questions.

New flashlight finish: tumbled

Hey all, just a quick post. Check out my latest finish: tumbled. This is more of a satin finish as opposed to the matte of the bead blasted. Head and tail are still polished. I have five more blasted lights available and five tumbled lights.

click the image for a 1024 x 768 version

They are not listed on the website yet so if you want to reserve one please contact me directly! I'm building them out today and they should be ready to ship tomorrow. These will be the last of the pre-production lights. Cheers!

Haas VF-1 milling a custom flashlight head

This is a video of the final component...the flashlight head! I have the little container to the right of the vise to catch coolant. After the part finishes I dump the container of coolant over the part to clear away all of the tiny triangular chips left from the thread milling. I don't want them to get stuck inside the bore of the soft jaws and then get pressed into the finish on the head. Ask me how I know. Better yet, don't. 

Torture Test: personal best (300ft for 5 hours)

OFFICIALLY TESTED TO 300 FEET FOR 5 HOURS 

This post is an update to the original pressure test post.

I had some more time today and took one light down to 300 feet for 5 hours and it passed without a problem. I did have to remove the safety pressure release valve that was preventing me from going above 110 PSI. 

I should note this does NOT mean the MC18-B is a dive light. The rubber tailcap switch collapses around 50ft and will render the switch inoperable. This does not damage the switch and does not compromise the seal...it just means the button gets stuck down. A different type of switch would have to be used for dive applications. 

The only thing I can think to say is BOOYAH!

I'm pretty sure the MC18-B is now THE most waterproof land-based flashlight in the world. I'd be happy to have someone prove me wrong; just send me a link! If there is competition out there, I want to know. 

WIN!: the MC18-B is water proof to 220 feet...tested!

High pressure? No problem! I have to admit, the result surprised even me. I made this pressure tank months ago when I was building dive lights and never got around to testing one of my land lights. I was hoping for 30 feet of water resistance. That would already beat most lights that are not "dive-rated." Long story short: I tested three lights at 220 feet for 2 hours! Tomorrow I'm going to take one light and test it to failure or 300 feet, whichever comes first. 300 feet is equivalent to 130 PSI (10 PSI shy of the pressure limit on the test vessel). You might want to stay tuned for this one :) 

95 PSI = 220ft of water (black hand).
The red hand is a "set hand" like on an alarm clock. 

Nearly every manufacturer that I'm aware of rates their lights (excluding dive lights) as "water resistant" or "weather proof" but little else. This means you can take them in the bath tub or walk your dog in the rain...but that's about it. Some manufacturers list a rating called IPX-8: "The equipment is suitable for continuous immersion in water under conditions which shall be specified by the manufacturer." Most flashlight manufacturers fail to indicate what those conditions are even though they list an IPX-8 rating...so their rating is essentially meaningless. I'd guess they are still fine for bathtub duty though. 

Part of the reason for testing these lights is so that I can articulate the "conditions specified by the manufacturer" instead of throwing around fancy industry codes that no one understands anyway. Something like "Waterproof to xxx feet." 

For details on the tank and testing procedure, read on after the jump...

Maker's Mark Arrived

I got an exciting tidbit in the mail today...my maker's mark stamp. A picture is worth a thousand words so I won't torture you with text this time. The resolution of the stamp is incredible. I don't even know how you could make this thing so small and so detailed. Keep in mind the circle is 1/8" in diameter! Really impressive work by Infinity Stamps. Anyway, I gave it a try today and I had to make a special tool that will be the subject of another post in the near future. In the mean time, enjoy the wonders of macro photography.

I'll have ten more pre-production lights for sale at the end of next week. After that full production will begin and each light will be serialized and stamped with my maker's mark! Stay tuned if you want to own light # 001. 

Disaster relief & disaster preparedness

Hi folks,

I've been watching a lot of the news coming out of Japan. Nothing like a major disaster to put emergency preparedness on the brain. Living here in the Bay Area, the news of major earthquakes elsewhere is particularly sobering.

Anyway, today I had an idea. I've decided to donate $20 from every sale, for the rest of the month, to relief aid in Japan. Recently I've been thankful for the electricity that is allowing me to post this message, lights that turn on with a switch, the water that runs freely from the tap, and the gas that fires the stove on which I can cook my fridge full of food.

Courtesy of Paypal

I only have 4 finished lights left for sale through the store on my website. 

I have 10 more sitting on my bench that are fully built and waiting for drivers to arrive in the mail. I hope to have them in a week, but it could be two. Five of those are "style 1" with the combination bead blast and polish. The other five are the same except they have a tumbled finish instead of the bead blast. It's a little more subtle and less contrast than the bead blast. I'll try and have pics tomorrow. 

I'd be willing to pre-sell those ten (pay now/ship later) if you want to help yourself to a new light and also help a few folks on the other side of the world. 

If you want to pre-pay please email me directly and I will send you an invoice: jason(at)darksucks(dot)com

If I sell all the lights that's $280 bucks that I can donate. Not a lot, but more than nothing. Hopefully it will help someone stay warm, dry, and fed. 

14 lights, 14 days, can we do it? 

Cheers,

Jason

Pre-Production Lights for Sale...NOW!

Hey everyone, I'm excited to announce that my retail site is up and running and I have a few lights for sale! About two weeks ago I started selling some lights on Candle Power Forums. I wanted to give that community first dibs on the limited number of lights I have in stock, because that community is the reason I'm doing this project in the first place. I have about 8 lights in stock and ready to ship. I have 10 more that are waiting for drivers that should arrive in a week or so. These are pre-production and that is explained on the front page of the store.

The light side or the dark side, you choose. 

As luck/fate/chance would have it, the next day the forum crashed because of some serious technical problem and would be down for an indefinite period of time. That prompted me to put all my effort into finishing my commerce site so I could sell lights to the public. As luck/fate/chance would have it I sent out an announcement to my email list (did you sign up?) two days ago that said, "my store is open!"...and that the same day CPF came back online. I don't know what it all means, but I'm open for business and super excited to send YOU a light! 

Design for Dissasembly

I've always been frustrated by things that break and that I may not fix. Notice I didn't say that I "can't" fix. I mean things that are designed and constructed in such a way that it's impossible to fix them. Or rather, the only fix is to throw them out and buy a new one. My breaking point was about four years ago when I had a drip coffee maker overflow out the top. The water ran down the front of the machine and shorted out the circuit board. I won't even get into how ridiculous it is to put electronics in a coffee maker in the first place. Anyway, the water fried the circuit board. A call to the manufacturer confirmed the repair solution was to, "send it back and they'll send me a new one." Great customer service, incredibly stupid design.

My current coffee setup

So, I decided to deconstruct coffee making. One great way to avoid the disassembly/repair trap is to not assemble the parts in the first place. It might spread out the footprint more but it means every part functions independently from other parts. The part that actually makes the coffee is on the left...the clear vacuum flask and ceramic Buchner Funnel. Now I let gravity do the work instead of a circuit board. I won't explain the whole thing, but if you want to know what all this has to do with flashlights, read on after the jump.

Flashlight Assembly Steps

WARNING: LOTS OF PHOTOS

I took some photos while I was assembling my first batch of lights and thought I'd share them here. At this stage, all of the machining, finishing, and nickel plating is finished. Now I'm assembling all of the components into completed lights.

These are the bodies I'm assembling, fresh from Amex Plating.

Every light is identical on the inside. At this point I'm just trying out some different surface finishes, but the design and engineering is done...at least until the next evolution. If you'd like to see all the steps read on after the jump!

POLL: Which "maker's mark" do you like best?

_________________________________________________________
UPDATE: Thanks very much to everyone who participated! I hope it was fun for all of you as well. Turns out it was pretty close between #3 and #4 so I talked with the company that is going to make my stamp. They thought #4 would have the best impression quality. They were concerned that the wider areas on the lettering (#3) would have to "move" too much material and that would excessively deform the stamped area, especially since the stamp is so tiny (only 1/8" in diameter).

Looks like I'll be going with #4 and I should have the stamp in about 7 days! Pretty cool. I'll let you know how it turns out and thanks again!

_________________________________________________________

So I've decided to have a custom "maker's mark" stamp made. I need to send it out pretty much immediately if I want to start using it on my next production run...so don't spend too much time thinking about it and vote now! :)

Something similar to this...

I came up with a few options. I'm playing with the letters "J" and "H"...which would be the letters of my name. So that's pretty much fixed. I'm not going with DS for Dark Sucks because this is a maker's mark and not a logo. Keep in mind that this stamp will be TINY. The circle will probably be about 1/8" of an inch in diameter. Maybe a tad larger.

I'm not a graphic designer so if one of my fancy friends wants to make a submission please email it to me! Basically has to be the letters "J" and "H' and inside of a circle. Without further ado, here is the poll:

Here are your choices!

Which "maker's mark" do you like best?

Behind the Scenes: Cutaway View

Just a quick peek inside the anatomy of a flashlight. I posted the exploded view a while back and this post is a follow up to that. A cutaway! I've always geeked out on cutaway views so I thought it was time to do my own. The main reason was so that I could actually check fit and clearances on the battery. If I can't physically see inside it's just a bunch of math. I'm an applied research person, not a math person. So, this is what it looks like.

Click the image for a 1024x768 size version

Turn out the math was correct...or at least my 3D model. I left the band in the center of the body so the whole thing wouldn't collapse as I was machining it. You can also see the substantial piece of solid aluminum that sits just behind the LED. This absorbs the heat and then transfers it to the entire head of the flashlight. This means the body will also start to pick up heat. It's hard to see but the first 1" of the body is bored out so the battery "floats" and does not touch the walls, preventing direct heat transfer to the battery and driver.

Product Testers: Your lights are in the mail!

I'm excited to say there are five lights in the mail on their way to the first batch of product field testers. A couple of months ago I sent out an email to some friends and family and asked them to volunteer as product testers. It's taken a while to get things going but I finally got them in the mail on Friday!

Raw machined bodies with sand blasted head and tailcap

I keep referring to this whole exercise as an experiment or research project, and this is one of my first official research milestones. Each tester gets the light for two weeks. Then they have to send it on to the next tester on the list. I included a notebook with each package and I hope that people will right down a few thoughts, ideas, and experiences they have during the review period. I'll also be conducting more formal phone interviews to delve deeper into how people relate to the dark.

Testers! If you have any questions during the course of your review, please post them here. 

Thanks! 

Jason

infotuners Question Answered!

infotuner said...
"how are you keeping track of all of the automated machining operations as well as manual operations, jigs and fixtures and setup steps, bill of materials, tooling requirements and most efficient order of operations, labor and materials budgets, and the like so that you will be able to do things such as: properly price your end products while accounting for and allocating all of your costs (so that you are not operating at a loss or break-even), making sure that you can remember how to replicate the work that you've done with one batch on subsequent production runs (so that you don't have to 'reinvent the wheel'), figuring out what operations are most "expensive" in time or effort or materials so that you can simplify or improve them, keeping track of suppliers and placing orders with sufficient lead times while optimizing economic order quantities, and so on."

Whew, that really illustrates the complexity well :) As such, there is no simple answer...but I'll give one anyway. Answer: Your tolerance for ambiguity will tell you how fine the teeth on your comb should be. It seems like you have a much better grasp on what is actually involved in implementing something than most people do. The first step in this process is to be aware of the scope. Little details like lead time and product availability can make things really hard. (See one of my previous posts). When you start implementing, even the most simple things get complicated quickly.

You have to work with what you've got

That said, if you try to control ALL of the complexity you will never have time to actually get anything done. It's a trap. You'll spend all your time connecting dots and filling out spread sheets when you should be getting dirty and getting experience. If you can, start small and ramp up. I think a lot of people make the mistake of trying to go big out of the chute. Unless you've done it before (or several times) you are just digging a really deep hole.

The next step is probably budgeting. Start with your big number (for example, your credit card limit) and start breaking it down into the component parts. At some point you should realize you are counting pennies when you ought to be counting dollars. Dial the resolution back as needed. As an individual, or even as a few people, you'll never have the resources to count all the pennies...if you want to get anything done. That probably sounds like bad financial advice, but you can't have both timely execution and perfect information because they are mutually exclusive since they both require time.

Size Comparison and a Possible Name!

This is a super quick post but some people have been asking about size and I thought it would be useful to post this scale shot. Keep in mind that these light vary widely in terms of power and battery type.

I also thought this might be a good time to talk about the name for the product (not the company). I enjoy a good metaphorical name from time to time like the gladiator, super nova, or death star...but they are meaningless. I'm often frustrated by companies that name their selection of products random things when what I need to make a decision is actual information. You know, so I can decide which one of their products I want to buy? Throw me a friggin' bone here.

Anyway, here is the (proposed) name for my first light: MC18-B. After you get over the fact that it's excruciatingly boring here is my thinking...MC stands for Cree MC-E (the type of LED). 18 stands for 18650 (the battery type/size). B stands for Ledil Boom (the type of reflector/optic). If I ever build another variation, these are the three main features that are apt to change, and that you need to know if you are trying to pick out a light. Thoughts? I must admit, I like a good alpha-numeric name. Try and persuade me otherwise :)

Do I need to point out which one is my light? 

LEFT TO RIGHT:

1. Maglite (2x D batteries)
2. Icon Rogue (2x AA batteries)
3. Mini Maglite (2x AA batteries)
4. MC18-B (1x 18650 battery)
5. Dorcy Xenon (2x CR123 batteries)
6. Surefire E1-B (1x CR 123 battery) 

Bloy's question answered!

Bloy said...
"How many of these will you be making before you retool/progran and offer a second piece? What do you have in mind? Maybe a flex-head torch for increasing the range of usability? Or maybe an item completely remote from the first flashlights utilizing your skills? How will you be marketing these works-of-art?"

First, hi John! Excited to see a name from way back. Bloy had some really good threads on CNC Zone about getting his Shoptask machine set up. That was my first metal working machine.

Anyway, "how many will I make before making changes?" That will always be different. The lights might change from batch to batch or not change for several batches. I expect there will be more changes in the beginning. Fewer changes down the road...and then perhaps a big leap in a new direction.

The evolution of Coke...notice you only see the changes on the outside.
Coke, I forgive you for coming up with "New Coke." 

Now a lot of changes in the beginning might make people freak out. For example: you just bought a light and I made some improvement on the next batch and you would rather have that. Think of it this way, the same holds true for any product: cars, computers, cameras, books (new editions), bicycles, etc. We've been conditioned by the current market to think that changes should only take place, what, every year or so? We are "comfortable" with that particular time frame...but shorter starts to make us feel anxious. I have this feeling a lot, particularly when dealing with computers.