VIDEO: Table Top Review

So I got an email from a guy named Trent a couple weeks ago asking if I'd do a "table top review" of the Alpha. Here it is! I couldn't afford to spend a ton of time editing so please excuse the roughness. I hope to be doing a bunch more videos in the future so please let me know if you have any requests!

Cheryl's Question: Answered!

Cheryl said...

"Do you have any plans for a smaller single cell CR123 light that would be more adaptable for EDC? The MC18-B has many things that I look for in a light - great design and beautiful looks, high quality build, premium components and American made. However, the MC18-B is just too big for my liking. 

I'm thinking there may be a large customer base for a smaller light. Just for kicks and giggles (and a little market research), maybe you could run a poll to see if there is any interest. Anyhoo, I'm so glad to see you've had quite a few sales and things appear to be moving alone nicely. I wish you continued good luck."

Hi Cheryl, first of all, thanks for staying tuned! :) Another great question...the "123 quandary" as I like to call it. I've deliberately stayed away from 123 (battery size) lights because these are quite common. Several custom builders already focus exclusively on this size EDC (Every Day Carry) type of light. Eventually I'd like to make a smaller light. Maybe 123 size or maybe AA size. So far there aren't too many customs in the AA size. Of course a small light means less output and perhaps less run time as well.

the 18650 battery (left) is twice the size of the CR123 size (right) 

However, in the interest of market research, here is a poll:

Would you be more inclined to buy the MC18-B if it was physically smaller?

This is a very specific question. The question is not, "do you like the idea of a smaller light." I want to know (specifically) if the size of the MC18-B is an obstacle to your purchasing.

Here is a scale shot from the store (just in case you haven't seen it)

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.

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.

Cheryl's question answered!...with a question

cheryl said...

"One of my concerns is dependabiity, warranty and repair. Seeing that this is your first attempt at custom flashlight building, what assurances would we have that these light will perform as advertised? Being a one-man operation, I can foresee the possibility of you being overwhelmed if things don't go as planned. 

After reading your resume and accomplishments, I am quite impressed and have great confidence in your abilities. However, this endeavor of yours is monsterous and I would want a guarantee of the light's performance before I purchased."

So, I wrote a big long blabedy blah blog post in response. I deleted it. Let's try something different. What do YOU (as a customer) want the guarantee/warranty to be? That means anyone reading this by the way. Also, try and put yourself in my shoes: what do you think is sensible/reasonable to offer from a business standpoint?

Personally, I'd like my guarantee/warranty policy to be: "no reasonable request denied" I stole that line from Mark Dwight at Rickshaw Bagworks. I like it because it implies the company and the customer are in it together...not that the company is there to "serve" the customer.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this one and it's a hard answer. It's also the kind of issue where consumers and businesses often find themselves at odds. One of the reasons I'm writing this blog and speaking in the first person is that I represent myself...and I'm trying to manage expectations. You are right, this is a one man operation and I hope my customers will relate to me as an individual and not like a faceless corporation. I'm also a little old fashioned in the keep your word, do your best, deal on a handshake kind of way. I want to attract like minded customers.

A couple more thoughts after the jump but PLEASE WEIGH IN ON THIS ONE !!! :)

Jayson's Question Answered!

Jayson A. said...
"Besides the mechanical aspect of light making, are you considering getting into or partnering with someone who can program to make the UI? I mean, the UI is really important nowadays."

I would love to have my own custom drivers made some day. I'm going to need to sell a fair number of lights before this is possible though. Ideally, custom drivers would be exactly the same size as the current drivers. They could be upgraded by the user, or sent back to me for an upgrade.

Unless you are a flashaholic you probably don't give much thought to flashlight UI (User Interface). The most common flashlight UI is an on/off button. However, we live in the age of micro controllers and the on/off button (or twisting action) becomes an access point and not just a simple switch.

Apple knows good UI

UI is an interesting design challenge and I agree that a good UI is critically important. The problem is...they sky's the limit when you start using programmable controllers. A lot of interfaces are VERY programmable and correspondingly complicated...I think that is excessively complicated for the average user. You thought setting the time on your VCR was hard?

My philosophy is that simple is better. It's just a flashlight. In all, I think the current interface is very solid for a general purpose light. 3 modes and a simple switching scheme. Is it ideal? No. Does it work well? Yes. Who knows what the future holds though!

Erik's question answered

Erik E said...
"Jason, What do you see as the "opportunity space" in this (lighting) market? Both in terms of "un-met user needs" and emerging "technological affordances" that are expanding the bounds of the possible?
It looks like you are pushing into both these areas. If you had greater resources, what additional capabilities would you like to have so you could develop further into the leading edge of this space?"

Hey Erik, I guess I've already answered some of your questions tangentially in other posts. However, I think an opportunity exists because of the combination of "unmet user needs" and "technological affordances." In other words, the technology is making it possible to meet new user needs.

Everything is a matter of perspective. Sometimes not having the technology makes it hard to see needs which that unknown (or simply new) technology might address. Take cars for example; when they first appeared on the road a lot of people were still asking, "why would you need to travel faster than a train or horse?" Just three or four years ago it was unfathomable that a single LED could produce over 750 lumens, let alone a small hand held light. I think we are just beginning to understand the possibilities.

The next factor, from an economic standpoint, is the cost/availability of that technology. Many markets follow the "sweet spot" example I'll give, and the LED lighting market is now in the sweet spot...in my opinion. They easiest example is the cell phone. There was a tipping point, in the past, that allowed the cell phone to become mainstream. I attribute this to the pure economics of, not only the final consumer cost, but the cost of the ancillary resources required to support the final product...network capacity, battery energy density, individual mobility, the internet, etc.

Seth's question answered!

SethML said...

"How is this more than just some batteries, an LED, and a switch stuck in a fancy housing? Now's your chance to talk about Lithium-Ion battery charging/balancing, constant-current LED drivers, brightness modes, etc!"

In many ways these lights are exactly what you describe, and assemblage of components. However, I think these lights are unique on two levels. One, I make every one by hand. Two, there are a lot of components out there in the world and I've selected the absolute best and integrated them into an incredibly optimized, high-performance system. The only way these lights will get better is when I have enough volume to justify designing and manufacturing the components I currently buy off the shelf.

Exploded View: click the image for a super size version

BATTERIES AND CHARGERS:
I've already posted on batteries and chargers so you can navigate to those links for more info. Suffice to say battery technology has come an incredibly long way in the last five years. Modern li-ion batteries have no memory and significant energy density. If it was a car it would have both a huge gas tank and tons of horsepower.

Modern batteries are also capable of extremely high current output when compared to standard alkaline batteries. LED lights that run on alkalines (most LED lights on the market) are low output because alkaline batteries simply can't deliver the current needed to motivate a high power LED into releasing its lumens.

Kathryn's question answered!

Kathryn said...

"What are your adjacent markets? Do you plan on only doing flashlights even a few years out? Will you be expanding into other markets like theater lighting?"

The blanket answer to all of your questions is, "Who knows?" Okay, I actually have better answers for that...my adjacent markets. Honestly, anything that requires a light source. Some obvious choices are specialty applications like dive lights, bike lights, head lamps, and other standard stuff. Probably some money to be made there, but there is also a lot of competition.

This is a smart-alecky graphical answer to the question of horizontal markets...
but take a look at the larger image. It's actually incredibly fascinating. For one,
take note of China's population and how little lighting there is. 

I'm more financially and philosophically interested in markets that have relatively low competition in the LED space: fixed outdoor lighting, interior lighting, industrial lighting, marine lighting, automotive lighting, and as you suggest, theatrical lighting. For me, the flashlight market is a strategic entry point into the market pictured in the photo above.

Kate's question answered!

WARNING: DESIGN STRATEGY CONTENT
katerw said...
"Who is your customer? Or customers? Have you profiled/interviewed the type of person you imagine using your product?"

To answer your last question first: yes and no.

The "yes" side actually explains why I got into this in the first place. The short version: about nine months ago I started working on an old project for a canister-style dive light targeted at the commercial/military/technical diving community. In order to get familiar with the in's and out's of light design and manufacturing I came up with a small prototype light. I started showing it to people and the response was almost universal: "Holy smokes, that is incredible, can I buy one?!"

Virtually no one has ever seen anything so bright in such a small package. I decided to go where the interest was and abandon dive lights (for the time being) and decided to focus on small hand held lights for every day use. I normally work on super niche products, so excitement from the general public was pretty catalyzing. That response is a lot more rewarding than the usual, "errr....riiiiight....that sounds nice." If it's dark out I don't even have to give a "product pitch," I just push a button on the end of this cylinder thingy.

This is the light that got everything started

On the "no" side, my research has not been extensive and I don't have a ton of resources at my disposal. Any individual starting a business is in the same position. This is a significant factor in my decision to start the blog in the first place. In order to be efficient, I decided to try and bring people to me instead of seeking them out one by one. I hope to attract a user community that will help me understand the market, new technologies, and user needs on an ongoing basis.

Alex's question answered!

In case you can't tell I'm trying to knock out some of these questions!

Alex said...
"PS... Dark does suck. My question is... is "focused beam" the way to tackle the suckiness. Maybe "make a 5 foot diameter around me feel like the day"... Just a thought."

Actually, a lot of people ask about focusing. It's one of the top five questions I think. Darn you Maglite! Here is my take (special applications aside). For general "I can't see in the dark" use, these lights are so powerful you get both long range throw and close range flood all at the same time. It basically makes focusing obsolete (special applications aside).

As four your special request, "make a 5 foot diameter around me feel like the day." Would you settle for a 10 foot diameter of day? That's all I got.

Stanley's question answered!

Stanley said...

"Was talking to Kingston tonight... he wants to get a flashlight for testing. Wanted to know how long the batteries last in the different power modes."

I haven't done any run time testing yet so my values are approximate and based on calculations with 80% driver efficiency. 80% is also a best guess for this type of linear LED driver, but it's pretty conservative so I'm hoping actual run times will be equal to, or better than, what I've listed below. Does anyone want (or know how) to test my driver efficiency?  

High (500 lumens) = 90 minutes @ 2.8 Amps

Medium (180 lumens) = 250 minutes @ 1.0 Amps

Low (30 lumens) = 1,800 minutes @ .14 Amps

srfreddy's question answered!

WARNING: FLASHAHOLIC CONTENT

srfreddy said:

"In your "DtD Update: surprising success!" post, the shot is the head, right? Does the head and the tailcap screw off? I'm interested in your heatsinking. The driver is on a copper "pole" of sorts, which isolates the driver, and will concentrate heat, and how is the heatsink for the LED itself? I see you are using 7135 linear drivers-how many? If a user decides to use 2xCR123s or RCRs, the 7135s will be putting out over 5 watts of heat!"

Yes, that's an image of the back of the head. Both the head and tailcap unscrew from the body. 

The driver in this photo is a Shiningbeam 1.4A driver

I'm using a Shiningbeam 3 mode 2.8 amp driver that has components on both sides of the board. The copper sleeve is actually the heat-sink for the driver. This sleeve is press fit into the back of the head. The LED is on a 20mm star and thermally bonded to a solid, one-piece aluminum head...so my expectation is the thermal path is about as good as it can get without soldering the LED directly to a copper pill.

You can check the Shiningbeam site for driver specs but I think it accepts a maximum of 6 volts, so you can use 2x CR123 (primary) batteries but you can not use 2x RCR123 (rechargeable) batteries. However, I'm not sure that CR123 primaries can handle that much current draw. Someone else might have to weigh in on that one!

This is really intended to be an 18650 light. 

Kendall's question answered!

WARNING: FLASHAHOLIC CONTENT

Kendall the CarpentryHero said...

"Will you make your flashlights with an upgradeable, replaceable Pill like a better version of the P60 and host idea. An upgradeable light even if I'm mailing it in for the upgrade ;-) ?"

Sort of! For those of you that aren't familiar with the terminology, a flashlight "pill" is a component comprised of an LED emitter, driver electronics, and a metallic body to hold those components and act as a heat sink. Sometimes the pill is combined with a reflector to create a "drop in" module. A P60 module is an industry standard size so P60 pills should fit into any P60 host. This is actually an interesting concept and I may do a P60 format light in the future.

A section view of the light head. The walls of the copper
sleeve are actually thicker than what is depicted here.

My current design does not use a "pill" for a few reasons...that I might get into in another post. Suffice to say I think using an LED mounted on a 20mm star MCPCB (Metal Core Printed Circuit Board) is the best option, for me, at this time. The head is a solid, one-piece design to maximize thermal transfer.

One of my primary design principles is "design for disassembly and repair." So yes, these lights will most definitely have the ability to be upgraded with newer LEDs or electronics. One reason I went with the MCBCB is that it makes it really easy for me to swap out LEDs.