Kickstarter Progress Update: Alpha Pen

Hey folks,

I figured some of you would be interested in the Kickstarter progress/process even if you didn't back the project. All of my updates are public...except for boring administrative stuff that only applies to backers :) So you can just follow this link and find the current update and all of the past updates as well!

Please don't forget to check out my YouTube channel as well! Here is my last fancy pants update video created by Whitmore Productions. I have other short behind the scenes videos about the pen project and other flashlight esoterica too :)

Comparing LED color temperatures

So when you look at a data sheet and order a 4500K LED you know what you are getting right? Right? Wrong. With respect to LED bins, tints, and output specs we research a world of absolutes but we live in world of ambiguity. I took the photo below to illustrate the point. The same color temperature in different model LEDs looks different.

LEFT (MCE 6500K & 4500K) / RIGHT (XML 6500K & 4500K)

On the left is the Cree MCE in 6500K and 4500K. On the right is the Cree XML in 6500K and 4500K. I don't care what the data sheet says because the look different and that's all that counts. I don't bring this up to say it's bad in any way, I just mean that we should be aware that these sorts of things are not at all absolute. There are a lot of variables that go into the appearance of LED light. We haven't talked about tint for example. But my point is that you shouldn't expect to different models of LED, with the same specs on paper, to appear the same to your eyes in real life.

"field testing" the Alpha

This actually has no real point, but that won't stop me. I was out doing some beam shots a while back and decided some horsing around was in order. I flipped the video camera on and started hurling some Alphas in the dark. I probably enjoyed it more than you will...hope you still watch :) Oh and yes, it's on grass so no real danger to the lights.

An Alpha at Half Moon Bay

1000 words, begin...

Can't leave well enough alone

So I bought a new toy...er...tool today: a combination belt/disc sander. Woohoo right? I'm not normally a fan of combo tools. It's like a Swiss army knife: good for some, great for none. In this case, that's just what I was looking for. Nothing hard core, just a little something to help take the edge off. I don't know if you were paying attention but that was a tool pun.

Anyway, those of you that know me, know that I have an obsessive compulsion to modify and customize things. As I was assembling my new sander I spotted a 3L sized V belt on the machine. A deformed and pathetic one at that. Fortunately I remembered I had some high performance 3L Fenner link belt just lying around. No really. That's one of the advantages of being a hoarder. You just have stuff lying around.

If you are wondering, I'm blabbering on about the bright red pulley belt in the photo. Enjoy!

For those that care: a Rikon 1x42 belt + 8" disc sander from Woodcraft. 

Belt buckle from the moon

So I just had to post this little bit of cool. I bought this little gem from an Etsy store called CitizenObjects. They have all kinds of amazing hand-made stuff made from (mostly) steel and a lot of items are one-of-a-kind, like the buckle below. By now you probably gather that I'm into that sort of thing. I just get a certain satisfaction from owning something that I know the creator cared about...and wasn't punched out by a robot by the millions.  Anyway, this is the first thing I purchased from the store. I have my eye on a few other buckles but I only have so many waists ya know?

"One of a kind" has a nice ring don't you think? 

I've been lurking for a year or two, but when I saw this buckle I had to have it. It's made from a piece of heavily corroded steel. I'm assuming it was acid washed to neutralize the oxide and then lacquered black. The closure hardware appears to be TIG welded onto the back of the buckle. It's sold "buckle only" so the suede belt is by yours truly. What, you don't have a couple of cow hides laying around at home? Maybe you should rethink that one.

Come see me at SHOT in Vegas

I should have thought of this earlier...but I didn't. I'm going to be attending the National Shooting Sports Federation SHOT show in Las Vegas this Tuesday through Thursday. If you are going to be around, send me an email and we can meet up. I'm not exhibiting but I'll have a Pelican case full of goodies if you want to check out a few lights in person.

Cheers!

jason@darksucks.com

Flashlights: (NOT) all fun and games

Ouch. So this actually happened about a month ago and I'm all healed up so don't worry. I'm scrounging for content because being buried under stuff to do has turned me into a poor documenter. That's not a word is it?

Anyway, the cut I gave myself was actually much worse that it looks in the photo. I was reaching inside a storage cabinet to pick up my 4 jaw chuck...and apparently there is an exposed edge of sheet metal inside the cabinet. My thanks to the manufacturer.

Worshipers of duct tape...meet painters tape. 

Since I was holding the chuck in my hand it had a ton of momentum and even though it was just a "bump," it cut through all the layers of skin over the knuckle of my thumb. I stopped short of flexing my thumb enough to see if there was any tendon or bone showing beneath.

I braced it with a tongue depressor (that I use for mixing silicone rubber) and babied it for about a week because I had to go out on a contract fabrication job for one of your favorite TV shows the next weekend. It was tender for a long time but it seems 100% now! A little more gore for your viewing pleasure...

Tinkering and a new camera

Welp, after 10 years of dithering I finally bought a digital SLR camera. I thought this would also be a good opportunity to show you something I've been tinkering with in the lab...the "copper head." Is that to literal? I got some new "N bin" MCEs in stock; they are the brightest bin of MCE in existance and costs nearly double compared to a "regular" MCE. In honor of that I decided to go crazy and make a solid copper head. It's immensely heavy and looks fantastic paired with the raw aluminum body. I've been carrying it my pocket for a while and it's starting to patina nicely.

Creative huh? 

Hopefully I'll be able to live up to the Nikon D7000. As you can see, I'm reaching already and had to come up with a fancy setting :) This SLR also shoots HD video (that's foreshadowing) and now I can put the lenses I have back into service. I have a Nikon film camera that has been gathering dust, along with the lenses, so I'm pretty excited to give them a new life, paired to the new D-SLR. Okay, okay. One more photo.

That's a real reflection. The light is sitting on a sheet of "60% lighting white" acrylic. 

So, have anything you want to see in a YouTube video? Let me know!

Mission Motors sets EV lap record at Laguna Seca

Saw this post on the Mission blog today and thought I'd share it here. Congrats to them on another ground breaking technical achievement! I also wanted to toot my own horn and say that I machined some of the parts on this bike. It's really exciting to contribute to an effort like this!

Midway through the famous (and dangerous) cork screw at Laguna.
Takes me back to my GranTurismo days (on Playstation)  

Don't forget to click the blog link so you can see an on-board video of the record lap. That thing makes some crazy noises.

Odd Job: Mission Motors

Hi folks, thought I would do a bit of a random post today. Before I started flashlights a few months ago I was doing custom fabrication work out of my shop. Mostly one-off things and mixed fabrication/project management. Say you need something designed, machined, welded, coated, and delivered yesterday...it's hard to find one shop that can do all of that...so people come to me. I used to work for Mission Motors up in SF, and I still do the odd job for them from time to time.

parts and prints, always satisfying! 

A couple weeks ago they needed some bits for their race bike so I spent a couple days getting these together. This job was straight forward CNC and manual machining from their prints so it went pretty quick. The last big job I did for them was a set of display stands for SEMA. Read on after the jump to see the bike and the parts I made!

Back from 10 days in the Utah back country

Hi folks,

Just got back from Utah last night. It was a great trip and a real torture test for my lights. My friend Adam and I did a lot of hiking and fishing in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful, fun, and really really dark. It was also really really sandy, cold, wet and otherwise inhospitable. I wasn't sure how the lights would hold up in the sand but I was careful to keep the threads clean and had no problems at all.

My light with a Waterworks ULA reel and Sage SLT rod

The light in the photo is a special prototype. I'll be introducing a titanium pocket clip option with my next production run. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone, it's still under development.

Out of the office notice

Hi folks, this is strange timing since I'm in the middle of next production run. However, I couldn't pass up the chance to make a 10 day back-country camping/fishing trip in southern Utah. I grew up in Montana and the outdoors have always been a really important part of my life...until I started living in a lot of cities. It's been many (many) years since I've gone on a "real" camping trip so I pretty much had to jump on it when my friend called. My boss said it would be okay.

So, starting today, if you need me in the next two weeks or so I'll be some place that looks like this:

Don't worry, I'm going to be doing some serious product testing as well

My production is (thus far) on schedule and those of you waiting for more inventory to appear and/or custom lights, you should still receive them by the end of the month. I do have a few pre production lights left in stock, but I won't be able to send them out 'till I get back on the 17th of April. See you soon!

Like my glasses?

Today I went to the SPIE Photonics West trade show with Skip Adrian from Laser Center/Edge Finder. Exciting right! There is a lot of stuff there I don't understand but I chatted with a few suppliers about creating custom optics for my lights. I'm going to need some traction before I can afford custom manufacturing, but I've found a lot of off the shelf optics just aren't that good, even though they are designed for the LED's I'm using.

I do some consulting work for Skip. I designed the polarizing attachment for his tool that allows the laser spot to be "focused" into a much smaller dot. His tools are used for setting up and aligning CNC and manual machine tools. If you are a machinist you should check out his site! I use one (well, several) on both my manual and CNC mill. It can turn a five minute setup routine into a 30 second setup routine

He was tracking down some new line generating lenses and I was taking up the valuable time of many companies that I will never buy anything from...but they make such cool stuff! Yes, I'm a tech geek if that isn't already painfully obvious. You should have seen the mini-displays: 1280x960 pixels in a package less than an inch square! Not cheap.