FlashKa panel

LuxLibre

Pick a light  ·  Compare  ·  Web apps  ·  Firmware  ·  Design your own  ·  Build a FlashKa  ·  Repository map  ·  Help

Open-source flashlights, from the first requirement to the finished light. LuxLibre is one firmware for many lights, a set of design rules, a guide to choosing parts and testing them, and seven reference designs: the FlashKa keychain light and the EDCO family of sealed everyday-carry lights. Every design comes with CAD, dimensioned drawings, renders, a firmware board header and simulated light output. Anyone may build, change and sell lights made with it, companies included (LICENSING.md).

Pick a light

All seven at true scale (render). The web site has the same lineup: pick a light there to see its details.

FlashKa v0.7 Keychain light with a laser and a Bluetooth presenter mode. 99.2 × 20 × 18 mm · one 14500 about 1,045 lm · 162 m throw · 2 h 17 min from turbo build guide · drawings · web app	EDCO Prism A beam that is white or any colour. Ø28 × 83 mm · one 18350 about 1,250 lm turbo · red, green, blue and any mix drawing · CAD · settings page	EDCO Mini Sealed keychain light with red and UV side lights. Ø22 × 73.5 mm (16340) or Ø19 × 69.4 mm about 950 lm · keyring tab · magnet version drawings · CAD · firmware
EDCO v0.2 The bright one: an SST-40 at up to 5.7 A. Ø26 × 97.8 mm (18500) or Ø22 × 95.6 mm (14500) about 1,760 lm · USB-C under a twist collar drawings · CAD · firmware	EDCO v0.1 A plain sealed tube with USB-C in the tail. Ø20 × 93.5 mm · one 14500 about 966 lm · 2 h 21 min from turbo drawing · CAD · firmware	Compare them Every design against 14 popular lights, from the RovyVon A3 Pro to the Fenix PD36R Pro: light, throw, runtime, size and price, with sources.

Every picture is a render made from the design files. None of these lights has been built yet: every light figure is simulated with the LuxLibre simulator (out of the front, LED at 85 °C) or estimated, and every page says which.

Where to go next

The lights at a glance

All figures are simulated, out of the front, with the LED at 85 °C in 25 °C still air. "est." marks an estimate from the optic's beam angle. The end point is ANSI FL1: 10 % of the 30 s output.

Against popular flashlights

• Keychain size. The EDCO Mini gives more than twice the light of a 60 mm RovyVon A3 Pro at 30 s. The best 16340 lights, the Olight Baton 4 and Fenix E18R V2.0, are shorter and still brighter.
• 14500 and 18350 size. EDCO-18 and EDCO-14 are the brightest at 30 s and run the longest from turbo, but they are about 17-20 mm longer than the Skilhunt MiX-7 or Emisar D3AA.
  • EDCO Prism gives about 10 % less white than the MiX-7, the only other colour-beam light of its size. It runs longer and charges from any USB-C cable.
• 18650 size is still the territory of lights like the Fenix PD36R Pro: no LuxLibre design is that big yet.

Every number, its source and what was left out: docs/comparison.md. The other lights were measured by independent reviewers; the LuxLibre lights are simulated, and their measured numbers will replace these once they are built.

In your browser

All three run entirely in the browser: nothing is uploaded and there is no account. The start page links them all. They are published from site/ and hardware/flashka-keychain-v06/app/ with GitHub Pages.

Repository map

At the top level: CHANGELOG, CONTRIBUTING, SAFETY, SECURITY, LICENSING (what the licences mean), TRADEMARKS and the licence texts. Every page has a path at the top (LuxLibre › Lights › EDCO Prism) to find your way back.

Quick start

Try the web pages without a light: open the settings page or the FlashKa control app and choose the demo mode.

Try the LuxLibre firmware without hardware (Linux, macOS, or Windows with WSL):

cd firmware
make test                                    # unit and behaviour tests
make sim BOARD=edco-prism                    # the simulator with the EDCO Prism's board header
build/luxsim-edco-prism --preset board "2C W600000"            # double click for turbo, then 10 minutes
build/luxsim-edco-prism --preset board "5C W2000 2C W2000"     # colour beam on, then the next colour
make sim BOARD=edco-mini-16                  # the same for any board in firmware/boards/
build/luxsim-edco-mini-16 --preset board --set TURBO_S=0 "2C W600000"

The LuxLibre firmware in its simulator: turbo, then smooth thermal regulation at 50 °C for a keychain light and an 18650 light (how this was made).

Design a light: start with the requirement sheet (templates/requirements.md), then follow docs/choosing-parts.md and check the result against docs/design-rules.md. docs/README.md suggests a reading order.

Put LuxLibre on your board: docs/firmware/porting.md.

Build a FlashKa: read the build guide once from start to end, then use the files in order_files/.

Status

LuxLibre 0.5.0. What has been tested so far:

The first hardware results will be added as test reports. Measurements from your builds are the most valuable contribution: the build report issue form asks for exactly what is needed. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Safety and security

Lithium cells, bright LEDs, hot surfaces and lasers can hurt people. Read SAFETY.md before building or testing. Security problems (for example in Bluetooth pairing or the web pages) are reported privately as described in SECURITY.md.

Licences

Like ArduPilot, LuxLibre may be used, changed, built and sold by anyone, companies included, as long as the shared parts stay open:

• firmware and tools: GPL-3.0-or-later
• hardware design files: CERN-OHL-W-2.0
• documentation: CC-BY-SA-4.0
• the FlashKa Rust firmware, web pages and web tools: MIT or Apache-2.0

What that means in practice, including for products you sell: LICENSING.md. How to use the names LuxLibre and FlashKa: TRADEMARKS.md.

Background

LuxLibre stands on the shoulders of the enthusiast flashlight community:

• The Anduril firmware (GPL-3.0) showed how much a single button can do.
• Early open lights such as the HexBright showed that people want to change their lights.
• The community keeps asking for exact levels, visible settings and configuration without a command line (BLF discussion, 2026).

LuxLibre adds what a design team needs around the firmware: rules, a part-selection method, tests, a simulator and complete reference designs. Its parameter system and its licensing follow ArduPilot.

The name: Latin lux, light, and libre, free as in freedom.