A Lightweight LED Light for Creative People: the Redgrass R9 Solo Desk Lamp

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A Lightweight LED Light for Creative People: the Redgrass R9 Solo Desk Lamp

When I reviewed Redgrass’ R9 Desk Lamp, I was skeptical at first as to whether a high-end lamp was necessary or useful to the types of activities I engage in. But I saw the light from the moment I first switched it on, and it has replaced numerous OttLite and other work lamps I use around my office and workshop, becoming a practically indispensable tool for both work and personal projects. The only thing I don’t like about this amazing light source is that I only have one of them, so I have to decide whether it remains mounted on my desk, or workbench, or at the makerspace, or coworking space, or any of the other myriad locations at which I’d love to bask in its glow. Which is why I was overjoyed when the Redgrass team gave me a sneak peek of their latest offering: the compact, portable R9 Solo Desk Lamp.

The R9 Solo is a lightweight, foldable LED light bar and pivoting arm which allows you to position its 1800 colour-perfect lumens wherever they are required. The included clamp provides a sturdy mount for desks or other surfaces, while the optional base lets you move easily from one surface to another without the need for continual re-clamping, and with plenty of heft to prevent tipping. The rotating bar and precision optical lens allow its 48 dimmable pure-white 5000K LEDs to be aimed perfectly at whatever task is to hand, whether soldering, creating art, or taking pictures for product or social media posts (at least, that’s what I’ve been using it for!). And thanks to its extreme portability, you can simply fold it up and toss it in the included carry bag when you move on to your next task.

The Redgrass R9 Solo Desk Lamp is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter at a discounted price of CHF 129 (about $141) plus shipping. We’re typically hesitant to direct our customers to crowdfunding campaigns, due to their inherent risk, but given this is Redgrass’ seventh campaign, and that I’ve been using a prototype of the new R9 Solo for several weeks, as well as the Desk version for a couple of years, it’s highly unlikely that they will fail to deliver. If you have a need for portable, precisely-posable, perfect lighting, you’ve got until February 4th to grab this exclusive Kickstarter bundle at it a special discount.

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David bought his first Arduino in 2007 as part of a Roomba hacking project. Since then, he has been obsessed with writing code that you can touch. David fell in love with the original Pebble smartwatch, and even more so with its successor, which allowed him to combine the beloved wearable with his passion for hardware hacking via its smartstrap functionality. Unable to part with his smartwatch sweetheart, David wrote a love letter to the Pebble community, which blossomed into Rebble, the service that keeps Pebbles ticking today, despite the company's demise in 2016. When he's not hacking on wearables, David can probably be found building a companion bot, experimenting with machine learning, growing his ever-increasing collection of dev boards, or hacking on DOS-based palmtops from the 90s.

Find David on Mastodon at @ishotjr@chaos.social or these other places.

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