New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

You may be onto something here. As I said, I haven't actually flashed Biscotti onto anything yet, so I haven't a clue. But Biscotti does adjust the prescaler and between Fast & Phase for the lower modes, so it very well could work with a PWM value of 1/255.

Edit: removed some misinformation to hopefully avoid confusion.

Level here is a number of element in RAMP_FET array. So all works correct.

Ugh, good call. Serves me right for posting to forums while at work… read thru the code too quickly :person_facepalming:

Naw, I mentioned that issue (questioned about it, actually) back in msg #81 here. It’s a fairly well-known issue, or so I thought. :slight_smile:

I think the problem is that when you’re parallelling 8 7135s, having to power up each one at once, all from a single µC’s output pin, there’s just a limited supply of current that pin can source, so the “capacitance” of all of them taken together needs time to “charge up” to +V, and if the width of that pulse is just too narrow/short, and that bank of 7135s “charges up” just too slowly, well, nothing happens.

If the bank of 7135s needs 2 pulses to get going, with a pulse-width of 125 counts, they’ll see 123 pulses worth of power. 81 pulses, they’ll see 79. 23, they’ll see 21. 5, they’ll see 3. 1, they’ll see… 0!

Not quite exactly accurate, but a reasonable facsimile of what’s happening.

Oh, sorry, and that’s why limiting the number of 7135s (eg, 6 vs 8) can help. If you only need 1.4A of power, better to use 100% at 1.4A vs 50% of 2.8A.

For a given lumen output, if moonlight would be a pulse-width of 2 at 2.8A, it could afford to be 4 at 1.4A.

And try 3, see if that’s reliable, and you’ll have an even lower moonlight mode (vs 4) with the 1.4A driver than with the 2.8A driver.

I know I announced the new firmware in this thread as the clear anodized C8 was the first to use the new driver/new firmware. That’s my bad. :zipper_mouth_face:

Would it be reasonable to ask that the driver firmware specific questions/discussion move to ToyKeeper’s firmware repository thread?

My main reason in asking this is that the questions and issues being discussed will be more easily addressed by those participating in that thread and also much more likely to be seen by the creator of this firmware. ToyKeeper did me and Convoy a huge favor by creating this and I feel she should be given the opportunity to respond to questions about her creation without having to try to keep up with this thread.

ToyKeeper’s thread about the firmware she develops is here.

I don’t even understand half of what is being discussed now :person_facepalming: so I assume many of the people that are just coming to this thread to read about the new light will be completely lost.

If you think I’m off base here please tell me so. I do appreciate all this discussion and like I said this is almost certainly my own doing but it feels weird to be a confused passenger in my own topic wondering where the bus will stop next… :blush:

I’m with you JDub, the firmware stuff while interesting reading, is better served being split out.

I’ll now go back and just keep waiting for someone to post beamshots of this thing in this thread

Sure, go crazy…

I’m not sure how to “forward” a message to a different thread, so I’ll leave it to all y’all to figure out how to do that. :smiley:

And I wasn’t making any complaint or anything, just (initially) asking if anyone noticed that problem, and (now) trying to explain what’s probably happening. Wanted to make that explicit.

(It’s actually something of a hardware issue, too, so the firmware’s not really to blame. It’s an “edge” condition.)

Any news?

Just that it’s getting closer. The original design was quite good but more on the generic side. The new design will still be fairly universal in application but will have a more distinct Convoy look. The factory has a prototype and I think we should see production reasonably soon. I promise I will post the info when I can.

I’d love to try out this new driver however, I do not like that I have to go through STROBE before getting to biking mode and battery checker mode. I’m not a fan of strobe on a bike light. ;/

Got a USBASP AVR programmer and SOIC clip? If so, you could either tweak Biscotti or one of us could do it for you… you’d just need to flash it. If you’re interested, either hit me up on PM or head over to TK’s firmware thread.

Boy am I glad I ordered the clear C8. The finish is just beautiful and compared to say the unanodized BLF A6, this feels so much better with the clear coat. The thread are also smooth as can be. I got the 3A tint and it is just perfectly neutral white. For a thrower like this, maybe just a bit warmer would be better, but can’t complain.

Tint in different modes:

Tint in different parts of the beam:

Some photos.


BLF X5, BLF X6, Eagle Eye X7, Acebeam EC60, Convoy C8, Acebeam K60


BLF X6, Convoy C8

Just to close the loop on the moonlight issue on one of my C8s, Simon has offered to send me a replacement driver!

That’s about as good of a solution as I could have asked for, so I’m happy with that outcome. :slight_smile:

CRI Data. Pretty much your standard CRI70 affair.

Awesome work there Maukka!

@maukka: Thanks for all the info! Man, I thought the C8 and BLF X6 were slightly large (at least compared to my lights)…but seeing it next to the Acebeam K60… :open_mouth:
I can’t even imagine if a light like the Olight S1…or even the Nitecore Tube will look like next to the K60 (or any of these other lights)! lol

Thank you gchart :smiley: but, I don’t have the capability to program chips. :confused: It’s all right :slight_smile:

Hi J-Dub, First of all I want to thank you for your kind comments last night over on the L6 thread and being I am habitually long winded I’d love to explain what I saw nearly immediately with my new Clear C8 the instant I turned it on and suspect it is only a QA sort of issue, but I don’t have the time this morning to really get into this light, probably tonight, but what I’m seeing in the lens would certainly cause a customer who is just a normal person some sort of freak out I think, it looks weird, I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve cleaned the outside of this lens but NOT the inside and that may be all it needs, but a regular person might not be able to do that much and would be after Simon and probably as mentioned freaked out, so please take a look here at what I saw when I turned on the light, I have to get hopping here so will be back this evening to see what you think, is this also the first time that Simon has included the anti reflective lens with the finished light? I think I read that somewhere but am not positive, got to go, follow the X’s, Thanks JDub and I’m equally excited about this light also, wow L6 and now the C8 all in a couple days, fun fun fun, and broke broke and broker … but :laughing: :money_mouth_face:
Oh ya, if you click on pic you can enlarge them to get a better look, I didn’t check but it’s supposed to, maybe ha ha ha I am hurrying as fast as an old turtle in mud…

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