Zak made the ceilingbounce app and itās been pretty good for me once I got it dialed in. I donāt use it for scientific lumen testing, but itās great for runtime graphs/ballpark testing and will show differences in brightness consistently with the use of a diffusion shoe box.
Iām guessing that 70c graph is as you have fixed the UI thermal step down now, this isnāt as it was out of the box originally,
I know I had to have answered my own question here just based on personal experience because if thatās not the case then youāve done the test all wrong TK,
Proper way to test this light out of the box would be, simply walk out to your car, truck, motorcycle or horse, double click light, drop into front pocket, climb in said mode of transportation and buckle up for safety of course and then drive, ride or gallop very quickly just one block, Edit: Definitely no further than 600 meters, and then give me the results please, Now thatās testing the poor man way, low tech but extremely effective and unforgettable
Nice work TK, You are the Goddess of BLF, but what happens if you are offered a paying job.? Late nights.?
Also amazing observation with this light is how fast it actually does cool down, unusually quick so I believeā¦
Edit: Sorry TK forgot where you live so my test idea may not be practical or safeā¦
I have not seen a āBLFā luxmeter app, but Ceilingbounce is specifically designed for testing flashlights:
It has a calibration factor to convert the raw āluxā read by the sensor to lumens in combination with an integrating sphere/pipe/shoebox, with peak and 30 second readings.
It has a throw testing mode that gives candela and FL1 throw at peak and 30 seconds (plus 10 so you can sweep the light over the sensor and ensure you got the brightest part) given an āeffective distanceā calibrated with lights of known intensity.
It makes runtime graphs, calibrated to the 30 second output = 100%. It also saves a CSV.
Thanks that looks interesting. Also T18ās shrink wrap idea. I totally agree Iād prefer if it had some knurling.
Hereās another idea for grip, Vape Bands!
Very grippy silicone rubber around 23mm dia. they fit the S2+ great.
Just one of these near the tail end of the tube works great for a tactical grip.
The D4 has a pretty thick tube: 23.9mm(spec from TK) I tried one on a flashlight head that measured 23.5mm and it fit no problem.
You can get a lot of different colors, and different widths (thin or thick) FT has tons, search āvape bandsā:
Ceilingbounce works great for what it does. It has been immensely helpful for this project. But if I want to measure lumens, I have a calibrated light box.
It definitely beats trying to estimate lumens based on the relative placement of pixels in a graph.
In any case, I got 1500 by guessing 4300 for the peak value (not the 100% value) and scaling it by the relative position of the stable state on the graph. I got 2250 by putting the light in my light box during a similar test. The main difference was that the graph was fan-cooled, while the light box test wasnāt cooled at all. And one used a calibrated and reasonably trustworthy sensor, while the other used whatever cheap thing was good enough to auto-adjust screen brightness in sunlight.
Thereās nothing wrong with Ceilingbounce. My phone sensor probably just has a non-linear response curve.
Thatās what I was looking for. If thatās common enough, itās an issue I should at least make people aware of, as it could result in inaccurate information like āthis light has a stepdown to 40ā when itās actually 60.
One of my phones is sensitive to CRI, giving significantly higher readings with high-CRI lights. I wonder if I could use that as a crude way to estimate CRIā¦.
Iāve used Talon myself and really do like it, mostly on handguns and actually was where I got the idea for covering and coating lights that have some issue, you can start here and youāll never end with ideas,
āTalon 5x7ā0.5mm thick,!! Heatā¦ Remember, Shepard, Roos, Hex Mag, Black Wings Gripā¦ ā:Amazon.com
Iāve probably used at least 50 different brands and types of stuff, from skate board no slip, to some really nice pistol grip materials with some great designs, sky is the limit frankly, my shrink thing on that one light was what I had on hand and knew it wouldnāt cause HEAT issues, that you always have to keep in mind. Iāve been doing this to fix up some really ugly lights but they looked cool just had bad ano or something so use this sort of stuff to fix it upā¦ have fun,
Edit: Started doing lights with these types of materials after attempting stuff like powder coating, stripping etc. and believe me this is the way to go, cash wise and hassle free for the most part.
As soon as Hank releases itā¦ which should be pretty soon. Heās testing a release candidate now.
If I come down with a bad case of hit-by-a-bus syndrome, the code is still open and published under a fairly robust open-source license. Not unlike how Tom got busy and I was able to fill in. Fortunately though, he didnāt get hit by a bus; Iām told he is fine but preoccupied with other parts of life. I hope things will settle down soon so he can come back. Unless heās having a really good time, I mean. I wouldnāt want to cut that short.
Iād have to find a volunteer to do the nut-roasting test.
Canāt do that one myself.
Double-click from off (or from a non-turbo level) goes to turbo.
Double-click in turbo goes to the previously-memorized ramp level.
A single click still turns it off.
To set the memorized level, simply ramp to whatever brightness you want. It also sets memory when turning off, so you can double-click to turbo, then single-click off, and memory is set to the highest level.
Memory is only used for the ramp level, not for the mode. So, if you turn the light off in beacon mode, memory wonāt return you to beacon mode.
Basically, during normal use this means:
Ramp up to whatever level you need for walking the dog.
If you hear a noise, double-click to go to turbo and see what happened.
Afterward, double-click to go back to the dog-walking level.
It takes a soldering iron, tweezers, and a toothpick to get the driver outā¦ and some flashing tools. Click the Link in my signature for more information on that last part.
Or, to buy one, just wait a bit and both Intl-Outdoor and Mtn Electronics should have it.
Ha Ha Ha, TK to funny, seriously suggest for folks to just be patient and wait a bit, then no tooth pics, tweezers or toasty nuts, no hay problema, this upgrade to this UI was at light speed beamed straight to BLF via 16H03,
Thus has got to be one of the best UIās I have ever seen! Nice work TK. This light has made its way to the top of my must have list. Thanks team Emisar.