TK's Emisar D4 review

Recently I found another thing about what PWM does with a li-ion. I have a little 10440 copper Maratac with an XP-L2 running at 3A on high, while the little Efest battery at 3A has only 1/3 the capacity of the same battery at 1A (HKJ’s test). It is a simple FET driver so on low setting it alternates (18kHz) between 3A and 0. I expected the runtime to be consistent with the lowered capacity at 3A but instead it was about 3 times longer, like it had experienced a current of 1A or less. I was pleasantly surprised because the lowered runtimes was my main worry of using a FET driver.

I have two possible explanations:

  1. the PWM is so fast that the peaks do not end up fully at 3A, this could be checked on a scope
  2. the lowered capacity of the Efest 10440 at 3A in HKJ’s test is caused by heat, the PWM-ed low setting never heats up the battery.

Or else, something else is going on chemically in the battery.

Tonight’s play things starring the D4

Perhaps in the future it can do that. IIRC, Tom’s NarsilM already does it… but this was kind of forked from an earlier Narsil and simplified.

Thanks! It seems CRI is not completely straightforward, but the cooler-when-brighter trend appears to be fairly consistent at least.

Yes, 7135 chips do not attempt to convert extra voltage into current. They burn off the extra voltage instead. Same with a FET. A voltage-converting driver should be more efficient when the battery is full and emitter Vf is low, like a 219c with a full li-ion cell. The same voltage-converting driver will generally be less efficient when the two voltages are very close together though, and it’ll generally have lower maximum output. Even without accounting for size, there are tradeoffs.

In actual usage though, I don’t generally notice the difference in runtime since it happens in many short sessions spanning weeks or months. Like, I don’t often notice whether it gets 10 hours on medium (D4 XP-G2 @ 160 lm w/ 3500mAh cell) vs 11 hours (Zebralight SC600w Mk II L2 @ 150 lm w/ 3400mAh cell).

Not true, as testing showed.

This is how it would behave if it were a digital system, but it’s not. The behavior is analog. At 200 lm, the FET pulses are not full power. It rests at 350mA most of the time, but has very brief spikes which go higher. As earlier testing graphs showed, though, those spikes don’t reach maximum power until a significantly longer duty cycle.

So at 200 lm, or any medium-high level, the efficiency and tint do not match turbo, and they don’t match the 7135-only level. It’s in-between.

At higher duty cycles, like 1000 lm and above, the FET likely does reach full power during each pulse, but the overall efficiency, tint, and sag are still in-between because there are so many analog components involved. And because it’s still spending part of its time at 350mA, part of its time at 15A, and part of its time between the two.

IIRC, maukka scoped this on the D4 a few pages ago and found that theory to be true. The pulses have a slow enough rise and fall time to act as a very weak lowpass filter, so short pulses never reach full height. (edit: scoped output, but that works because the LED activation time is much faster than the FET driving it)

The voltage samples are taken at clk/128 speed, which IIRC gives somewhat of an analog average of 128 sequential time slices. PWM takes 512 time slices per cycle. To get 128 FET-on time slices in a row, it would have to be at a ramp level of 101/150 or higher (where FET PWM=66/255).

So… the hardware’s measurements have a lowpass built in. And then it has another lowpass in the measurement logic. And another lowpass in the LVP logic. It’s not prone to triggering LVP due to measurement noise. If Tom’s comments are correct, the firmware takes four measurements per second. If four values in a row look too low, and it didn’t step down within the past few seconds, it’ll step down. I think I may see a bug in the code for that, but it isn’t one which has any significant symptoms.

The short version is: LVP works normally, even when the momentary voltage levels change dramatically from one microsecond to the next. Development included real-world testing.

As long as the cell’s protection circuit doesn’t trip, yes. It works fine even on weak primary cells like a CR2032, unless you try to use turbo. In that situation, it will (correctly) trigger LVP until the output is down to a level the cell can manage, and then run happily until the voltage is actually low (low for li-ion).

Anyplace we are keeping suggestions for a V3 of the software?

1) Inserting batter for first time - Make double blink moonlight or not necessary (If you lockout at night with unscrew of cap, blinding flashes in the dark are not desirable)

2) Don’t memorize settings which have shortcuts (moonlight and turbo)

3) Allow for a memorized output setting set by user

Those were a few of mine and another person’s that I really liked. I know there were more, but can’t find them all. Thanks!

Another change, not so much for the better…

I put 4 Nichia 319AT on Richards board and reassembled the D4. Now it pulls 13.85A for 3015.3 lumens on the “B” cell and 20.22A for 3677.7 lumens on the “A” cell. The beam pattern is nice and smooth, round, but with that odd discolaration in the center we’ve seen with the Cree XP-G3. Low on both cells is a fairly miserly 0.72 lumens.

Just pulled the trigger for #3 d4

Well, there is a bug tracker attached to the firmware repository… that might be a good place.

I have found that odd discoloration too in a quad 319AT driven hard. Kinda Grey on the spot. I was going to try the 18350 Aspire once I receive the tubes and batts. If that fails I will go regulated. I don’t find them worthwhile driven hard. I may or may not have used one in an NiMh AAA. Need to look. Maybe I just thought about trying it.

I plan to use 4 of the green XP-E2 when Richard gets the short tubes in, then it’ll be a little green meanie, running on the 18350 Aspire. I personally like blue output better, but the greenout seemed like the way to go and I haven’t done anything like that before lol.

Can anyone comment on the objective/subjective differences between all the NW options? Ideally I like pure white or a little rosy with high CRI. No purple to yellow transitions. Or should I wait til better emitter, probably Nichia, is introduced. Most recent purchases have been Nichia. Or if this has been discussed at length earlier, please point me in right direction. Thanks and Cheers!

No!
You need a sampling frequency 5 to 10 times of 15kHz
Nyquist is only for pure sinus forms and PWM is more rectangular form. With only double, you don’t know what you’re measure

Of course, I meant 30kHz is necessary, but not a sufficient condition.

As it stands right now, none of the emitter options is really satisfactory for me. The Nichia is too cool and has too low CRI. Both the XP-G2 3D and 5D has a purple corona and yellow spot.

If I were you I’d buy the 219c and if you don’t like it reflow to high CRI LEDs. Or if you don’t know how, send it to someone who can.

the 219C in the D4 are pretty White. Also under the quad optic the bean pattern remains uniform in color to the edges.
I don’t have an XP-L HI version to comment or compare. But that might be another option as White. Xpl Hi do pretty good under an optic.

Does the XP-G2 D3 still have a purple corona at 600 to 1000 lumens?

Most of my usage would be around 600 and maybe bumped up to 1000 lumens.

Yes, it has the purple corona all the time. Regardless of output level.

Oh man.

What are the tint snobs that prefer the rosy 4000K to 5000k swapping these out with?

BTW, tint snob is a compliment. :+1:

If you want rosy I’d say 219b. But I still haven’t tried my 3D with frosted optics yet maybe it’ll make the tint better.

Thanks.219b be able to handle the high current of this driver?

It shouldn’t be a problem. But the output would be much lower than it would with 219c. Hopefully more knowledgeable members can chime in here.