Several reasons:
it was why the light failed in the first place. post #79
I also ruined the pads on the SW board to driver getting driver assy out of the brass ring.
My electronics ability is minimal. Getting the light sorted out to what I am capable of building.
Driver ordered from MtnE assembled and programed with D4. Again beyond my abilities to build and program a driver.
Honestly, I would never use the USB charger on this lght. Capacity and run time is too short. I would be swapping batts regularly. Its easier to charge a 4 pack all at once.
I loved the M3 before it also broke. Bought the Clone to replace it and the first use of the charge port killed the light on the first day I owned it. I used the M3 daily and it is one of the only lights in my collection I used and carried daily, other than my AAA EDC. These lights pocket easily, clip to my hat brim while working and the magnetic tail is used on automotive work. In the end it will work and have better, useful, firmware.
I just used the usb charging for the first time on mine and the whole light got extremely hot. Hard to hold. The battery was also hot.
It was charging at 1A for about 30 minutes. I know the charge rate is a bit too high, but I was not expecting it to get so darn hot. Does yours also do the same?
Edit, my battery was a dud. Gearbest refunded me my full price so I can buy a new battery.
Got the D4 ramping 15mm Driver and 14mm XM-L2 T6 4C today. Took too long to get this one working.Had driver problems where it would not get to the lowest modes and would not give the 2 blinks when battery conected. Finally figured out the 7135 chip was bad and this is not the first one I got with a bad 7135…
All is done and working well. Love it!!!
Used the OTR silicone button over the Green LEDs. Looks good and not too bright. ML is pretty good and useable.
MtnE Fet+1 15mm driver with RampingIOS v2 firmware.
I see now why you call it D4 firmware. That’s the name Richard is calling it in his store. That’s not the correct name, but I guess it’s easier for people to know what it is.
Well, its late. I originally had charging trouble with my Clone so thoughts went to the light of this thread.
U16 didn’t ring any bells, so I looked it up. It is the newer On The Road with USB charging. I get it now.
FWIW, almost all parts from my M3 do not fit the Clone M3.
Idk, I think ToyKeeper came up with the name (it was Tom E). He/they basically stripped down Narsil, getting rid of mode sets, and made a few other changes to suit Hanks (International Outdoors) requirements for his Emisar lights.
Maybe 1amp is too high. Do you have a way to limit the current to the usb connection? Charging a 16340 cell at one amp will get fairly warm. I would think it could reach 40-45c depending on the battery.
The one review I found (reddit) confirmed it’s 1A and the reviewer said it got slightly warm during charging.
In my opinion, my light got hot, not slightly warm. So I’m not really sure if this is normal or abnormal.
Plus, after 30 min and getting hot, I decided to pull the battery and charge it the rest of the way on my Xtar VC4 at .5A. I think it was about 3.5v when I did this. Anyway, when the VC4 was done, the mah reading was 975mah. This is a 700 mah cell and it was not fully depleted when I put it on the charger. All very odd.
I don’t think I have a way to reduce current. Maybe use a really cheap usb charger rated at .500 amp?
Just says "Outdoor Store" now. We always knew it as "International Outdoor Store" --> IOS. IOS is/was used frequently, just like DX, FT, GB, BG, FFL, KD, might be missing a few...
Unfortunately Hank's IOS is shrinking, has shrunk a great deal since 2012. Used to be the go-to place for all sorts of parts, hosts, LED's, MCPCB's, accessories like holsters, lanyards, so much more... I've spent tons of $$$ there over the years. He was getting undercut in pricing, but the quality he offered was always about the best you could find with still reasonable prices.
If you want to enter lowest brightness you can enter it directly from first group (L~~H>Strobe) by triple superfast clicks from Turbo or Low.If you do same procedure but this time from strobe, it will enter to ramping group into same Low brightnes level as in first (LH~~>Strobe)group. While being in second (ramping) group to access turbo you need again 3 superfast clicks. It’s not direct though as it will first enter low mode but it will happen very fast. Lowest mode which is in ramping group is to my eyes 80% lower than Low level from first group.
If you entered lowest low from Low and you want to go back to Low triple superfast clicks will get you there. To access turbo from lowest low you should have been entering it from turbo. Otherwise it won’t go to it, it will go to low. I don’t think firmware is designed to be used this way, it’s rather design “flaw” but for the good of users
