FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

If five clicks doesn’t interfere with other things this makes sense
(I really like a single mode that gives “max safe brightness”)

Unfortunately, growing up is a vertical achievement, not a logical, rational, or reasonable one.

A possible use for this that non-muggles would find useful is ceiling bounce lantern mode.
When you have a power failure you can with one click and a tail-stand walk away knowing it is the best safe lighting available without having to check on it minutes later.

There have been some reports of incidents with the D4, even from enthusiasts, due to its unusually high power level. It’s not really a safe thing to recommend for common use, or to hand to a child. The FW3A should be a bit less extreme, with three emitters instead of four, but it’s still on the high end of the power spectrum for its size. It’d probably be a good idea to give it a safe mode for when other people are using it, but I don’t know exactly what form that should take.

Originally I was thinking a ramping mode with a raised floor and lowered ceiling, maybe capable of doing like 10 lm to 500 lm. Bright enough to make it obviously “on” even at the bottom end, yet never high enough to overheat. But if people want it even simpler, reducing it to just on/off at a medium level is okay too. This depends entirely on what people think is best.

I’m also wondering what people think about how to exit muggle mode. There seem to be three main options:

  • Cut: Disconnect power (and probably click once to drain any remaining power from the driver).
  • Cut-and-hold: Disconnect power, then hold the button while reconnecting power.
  • Password: Some sort of click sequence which people aren’t likely to do by accident.

So far it uses the “cut” method. Loosen the tailcap, then either wait for the capacitors to drain (can take a few minutes) or click the button to drain them immediately, then tighten the tailcap again. Or loosen the tailcap while the LEDs are on, which drains power immediately.

If either of the latter two methods are used, it’ll need to remember muggle mode in eeprom, and we are basically guaranteed to get complaints that people can’t figure out how to get back to normal operation. So the question is basically how hard it should be to escape. Some high-powered lasers require entering a password in Morse code before it’ll turn on, but I think that would be excessive for this project.

The Q8 has a much safer power-to-size ratio. It doesn’t get as hot, doesn’t heat up as fast, and emits the light from a wider area so it’s not as intense point-blank. The main risk for a Q8 is if someone puts in mismatched or backward cells and causes enough amps to melt the springs. Smaller hotrods like this tend to be more dangerous, not less.

Indeed, it’s not. But I suspect Lumintop would probably like the option of being able to sell it to a wider audience, so it’ll need safety features like thermal regulation, and it’ll need reasonably safe defaults which require a conscious effort to override.

At the moment it’s:

  • 4 clicks: Soft lockout.
  • 5 clicks: Momentary mode.
  • 6 clicks: Muggle mode.

Momentary is on while the button is held, or off otherwise. It uses the last-ramped brightness.

A super-simple “on/off medium-only” muggle mode is somewhat similar to momentary mode, except it’s locked to a medium output level and does latching so it can stay on without holding the button.

In both cases, it stays in that mode until power is disconnected.

Soft lockout can be exited with 4 clicks, or by disconnecting power. It also doubles as something like a momentary moon mode, so you don’t have to unlock the light to dig through a bag in the dark.

All current firmware options include a variety of discrete mode levels, and also some strobes. The UI I’ve been using lets you set the floor level, ceiling level, and number of steps, and then spaces those steps evenly… so the “mode group” can be whatever you want — as long as you want two or more evenly-spaced levels in order.

It also lets you set the strobe to whatever speed you want, remembers which blinky you last used, and has a shortcut to access that blinky directly from off. Three clicks, but hold the third click for a moment. There is a bit of a pre-flash though, because the first click turns on regular output first. It prioritizes immediate-feedback-on-the-first-click over delaying-until-clicks-finish.

The tactical strobes presently use a 25% or 33% duty cycle, depending on which firmware and mode is used. BLF lights have been that way for years and I haven’t heard any complaints about it. It’s long enough to be very disorienting, but is trimmed back a bit to increase runtime and reduce heat.

My opinion is that Muggle mode should be as much as possible “training wheels” for using the flashlight in its normal mode. The inverse of the “ludicrous mode” in Teslas. Teaching new users how the interface works with ramping, while keeping them from causing damage.

I think Cut is sufficient, especially given that your testing shows that you actually have to drain the driver for it to take effect. It’s not like a drop is going to reset it.

It sounds like you can even swap a battery and the driver will retain enough power to stay in Muggle mode, as long as you don’t click the switch.

Hi TK,

I like the concept of a "dumb" light, where it's either on or off. Not for Muggles per se, just as a clean option to run the light at a fixed output at the click of a button, without the inherent risk of ramping up to max, etc. The output in the case would be settable, then locked.

If the purpose of such an arrangement is indeed for Muggles, then a fixed output (decent runtime while still bright enough to be useful), unmodifiable, is what I like. And of course with the "dumb" switch arrangement.

And having both options in the UI would be great! :)

Also, I'm with Lazy-r-us on using the Cut method, just my preference.

Yes, lots of generalities here, but I defer to all those BLFers with (much, much!) more knowledge and experience than I :)

Thanks!

-Ben

On the D4 I’m using for development, at least, yes. I can take off the tailcap, remove the battery, have a conversation, then put it back together… and it doesn’t even notice the power was gone. Standby power is ridiculously low. But I don’t know if the FW3A will behave the same way.

Add me to the D4 incident list. Forgot to lock it out (Maybe a few too many beers).

Now I have a cheap pair of polyester running shorts with large hole in the bottom of a pocket.

I’ll chime in with a “Nay” for a simple ‘cut’ to exit muggle mode.

When I hand a light to a muggle, they immediately open it to look at the cell, then try their best to cross-thread it back together. :person_facepalming:

cut

  • - likely to be performed inadvertently
  • - muggles can’t learn about and use mechanical lockout
  • - muggles can’t change cells

cut-and-hold

  • + unlikely to be perfomed inadvertently
  • + simple for non-muggle to remember

password

  • + great for gifting a light with the potential to be ‘unlocked’ after muggle is certified :smiley:
  • - forgetful non-muggle could be locked out of their own light

I’m using TK’s amazing Andúril on several lights. Muggles (young and old) quickly understand its ramping UI.

I hand them a light and say, “Click for on and off. Hold to change brightness.” Andúril is so intuitive that they figure out reversing on their own.

I’d like muggle mode to have a ramp with a customizable floor and ceiling, with no access to turbo or blinkies.

Single-mode lights are boring, and even muggles deserve ramping! :partying_face:

Perhaps a ‘single output mode’ could be a separate feature?

Is there a decision which firmware is used?
I guess it will be the programmer with time for it. I have no preference for NarsilM or Andúril.
It would be nice when the two use the same commands.

NarsilM v1.2 beta uses 5 clicks for its tactical mode. Is 6 clicks in Andúril free?

Maybe Tom can move tac. mode to 6 clicks?

EDIT: forget it, just read TKs comments

[quote=ToyKeeper]

25% to 33% is fine for “tactical use”, but no good for light painting (with various tools attached to the light) where 50% is the sweet spot for visual effects. I have a comparison photo in my S2+ review. It is a rapidly increasing market segment.

Stephenk
what about an extra firmware for light painting?
Some wishes are verry special and you can tweak it to your need.

Right. This is unrelated to the FW3A, but I have an entirely different firmware in progress which will probably be a lot more interesting for light painting. It uses a RAGB quad-color setup and lets the user configure a reasonably wide variety of lighting patterns in a manner similar to how analog synthesizers let people sculpt sounds. It’s, um, simpler than an analog synth, but the general concepts are basically the same. If you want to oscillate suddenly between two different states with a 50% duty cycle (like a strobe), simple, tell it what those two states are and configure it to do a square wave between them. You can also overlay another waveform simultaneously, with a different shape/frequency/intensity, if you like. For example, it’s easy to make a police flasher this way — slow square wave between red and blue plus a fast square wave between dim and bright. But plenty of less-jarring combinations are possible too.

The intent is for use in a lightsaber, to paint neat-looking patterns in the air while swinging it around. I’d imagine it should work pretty well for more general light painting too.

The cut-and-hold thing can be done, though it’ll cost a little extra space. It also uses up a UI action which might be useful for other things. Holding the button while connecting power might be a good way to reset to factory defaults, for example. That’s a thing which isn’t implemented at all right now, and hold-at-boot is probably the easiest way to do it. But I don’t know what would be the best UI choice for hold-at-boot.

Please add me in for 1.

Thanks,
FB

Please put me down for 2!

Thank you.

Sounds cool!