That all sounds pretty reasonable. I’m glad I don’t really have to care what exactly the LEDs are, as long as they perform well enough.
I just made some things a few days ago which used a bunch of cheap LEDs, and it all turned out pretty okay. Granted, soldering on each pixel individually was a bit of a pain, but the overall effect is nice.
Anyway, when we’re farther in the process, send me a prototype and I’ll make it work.
So far the LH351D 4000K High-CRI LEDs are my favorites for a balance of efficiency, tint color, & CRI, Have not tested the 3000K 351Bs yet, but will be when i get to my east cast destination. Also adding a fourth 7135 AMC to the driver to increase output for testing. was curious if Samsung has the LH351D available in 5000K high CRI? (for that tint-blending option.
Is there a reason you don’t want to go to a lower temperature like 3000k? To me if I’m camping I want something close to fire light and as warm as possible.
Candle/fire tints are around the 2000K range, I had one LED of that tint, but found it’s tint to be very yellow/orange, (close to that of a fire flame) and seemd to be somewhat not very efficient for higher outputs. I have a few Strawhat 5mm LEDs of the 2000K candle tint range that i swapped on some nightlights as they give that candle glow effect, but seems to be to yellow for a brighter lantern. 3000K is what is in the V1 prototype now.
Agree that 2000 would probably be too low. I’d have to see it in person but from the prototypes I kinda like the 3000k over 4000k photo. Totally understand that the 4000k will have more brightness overall though.
UPDATES: - I will be leaving on June,6th to drive to NovaScotia & Newfoundland. I have the prototype lanterns packed up, with the tools to do LED swaps & testing while there during camping trips. I will also finish the design cross-section drawing for the new lantern to send to Thorfire too there as i will have my laptop with me. Will post the drawings next week here for everyone to have a look at before i submit them to Barry at Thorfire to begin the work to get it rolling
Again USB Type-C: Memorandum of Understandingon the future common charging solution for smartphones
_USB Type-C™ to be the common charging interface for
other types of portable electronic equipment as mentioned in the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU (article 3.3a).
In furtherance of this end, signatories agree to gradually transition to the new common charging solution for Smartphones based on USB Type-C._
So maybe v2/batch two of the BLF Lantern could be equipped with Type-C port Don’t have to be USB 3.x electronically.
But support for programming with software would be a nice feature.
It’d be awesome to have a usbasp inside, connected to the MCU for easy reflashing over USB. I don’t think it’ll happen though.
Maybe a later version can use a beefier MCU with USB support built into a bootloader, and reflash directly over USB. That’s not attiny territory though; it’s more something I see on atmega chips.
USB c sounds good, but I think that a normal micro USB 2A connection will be fast enough for the intended purpose of recharging the lantern with a small solar panel while you are camping. If you need to charge it faster you could still take out the batteries and charge them externally. Also I don’t know if many people would use usb programming because our current firmware seems to be nearly perfect.
It’s just about the physical connector - no need for USB 3.0 protocoll or QC/PD.
And a firmware has no GUI and can’t show at once all settings/options.