Fireflies ROT66 Flashlight

Out of curiosity, what happens if you do this?

  1. Loosen the battery tube at least a full turn or two.
  2. Tighten the tailcap as far as it’ll go.
  3. Tighten the battery tube.

And if that doesn’t work, flip the battery tube around. I think it looks better backward anyway.

On mine, the parts can actually tighten more than necessary. When I tighten the tailcap first, then the tube, the only thing which stops it from turning farther is that the battery carrier is pressed firmly against the driver’s retaining ring. It’s so tight that the spring doesn’t even matter; there is no room to move either way.

Anyway, if it just needs a bit more thickness inside the tailcap, perhaps a printed copy of the UI cheatsheet would make a good spacer? Or perhaps a 3D puffy bubble sticker of a firefly.

Firefly puffy sticker you say?

Will stock them at my flashlight modding store…

I just got a reply from Jacky regarding the tint bin:
It is SST-20-W40H-A120-J4402(J4-VH-FA3 . The color is yellow , not great

Given this one is FA3 tint, it should be between 4000k-4250k and a good chance of being below the BBL. The one being sold at Kaidomain, which Maukka tested is FB4 tint, which is completely above the BBL and looks at least as good as the 219C according to Maukka; so I wonder why Jacky thinks it looks “not great”.

He described it as yellow, not green or orange. So he probably thinks the CCT is “not great”, not the tint. 4000K looks pretty yellow compared to the 219B model.

Here are three 219B lights at 92CRI… 5000K, 4700K, and 4000K. With one’s eye accustomed to 5000K lighting, 4000K looks pretty yellow:

[quote=ToyKeeper]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you do this?

  1. Loosen the battery tube at least a full turn or two.
  2. Tighten the tailcap as far as it’ll go.
  3. Tighten the battery tube./quote]

Not addressing the root cause, which has been discussed for a long long time and fixed long ago. But ignored by the usual suspects.

It’s not even something that you can fix in firmware.

Not surprised DEL has been offline for ages, it is getting rather boring around here as far as
hardware development is concerned . I.e. zilch.

There are only so many ways to connect e.g. some 7135s and a FET, with an MCU. Perhaps with some flashy extra lighting in the head, rather than the tail.

Led4Power being the honourable exception, please support him.

But still, useful advice for those suffering. It might help. This is the difficulty with “direct drive” i.e. just crowbarring a FET between the cell and the LED, with all the losses in between. Then let your cell transfer characteristic, state of charge, LED transfer characteristic, metalwork rubbishness, switch resistance, driver FET choice and adequacy of wiring and MCPCB thermal path, optical wonderfulness, and on, and on, deliver an outcome, for, maybe, 30 seconds or a minute, whilst you measure it, ready for the big reveal.

Personally I prefer more practical things that run for many hours at useful light levels efficiently, at sensible cost.

The more elegant the better. Style, ergonomics, materials and UI are important.

But maybe I’m in the wrong forum…

You may be onto something here.

The general culture on BLF is less about ranting from the sidelines, and more about diving in to fix things ourselves. If you want something, build it.

That’s the problem, with the hardware. Very few have the skills, interest, determination, fabrication and test equipment, to bother with these, frankly not very interesting if you have a day job, things. Never mind give the designs away for free.

So it is just going to continue to be dreary derivative AMC+FET designs I think. With increasingly esoteric firmware options that few will ever use.

With maybe some flashy subsidiary lights.

I’d like to be wrong about this, but perhaps it is time to focus BLF techies energy on a new decent useful driver.

Comfychair had his day, but that was a long time ago, and it seems we are still living with it.

Buck or boost, or buck-boost, efficient, straightforward modes, minimal component count, open for firmware development with e.g. pogo-pin pads, perhaps even accessible for DIY assembly with crude tools.

Except I think that ship has sailed and, once you take a look at the good commercial suppliers, you might decide that they usually have an edge over BLF torches.

Summary:

BLF still has a place if it can rejuvenate hardware development, and open up and interest firmware development again to more than just one contributor.

Contribution from LED assessors (e.g. Maukka, Djozz) is key. Nevermind the hardware, the LED performance is absolutely the most important thing, as it progresses.

Assessment of cells is important, however it really is not so important if the torch has a good circuit design with a driver that doesn’t just rely on shorting the cells across the LED for max output. E.g. a properly considered linear or buck driver could deliver far better performance, overall,and maybe HKG’s curves would show better use.

This is the Fireflies ROT66 thread – not to minimize your observations of the BLF culture – but perhaps they belong in their own thread :wink:

Agreed, just poking and prodding to try to stimulate some forward-thinking discussion. On this thread because Fireflies appear to be interested in doing things differently and better, and this is just their first one. And they might be monitoring.

There is another one from them on way, and I have posted similarly acerbic comments on that thread, in the hopes that it might stimulate some useful debate, and thoughts.

PS: when I said DEL, I meant Wight. Doh. Sorry.

I also received it yesterday. ROT66 Aux led board .

Can Aux led turn off or choose brightness?
.

I like the SST20 4000K CRI95 of ROT66, this is my first SST20.

What is the difference in color temperature between the SST20 4000K CRI95 and the 219B SW45 R9080? Is it worth buying 219B again? (if ROT66 219B
Compared with D4S 219B?)
.
.
.
.
PS…
Understand that the lantern can not be turned off, only the tail cover can be turned off. Perhaps the new version can, but it seems to only open and close. :person_facepalming:

The thing is, acerbic comments are rarely productive. They’re more likely to backfire than to accomplish anything, hence the responses being “calm down” instead of “heck yeah”. Intentionally posting acerbic comments to stimulate debate is awfully similar to the definition of trolling, and is unlikely to have a positive result.

If you truly want to create positive change, it takes more than just complaining. Look for feasible pathways from what you have to what you want, then pick one and start a journey.

I don’t think the ROT66 aux LED board can be dimmed or turned off by firmware, because there are no more pins on the MCU to attach anything to. I will probably be able to test it soon though.

About the color temperature, it is a very personal preference so only you can answer that question. Some people love 4000K, some people hate it.

Do you have a picture of it? If it has the trimmers on the board then you can adjust the brightness with a screwdriver.

There’s only one option of controlling on and off through the firmware and that is to wire it in parallel with the switch lights.

The alternative is to wire it to stay on continuously.

 ROT66 MCU pin layout
           ----
   Reset -|1  8|- VCC
 eswitch -|2  7|- switch LEDs
     FET -|3  6|- Nx7135
     GND -|4  5|- 1x7135
           ----

As JasonWW said, the aux LED board could be connected to pin 7, to make it mirror the behavior of the switch LEDs. Otherwise, it’ll just be on all the time, which I think is probably the case. It has its own controller and everything, so it’ll change colors based on voltage.

I’m very curious to find out how much power it uses. I heard 50uA for the aux LED board’s LDO and controller, but I haven’t seen measurements of the total standby power.

Touché. I’ll back off for now.

Thanks, but unfortunately, these loosening / tightening steps didn’t work. Stretching the spring a little bit and adding a sticker did help though. Well I dislike the battery carrier design…

Got my ROT66 with Samsung LH351Ds + Lee Zircon 804 filter from Vinh:

The hotspot is massive in comparison to the Nichia version of the ROT66. CCT seems similar to my H600FC MK4, but slightly more rosy/less green. I probably wouldn’t like LH351D without the filter.



Nice comparisons. The LH351D with filter looks great. Did you take lumen measurements? I read the filter reduces output by about 20%. Also how do you know it is 98CRI?

The 804 reduces output by about 15%. The overall output of the Samsungs with filter compared to the Nichias on max is indistinguishable to the eye.

I’m going off of Maukka’s measurements of the 4000k 90cri Samsung emitters + the 804 filter. Granted, different optics can produce slightly different results, but it should be similar.

Likewise. It can’t be much different from e.g. the old lighted tailcap implementations. I.e. cell current lights up the aux. LEDs, albeit through an LDO regulator, but that makes no difference really to current consumption compared with the simple bypass resistor on the earlier designs, except the output is stabilised, so current should not vary much as the cell discharges.

If they can change colour based on cell voltage, that would be nice, but I’m not sure that is what is being offered here.

At the end of the day, keeping some aux. LEDs glowing takes a small continuous amount of power. Perhaps not a problem with a x3 18650 torch, depending on brightness, but certainly for smaller ones. The BLF X5 is such an example, although only having one LED in the tailcap the 14500 cell capacity is insufficient to keep the tailcap glowing for useful periods, hence disconnected on mine.

Just lighting up the switch, as on the Q8, takes minimal current, given the x4 18650 capacity, and is a useful feature.

It is a neat and clever design, for those who want it.

I have a few torches that have a switch LED which indicates cell state of charge, e.g. blue or red, when the torch is switched on. Or can be left on permanently. One even blinks red when off, to warn of low cell voltage. I find this useful. (Nitecore designs)

In other words, I like these as indicators of cell voltage, or as a way of locating the torch in darkness. Putting them in the head, rather than the tail, is an improvement I think, and perhaps the best way in e-switch designs, although just lighting up the switch in two different colours is good enough for me, and should take far less current.

Not enough pins on the chosen MCU though I think.