Fireflies ROT66 Flashlight

That is very odd. Which firmware is on it?

It’s a Nichia model from Freeme’s group buy.

I just checked the manual and it says “NarsilM Version 1.2 code designed by Toykeeper & Tom-E”

It’s weird that it mentions me, since Tom wrote about 99% of it.

Anyway, I am not aware of any bugs which would cause NarsilM to turn itself on, but I don’t really know enough about it to say a bug doesn’t exist. The closest thing I saw was a thermal management bug in a fork of Narsil, where if it was hot and then was turned off, with just the wrong timing, it could try to “step down” from off to whatever level would have been next in the step-down sequence. But usually it wouldn’t happen while off; it would happen next time the light was turned on, which could be an unpleasant surprise if it was at moon level the next time.

But I don’t know if that’s even possible in NarsilM 1.2. It could just be that something made it think the button was pressed.

Yeah the weirder thing is prior to this it had been sitting on the same shelf without being used for about a week.

Do you think it could a hardware problem with the switch? I don’t know if that’s even possible with an e-switch.

If something made the switch close for a moment, then yes, it would turn on… it’s just odd for that to happen while it’s sitting unused on a shelf.

The time window for weird firmware behavior is only a few seconds. Certainly less than a minute. If it acted up more than a minute after being touched, it’s most likely a hardware issue, not firmware.

I had a similar experience a while ago with my first firmware for momentary switches. The light sometimes turned on when my hand came close. I suspected spikes caused by static electricity which triggered the interrupt on the port where the switch is connected to. So I added debouncing code after wakeup which actually cured this problem:

delay_250_micro_sec(80);

if ( ! T_MOMENTARY_PRESSED )
goto OFF;

Darn…. maybe it is “possessed!! :open_mouth:
Or your house is haunted. :open_mouth: . :open_mouth:
Or someone is playing a trick on you & messing with your mind. :frowning: . . :smiley:

NarsilM has some de-bouncing. Instead of using the pin change interrupt, it polls the switch on each WDT tick. This avoids most of the noise. Then it requires a steady state for at least N ticks before considering the button state changed. However, it looks like the duration is only 1 tick for button press (activates on first cycle), and 4 ticks for button release, using only one measurement per tick… so it could possibly trigger if the timing lined up exactly wrong.

Anduril has a different style of de-bouncing, because two of its hardware targets have very noisy switches — FW3A and lightsabers. The lightsaber switches in particular bounce for a really long time. At first it used the pin change interrupt, but that proved too noisy even with pretty strong debouncing, so now it polls via WDT. But when it polls, it waits for 32 consecutive identical values measured about 0.063 ms apart (stable for 2 ms). This seems to work pretty well even on the noisiest switches I’ve tried.

My dad was a mechanic and our neighbor bought an early VW, which he bragged about its good mileage incessantly.
My dad snuck out every other night for a few weeks and would pour some gas into the lil uberbug. (gas was way cheaper then)

Well, the guy was gushing ’n raving at his phenomenal mileage.

Until dad stopped doing it. :smiling_imp:

Actually, i’m pretty happy with the thermals of my 219b version. Depending on the ambient temperature, I can get a bit above or below the max 7135 level without being uncomfortable to hold. That’s a pretty usable level; i think i’ll be using it a lot at that level.

TK gave me a good idea that actually hadn’t occured to me. I set the stepped ramp to have two modes, one at 65 and one at 115, so that I can quickly set it to exactly 1x7135 or max 7135, and then turn it back to regular ramping mode after. (It does go to 1x7135 when you unscrew and rescrew the batteries, but this is faster.)

:smiley: . :smiley: I LOVE IT!! . :+1:

We did that to a guy with a new Chevy truck years ago. His “bragging” was annoying to say the least.

When it really gets good is after a few weeks of getting him up to unheard of phenomenal mileage…… start siphoning gasoline out for a few weeks.

After getting the guy down to unheard of pitifully low mileage he was almost on the verge of a mental breakdown. He was besides himself…… :smiley: :smiley:

It cured his overbearing bragging forever though…. at work anyway. :wink:

Video for turning strobes on and off.

Just do 3 clicks to turn all strobes on.

Yeah spaceminions, I hear ya’. :smiley:

This was around 40 years ago though when mileage in a truck was nothing near 20 mpg in the first place. Plus… the guy I’m speaking of was basically just an obnoxious braggart…. about pretty much anything he owned. His was always better than yours kind of guy. :person_facepalming:
He was not the sharpest pencil in the box either, somewhat gullible too.

Oddly… he was a bit more ‘humble’ after this though. :smiley:

He was never told about it either. :smiley: :smiley:

IIRC we got him up to about 41 mpg and down to about 3 mpg over the course of many weeks. The dealership thought he was a nut case…. cause he told the story to them. :wink:

Oh yeah… he even got a locking gas cap during this time. It didn’t bother us at all. One of our close friends was locksmith…. we just had him come over one night & make us a key to the gas cap.

Good times & good memories…… :slight_smile:

After couple weeks old rot66 lumen measurement. I borrowed xpl hi from skylumen.

Rot66 xpl hi 6500k. 7200 lumen
Rot66 sst20 CW. 6800 lumen
Rot66 samsung 4000k. 6300 lumen…

Reset the maximum ceiling by pressing once and just cleaned all the contacts inside and on top of the carrier as well as the spring inside the head, but no difference. Then I swapped the carrier and batteries from my brighter rot66 but that didn't do anything either. I just emailed Jack, maybe he has an idea what is going on. Somehow I'm convinced there is a fix for this.

Interestingly enough, I went for a walk in the park tonight to show off my mateminco mt70 plus to my wife and of course if failed to turn on! Confused for a little while and then decided to clean all contact points inside and outside of the carrier as well as the head spring and it fired up. Amazing that an almost invisible amount of grease can shut the light down. I understand that it should be weaker but the light wouldn't even turn on and the breathing switch was dead until I cleaned everything up.

Try this, remove the tail cap and carrier, make sure the battery tube is screwed in all the way in. Then install the carrier and tail cap.

If the battery tube is not screwed all the way in, the tail cap threads might bottom out and and not push the carrier against the head with sufficient force. You might be borderline with the carrier just barely touching and a little grease might be causing a big problem.

I’m not sure what is going on with the ROT66. Are both lights using the xpl-hi?

Ok, that didn't work, but you just gave me an idea, thanks!!!! I reversed the battery tube and tightened it all up and it's just as bright as the first one I've noticed throughout the threads that you never seem to give up on ideas, thanks man, really appreciate the help.

:open_mouth: . :open_mouth:/\ …. Great!! … :+1:

Interesting, I wonder if the battery tube threads on the ROT66 are cut slightly deeper on one end?

There is another fix people have used on the big Mateminco lights which is make a thin spacer to put between the carrier and tail cap. Some early model MF01 had slightly too long battery tubes, or too short carrier, so even with the battery tube and tail cap fully tightened the carrier did not touch. A spacer in the tail cap pushes the carrier forward. Try that on the MT70.

Maybe these ROT66 have a similar issue where the threads are cut differently, etc… and it prevents the carrier from pushing hard against the head.

Anyway, I’m glad you got the ROT66 sorted out.

Will measure in the morning as there must be a slight difference in thread length. Not really sure why it would make a difference though as the battery tube would still be the same length? Anyway, it worked and bright as the sun now.

Would you know if the inside of the tail cap is used as a ground to the carrier on the MT70 Plus? It's anodized on the inside, so I'm guessing it can't be and I could use a plastic spacer maybe to try it out.