Fireflies E07 preview

I don’t see what technology would change TIRs drastically, you can not make optics escape the rules of physics.

I don’t know exactly what technology it might be, but people are constantly inventing and implementing new tech that might complement the physics of the TIR optic. Possibly a new coating, new material, or completely new design that was never thought of before. I see constant improvement in photographic lenses that are smaller, sharper, distort less, etc etc. Changes might not be drastic, but I am open to incremental.

Bringing things back to the E07, I am still excited about this light and keen to see first hand reviews.

If we can get a 10 degree on this thing, it should be able to out throw the D4S. That would be sweet!

I would love a 10 degree optics in this thing, then throw in some white flats.

I found some pretty interesting optics that I wish I had the skills and ability to make a host for. The LLC49R Narrow Beam Collimator in this test looks pretty impressive.
http://www.lednlight.fr/downloads_lnl/lednlight_en_OSRAM_OSLON.pdf

They have then released the newer LLC49U Ultra Narrow Beam Collimator.

Comparing the performance of the XP-E emitter in these two optics, the LLC49U has a FWHM beam angle of 3.1deg and efficacy (cd/lm) of 192.8, whereas the LLC49R has a FWHM of 4.0 and efficacy of 142.7.

Even if the throw is the same as a reflector light, the collimator puts the wasted spill to good use resulting in a larger and brighter hotspot. I might be wrong but I heard more than 1/2 of the output in a reflector light is wasted as spill. Without the glare from the upfront spill causing our pupils to contract or the light refraction interfering with out visibility, we can see further with a collimator optic.

Just as with reflectors and aspheric lenses, the ‘angle’ of a TIR is a function of die size of the led and diameter of the TIR. If a clear TIR without frosting or other type of diffusor is used, you will not be able to decrease the angle further by some design change of the TIR, you need either to increase the diameter of the TIR or use a led with smaller die. That is what I was telling, physics does not do magic.

Either way, you can fit larger optics in that head.

Throw is a function of collimation, diameter of the reflector/optic is key, as is depth (regardless of the arguments presented) I built a light using a proto reflector that is 124mm dia and 114mm deep for well over a mile in throw, at well over a million candela. To make an optic do this would be weight prohibitive, large solid “plastic” optics are very heavy. There are formula’s for achieving optimum results and depth still plays a crucial role in allowing the dia to also come into play. The volume of serious throw reflectors is quite large, just look at the GT as an example… and all the other lights that have come on board with similar output or better.

I have put a 35mm TIR in an Eagle Eye X6 to good effect, not really better throw than the stock reflector but a different beam profile anyway. And yes, it’s noticeably heavier than the aluminum reflector. But to the point here, marginally larger diameter TIR’s in a 35mm overall optic won’t allow all that much better throw, the individual TIR’s are just too small.

The E07 is less throwy than the D4S. I don’t know what the total lumens or total candelas will be, but it’s guaranteed that it’ll have a lower cd/lm ratio than the D4S, and that ratio determines how throwy a light is.

If I recall correctly, the D4S with XP-L HI gets about 9 cd/lm. This is toward the throwy end of a general-purpose light, not throwy enough to be considered a thrower. The E07 looks like it’ll probably get more like 2 to 4 cd/lm, which makes it quite floody. This is roughly the same type of beam as an Emisar D4, Astrolux S41, or a tube light Carclo triple… but with more lumens at the high end.

This is the problem of stock lights you are pretty much bound mostly to one type of aux board color combination
But you can simply solder 12 red on it if you like

Yes. Agro said yesterday in this thread that the diameter of the TIR is 9mm. This is the same as the D4, so the E07 should have a similar collimation. Assuming the same beam profile and an output of 6.5klm it should have about 350m of throw.

TBH I don’t see any “invention” in that TIR. I may be missing something, but if it exists I’m pretty sure it’s something of trivial importance.
It’s just that they decided to do an U optics in that size.

There is innovation going on in lenses, Fenix E16 shows some. Fresnel TIRs appeared several years ago. Zooming TIRs are now built with moving lenslet arrays. But none of these improves throw and I would be surprised to see an invention that does.

Reflectors leave about 1/3 as spill. In some lights it’s wasted, in some its essential part of the beam. When I walk I often direct a modest thrower forward and use the spill to see the ground at my feet.

FF,

There’s no option to order the clear ano in the page, it’s only listed as an alternative further down.

Maybe it’s on purpose, I’m just reporting it in case it’s not.

Why is it desert yellow instead of champagne?

I have the other two Fireflies torches in Champagne.

sorry if this has been addressed before:

could someone please explain the aux LEDs? Do these stay on continuously? Go on when the light is off? How many of these LEDs are there? Thank you!

The aux LED’s light up similar to a lighted side switch, there are L-H-Off modes. I know that in Anduril you can have the aux LED’s on or off when in lockout, on or off when in standby, and with low or high output levels.

I haven’t left any of my IOS Ramping lights stock much beyond the day they arrived here, Anduril for me…

I can’t actually give any good answers about the aux LEDs until I test one in person. The reasons are because earlier lights have used aux LED boards which aren’t compatible with the low mode, and because earlier lights had the aux LEDs soldered in an always-on position.

So… I hope these are both fixed now, but I think it’s likely that only the always-on thing is fixed. In that case, it would have high and off, but no low mode.

Simple answer as I developed that board

currently the aux board has only on and off as it is now

the LEDs depending on color get switched with 2 N and one p-channel FETs, applying PWM to them sounds doable, also right now they have stabilized brightness at 2.8V LDO output we would need to drop
it uses an LDO for the comparator chip and all other components, so PWMing the whole board wont do anything

on top of that the current Aux board is switched on with a small N-FET with the aux-output from the MCU,
so that the board runs on full battery voltage not over the MCU diode,
this has the simple reason that at about 3V the LDO falls out of regulation and the reference voltage for the comparator drops faster than the battery sense input, so the comparator wont work at this point anymore

to get low/high implemented we would need to drop stabilized LED brightness and add a PWM pad separate voltage rail for the LEDs,
but this means we would need an extra MCU output to generate the low signal as we need still a high to turn the board on
and there is simply no real tracing another Vcc rail on 2 layer board, this would mean 4 layer

It would be possible to make it work but we are already limited

- max MCU outputs

  • complexity of wiring/PCB design (2 layer wont be enough anymore)

There’s a much simpler answer: MCU pin > resistor> aux LEDs. That’s all.

It’s simpler, cheaper, allows both high and low modes to work, and can still be turned off at low voltage. The downside is that it no longer has regulated brightness, and it might need extra MCU pins to handle any color changes. But the difference between regulated and non-regulated aux LEDs isn’t really perceptible anyway, and there are multiple ways to implement color changes are desired.

if you want programm a firmware for the 1634 with watchdog for sleep state LVP, LED color change ect. I am open to it
right now the most limiting factor is the MCU

this is stone age, then you can easily get balancing problem with LEDs, like the first Q8 had
the voltage comparator is the simplest version of color change based on input voltage if not done via MCU
and the additional parts costs with production about 1.2€ more than a Emisar D4S board

The user can change each color ring with a build in 3x3mm trimmer to the brightness he likes

The problem is less the complexity of the circuit
it is getting it done on this swiss cheese Aux board, which forces you to route a lot extra to get around the holes
those are the bottle necks

I have looked into it and on current boards design it is possible to add a LED PWM rail replacing the stabilized,
but still this leaves us open with the MCU pin problem

Not sure if a shottky diode and capacitor on the power on FETs gate would be enough to leave the board on in the PWM low state