Fireflies ROT66 Flashlight

You can always turn them off with a twist. Mechanical style. All e-switch lights have some amount of parasitic drain. The Thorfire S70S has a crazy high 4,430 micro amp drain and it only has a single green led switch light. Compare that to the Q8 at 123 microamps. So it’s best to always cut the power.

I don’t think the MCU is regulated.

Here’s a previous comment by Toykeeper about making it so you can shut off the aux LED board and all 4 button LED’s:

One possible option for turning off aux LED’s is a component called a bistable or latching reed switch. Some of those I’m finding spec sheets for are very small - about the size of a 1/4W resistor - but I’m not sure where to buy them.

It might be possible to wire one in series with the aux LED board, and if it can be located close to the lens, trigger it with a neodymium magnet.

Normal reed switches are momentary. Latching reed switches switch on or off depending on the direction of the magnetic field.

On Fireflies lights so far, the buttons have 4 LEDs:

  • 2 LEDs: always on, hardwired to power
  • 2 LEDs: wired to a MCU pin so the MCU can turn them on and off

… and the aux LED boards have more variety:

  • Always on, hardwired to power
  • Wired to a MCU pin so the MCU can turn them on and off
  • Wired to power and a MCU pin, so the MCU can tell it to turn on and off but it still gets power direct from the battery

The 2 controllable button LEDs could have low and high modes, but this option isn’t compiled into the firmware because Fireflies didn’t want it. It doesn’t really make much sense when the other 2 are always on.

The aux LED boards typically have potentiometers to manually adjust the brightness, and the adjustment range tends to go from ~200 uA to ~800 uA. However, the pots are physically inaccessible on some lights, like the PL47.

The aux LED boards also typically have their own built-in LVP:

  • Above ~3.3V: outer rings are lit up
  • ~3.0V to ~3.3V: inner ring it up
  • Below ~3.0V: aux LEDs off

Because of the way this LVP function is implemented, and the way it attempts to regulate aux LED brightness, the aux LED boards cannot do low and high modes controlled by the MCU.

There is no LVP on the 2 hardwired button LEDs. Also, there is not yet any LVP in Anduril while it’s asleep, so if voltage drops too far during standby it won’t respond until after the user wakes it up. But the aux LED board LVP is always active, which helps a lot since it draws about 98% of the power during standby.

I must say that I’m very disappointed with ROT66. If I bought it in local store, I will return it.
The problem is that returning FL to China is too expensive. So I’m stuck with this FL.

Can you calculate, measure how much power do all blue leds and swich leds consume together?

Thank you

Kind regarads

It can be measured with a common DMM / multimeter.

However, that may not be necessary because measurements have already been posted. It should have a standby time of 1.5 years to 9 years with the aux LEDs on all the time, depending on how you configure them. It can also be turned off entirely by using physical lock-out.

Why does this change your evaluation from “I love it” to “I’m very disappointed and want to return it”? It seems like a large reaction to a small problem.

I still love it but after I found out that small leds can not be turned OFF, I’m not so happy anymore.
This is my frist FL which has leds always ON and I don’t like this feature.

What is physical lock-out?
Can you please explain?

I now unwind tailcap to turn it OFF.

Thank you

Kind regards

Physical lockout is exactly what you do, physically open the circuit so no electronics are powered by the battery.

Ok, good to know. :smiley:

And if I understand correctly, internals can be rewired so that leds will not be on 24/7.
But for this procedure you must be expert in custom DIY projects. I never opened any FL.

Kind regards

The Aux-LEDs on the ROT66 are an afterthought.
The D4S had it first and ROT66 was always out. Then Lexel designed an Ledboard based on a lit tailswitch.

How do I access the highest regulated mode?

The simplest way is to set one of the ramp ceilings to it. For the 219B (7x7135) version, it is level 115. For the others (14x7135), it is level 125.

These are the default ramp ceilings the ROT66 ships with.

I don’t get all the angst about the aux LEDs draining the battery in these lights. Charge your batteries once a quarter and your flashlight is probably 3/4 full or so, no?

All I read is you shouldn’t just let batteries sit in there for months on end anyhow.

Not wanting them on “just because” - that I understand a little more. Mine is tucked away a bit so the “purple haze” causes no problems.

Or should have I posted in the unpopular opinion thread???

On my nightstand, the PL47 throws some decent amt of light when your eyes are fully adjusted to darkness, so I can see for that reason not to want the front AUX LED's on, but can always give it a twist. It would just be more practical for all if controlled from firmware.

More like once every year or two. The standby runtime is measured in years, so a few months shouldn’t be an issue.

However, li-ion cells in general should be stored at roughly half full if they are to be unused for a long time. Leaving them fully charged or leaving them empty tends to decrease the capacity a lot faster than storing them half-full.

I finally dialed the potentiometers on mine down to the minimum level last night. It was an easily noticeable decrease in brightness when I adjusted it, although they’re still brighter than I’d like for sitting on a nightstand.

Since I keep mine in a drawer, that’s not really a problem though.

There is no explaining people. We are all very complex. I would not waste time trying to understand it.

Personally, I always add directly powered auxiliary lights to my flashlights. I’m not bothered by parasitic drain because I simply turn the battery tube or tail cap or click the rear switch when I’m not using the light. If people think that’s too hard or too complicated, etc… thats on them. I don’t waste my time analyzing why they feel that way.

The overwhelming majority seem to like the aux lights. It’s like that saying “You can’t please all the people all the time”. :smiley:

I asked Jack to send me the light with the aux leds turned off. Today I removed the optics and turned all the potentiometers a little but the aux won’t get one. Which of the three needs to be turned?

About the only way to turn them off, as in no parasitic drain at all, is to not connect the wires. I would check that there is voltage going to the potentiometer. If so, then it should be simple to just turn all the pots until the leds start glowing.

After turning they won’t turn on so I guess there is no voltage.