Wellp, I just used my D25 about a half-hour ago. I still kinda warmed to the UI. It’s… different… but not necessarily bad.
Still, after also having played with my Q8 at length, and GTmicro today, and given that the D25 has an e-switch, it can very very very easily have the same UI as those.
Click to turn on, click to turn off.
Click’n’hold, or hold-when-on, to ramp up. Unclick then quickly click’n’hold to ramp back down. Unlike the micro, memorise the last level. Doubleclick for turbo. Etc., etc., etc.
Someone here can point you at the innards for the UI most people would want.
Build the D25 with that UI, and you’ll clean up, as no one will have anything like it.
Also, if at all possible, use TIR lenses instead of reflectors. Easy to swap to go from throw to flood and anywhere in-between.
The custom pcb for the LEDs is interesting (ie, 2 LEDs on 1 board), but 2 separate pcbs that “float” on thermal goop and are held in place by the TIRs would awesome.
That sounds nice. Hopefully sofirn can also improve it to be more waterproof. Maybe just add o-ring for the front cover like the nitecore hc60 and 65. I’m starting to like this headlamp after the emitter and optics swap but can not recommend it for outdoor wet season use because of its lack of waterproofing. I doubt it can survive continuous rain at it’s present state.
Your changes to this light sound good, Barry. I’ve seen listings for neutral CCT (around 5000K) versions of the SST-40 popping up at electronics suppliers. Any chance in sourcing some of these?
Yep, definitely. Someone who received the NW of the FT03 took a pic of the LED and matches an SST-40 exactly. Also he described the tint as NW, so should be pretty well verified. I got 2 NW's on order but probably will take a few days at least to get one. Problem is they are lower bin, so lower lumens output - sort of a bad thing because the nice feature of the SST-40's was the super lumens output.
Not sense resistors, but current limiting resistors. But yes, your summary of their function is correct. They’re in series with the LED. The more resistance, the less amount of current that makes it to the LED. Think of it like having one of our FET drivers, but intentionally using really long and thin LED wires (for extra resistance) to keep the amps a bit lower.
The only thing I have done is swap the MCU. Since it appears that the D10 driver is slightly different, unsoldering the MCU and snapping a decent pic of where the traces are running would help confirm if and changes are needed for the firmware (pin reassignments).
One of the locals where I’m doing fieldwork borrowed my modddd D25 and after using it asked me if he could have it for himself. I could not say no☹️. Its either that or my E21A Armytek Elf so opted to give him the D25. I guess I have a reason to buy the Sofirn D25S when it’s available. Hopefully with neutral white SST-40s or high CRI 3535 leds.