OK, quick question for the driver folks. I’ve messaged Dan but he’s not around much lately so here goes. Is there any reason this driver wouldn’t work with IOS/D4 ramping firmware? I was hoping it would work but it won’t even give a flicker except when it rarely seems to ramp a bit or sometimes just gives up turbo for a second. Using IOS ramping on an 85 MCU from RMM, Decent FET, a single 7135, diode on D1, 10uf cap with zener piggyback on C1, 36k pulldown resistor on R4 over by the FET. I can build a working driver on RMM’s FET+1 board and these components so what gives? I know it’s a hack, don’t laugh too hard…
This is out of my knowledge zone, but just to confirm, you switched to a 3v led and loaded a 2 channel driver firmware, right?
Hopefully someone with more driver design knowledge will answer you soon.
Correct!
Bought a pair from Aliexpress for my dad and just got it today. (Sofirn's Official Store)
My impressions here;
Positives:
- Comes with 18650 adapter
- Separation of strobes and turbo from normal mode makes the normal usage less annoying
- The light output is pretty strong
- Relatively cheap, I got it for $21 a piece.
Negatives:
- Seller could have packed the item better. As you saw in the album above, the boxes are in a really questionable shape.
- Both of my lights shows quite noticable "doughnuting". The very center shows some yellow hint and quite dimmer than the surrounding "hotspots", and then the "angry blue" spill beam.
Concerning your negatives.
- It looks like the boxes got banged around in shipping. Their main job is to protect what’s inside the box. It looks like they did their job. Sofirn has to keep the shipping costs down so there is a compromise here.
- I’m not seeing the donut hole pattern in your pics or in my light. The slight OP reflector seems to smooth it out. Do your pictures not show it, but you see it in person?
I can kinda forgive the crumpled box, as long as the light is usable. Though that’s cutting it pretty close.
The donutting is indeed worse for me in person. It’s still there in the photo (at least with my monitor) but much more subtle than the real-life.
There is more concerning issue, though. I kinda ran into a kind of glitch on one of the light. After the light entered “Turbo” mode, the “High” would no longer be accessible until I re-screw the tail cap. When this glitch occurs, one click on the side-switch in “Turbo” mode will not turn off the light (as it should have), but rather drop the light into “Medium” mode, and holding the light will only going back and forth between the “Medium” <—-> “Low”.
Now the glitch magically disappears, but I cannot say for sure when it will come back and haunt us. I wonder if someone has encountered this glitch before, and how they deal with it.
I am not sure if this is the same thing but I know that below 3.7 volts , the top mode can’t be accessed.
That might be the case.
Although it’s quite annoying that you can’t use high mode normally and need to go “turbo” when that happens.
Agreed. As far as the beam is concerned, I sliced mine and added DC Fix. Looks better.
You just need to clean the battery tube ends and contacts. If there is extra resistance in the circuit it fools the driver into thinking the battery voltage is low. This happens every now and then. I clean the contacts and it’s back to normal. This is common on all boost style drivers.
This is how the driver/UI on this light works.
@3.7V you lose turbo and high becomes your new turbo, taking high out of the rotating 3 modes.
@3.4V the same thing happens to high.
This might be a little confusing but when resting Voltage is bellow 3.7 Volts it’s a good time (IMO) to recharge the battery anyway.
The beam profile is far from perfect.
But considering an XHP50.2 is producing it, not bad at all.
Me, I really like the SP33 and cool white is not my thing.
For a better understanding, how the SP33 boost driver works and how modes will automatically be reduced as the battery's voltage decreases...
Those modes that are surrounded by a dotted line can only by accessed with a double click.
Ok, that’s clear now. Thanks 
Dang, didn't see this til now. I got these CK drivers and 2 SP33's to mod with them.
Looks like a 3 channel driver, not 2 channel - FET+bank+1. Std 3 chan NarsilM should work. Need a few mins to trace it out. I've used these drivers in a 2 chan config as well, just didn't populate the bank. I modded NarsilM more recently to work on a 3 chan as a 2 chan.
Let me confirm the driver layout by tracing it out....
Yes, confirmed - it's a standard triple channel config, not the 2 channels Ramping IOS was designed for.
Triple channel is a std NarsilM config setting, probably in Anduril as well. Not sure if Ramping IOS supports it -- would have to check...
Ok, nope, I don't see it, though I only looked at my orig (buggy??) Ramping IOS version... Doubt TK would have a reason to add 3 channel support though.
Has anybody tried a Nichia 144am LED in this light? Looks like it can indeed make a good host for that LED.
I’ve got a Nichia 144am and looking for find a good compact 26650 light for it.
I recently picked up a Sofirn SP33 and I love many things about it with the exception of the doughnut ring. it’s actually quite disappointing. I see that some have fixed this buy modding the LED emitter itself or even replacing it. I’m definitely not doing that, I got this light to take with me camping but is there any way to just adjust the placement of the emitter and help eliminate this? Is this so common that if I sent the light back to Amazon and requested an exchange the new light would be the exact same with the darker center?
I put diffuser film on mine . Much nicer.
I don’t even notice this and I use my light daily at work.
Maybe they changed the centering ring height?
If possible, can you take a picture of the centering ring thickness?
Does your reflector have a little bit of orange peel or is it smooth?
I would simply try adding some shims under the centering ring to raise the reflector. Something 1 or 2 pieces of paper thin to start with and see if that helps.
On my L6 with SMO and 70.2 I experimented a lot to get the max distance, but that also created a faint donut hole. I decided to stop chasing throw numbers and just adjust it to what looks best. It was the best choice.
Maybe someone managed to find a suitable TIR optics for SP33?
.
I’m having an issue with my sp33v2. It won’t turn off completely unless I loosen the tailcap about half a turn. When I press the power button, the light goes out except for a faint glow. I can look directly at the led and see it. The best way to describe it is like a pie cut in 4 equal slices. One of the slices will stay lit until I loosen or remove the tailcap. Like I said, it is very faint.
My first concern is forgetting this extra step and finding a dead battery when I need to use it. My other concern is that this is a sign that my light is defective and failure is imminent.
I bought it in June from sofirn on amazon for about $38 with 26650 and charger. I contacted the seller and got a prompt reply from Zoe. The “engineers” said not to worry, it won’t drain my battery and I can use it “normal”. Zoe said if this wasn’t acceptable, they can send me a new sp33 without battery when they get more in stock.
Has anyone else had this problem? What should I do? It’s a great flashlight. I use it alot and it seems to run forever on a charge. If it won’t drain the battery and continues to function normaly, I can live with the issue. I’m just a casual user, not a collector.
Thanks