New here so I’m seeking a bit of clarity; why wouldn’t we have a boost driver? Aren’t they more efficient and don’t decrease in brightness as battery voltage drops?
Some interim feedback. Please note that I am not well-experienced in circuitry/microelectronics and some information has been translated from German into English. However, I hope this current status will give you a (good) feeling about how things are going on...
Toykeeper and Kikkoman took a look onto the driver and reported the PIC12F1822 is rather inappropriate to use Andúril, so maybe it's worth for Sofirn to check alternative AVRs like ATtiny85 with more memory (at slightly higher cost). Kikkoman reported that with some efforts space will be sufficient on the MCPCB.
The boost converters and their LVP will be more difficult to realize as there need to be two thresholds for NiMH/AA (1.2-1.5V) and 14500 Li-Ion (4.2V).
Kikkoman was able to successfully port Andúril onto his experimental driver. He checked an alternative boost converter TPS61021A that runs very well with NiMH cells but it needs some more tweaks to decrease standby drain and to get more efficiency with Li-Ion cells.
Next steps:
I will try to collate all information into some useful and comprehensible summary as a starting point for Barry and Sofirn's engineering dept. / product development.
I have invited Lexel, gchart, wight and Tom E to join the group, so we can share our thoughts and ideas to get the best result. Lexel and gchart have just expressed their interest. Thank you guys! :THUMBS-UP:
Awesome! The progress on the AA/14500 driver is really encouraging. Yes, standby drain matters more on these tiny drivers. I love the idea of getting ATtiny85 working on NiMh AA, though. I would probably have a hard time resisting buying several of these, because with low standby drain I could toss them in a car with Eneloop Pros and forget.
Also, the champagne color would be awesome. Or really, anything besides black gets my vote. I have a lot of black flashlights. My first preference would be the champagne, but bright colors are also nice. Silver's a bit boring to me, but still preferable to black.
I feel like 14500 lights vary a bit. One of my current favorites is the Wuben E05. It starts out at ~1000 lumens and steps down to ~400 after ~3 minutes. That’s higher than most 14500 lights, though. Timed step downs are ok; I think it’s better than not having high enough output to need the step down. But better yet is thermal control, which (thankfully) seems to be becoming more prevalent and reliable.