Anduril is excellent. It is a full-featured extremely well designed UI. It’s a vast improvement over the days when us flashlight enthusiasts had to buy 5-mode clicky UIs or maybe pay to special order much cruder e-switch UIs. With Anduril, we have first-class firmware that’s every bit as good or better than that of the best premium lights, like Zebralight, Acebeam or Olight. And better yet, the firmware is usually open-source and readily available. Anduril is also quite complex. The version in the D4V2 is using the 1634 processor because it was too big for the ATiny85. I suspect that it is much, MUCH bigger than “a few pages of code”.
Toykeeper is a true treasure to our community. She provides her awesome firmware to the community for free and has a great attitude. She spends a lot of time here on the forum, which is a good thing for us.
TK’s firmware allows new small budget flashlight manufacturers to get in the game. The result is some of the most fun hobbyist flashlights around, such as the Emisar series, FW3A and Fireflies series… all at prices vastly cheaper than what “premium” flashlight manufacturers charge. Without her involvement and the dedication of these small manufacturers, these lights simply wouldn’t exist.
The muggle mode bug:
While the chances of the bug occurring are low, the consequences of it triggering could be high. Most purchasers of the D4V2 like “pocket rockets” and do not use muggle mode ever. As such, the bug should not be a problem for normal operation the way almost everyone actually uses the light. However, there is a risk of mis-clicking and accidentally entering muggle mode. There have been no reports of fire yet, however two customers reported serious damage to the head of the light from overheating.
Clearly this is a serious bug. It’s not good when a flashlight has a hidden “self-destruct” mode. It’s not surprising that some purchasers are angry. Even for those who know how to avoid the bug triggering, there’s a bit less peace of mind in knowing that if you misclick you could trigger it.
Hank and TK are true flashlight enthusiasts. They put their all into their lights and tested them in good faith. Unfortunately a bug sneaked through the testing plan. A mistake yes… but an understandable one and TK fully explained it. This isn’t like the CPF Cometa where the manufacturer in bad-faith substituted in a cheaper host at the last minute after testing was done.
The question then is what to do about the bug:
Number of lights affected - this bug only affects first run D4V2 lights sold before July 19. My guess is anywhere from 500-1000 lights worldwide only.
Recall? - International Outdoors is a small business. The D4V2’s list price is $45. Given the feature load and overall build quality, my guess is the profit margin is quite small. No more than $5-10 per light. If a recall is done and IO has to pay for international shipping, they could be looking at a colossal loss. Say shipping both ways ends up being $30 per light. Multiply that by 1,000 lights and you get the idea. A loss like that could potentially sink a small business. At the very least it might mean a hold on new models coming out or higher prices in the future to make up for possible future losses. Do we really want that to happen to International Outdoors and Emisar? … NO!
Send everyone a replacement? - same issue as a recall. Far too expensive for such a small manufacturer to absorb.
Send customers a warning - This I think is what I recommend. Send customers a warning of the issue via snailmail and email. Advise them not to use Muggle mode until the issue is fixed. The warning should be VERY strongly worded so it isn’t missed.
How to fix the bug - Their idea to offer flashing kits at costs seems reasonable given the small business nature of the manufacturer. That said, I know from own experience figuring out how to flash the ATiny85, it is not easy. I expect many owners are not going to be able to figure it out unless the kit comes with a USB-ASP fully preassembled and pre-wired to the pogo-pin thingy.
It may also help to involve members of this community - for those who aren’t comfortable reflashing themselves, having people around the world available to reflash for them would help. It would also save time and shipping back to China for service.
For the few who feel really strongly they can’t wait - well these people did receive a defective light. I think they should open a warranty claim with IO. I understand under IO’s stated warranty terms, they can ask for a replacement to be shipped within something like 10 days of receipt of their light, or if outside of the return period, send it back for repair within 3 months? I suspect the vast majority of purchasers will decide it’s not worth it to open a warranty claim, but for the few who do, I believe IO should honor the warranty.
If this bug happened with a big manfucturer like Fenix or Zebralight, I wouldn’t cut them as much slack. But I really like Emisar and TK and understand that it is a small business, and know that TK donates a lot of her time for free. I think they deserve more slack.
We on this forum also understand that first-run hobbyist lights often have problems. Over the years I’ve purchased around 15 Zebralights via pre-orders and over half had major issues out of the box. There’s simply a higher risk of defects with cutting edge products than there is with tried and true … especially when you pre-order or buy from an early production run.
For myself, I am satisfied that I know how to avoid triggering the bug and deem the chances of accidental triggering too remote to worry about. I have no concerns about carrying the light in my pocket without any lockout activated. I’ll likely get the flashing kit when it becomes available and will update the firmware then.
I’m hoping a video will be made on the D4 going nuclear just to see what would happen when left unattended, it will obviously set fire to any combustibles close by , but will the actuall light melt & catch fire or will it act as a pipe bomb?
This has already happened to 2 people. The head of the light suffered damage such as melted optic, damaged wiring, button popping out. No other significant damage occurred. The lights did not explode and no nearby combustibles caught fire.
That said, I suppose combustibles could catch fire if something flammable happened to be in front of the head of the light.
So. It does not work. And my D4V2 which is not mine. Bought for a friend now always starting in ramp max. No mode memory left. I flashed many lights but this is something went wrong. The flashing does not run down once. The pop up window closed immediately and now I have a flashlight not working as it shoud and someone paid me for it to order to him. And I am here with this mess. Sorry guys cancel my offer. I don’t want to ruin anybody flashlight and now what should I do?
I don’t know how TK and Hank want from unexperienced people in flashing to do this at first time.
I don’t think that’s the issue. The bug could have happened with a different portion of the UI besides muggle mode and we’d have the same problem we have now.
Muggle Mode by itself is fine. The only problem is the bug.
You have reflashed many lights, but had no success here? I have no experience in mods,flashing, or soldering, yet I am told that with the proper equipment, it should be easy. I saw in your previous post that you put together your setup. I’ll bet that when Hank’s setup becomes available, you can successfully reflash this light. It’s too bad your friend may need to wait for his light.
Absolutely no shorts. Ichecked before first use multiple times. rechecked now. All wire connection goes to pins so no contact problem either. The light aux led turn red blinking when connect the pins.
This is what I used:
avrdude -c usbasp -p t1634 -u -Uflash:w:andurild4v2.hex
TK wrote this to use.
I flashed more than 200 lights.
My “friend ” messaging me every day multiple times when he can pick up his light and he wanted to came wednesday. Now I can’t tell him to wait or I can’t pay him back and we are here with a worse light than it arrived. He is not a patient guy. So I am sure if I need to wait a month again he wil messaging me every day…. That is why I usually don’t buy lights for other people. If something goes wrong I need to do warranty things or repair lights or loose money. The pin connector is OK I don’t think another one do the job. Maybe some fuse settings missing from the line. Usually flashing scripts have fuses. I don’t know why this not have.
You said it starts at Max ramp, can you ramp down? TK stated that as long as the fuse values are not changed then there is little risk to brick. Have you tried reflashing? Maybe it is set to manual memory and it was on Max ramp, did you try 5h to switch to automatic memory?
yes I can ramp down and seems other things work just it always start ramp max with short click. long click it starts moon then ramp up.
The flashing sequence not even completed once. I tried it many times and not doing the flashing sequence.
:+1: :+1: :+1: OMG that’s the best reasoning I’ve seen. I remember back in the 90s when running the x86 and Pentiums that cost over $2k+, I spent more time trying to figure out DOS and Windows 3.1 crashes, bugs, hardware drivers not working, etc., than actually using my computer. Windows Xp was the first windows stable enough to use without constant fear of crashing and losing work, but it still had its fair share of problems. Apple IOS is probably the most bug free OS I’ve ever seen but it is developed by thousands of engineers and hundreds of billions of dollars, whereas Anduril is developed by a single non profit hobbyist and Emisar is likely not even a registered business operated by a single flashlight enthusiast from his home.
