*BLF LT1 Lantern Project) (updated Nov,17,2020)

Thanks for the warning, Den! :+1:
Iā€™ve been worried about this ever since I first saw at the driver PCB photos. Especially, because I plan to use NCR18650GA (semi-)flat-top cells.
What is your opinion about simply removing the pot? IIRC, it was mentioned earlier, that currently it does not have any real use (it could act as a current limiter for an optional locator LED, which is not mounted by default).
It could be desoldered as a DIY ā€œmodā€ by the users who want to use flat-tops, OR it could be omitted to begin with (i.e. not mounted in the factory) in future batches.

I believe that is the long term plan, but Iā€™m also guessing the next batch (in process) will still have it.

Iā€™ve had feedback that the Sanyo NCR18650GA gets close to, but does not touch the trimmer.
As I get more feedback or direct information I will share.

The trim-pot resistor at this time is dormant, and it could be possible to remove it if you wish. as it was a feature added for modders, it has been discussed by the team and its likely it will be relocated in the future lots.

I removed the trim pot on my LT1 with a small flat blade screw driver. Warning: Do not attempt this at home. :smiley:

First just the screw part of the trim pot, but a post was still sticking up.

So I used the screw driver to remove the pot completely, a bit of clean up with some side cutters.
No concern now with my laptop pull batteries somehow shorting on the trim pot.

Note amishbillā€™s rolled up cheat sheet between the cells. :+1:

Wow, that was pretty brutal. Poor trim-pot! :smiley:

Whats that on top of your cells?

Looks like the tabs you find on cells from commercial battery packs.

I guess they were salvaged from a battery pack (laptop battery, etc). What you see on top of the cells seem to be the remainders of the metal tabs that used to connect the cells in the pack together. They are now cut and folded to act as makeshift ā€œbutton topsā€. Neat trick.

I tested a number of different flat top 18650ā€™s to see if the trim pot was an issue but none of them made contact with the trim pot. So perhaps itā€™s a matter of manufacturing tolerance thatā€™s causing contact with some of the LTā€™s?

Man, just got a big ā€œah haā€ moment. Iā€™ve been pulling off the soldered tabs on my laptop pulls, then scraping pliers over them to flatten down the sharp bits. Doing what you did, simply clipping and leaving the main tab, makes perfect sense. I feel soā€¦ stupid. :disappointed:

Iā€™m a day late and a dollar short :person_facepalming:

I wish I had seen this lantern earlier! I mean I have more than enough lights but a good lantern has been eluding me for a long timeā€¦

Donā€™t beat yourself up too far. Youā€™re not the only one to figure this out after totally stripping too many cells.

Exactly.

I wasnā€™t worried until I took a small straight edge and noticed that the trim pot on my unit did stick up above the battery ring. You can see the cells Iā€™m using are not exactly clean on top, so I just opted to remove the non-value added for me trim pot. Now I have no concerns.

A note on these ā€œbutton topā€ laptop pulls, one can do a much cleaner job than I did with the left over tabs, but these are functional and safe as best I can tell, so I left them as is. Like others, I used to completely remove the tabs, but when I was preparing for the LT1, it made sense to leave on the short tab and fold it over for a equivalent to a button top cell. Iā€™ve got 50 of them, so Iā€™m hoping the extension tubes will come to fruition.

Ok, here is the short video of where i discovered the trimmer pot hooked the edge of the wrap on a Pana CGR18650E (MH12210) Laptop pull.

-Next video here, describing how i re-aligned the bail handle 90 degrees to the on/off switch.

-New video upload: November,9,2019, -Basic operation-101 of the Sofirm BLF LT1 lantern Andruil firmware: (have patience with my fast accent talking, i need to practice to talk slower and get a better camera mic set up.)

This is a GREAT help to get all the benefits of the Lantern !!!
It is very easy to understand how the Lantern by watching your Video.

Thanks for doing this.

Iā€™ll be up all night playing with this.

:smiley: :+1:

Thanks DBSAR for generating these videos. A great job of explaining ways around the LT1 Anduril.

Iā€™ll comment on the momentary mode. As you mentioned, the only way out of momentary is a hard lock out. In this post, mentions that,

So it seems intentional that a hard lockout is required to leave momentary mode. Iā€™m not sure if she was saving 5 clicks from that mode for something else, or the nature of the FW and chip required it, or ? But for now it is what it is.

On final minor comment, you mentioned that for ramped mode the lowest low is lower than for stepped mode. Definitely true. However, the ends of the ramp for both modes, as well as the number of steps are programmable. 4 clicks in stepped mode, and you can program (or not change) the settings for bottom of ramp, top of ramp, and number of steps. To get the bottom of the ramp in stepped mode down to level 1 (and as low as it is in the default ramp), do the following:

Put LT1 in stepped mode if not there already
click 4 times
while output is flickering (after one flash), just click 1 time. If you wanted level 20 instead of level 10 for the bottom of the ramp, click 20 times.

If you donā€™t want to change anything else about stepped mode, just watch the LT1 eventually flash twice, then buzz for a bit, then flash 3 times, then buzz for a bit, and eventually return to the setting where it was before you entered programming by clicking 4 times.

Iā€™ll skip talking about how to change the top of ramp setting, other than to say to you are counting down from level 151 to where you want to establish the setting.

To change the number of steps, during the flickering after 3 flashes, click for the number of steps you want. I changes mine to 8 levels instead of the default 5. So 8 clicks, they donā€™t have to be super fast, as long as you continue to press the switch the LT1 will continue to listen for additional clicks for about 5 seconds.

A video would be better I suppose, but my internet prohibits me from uploading something of a the length required to explain this via video.

Hope this helps, and again great job on all the features of the LT1 that you covered, it will help a lot of folks not familiar with Anduril. :+1: :beer: