Roche F6 hacking

I wonder if Helios would do a revision with the smaller lower current IRML2502 vs the larger Vishay 70N02 FET?

Right now my Roche F6 is REAAALY lacking, horrible UI, the H>M>L no strobes long hold for power on/off

I need to get me some 20mm copper round from etsy, I believe I have some 16’s but not 20’s that I can file down to make it fit the tail for better current flow (might even need to upgrade the wires to the emitter and maybe even a copper sinkpad (mine is stock right now)

Depends heavily on drive current I’d say. Since it’s a DD driver and many batteries will immediately dip below 3.6v at higher current, I dunno. With unprotected NCR18650B that might be OK, but with anything else… I’d probably go for much lower voltages. OTOH it’s probably fine. You’re probably shooting for “green when full, orange for the majority of the discharge, and red for the very end”, right? Those voltages sound OK for that to me. Plus blinking red for critical if you want.

Well it will still have the original STAR low voltage strategy I think, a warning blink (hmm, does the momentary version have that, or just the clicky version?) and then stepdown and eventually cutoff. The status LEDs will just be so you can look at any time and get some info about the battery state. The stock drivers only turn on the red LED when the battery is very very low, no info at all about what's going on until it's too late. What good is that?!

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Why a tiny FET instead of the big one? It works great as-is. If you want lower current, use an ICR instead of INR.

Fair enough

There's plenty of room for everything, it looks worse than it is. Like I said there's even room for the programming clip with the LED wires still in place. The only tweak I do, which probably isn't necessary, is to trim off the corners of the switch bracket.

For the copper spring plate, I clamp the copper to the plug and chop off the excess with tin snips, then smooth out with a file. The plug is already the same size as the disc needs to be.

Yeah, that makes sense to me. It works better as a status indicator than any kind of warning. As you pointed out, the step down and flashing will handle that.

“For the copper spring plate, I clamp the copper to the plug and chop off the excess with tin snips, then smooth out with a file. The plug is already the same size as the disc needs to be” -Comfychair.

I don’t have an adjustable-voltage power supply, but I think I can still get the voltage levels by using a real battery and a DMM. I also have a small variety of cells to try, including 20R for maximum output and protected regular-amperage cells.

For the beacon, it may be feasible to blink green for > 3.3V and red for < 3.3V. Depends on how much power it costs to check the voltage, and how much code space is available.

Provided that there is enough code space the battery voltage could be checked periodically (using a counter) rather than every time. Approximately once per hour might be sane to allow for ~15min of recovery. To get totally unnecessarily complicated you could do one check ~15min after the MCU goes to sleep using the counter and then set a flag and start doing the check ~daily until the light was turned on again, resetting the flag. Wow that’s a bunch of extra stuff for little benefit though…

I removed all the resistors on the stock driver second version. And I also added copper braid to the steel spring. This F6 heats up fast now. Gets very hot after just 15 seconds of running on high. I’m still using the stock XM-L2 led. The light definitely has greater output now but I have no way of measuring how much.

The stock LED is on a cheap aluminum MCPCB, be careful. You've got a direct drive light with the LED not on copper. Risky.

Thanks for the advice. I will get an xml2 noctigon to install. The led remains much brighter than stock for about 1 min and then starts to really dim as the light gets very hot.

Nice!

Nice indeed! Thank you. Now I just have to figure out which light to use this in.... (Dont own this particular light)

Roche X3 should use the same driver (scroll down for the 'user pics') http://www.banggood.com/ROCHER-X3-CREE-L2-800-Lumen-White-Light-LED-Flashlight-p-916697.html

I don't think it has a window/lens for the status LEDs, but that can be added without huge drama.

What about using clear fingernail polish or Norland that both cure with UV light and would be very clear?

It would probably work best with slightly diffused plastic, not perfectly clear. I'm sure there is something in the hobby world that would be exactly right.

If the right kind of plastic rod around the right size can't be found, an alternative would be something like clear Epoxy 330, sanded on the inside face to act as a diffuser.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360884112895

Available in other sizes/styles (end glow = has an outer cover, side glow = nekkid along the whole length).

Hmm… that might be useful for a totally different project I have in mind… Either that or electroluminescent wire. I still haven’t figured out how to make the thing though; I want it to light up at least a dozen wires quickly in a rotating sequence.