Roche F6 hacking

Out of curiousity, what firmware / UI style are you using?

He's using this: http://75.65.123.78/ramp_v07/

Color mixing from the status LEDs works better with the little optical pickup trimmed off flush with the ID of the driver cavity. I used a tiny little ball-end diamond bit, that also leaves a good scuffed-up finish that acts as a diffuser.

@ToyKeeper
Yes, I am using that one with ramping and it is the perfect one because it also has short press for on/off and memory.

Okay, I was just wondering… because I didn’t quite finish tweaking the ramping UI before I got interrupted by a work trip, and I haven’t gotten back to it yet. It’s pretty close; just needs some fine tuning on the ramp curve.

The levels I used in that one linked up above are:

0,1,1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,14,16,19,23,28,34,41,49,58,68,79,91,103,116,130,145,161,178,196,215,235,255

That pattern, odd as it may be, works surprisingly well - and really well on the SRK-DD boards using the inductor.

The pattern in that one increases each mode over the previous one by:

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 20

Thanks. I pulled in the changes you made, and included it as a preset in my version.

That ramp pattern you made is a quadratic or “x squared” shape. It’s much closer to visually-linear than the logarithmic pattern I was using, but spends a bit less time at the lowest levels.

The new version I just pushed has a few updates:

  • Made ramping UI support both fast and phase-correct PWM. (compile-time #define)
  • Added explicit support to turn off PFM with a #define. Saves space but makes the bottom few levels get a stair-step effect.
  • Improved instructions for compile-time configuration.
  • Added more pre-defined ramps for various configs, including Comfychair’s 40-step quadratic ramp, a 64-step cubic (visually linear) ramp, and a 40-step logarithmic ramp with PFM.
  • Made PWM/PFM setup code clearer and more compile-time moddable.
  • Made the default ramp one which goes extremely low and uses PFM.

The default ramp now is 40 steps, uses fast PWM, uses PFM for smooth steps between PWM levels, and goes extremely low by abusing PWM=0. I’m measuring just 0.1 lumens with a Sanyo 20R at 4.18V. It can ramp to several levels under 5 lumens, yet still goes all the way up to 1800 lumens. However, this extra-low moon is extra-sensitive to voltage, so at 3.6V it’s virtually no different than “off”. And at that low a voltage, the stair-step pattern returns somewhat.

In any case, it should be a bit easier to configure now, goes much lower, shouldn’t have an audible hum if you enable fast PWM, and I’ve tested several predefined configs to make sure they work.

So are you saying the one from BG has more room in the driver compartment than the one from FT?

It’s worth mentioning that comfychair has been absent for about 4 months. You might not get a reply.

Well that’s a bummer. Maybe somebody else can answer?

I accidently crushed my roche f6 microswitch by tightening the brass ring way too tight. Does anyone know where i could buy or harvest a new switch to solder in?

Also, has anyine tried a dedome or xp-g2 on copper to get more throw from the f6?

phsinvent - sorry, cant' help bout the switch, but you may want to consider a whole driver replacement now. I just received my "Roche F6" from FastTech and got one labeled Convoy F6. The glass breaker won't thread in, and when I tried applying pressure to thread it on, the whole SS end cap popped out, and can't seem to securely get it back in and stay. I opened a support ticket with FT on it. Below are pics I included in the ticket.

Also, the way the modes work on mine (seems to be variations out there), is hold to turn on, click to change modes, hold longer to turn OFF. While on in any mode, double click will go into strobe with a click to return to normal mode. Weird - the light works with the end cap removed because the spring is held in by a ridge in the tailcap.

Now I dunno if the Roche OSHPark board I ordered will even fit... Have to check measurements... It's not bad stock though. Mode operation is decent, modes are well spaced. I measured:

On a fresh charged LG HE2: 1.92A tail, for lumens, Hi: 595 @start, 578 @30 secs, Med: 204, Lo: 54, throw: 4.8 kcd - 128 meters

Someone linked this earlier, but looks like BlackShadow is the OEM, but makes several brand names. Light is listed here: blackshadow.en.alibaba.com/StarryLight_SD01

All of comfy's pics are gone - does anyone have any idea on how to assemble the Ferrero Roche driver? comfy's post #175 has the OSHPark board link and the DigiKey parts cart - now I just need something to tie them together...

I could take a shot at reverse engineering once I get the boards - trace and guess...

Thank Tom, Where could I even begin to find a new driver for these F6 lights?

I can’t believe you got a Convoy F6. The whole flashlight manufacturing business in China is strange. Blackshadow was the first honest company that I had ever dealt with. They did confirm that they did not make their SD01 flashlight. They said it was another manufacture and they were offered a good price so they decided to distribute it. All of the other companies will lie through their teeth and say that they make all their lights. Convoy does not make their own lights. I have seen the F6 come from a few sources. Soshine used to have a flashlight called the TC2 or T1 or T2 that was the same as the Roche F6. But I have also seen the F6 from other factories. There is two mystery factories that produce the Roche, Convoy, Shadow, Jax and EagleEye lights.

Most of the components are marked. Resistors for low voltage protection: 19.1 = 19.1K, 4.7 = 4.7k. C = capacitor. Diode is marked with the diode symbol to show orientation. R3 and R4 are not usually needed. D1, D2 are indicator leds with R1, R2 as the resistors for each respectively. The values for R1 and R2 depend on what color leds you use and how bright you want them. Ground for D1, D2 is towards the 4.7k resistor.

Parts are the usual for attiny13 drivers.

Edit
I see comfy’s digikey cart also has the indicator leds and resistors. The red led would get the higher value resistor. Since red uses a lower voltage it needs a higher resistor.

Thanks Halo for the info - ahh, makes more sense now. Guess would have been somewhat obvious having the board in-hand and tracing - I usually trace out these boards anyway since getting burned by mis-labeling.

phsinvent - uhh, guess the only replacement is the Ferrero Roche board from OSHPark -- the one I have coming in soon (work and parts though to build up and program). Think I read Dr Jones never finished his F6 board, not sure though - maybe he did by now.

Ahh - got the Roche/Convoy F6 modded with the Ferrero-Rocher driver. Here's the detailed pics on the layout:

The color diodes are RED for R1/D1 and GREEN for R2/D2 (had to order it that way Smile). The RED D1 is below the GREEN D2 in the pic above. For the LED diodes, the green ends is for ground (Cathode -) -- this took an investigation for me to figure it out, because I didn't know for sure the green ends meant ground.

I used ToyKeeper's firmware for the Ferrero-Rocher as-is, accept for the modes - I changed them to 4 modes (PWN values: 1,20,80,255). Only thing I didn't check is the LVP: I'm getting 5 blinks when the cell is just below 4.20v, so not sure what's goin on -- should be 4 blinks.

The new Convoy F6, think it's same as 2nd generation Roche F6, has sort of a flaky button and I couldn't get it to work well with the switch chosen for this board. I filed down the PCB mounted switch button because it seemed to stick too far out, but the SS switch works really, really roughly. So after sanding down to maybe less than 1/2 the original size, and using some Teflon based oil, I was able to mount the driver but the feel is pretty awful, but t does work, and seems reliable at that. Weird because you really can't feel a "click" like you can with the stock driver. Again, not sure what the history was, but maybe it's more a problem or change with the 2nd (cheaper) generation.

For the color LED's, well.... They do work, but the RED isn't so bright. I used the higher resistor on the RED and it's noticeably weaker. I drilled a small hole using a #56 bit next to the button where it dips in in order the see the light from the LED's. I can barely make out the GREEN and can't see the RED at all. The driver was laid out for the LED's to be opposite the switch, but for me, I'd rather see the LED's next to the button because you naturally hold a side switch light with the switch up. Well, it was an experiment anyway, so I'll have to look into what material would be the best to fill in a larger drilled hole that can pass light effectively -- most likely on the flat side opposite the switch. I know there was a couple of posts on this mod to an F6 somewhere, maybe earlier in this thread? Not sure... Think someone recommended light tube material but the ref. link was very expensive.

Note above, the switch is really close to the MCU but I didn't realize that, so had to program it after full assembly - was able to get the clip over the MCU and it actually did work on my cheaper black clip setup, not the more pricey blue clip from DigiKey.

The beam and tint look great using an XM-L2 T5 5D3 (from Richard). The T4-5B1 was my previous favorite tint, but really like the nice warm white look of the 5D3 - no hint of yellow I can see - maybe the small OP reflector helps with that. I measured 4.7A at the tail but am getting only 840 lumens @start, 830 lumens at 30 secs. This isn't much better than what I got with the stock driver with 3.0A at the tail (after resistor mods), which was 775 lumens @30 secs. I didn't bypass the driver spring, but do have the tailcap spring bypassed. The low droppage in the 1st 30 secs is a sure sign of resistance being in the path. Note in the first 10 secs, the output actually rose. I can hopefully fix that when I tear it apart again for the LED viewing problem. Also will replace the lens with a UCL. Stock lens is 24.0 x 1.45 mm and the UCL that should fit ok is 22.61 x 1.86 mm.

I love these things. :slight_smile:

It seems a little weird that you’re getting only 840 lumens at that power level.

As for the red being dimmer, I think comfychair changed the resistor values after he built mine. The first rev produced pretty equal brightness for both LEDs when viewed directly… but when viewed through the window the red overpowered the green. With both on, it looked orange instead of yellow.

The status LEDs also change brightness depending on whether the light is on. They’re much brighter while on, and rest in a rather dim state while the main emitter is off. This brightness isn’t easy to soft-tweak though, since they only have three states (high, low, off).

In any case, I see a few differences on my driver:

  • The pads to the upper left of the FET are bridged.
  • The component between the FET and the cap (next to the switch) says “41” instead of “E2”.
  • On the spring side, R1 and R2 are values of 471 and 102 instead of 1001 and 471.

I buzzed out things and didn't see a reason to bridge those pads - I'll check again - you might have something there.

Resistors marked 102 and 1001 should be the same, I think - if I understand the markings correctly. The last digit is the # of zeroes to add.

Also, the diode marked 41 should be the same as E2 - I got the E2 from Richard, while the 41's come from DigiKey. I was short diodes at one time, and Richard added some to my order.

Have you worked with the Rev 2 Roche? I know you have one you love, but think it's a Rev 1 Nichia triple that does 1800 lumens, from what I recall. I don't recall any posted details on how you built it though - what did you use as a spacer?