Code now public! BLF A6 FET+7135 Light. Short 18350 tubes and Unanodized Lights Available

The strobe is in the hidden loop accessed via reversing from moon mode, which is the default first click from off.

I like 60 sec, or no stepdown at all.

I love no stepdown idea, but since we live in a world with lots of irresponsible people…ADD and other animals…someone is guaranteed to leave in on in a situation sufficient to cause it to melt itself. On the other hand, the manufacturer and sellers are in China, so they really couldn’t sue them…

definitely prefer stepdown to meltdown

30 sec stepdown works for me. Does it have any kind of low voltage indication/protection? (My DMM is to heavy to carry around 24/7) :bigsmile:

Kind regards

100F at night, that is crazy.

Here in Sweden we (or should I say I) are lucky if we get 1-3days on the whole summer over 31C (87.8F) in the shade. I say lucky because as far as i am concerned it can’t be to hot outside.
But then i can’t even imagine a lowest day temp of 37C :smiley: But call me crazy, but i think i would like it :slight_smile:

100.4F or 38C is the hottest it has ever been in Sweden in recorded history :wink:

I always thought Sweden would be a nice place to move to, except for the cold!
Have you visited anyplace hot? High heat plus humidity can be harsh.

It is a great place to live in as far as a country & society is concerned :slight_smile:

Most of the year it is quite dark outside for flashlight adventures. But not now, now it is just way to bright most nights :frowning: Last year at this time i didn’t even own a flashlight, i had no idea i would miss the dark so much :smiley:

But it is a bit cold for me, i get very much affected by temperature, the warmer it is, the better i feel & as long as i keep my electrolytes in check & the more energy i get. I have found that as long as i supplement extra magnesium i don’t get nearly as fatigued by heat or humidity as i used to :wink:

My problem is usually not the heat or humidity but the sun, because i have light skin & blue eyes, i burn way to easily if it is to much intense UV radiation in the sunlight, and because we only have UV radiation enough to tan 6 months out of the year, i have never built up a stronger resistance to it.

And no, i have never visited some place really hot :wink:

By overheating I really meant the dangerous, desolder-wires, self-destroy kind of overheating, but at 50% that is very unlikely to happen. Personally I like to keep these kind of lights, aka pocket rockets, in my own hands, not give them to friends who are unaware of potential issues when running those little rascals unattended.

I keep these lights in my hands and turn them off or lower the output when I feel it’s getting hot. Everyone has a little different sense of what is hot. Mine changed a bit since I got a Zebralight SC600L2. Before that, I would’ve felt that this is too hot already, but since it has a temperature regulation it must be safe, right? I basically don’t let my lights run hotter than my Zebra gets.

I’d vote for staying with 30s turbo timer but that’s just me.

I envy you.
I hate hot temperature.
Lot’s of sleep issues, even if I have a climatizated rom, I cannot make it cold as I would because I live with other people.
It’s not nice to have more than 40°C, and 85% humidity, not funny at all. I find myself much more accustomed going working outside with a T-shirt when there are 5°C than living @ home partially naked in summer.

For the magnesium stuff….I’m with you, also with Potassium

For the stepdown timer…30+ would be nicer than 30 but It’s a NO BUMMER for me, as you can always go down and come back up, right?

I am fine with 30 second step down for a good safe Turbo session. I would rather have this light available with “only” thirty seconds of ~1500+ lumens that I can use with the other modes, than a light that goes “phfffft” one day I am feeling froggy on seeing how much heat I can handle…

You can discus this endlessly, piling safety margin on top of safety margin, but it just needs a test, with a high drain battery, tailstanding, with high enough ambient temperature. The turbotimer can then be set at what the light can handle, 30/60/90 secs or whatever it will be.

I do agree that if getting this light suitable for unaware (stupid) folks implies bargaining too much on the performance, then it would not be a true BLF-light anymore.

But it looks like we're on the right track for both kind of people

NO timer for turbo .

Ultimately... :) .... Whatever TK says she is going to do with the code is what is going to happen :) I do not think any one of us in the group will not go along with her recommendation. If she feels it is too hot..then it is too hot.

Someone asked about LVP (low voltage protection). It does have that and even has a battery check feature in the hidden section.

I believe somewhere in this thread are all of the features but honestly I cannot say where. It is my fault that I did not include it in the OP. IF TK finds the time to list and post the features I will post them in the OP. With that said, the ability alone to go from 7 to 4 modes and reverse is the cat's meow. Even I, who likes mode memory, find that even starting on moon and jumping straight into max to be easy. That should even satisfy the 2-mode people :)

What this light does not do is clean the house. LOL.

Think about it:

  • Max people
  • Moon people
  • 2-mode people
  • Bicyclists
  • Low Voltage Protection
  • Battery check

Like Dale said....this UI just needs to be implemented in ALL lights

As I said earlier - This light is a “Must have” :slight_smile:

This is TK's current write-up on the BLF A6 firmware, pretty detailed: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeeper/flashlight-firmware/trunk/view/head:/ToyKeeper/blf-a6/blf-a6.txt

Thank you Tom!!!

+1 Yup, this is very true and I trust the consensus of the experts here….

No, it just drops directly to the previous mode.

Thanks for the reminder. I forgot to update that after I added things to the code, so I updated it just now. :slight_smile:

A short(ish) list of the light’s features:

  • FET+1 driver for both maximum output and stable low modes, should do about ~0.3lm to ~1500lm on the stock light.
  • Standard-sized 18650 tube light host with good anodizing and (I think) BLF logo. Uses a reverse-clicky switch and can tail-stand.
  • Copper MCPCB with direct thermal path to handle the high power.
  • Two options configurable without opening the light:
    • 7 or 4 regular modes starting at ~0.3lm or ~10lm depending on the config.
    • Mode memory can be turned on or off.
  • Modes are evenly-spaced according to selfbuilt’s cube-root model of light perception.
  • Offtime-based UI which detects short/med/long presses to go forward, backward, or to the first/memorized mode.
  • Low-voltage step-down and shutoff.
  • Turbo step-down (timer-based, time not yet determined).
  • Hidden blinky modes:
    • Tactical strobe
    • Biking flasher
    • Battery check / beacon
  • PWM is fast enough to be imperceptible (19 kHz), and blends the two power channels to make tint shift gradual.
  • The MCU is flashable, and the code and driver designs are available for anyone who wants to modify them.

Approximate runtimes based on DBCstm’s power measurements and a 2500mAh IMR cell:

  • Moon: ~11+ days (TBD)
  • Low: ~3.5 days (TBD)
  • Med 1: 17 hours
  • Med 2: 6.5 hours
  • High 1: 100 minutes
  • High 2: 50 minutes
  • Turbo: 26 minutes (but not recommended for more than 60 seconds)
  • Tactical strobe: 53 minutes
  • Biking flasher: 5.5 hours
  • Battcheck / beacon: ~17 days? (TBD)