New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

Well, it’s ATtiny13, so you can ‘flashy’ whatever modes you want! :wink:

Not a real problem. I have BLF drivers but not much times I used the batt check. The stepdown and LVP kick in and then replace batteries if I discharge them so far but mostly I don’t. :+1:

Jared, you done good!! I’m pretty sure there isn’t another budget light with multiple UI choices and a Custom finish for this kind of $$$$$ or is there?? :+1:

David excellent point! :+1: DIY!

Awesome!
Sounds like a very nice driver for quite a few of my lights.
Thanks once more!

It is good that it has DTP, because the smaller package of the XP-L won’t cool as well as an XM-L2 on a non-direct star. The listed thermal resistance is better, so they must have improved or reduced the internal insulating layer, but the smaller footprint would give the heat less area through with to penetrate an insulator on the star.

Very nice.

Bob

BLF noob here, so I don’t quite know all the players involved…

Is this an actual “type 3” model C8 direct from Convoy, or modded/variant of the type 2? (type 1 = pill, type 2 = integrated head)

Maybe I didn’t read closely enough, but I’m not quite sure who’s going to be selling them. :slight_smile:

I always loved the “gunmetal gray” that M*g had. Not that polished-Al (“chrome”) look, nor matte-gray, but a darker shiny gray that I’ve seen at least in the 3xAA and 2xD lights that I’ve got. That would look awesome in a C8…

Question about moonlight/firefly mode, though… Does it ever “stick” off when hot? I’ve heard that when you’ve got the light on high and things heat up, that sometimes if you switch to firefly mode, it just won’t light at all until it cools down (fine in higher modes, though). Which is why… I think it’s in the QLite driver source… there’s a certain minimum (6/256) that you have to set firefly mode to reliably turn on.

Might have to do with the capacitance of 8 parallelled 7135s, too. Little skinny pulses might not be enough to bump them on.

And I’m wondering about PWM flickering when it’s set that low.

Dunno if I’d want to pocket a C8 unless I were wearing cargo pants. :smiley:

This will be the top #1 recommendation for a newbie thrower for the next years, I'm really happy with 8×7135 2.8A and the new modes, especially the proper 1% "low".

Yeah, I’ve got to agree with Tech; the DTP board is a significant improvement, and the new driver sounds great (sort of A17-ish), but for me, the chrome finish ruins it.

Matte black looks elegant, doesn’t show dirt as much, and is great for radiative dissipation of heat.

I don’t want my lights looking like a chrome bumper. :confounded:

I’ll stick to the current model, as I never keep anything stock anyway.

Very impressive!! :+1:

It’s obviously not “chrome” but has the same surface of the matte black, without the dye. I’d kind like a high polish SS variant myself. :slight_smile:

These are made by and sold by Convoy-Flashlights on AliExpress. They’ll be found at GearBest and Banggood soon enough I’m sure. Simon is Convoy, JDub is working with Simon to help bring the needs of the people to light. (see what I did there? :wink: )

Great looking C8, and nice improvements. Will there be a 10 or 12 chip stock version?

If this is the same mode grouping that will be used in the newer S2+, I would have preferred a mode group with 50% and 100% in the same group. This would have allowed for the light to be run as bright as possible with no heat issues at 50, or on “turbo” for when shorter bursts of 100 brightness is required.

Any idea if it gets hotter compared to the FET? I thought I read that the FET ran cooler than a high current regulated driver.

What was going on before Jared showed up? Now what has happened since Jared has been here……………. EXACTLY! What Dale said…… :smiley: :+1:

This. This is very convenient and easy mod for 105c. Two extra wires and new firmware. Too bad it didn’t get done here.
Though I guess even slightly altering a PCB layout is a too massive undertaking for a budget-friendly flashlight.

When I went to sleep, this thread didn’t exist. Now it’s already at 90+ posts. That’s a lot of activity in just a few hours!

I tried to fit as much as I could into a standard nanjg 105d driver, and make it useful for a wide audience. This new C8 is the first item to have the new firmware. I assume it should also work in anything with a compatible driver, like the S series and maybe M1/M2 or BD series.

So far it’s called bistro-mini, because it’s based on bistro but half the size. People have told me this is a bad name though, so I’m considering some others…

  • biscuit or biscotti, to keep the tie to bistro but indicate something smaller
  • converge, convertible, conveyance, convect, convene, convey, convalesce, … to tie into the Convoy brand
  • “Jared Stinks”, as suggested by Jared (J-Dub74)

Any preferences?

(edit: my preference is to not put my name in the title)

To make the output as stable as possible no matter what type of 7135 chips (or how many) are used, moon mode has slow PWM. I’ll have to measure to be sure, but moon (0.1%) is either 1 kHz or 2 kHz. This also means it’ll be up around 0.8 lumens instead of the usual 0.2 lm, but that’s as close as I could get it with this hardware.

The low (1%) mode runs at 8 kHz (to make it more stable), but this is still 2X the speed of the older nanjg drivers.

Everything else runs at 16 kHz, about 4X as fast as the older nanjg drivers.

I had LVP set to 2.8V initially, but during tests I couldn’t get it to trigger before the cell’s built-in protection went off. So, it’s now set to step down when the cell gets under 3.0V. If it stays that low even on the lowest mode, it’ll eventually shut off the emitter and go into a low-power standby mode.

The problem is that new driver hardware was beyond the scope and budget of this project, and Convoy doesn’t have a lot of resources to develop it or get the hardware produced right now. So, the driver is the same hardware as before, but with new firmware to improve it as much as possible. The nanjg drivers are actually pretty nice, and inexpensive, so they work pretty well.

Maybe in the future sometime Convoy can get new driver hardware, but not yet.

Also, what pilotdog68 said earlier. :slight_smile:

The reason for the minimum of 6/255 (or 7, or 8, or 3, or …) is because the 7135 chips take a few “frames” to open, like a slow-moving door. They’re not as fast as a FET. This is exactly the reason why moon mode runs at a slower speed.

The minimum usable pulse duration varies with the number and type of 7135 chips, the type of LED, the battery voltage and brand, etc, and those factors are all variable for this project. It could be anywhere from 2 to 16 7135 chips, several types of LED, a variety of hosts, and so on. So the most hardware-sensitive aspects were optimized for stability, which means slower PWM on moon.

As usual, the sources are available for anyone who wants to modify it. :slight_smile:

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeeper/flashlight-firmware/convoy/files/head:/ToyKeeper/bistro/mini/

Bisvoy :smiley:

Mistro