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. 
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? 
)
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…… 
:+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…
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.
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.
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeeper/flashlight-firmware/convoy/files/head:/ToyKeeper/bistro/mini/
Bisvoy
Mistro
Convoy Advanced Firmware
Sounds interesting for the audience…
According to google, bistro is “a small restaurant”. Is that the meaning of “bistro” you went for, or does it have another meaning?
Hopefully he’ll send RMM some hosts!!
Personally, I think that is a great name or some version of it. :+1:
Bistro-mini <> Mini-Bistro <> Mini-B
Now to “brain storm” a bit………… Hmmm…….
Or for a “Convoy” shout out……. add a C. Bistro-miniC <> Mini-Bistro C <> Mini-BC
Mini-BisCon <> BisCon-Mini <> TK-Mini-BisCon <> Mini-BisCon-TK = Mini-BistroConvoy-ToyKeeper
But after deliberation………
THIS one gets my vote………… :+1:
TK-MiniBisCon = ToyKeeper-MiniBistroConvoy
Shortening it to TK-MBC would work too.
EDITED for spelling correction.
I have a question or two, and please do not take them as a complaint; they are not.
1. Why is there no mode between 50% & 100% in any of the groups?
2. Could that be done?
Wow, nice job with this, TK & Simon!
Yes, 50-100% can be done but doesn't really show much of a difference. The highest I would typically go is 40%, sometimes 50%, as do most high mode count lights - just doesn't make enough difference. Best usage is a spread in the lower levels.
OK, thanks Tom E. I appreciate the info.
It’s not a linear scale.
The stated outputs are the power level, which can be misleading. Throw distance follows an inverse square law, while perceived brightness tends to follow something like an inverse cube. So, there’s usually not much point having a mode between 50% and 100% power.
For example, let’s say it puts out 1000 lumens and does 50 kcd lux. Here are the resulting levels in more detail:
So, to a human eye, the 35% level actually looks like it’s 70% as bright as the 100% level, and it throws 59% as far. Does the mode spacing make more sense now?
It could be just me but my eyes can hardly notice a big difference between 1.5A with 3A, but 600mA with 1.5A the difference is huge.
In my H17F equipped lights the high mode is 1.5A then it jumps to turbo 5A+, and it only feels like twice as bright.
50% is great for a high mode on a 2.8A driver, this way it can run for extended periods without overheating.