New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

I say go for it Hunter…… :+1: ……… :slight_smile:

> SOS mode. Silly survivalists. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

No kidding. Back in the 1970s, I talked with a real lotsa-guns-and-crap guy, I asked him what his plan was for the coming pocalips.

He said he knew every house in the county owned by people who had stored up a year’s worth of supplies, and he could live off them for decades.

He also said “SOS” means “Steal Our Stuff” — as in “c’mon, I”m incapacitated.”

Kind of a flaky guy. Fortunately, once I showed him I could outshoot him with his own Colt .45, he decided we should be friends.

OK, here I go….

So basically respected and honored author of this firmware did it as a fun project free of charge (that’s how I understood his post, I may be wrong thou, english is not my native language)!

and Wildcat confirmed that hardware is identical (color is not important at this time)

(this sounds to me more like a confirmation than estimation!).
Finally, question: Is this fw available for download in hex format (really important is that it does not lock mcu for future flashing) or as a code (AVR Studio will chew that up and spit hex file) so I could try out this new fw and decide if I like it or not I am indifferent?

Hey Hunter,

Yes, ToyKeeper did this at my request for Convoy for which Simon and I are both extremely thankful.

ToyKeeper’s work is open source meaning free for all to use and yes the hex code is downloadable as well.

The hardware is certainly very similar if not identical aside from the color which was changed mostly to distinguish which drivers have the new firmware already loaded. None of us have the new driver quite yet so I can’t say with 100% certainty that it will be completely identical but if there are changes they will be very small I’d imagine. This firmware should work on many Attiny13a/7135 based drivers including almost all of Simon’s older drivers.

You can download it at anytime through Toykeepers firmware repository.

ToyKeeper has now officially named the firmware biscotti and the link is here:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeeper/flashlight-firmware/trunk/files/head:/ToyKeeper/bistro/biscotti/

I’ll also add the link to post #2 of this thread which is all about the firmware.

Am I the only one that wants something in between 3A and 7A for a tint? 4 would be good, maybe 5.

And so you know, ToyKeeper is a very smart and beautiful woman. :wink:

She has changed our flashlight world, without a doubt. I, for one, would have already quit this if it weren’t for the A6, Bistro and now Bistro-mini firmware she so freely shares with us. I also have a few others of her design that I enjoy immensely too.

Thank You TK! :smiley:

I knew that. I mean, obviously. Duh. What kind of goddess do you think I am?

Mortals. Hmmph.



:wink:

A non-shooting one? :smiley:

But a Goddess none the less………… :wink:

Awesome work on this light and firmware. Does anyone know if this firmware is compatible with pilotdog’s lighted tailcaps?

The bleeder resistor should work on it, don’t see why not. PD will have to confirm that but I would think it’d work.

How does this new Convoy C8 compare against the XinTD C8 which is very respected around here?

LOLLOL

Thanks J,
I really wanted to buy but left the cart when Ali wanted my CC info.
Now I get to use PP and get 15% off that I wasn’t aware of.
Nick

No problem.

Welcome to S.S.C.C.

Simon’s Secret Convoy Club

Shhh! :zipper_mouth_face:

OK,
I promise I won’t let this one out of the bag.

Cool…as long as this doesn’t reach the internet I think we’re safe. :stuck_out_tongue:

Wellp, I grex about scratchy tailcaps all the time, just touch them and you can see the flicker in the beam… :stuck_out_tongue:

But some drivers have a hold-up cap (1µF or so) to keep the ’13 alive just long enough to sense a quick tap (and act accordingly). Some people like the no-star-select 105Ds so they can use the stars as solder-pads for additional components like that if needed.

This YN-20-5 driver on my ’98 (and the –3 version others have in some threads here and/or on CPF, forgot where), is incredibly cheap… yet clever. A 3-pin chip provides the brains for the driver. A bunch of parallelled low-ohm resistors limits current to an otherwise DD driver, and like 1 R and 1 C to do the hold-up. Nothing else on the board.

Granted, that cap won’t be an addition to the new C8s or anywhere that you don’t want to touch the hardware, but it’s definitely possible on a non-E-switch driver.

Oh, that’s also used to go from on-time to off-time mode-changes, or verse-vica. Never really played with The Other Mode, so am not quite sure of the difference in practice.

No purse to speak of, but in my just-as-bad bag, I was carrying (yes, at the same time :stuck_out_tongue: ) a ’501 MOP, a ’98, a 3buk 1-AA light that wrings the last bits of juice and pulp from “dead” AAs (my own firefly mode), and for a while, yes, a C8, allll in addition to my belt-holstered ’502 SMO. Oddly, I used most of them one time or another except the C8. Kinda retarded, and after leaving home the C8 and having taken apart my ’98 and mostly using the ’501 MOP in its stead, I’m finally carrying a little lighter. Does nothing about all the cables, chargers, multi-tool, and the other 19lbs of crap I carry, though.

Point being, there are so many different beams and uses that I got tired of having to compromise. My SMO gives me better throw than a blurred MOP (to alleviate the “Cree Rainbow”, and for a little more spread), but for close-in needs, they’re both too hot, so I’d use my ’98 for a nice even flood. But I absolutely HATE the lumen-loss of zoomies when zoomed, so that’s why I tried carrying the MOP for a little more spread while keeping the lumens.

Def keeping the SMO and the 1-AA light, and would love to retire the rest, or maybe replace them with a floody Match-Mod (60° or 90° TIR). That should get me down to under 1lb of flashlights…

Having some nice modes in the driver(s) would make any candidate light that much EDC-able, though.

Ah, well…

Thanks, but I “borrowed” it from Parker. :smiley: