New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

The variation is too big to make any conclusions. I’ve had great and not so great samples of 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D. But going by specs, I’d choose 3A or 3D. Even then you might not be able to avoid the horrid green. But I’ve also gotten 3B on the rosier side (assuming Banggood’s product pages were correct…)

Could just be my samples and variations thereof, but I liked 3D and 4A for “purest” white.

Appearancewise, I like 4A and 4D for white-white, the 5As for a little warmth.

Past a certain point, you just have to side-by-side compare them to notice anything. Anyone who’s played around with an audio equaliser of at least 10 bands (preferably 20) knows what I mean. Sometimes what you hear as “better” is just simply louder. :smiley:

This is really unfortunate.
My new Clear (Black) C8 is in the mail.

Can you please describe all possible implications of driver running twice faster than expected?

A few implications come to mind:

  • The blinky modes blink faster
  • Bike mode’s pulses look less intense
  • The config mode has shorter windows in which to press the button
  • The “buzz” for each config option looks less like a buzz and more like a steady low
  • Changing mode groups takes half as long
  • Moon mode is probably a bit more voltage-sensitive, but I haven’t tested how much
  • The driver is basically guaranteed not to make an audible whine, since it’s oscillating too fast for humans to hear
  • The light output should look extra-smooth with no visible pulses (except maybe in moon mode)
  • LVP step-down should happen in half the time
  • The lowest modes might be very slightly less efficient, maybe a few percent

Basically, for normal illumination purposes it doesn’t make much difference. But anything involving timing goes faster. A 25 Hz strobe is outside the ideal range for tactical purposes, and when the UI blinks out numbers they’re harder to count, and configuring the light requires faster reflexes.

Chances are, the factory can fix it by changing a single digit in a script somewhere. But I’ll be sure to send in other updates too, since these new drivers appear to have nicer 7135 chips than the old ones and I want to make sure everything is calibrated correctly.

Thanks, not a big deal to me then, since the configuration was easy enough.

Oh dang, I find the buzzes, voltage blinks and tap/long tap difference too fast/close as it was on Bistro (personal just me getting older :wink: )
Have a few drivers on the way.
So setup and forget about playing around then for me :wink:

Can we keep the 46% mode instead of 35% ? :wink:

I actually slowed that stuff down for this driver, because you’re not the only one who thought it was too fast…

… but then it doubled. D’oh.

Weird how much difference it can make to swap a single bit. The speed doubles by setting the low fuse to 0x76 instead of 0x75.

How unstable/unreliable is the Tiny13 overclocking? Is it unlikely to even work with most Tiny13’s or is it something we could make use of somehow? NOT for this driver, obviously. I’m thinking of new BLF driver designs (or actually firmware) that use the higher frequency on purpose.

It’s not unstable or unreliable. It’s within the tiny13’s spec and seems to work fine. However, the shorter pulses aren’t ideal.

The optimal PWM frequency is fast enough that you don’t see or hear it, but otherwise as slow as possible. So, right at the top of human hearing, about 20 kHz. At 4.8 MHz, the attiny13a gets pretty close (18 kHz), while running it at 9.6 MHz goes excessively fast (36 kHz). The faster speed also uses a bit more power and is a bit less efficient at producing light.

So, running it faster isn’t very useful for flashlight purposes.

Well better add some functions that requires computing to take advantage of the OC :smiley:

I’ll get right on that.

The next version’s big selling point will be a mode which blinks out the digits of pi… all of them.



YES! Finally! Flashlights For Nerds™! :nerd_face:

Now you're being irrational.

The math puns are strong with this one…

I was thinking that someone here is in trouble but now I believe there is someone’s are trouble.
Your work is amazing TK.

Naw… just bein’ real

This is very un-Convoy-like but I know exactly what is happening here. Simon needs more help. Good help is hard to find particularly in his location. He’s doing almost all of this himself right now from all the assembly and soldering to packing and shipping. A few slips have happened as a result. Even my clear C8 had bits of debris on the reflector and the inside of the lens which is very unusual from Simon. I unscrewed the bezel and hit it with compressed air and all is well but that shouldn’t be necessary and almost never is with Convoy. I’m going to let Simon know about all this but I’m not going to be too hard on the guy under the circumstances.

@ unknown00101 - It’s a bummer, I agree. Please contact Simon and explain. He will definitely make it right and send you any parts that aren’t right.

@ T18 - Please do the same. Simon will send you a new lens without hesitation.

@ Anyone else who has an issue with their clear C8, please contact Simon. He’ll already have a heads up from me that there are a few issues and he always handles these things properly.

Sure can. Just order right now before this is fixed. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thank you ToyKeeper for chiming in with all this. This is unfortunate but not as terrible as I first thought.

Let me add my findings…

I have two Convoy C8’s now running Biscotti. One C8 has an older driver with several extra 7135 chips (Thanks Dale :wink: ) and my just received clear C8 with the Biscotti dunked in Espresso :person_facepalming:

Here are my findings on the clear C8 running them in mode group 1 side by side:

  • Moon is about twice as bright. It’s still pretty low but not as low as on the proper driver.
  • Strobe is silly fast though I must say personally I dig it. :laughing:
  • The bike flasher is probably near twice as fast as intended though again this doesn’t bother me as I would not personally use it for biking. I counted it at 113-115 BPM

Otherwise, it’s functionally very close to what it was intended and I’m happy with it though I will of course be communicating all of this back to Simon and he to his driver people. With help from TK we should have it fixed before the next batch of drivers. Who knows…maybe even with a lower moon since these are better 7135 chips than were on the old driver. Possible silver lining there.

Bear with me friends. We’ll get this right.

@ muakka, Big thanks to you too for all the helpful data, graphs and charts. Very nice work! :+1: