New Convoy C8 – Clearly better

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:

J-Dub, thanks for running point on this stuff!

I imagine hardware changes are less likely than software changes, but TK’s observation about not being able to hook up a SOIC clip is sad news. If he’s able to tweak the layout to improve clip-ability, it would be appreciated.

gchart… she, ToyKeeper is a Goddess. :wink:

Uh, yeah, ok, I see that maybe you’re saying if Simon is able to tweak the layout, in which case, I hope He’s not a goddess. Carry on…. :person_facepalming:

Hahaha, oh Dale you crack me up sometimes (and yeah, I was referring to Simon tweaking the layout)

<—- didn’t make coffee this morning. probably should have. chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies for breakfast just don’t seem to really wake a guy up.

You’re welcome. :slight_smile: It’s what I do. :+1:

I’m not always on point, in fact sometimes I ramble on so much I forget what the point was. I can also get lost so far in the details that continuing becomes pointless. I do try not to point fingers though and make good points when I can. I could go on like this for hours but what’s the… :stuck_out_tongue:

Yes, software changes are easier but Simon is very accommodating to the modding community. Look at how many custom flashlight sellers on BLF alone use Convoy as their main host source. There’s a reason for that. Well…several actually but one of them is that he’s very good at making our flashaholic wishes come true. The best solution here is a combination tweak of both hardware and software. I’m a fan of the best solution. I can’t make promises but I’ll do what I can.

I could use a bit of help from the BLF crew here. I don’t (yet) have the hardware needed for flashing firmware otherwise I’d do it myself. If someone out there has one of the new Convoy red drivers and the flashing equipment, a few pictures would be very helpful. I’d like to see the clip and the driver (specifically the MCU) together in a picture or two along with a description of how much clearance is needed and exactly where it is needed. This information has to cross language barriers so pictures will be helpful to communicate how and how much the board layout would need to be tweaked.