TK's Emisar D4 review

The UI looks great. Well the FW fit on a attiny25?

Love the new UI!

Probably an ATTiny85

Yes. Hopefully Richard will start selling preassembled drivers in different diameters with this UI. That way we can install it in all our e-switch lights. :+1:

YES! +1 to this. I have a H02 with a dead driver that I would love to have this set up in.

well that and a green D4 with almost 4k lumens of nichia goodness. will be watching this for updates on the v2 release

That is an awesome feature!

Nice work TK

Love the new changes thanks for all your work TK, will ramping output on beacon be also something that transfers to the output of the bat and temp checks light output as well…?
Or are they not all connected, I have no clue about coding stuff but I can tell you that the work you do can be very important to someone someday on many levels.
I’ve been with WA State Search and Rescue since 1975 and was showing some of your UI;s in some lights to a few guys and one guy asked me while I was showing him how I could use one of your UI’s to check the battery levels and his response was, Oh really, I thought that was a international distress signal, well I near hit the floor, he was right, well needless to say he was on to something because it does look very close to international distress and if I saw that on a rescue blinking out your bat volts or temp even I’d have thought the same thing that he did, but seeing it so often knowing it’s bat check that never occurred to me before so if lost in WA State just use TK’s bat check or temp reading for signaling for help and bag the beacon, amazing,
Your work TK might save someones life, no joke. So always keep one cell at 3.3v when hiking in mountains just in case … ha ha ha,

Fixed that smooth tube to comfortable hand fit now, feels nice and rubbery and not slippery at all and fells better in diameter. Helps keep heat down from the head as well.

There is currently no way to turn memory off. Setting the memorized level is easy though; it automatically remembers whatever you ramp to.

I think that’s the plan. :slight_smile:

No, it’ll fit on attiny45 though.

It won’t be feasible on tiny25 until I write a whole new code base from scratch… and maybe not even then.

No, the “check” levels are hardcoded at a medium-low output level. Bright enough to read the value, dim enough to not use much power.

The momentary “tactical” mode is hardcoded to use only maximum output. For the sort of person who wants a tactical burst mode, I don’t think they’d be happy about having it “burst” at only 30 lm if they had been using the light to look in the glove box a few minutes beforehand. Me, I’d rather have an adjustable momentary mode… but I don’t think I’m the target audience for this feature.

Wow this thread goes fast!
Am I telling the truth here:

?

What did you use for the grip sleeve on your D4?

I wish they’d do a run of knurled 18650 body tubes for this light.

FWIW, it’s probably not a good idea to add insulation to a hotrod light. It might make the light easier to hold when it’s hot, but … if it’s too hot to hold, it’s probably too hot period. Adding insulation just makes it get hot faster and makes it more likely to damage itself. It needs as much heat-shedding capacity as possible, and a sleeve eliminates an awful lot of surface area.

On the upside, with your adjustable firmware he can just set the temp sensor to a good setting with the sleeve equipped.

I’m not a huge fan of smooth tubes with no knurling. Lights like that feel slippery. They don’t feel secure in the hand. The ideal solution would be for someone to make an optional 18650 battery tube for the Emisar with knurling.

Alternatively, I can try to make a grip sleeve for the light. I did that with my SC63w with good results by adapting a sleeve from a budget light. Solved the grip issue. It does get hotter faster, but because it has a temp sensor it’s not a problem.

Or I can use my hand knurler to try to apply my own knurling. This works, but looks like total crap. I’d prefer to avoid this if I have an option.

Wondering if the diameter of the battery tube is anywhere near that of a bicycle handlebar? Or motorcycle throttle grip? There are a lot of those that are skeletonized such that they’d breath the heat out but prevent a direct contact between skin and the light. Just thinking out loud…

You could try using 3-4 tight fitting o rings.
The D4’s tube diameter is 24mm.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170720112443&isPremium=y&SearchText=o+ring

I think so?

I’m not sure how accurate my calipers are, but it says 23.9 mm for the body tube.

Then again, it says my Efest cell is 65.0 mm, and RMM’s site says 65.4 mm… and 23.9 is an unusual size. So, I suspect my calipers might be a little nearsighted. I guess that’s what I get for raiding my dad’s junk drawer instead of buying a good one. :slight_smile:

*clackety clack*

Okay, now I have a script to correct for measurement bias, using 65.4 / 65.0 as the correction factor.

Thanks TK for the insight re: output on bat check and the like, just thoughts and I can only imagine what you’d be fully capable of if only you had more room to put your coding into, it was only a thought.

Re: how I did the tube, I use 1” industrial heat shrink tubing, but it takes some work, you have to turn it inside out because of ugly industrial printing and the finish, I already knew how much it will pull back adding to the finished thickness so it went from the 24mm tube bare ano to just under 25mm finished, then use an exacto knife to trim and then use some light gauge sandpaper to scuff the rubber up and then I use some stuff called super lube to rub into the scuffed rubber and that will make it even softer, this stuff will absorb heat like from around hot electrical wires so I had thought about what TK mentioned but really there is zero chance of any of my lights ever getting so hot to cause me any issues again after what I was taught yesterday, so this won’t over heat your light but was something smart to think about,
I thought first about actually doing the head with some stuff I have but just in the grooves on the head, this stuff draws out heat and would keep the ano from touching your skin, probably will see what happens with that but after TK gets the new no screwing around with lights ready for sales.
These lights have become my lets see what happens lights, if you know what I mean…
By the way just adding 1mm of extra thickness to that tube makes it really comfortable holding it, I have bigger hands so I sometimes have done this same thing even doubling it to have some grip to the lights and never have had an issue, there are lots of different ways to do this, shrink foam tubing is good also but never use the shrink with the adhesive inside, that will not make you happy believe me,

Edit: TK your calipers are spot on, I just rounded up but your measurement is exact…

Eh, space isn’t a limitation on this light. It’s using less than half the available bytes, and I might be able to get it down to a quarter with enough refactoring. I like this little stuff; it’s kind of my version of playing sudoku. Bigger and more complicated tends to feel more like “work” instead. And I particularly dislike dealing with bad architecture and bad architects, which tends to happen a lot with bigger projects.

With more space, people make bigger and weirder abstractions which cause bigger headaches. To see how that can go wrong, look at some of the stories here: The Daily WTF

Nice review TK!

My thoughts:

I love how it is simple which allows the basics to be done right.

It seems to me that any new light designs should highly consider on board charging. If I have a handful of lights to sell to the average joe, the last one chosen is the one without charging no matter how cool the light is. On the other hand, flashlight lovers don’t seem to care as much.

I thought the “raptor claw” 7135 was considered a preferred brand. No? The fet used here must be a good one!

It’s a very big bummer that the light needs to be ramped up every time it is turned on, or is this not the case? If there isn’t mode memory in a light like this, it would be better to have the light turn on at 5-600 lumens area. Then the light is useable in 90% if situation and also prevents danger from mode memory on the higher modes.

I’m interested to see if there will be any revisions. And I’ll be watching as I see a very desirable light! :slight_smile: