Have been playing with the ramping for a few days, I felt the need for an extra way to get to a maximum sustainable mode directly (so not after letting the, well working, thermal stepdown algorithm figure it out). I’m sure in most situations that is about 2.5 A in this light.
Been thinking of ways to implement this.
There is the short hickup at 350mA, easiest is create a same hickup at 2.5A but once you see it you overshoot it, it is not precise.
A way to implement is to let ramping up stop at the two locations. Letting the switch go and pressing it again resumes the ramping to the next stop.
This requires the ramping-down to have a new unique command, that could be the shortclick-hold that DrJones uses in his ramping UI.
TK and Tom and Led4power and the Dr have been tinkering much longer about these things so I realise that my thoughts may be primitive and flawed, but I wanted to post it anyway
With a Lamp on your side you can get distracting light distribution if you use it at armlength.
In fog or rain left and right eye see different brightness. Thiss can be annoying
Your neck musculature isn’t trained for sideload. Waering a light sideways a few hours you will fell it the next day.
Front mounted is easier.
A LED in front, battery on the back of your head is even better.
For working in narrow spaces you dang your head often sideways seldom the front. You are usually better avoiding a slam in your face.
For a dedicated headlamp you want a broad beam over 100 degree if need it for armlength to 3 meter distance. Side mounted you have a shadow.
I have troubles to calibrate it thermally. It’s always too hot.
If I start with a cool light, delay makes it overshoot. Now I did a hot-start.
Previously I got it at 36 or so. I warmed it up slightly, waited to cool down, so it was well within my comfortable range, started heating up, stopped almost immediately. Result? 71, way above what I can touch.
now:
random brightness 2 clicks> Turbo -> 2 clicks -> old brightness
What about adding the thermal save level like this :
random brightness 2 clicks> Turbo -> 2 clicks -> max. thermal save brightness 2 clicks> old brightness
TK, are the sources of the thermal control simulator that you wrote available somewhere? I’d like to play with it.
On another topic, I went to the kitchen a moment ago and took a mug. I noticed it was dirty, it had something yellow at the bottom. I moved it slightly to see it better and the yellow thing moved. Afterimage again….
Maybe just pause for a moment and then continue, as long as the key is pressed? I’m afraid that otherwise users would be stuck at 350 mA thinking it was the max……showing off how they have light that’s brighter than the neighbour’s.
Interesting. Once user has used turbo, their night vision is destroyed already, so putting another bright mode in the middle shouldn’t hurt really.
Though I would consider implementing this idea slightly differently.
I would skip the max thermal step if it’s dimmer or equal to the old brightness.
Actually I would skip it too if it’s only slightly brighter than the user-set mode.
Pros: no useless transitions.
Cons: User may be unsure whether the next 2-click will go up or down in case they had level somewhat close to the limit. This can be made less of a problem by making the required difference to be quite large, so the “hey, my mode must have been lower” reaction is nearly guaranteed.
My personal solution was to make it accessible with a 3-click, shifting other modes.
I have that clip. It’s a bit too long for my taste. Also it’s scratched off the anodization on both my 18650 and 18500 tubes, so i’m not too thrilled about it right now.
Would knowing actual LED temperature help thermal management?
I ask because I just learned that you can calculate it from Vf. It would require different firmwares for different lights though.
3-clicks - shortcut to 2.5 amps … This is similar to what DrJones did with his lumodrv ramping firmware. Triple-click is easy to access and is helpful to use as a shortcut to another well-used mode. Another option is maybe set this at 3 amps. It might still ramp down at 3 amps but probably not for a few minutes and probably not by much.
Does anyone have an estimate as to how long each led can run on turbo before it’s thermally regulated? Or a discharge curve as to the amount of total runtime on its highest setting? I want to choose a flashlight that is amazingly bright but also practical. If it can only sustain turbo for a couple of seconds, then it’s not the light for me. Thanks for your input.
