I donāt think he was supposed to reveal it yetā¦ I think Hank wanted to be the one to announce his new product. But Neal can only keep a secret for about 5 seconds.
Iām hoping to do a review soon, if a D4S shows up in the mail. Iām going on a trip soon though, so Iām not sure if there will be time before I go.
I gave Hank some emitter suggestions, but I donāt know if heāll do what I suggested.
Specifically, I told him he could avoid the heat issues of the 90CRI 219c by using 90CRI LH351D instead. And I told him people would really like a 4500K version using two 4000K and two 5000K emitters.
I hope heāll make that happen, but I have no confirmation about it either way.
The reverse polarity behavior was noticed fairly early on, and I notified Hank, but I donāt think he ever fixed it. It doesnāt seem damage the driver, but it can damage the battery.
It appears to be fixed in the D4S. I checked a moment ago, and my DMM measured zero on a prototype with the battery inserted backward. The same DMM measures about 4A to 6A on a D4 with the battery in backward.
First, I just want to note that iamlucky13 currently has exactly 13 posts.
About the driver though, it does have some changes compared to the D4/D1/D1S. I donāt have a production model yet though, so Iām not sure what all the changes are.
It seems one change is fixing the reverse polarity protection.
Thanks for pointing out the previous discussion, I missed it at the time but this afternoon I did find a short discussion without much detail on reddit.
But is there someone with enough knowledge of the driver to point out in what component(s) that heat is generated?
The reason Iām concerned is that I have build D4 with 2700K 90 CRI 219C leds for a lighting enthousiast, but who is new to flashlights. His first question, by email, when he received the D4 that I sent him (with battery and charger) was : āwhat direction should the battery go?ā. He luckily had some sense that he could damage something by inserting it backwards but what direction is automatic for us is clearly not automatic for the rest of the world (he is a pretty smart guy). At that point I told him the right direction and eased his mind that the D4 was reverse polarity protected so nothing would have happened anyway (so later I had to update this story for him).
Thing is that the D4 takes such good care of the battery and the heat by means of the firmware that I did not expect it to have some silly hardware flaw that instantly makes it a dangerous light for anyone not knowledgable about the background of this light (including me even so it turns out).
The guy is smart enough to after the update use his D4 now in a safe way and so am I.
I can at least confirm that the D4S is throwier than the D4, and it has a nice beam with only minimal artifacts. It has a round hotspot, a reflector-like spill area, and then some mild extra junk outside the edge of the spill.
It also has cyan-colored aux LEDs under the optic, 16 of them, which work like tritium vials.
Itās a D4, but sized for a 26650 cell, throwier, and with some other misc improvements.
ā¦
Edit: Oh, um, my prototype uses XP-L HI 3A. Iām not sure how the beam looks with other emitters.
just ordered a Shockli 26650 fm Mtn Electronics for my Rofis MR70, almost ordered two anticipating the D4s.
Butt the D4 was picky about its battery fit, so Iāll wait a bit.
I have Shockliās, black wrapped and blue wrapped LiitoKalaās and the black wrapped LiitoKalaās seem to perform best if absolutes matter.
The Black LiitoKalaās best Efests of dark and light purple, red too. As well as Gold King Kongs and orange MNKEās and green Moliās, KeepPower 5200ās and Basenāsā¦. I, uh, have a lot of cells. The discontinued orange Powerizer LiNiMnCoās were probably the best, a short cell with high delivery. Been out of population for a while now.
I actually donāt know for sure if those will fit. I only have one 26650 cell and it didnāt fit in my prototype. But Hank tells me the battery tube has been changed to fit bigger cells. And not only is the Shockli the highest-capacity cell in RMMās store, itās also one of the smaller 26650 cells. So I think itāll probably be okay.
Meanwhile, Iāve been testing with a 18650 wrapped in packing foam.
Sooooā¦ A M44? Probably the only thing holding me back from the M43 is the firmware (and itās not easily changed?). An M44 with D4 firmware, and with a new flash friendly driver, I wouldnāt hesitate buying another light I have no use for, lol.
I wonder if the same $40 price point will stick for the D4s?
Next up, the D1s! Well, not the D1s, but the D1s. Then the D1ss?
Probably FET + Battery. I shorted a D1S driver once on accident by shorting the LED leads, and the FET burned through (very smelly, would not recommend).
Is there a possibility that Hank considers producing a 21700 tube?
Iāve been EDCing my D4 219C lately and the only thing that bothers me is the heat at max level, with LH351D and larger body it should perform pretty amazing. We should persuade Hank to make it into an emitter option.
Iāll have to thank Hank for sending a black-colored light for photography purposes. Those are always the easiest to get good pictures of.
Also, itās cool white. So Iāll want to swap the emitters. And it has no O-rings, so Iāll probably transfer the rings from the dev prototype. And no label on the tailcap.
So itās not quite a production unit, but itās pretty close.
The discontinued orange Powerizer LiNiMnCoās were probably the best, a short cell with high delivery. Been out of population for a while now.
