Smooth ramping is nice just for the pure novelty of it. I guess when I use a flashlight it’s just to light something up in the dark that I’m looking for or to get a better view. Very seldom, if at all, do I need to change the level of light for the few moments that I need it.
Magical lights like these are more show pieces for me and my friends. I can look in the closet with anything. I am almost reluctant to use my showcase lights for fear of damaging them by either a clumsy drop, banging it on something or rattling my keys against it all day.
Mostly I just appreciate all the options and the complicated UI for the craftiness of the programmer and the effort it took to make it work well.
The 219C D4S does exactly what is specified. I got 2930 lumens at turn on (actually at ~2 sec taking into consideration the measurement time). This was with an iJoy 4200 mAh 26650.
My D4 actually does a bit more than that at 3170 lumens with a VTC5A, but it’s the earlier CRI80 version with the more powerful driver. It also steps down after ten seconds while the D4S is still at 2430 lumen at 30 seconds.
I know the feeling. When trying to break out of my routine I’ll almost grab a light and think “It’s too nice to take to work!” I work in a greasy, oily, swarfy environment.
Trying to master flashing so I can put TK firmware in ALL my lights (where possible).
I’ve just tried the stepped ramps and will probably stick to that. Feels awesome and I love that you can choose the number of steps.
And the fact that the light always (after a moment of not clicking anything) ramps up by default and you can just go down with a double click and hold is great. Even though this causes the 0.5s delay before the light shuts off after clicking. I can live with that since the reversing is too handy!
I’m not a fan of the Zebralightesque “accidentally went too high from off” syndrome. With the D4 there was a small delay when you held the switch down from off. The light turned to moon and you could release. On the D4S you’ll accidentally activate the memorized mode if you release the switch too soon. This can happen easily since the light turns on moon immediately when the switch is pressed. You have to time it correctly. Also the moon always coming on first when clicking the light on feels weird.
Ok. After playing with the light, I like stepped mode ramp better… it’s so cool. Turbo mode can be activated by double click… I am going to stick with stepped mode…
I can also attach my magnetic tailcap to the garage when I am working on the car… no more rolling!
I think it’s the best stock Hot Rod light I ever purchased for the money. I can’t seem to stop playing with it or having it out of reach for some reason, Crazy huh?
Fits in one of my holsters well, but I don’t want to take a chance on scratching it. Heck I’m not even going to mess with it and bypass the springs, it’s that remarkable to me!
TK/Hank you hit this one is out of the park, outstanding job! :+1: Thank you!
I’m glad to hear people like most of the new stuff. I haven’t gotten much feedback about the stepped ramp yet.
This is the first negative feedback I’ve heard about the instant moon feature. If you’d like to disable that, comment out this part of the code:
// hold (initially): go to lowest level, but allow abort for regular click
else if (event == EV_click1_press) {
set_level(nearest_level(1));
return MISCHIEF_MANAGED;
}
So, everyone, what do you prefer?
A. Activate the lowest level immediately when the button is pressed. Provides a hint that “click” and “hold” do different things, but requires the user to time the button release without direct feedback. (RampingIOS V3, Anduril)
B. Don’t respond when the button is pressed. Takes longer to get any light, but makes moon timing easier. (RampingIOS V2, NarsilM)
Basically, what do you prefer for step 1 here?
At button press…
A. … turn on at the lowest level.
B. … do nothing. Stay off.
If user releases button quickly, go to memorized level.
If user holds the button for 0.4s, lock in the lowest level. User can release the button at this point to stay at the lowest level, or keep holding to ramp up.
Happily, just pulled the trigger on 2 D4S, grey 219C and Green XPL HI 5000K NW from MTN.
I was considering the XPG2 5700K version, but budgetary limits kick in. Would anyone help describe the differences between the XPL HI NW and the XPG2 S4 2B: tint artifacts, throw and output differences, runtime?
Any and all opinions and recommendations are welcome, as I am a long time CW bias recently converted to NW and high CRI, seeking the knowledge of others with experience.
Also, decided on the Shockli 5500 mAh cells, any other recommendations?
Is there a way to calculate lumen for the stepped ramp?
With the known max output, no. of steps, steps for top and bottom ceiling?
I think of a spreadsheet, you type the values in and get the lumens for each step.
It’s hard to do because of how different LEDs have different lumen levels, and in the FET modes, it also depends a lot on battery type and voltage.
Aside from that though, basically you’d have to look up the PWM values from the firmware’s ramp table, calculate the power level, then look up that power level on an emitter test graph.
Or try the bin/level_calc.py tool, which produces a relatively naive estimate of how many lumens it expects. These numbers may not match actual measurements though, because it doesn’t know the emitter’s response curve and may have been given intentionally wrong values in order to force the graph into a particular shape. Like, for the D4S, I told the calculator the lowest level was 11.2 lm and the highest was 4000 lm, and that it should use a ninth-root curve shape, because this got the values to line up how I wanted. But in reality it’s more like 0.3 lm to 5000 lm.
