E-switch UI Development / FSM

BLF Special Edition Products
761

Yeah… it has been frustrating being asked to do large amounts of work for free, for the benefit of a company which has a history of ignoring the code license and delivering products which do not live up to expectations. Remember the S42?

The company has been trying to improve though, to make things right with the community. And, as of yesterday, they asked to hire me for the MT18. So I’ll probably add a MT18 build target for Anduril and make sure it works correctly.

Exactly. Busy busy busy, and these projects don’t usually pay well so I have to prioritize other things.

I haven’t attempted to track anything like that, but the sloccount tool can produce rough estimates of how much it would cost to develop arbitrary code at a traditional software company like IBM or Microsoft. This includes both the salary paid to the developers and the other overhead in the company.

So I’m curious. Let’s see what sloccount says…

> bzr branch trunk test
> cd test/ToyKeeper
> sloccount .
...
Development Effort Estimate, Person-Years (Person-Months) = 3.51 (42.11)
 (Basic COCOMO model, Person-Months = 2.4 * (KSLOC**1.05))
Schedule Estimate, Years (Months)                         = 0.86 (10.36)
 (Basic COCOMO model, Months = 2.5 * (person-months**0.38))
Estimated Average Number of Developers (Effort/Schedule)  = 4.07
Total Estimated Cost to Develop                           = $ 474,063
 (average salary = $56,286/year, overhead = 2.40).

So, after factoring the overhead ratio of 2.40, that works out to:

  • $197,526.25 salary for the developer
  • $276,536.75 corporate overhead

It estimated about 3.51 person-years to develop. I’ve been doing it in my free time for about 4.5 years. So it’s probably not too far off. However, there just isn’t that much money in flashlights. The estimated total cost is probably almost as high as the total revenue of all lights sold with my code so far… so even in an ideal scenario where I got literally all profits, I’d only get a fraction of sloccount’s number.

I have not been saying it works perfectly. I have been saying it needs the correct compile options and calibration. I have also been saying it is important to understand how PID works, and understand how to work with source code. And saying that companies need to talk to me directly if they want my help.

On a related note, your pogo pin flashing adapter design should make it a lot easier to do thermal testing on real hardware. I should have one of those soon, and I plan to make good use of it. Maybe I won’t even have to build a simulator… though I’d still prefer to to use a simulator so I can get more precise results faster. Then I could run a whole test suite in a couple minutes instead of having to wait for batteries to charge between tests.

762

Would it help to put some small current sense resistors in series with the led on the driver.

Not to measure current flow just to generate some heat so the mcu can respond quicker?

763

Thank you Ma’am, this worked perfectly!

Thank you too Tom for making the easy to read pinout diagram.

764

It seems to get the measurements fast enough on most lights… but it probably helps if the LED wires are thick and the MCU is close to the copper pours for BAT+/LED+. Heat travels through those wires and traces into the feet of the MCU.

765

I’ve been gathering courage over the last few months; to give firmware code/editing another go. I’m not there yet, but I do have a question about a feature :slight_smile:

How much code/work would it require to make Anduril have the option to do a “soft off” ?

When clicking once when on, instead of the light turning off instantly after the tiny delay:

I would love to make it do a really quick ramp down from the ramp level it was on. And THEN turn off completely.

I mean, “we have the technology”. So why not add another fancy feature :smiley:

User revdns did this mod back in 2016. Same concept. source

766

I tried adding a soft-on and soft-off feature once. It wasn’t very hard to add, but there’s a catch. If the user clicks during the ramp-up or ramp-down period, things can get a little tricky. It needs a way to abort the animation. This is probably at least a little bit easier now though, since I built automatic abort into the nice_delay function any time a button is pressed.

So it’s not a lot of code, but it may take some experimenting to find a good way of dealing with interruptions.

767

Does anybody know if Andúril has a reset function implemented yet?
(hold the switch while connecting the battery)

Or is this only planed?

Edit:
Not at the moment, maybe in the future

768

Toykeeper I know what PID is and how it works
But even if I put a pot of water on my hotplate that is 30K above set point it wont start very quick to do a 70% duty cycle its likely starting about 10K above to heat up again,
but your PID even starts to increase current 40 or 50K above set point

I know even before you hit the Temperature ceiling if temp is climbing it is throtteling the output

That Video was made under Lab conditions, the heat up (I know it was way too fast) was in this test totally irrelevant
It was way more interesting what happens when the driver cools down slowly

The fact that the driver is starting to increase current even 30 or 40°C above the temperature set point is causing the heat up bug TA, Matemineco and myself has seen in multiple tets
in the video I could clearly show that it went up to 70% FET duty cycle when the temperature is falling but still 20-25°C above temperature ceiling

.

All what has to be done is keep the PID regulating to Ceiling +5K then disable it for safety reasons till ther light cooled down enough
(current PID model seems not to work so well for flashlights, when its getting hotter than set point, it wents into some sort of oscillation heating up more and more)
instead ramp down current down to MIN_THERM_STEPDOWN and stay at that level till it falls below temp ceiling
This would be sort of “Soft Turbo dropdown” dependant on temperature

769

Another question is about Lowering the PWM frequency on Moonlight to like 2kHz like you do which code is responsible for that
I would also like that in NarsilM some day

I am currently working on a CC FET driver and I also want to try getting on low levels the PWM to the OPV constantly at this frequency to see if this can be used to dim more
its not working on 15kHz with NarsilM

I have in main.c
#define BLINK_AT_RAMP_FLOOR
#define MOON_TIMING_HINT
enabled but it does not blink Astrolux wants it

770

I got round to flash Anduril onto my D4S and I think I bricked it.
I just simply copied the command from the first post without reading more about it and now I wish I did…
That’s what I did. Now after pressing the button only aux LEDs blink in low mode.

After this MCU doesn’t respond to anything

Can I still rescue it somehow or do I have to replace ATTiny on the driver?

Forgive me if that’s something obvious but I’m really not too educated on this stuff…

771

You used totally wrong fuse bits
Only a high voltage flasher may reset the MCU

Doesn’t help if its not flashable anymore you got to replace it

I may send you from Germany a flashed MCU

Best is to carefully unsolder one side leg by leg then folding up a few times to break other side legs

772

I was gonna say I might be closer and could send you an MCU, but then I realized your in Poland lol.

Sorry, it sucks to brick an MCU. Been there, done that, you’re not alone at least.

773

You live and learn. Eh…
Could you explain how to do it correctly for the future reference?
Will probably use your offer Lexel and place that long overdue order for couple drivers and get MCU straight away.

Actually how would it work with new ATTiny, do they come preprogrammed or how does one place initial firmware on it?

Excuse stupid questions but have no experience with it.

774

there are 2 ways of programming
pre solder with a SOIC socket adapter
or past reflow with an SOIC clip pusching on the MCU from above the PCB

indutrially with a pre reflow flashing robot that may be also able to retube/rerail the MCUs after flashing for PCBA machines feeder

775

Lexel, can you also slightly modify the code of Anduril/Ramping IOS V2 in such a preflashed MCU? With a appropriate remuneration of course.
In Poland it seems almost no one is capable of doing ui flashing related stuff.

776

I always work with NarsilM and Anduril constantly doing small easy code modification regarding replacing numbers or switching features on or off

But I can not write code itself like changing original code sections

777

No, not yet. I was trying to find a method which would work for FW3A, but it can’t detect the switch until quite a while after power is connected… and I haven’t added it yet for other lights where it’s easier to do.

So far I only have it on my lightsaber.

Sorry about the bricked MCU. It sucks when that happens… and there’s no easy way to fix it.

Normally, it’s best not to set fuse values at all. Just let them stay as is, and there’s virtually no risk of bricking the MCU. But if you do flash them, I recommend using the bin/flash-*.sh scripts in the firmware repository. They have the correct fuse values; just pick a script which matches your MCU type.

778

It’s in a few parts of the code — anything which refers to dynamic underclocking. Since it’s a compile-time option, the exact relevant parts of the code are already marked.

779

Okay, may we see your lightsaber? I wonder if you lean towards the light, or a bit towards the darkness :slight_smile: It seems the darksiders have all the cool toys

I’ve not purchased/ made one yet, but I’m waning. Strangely enough, I feel it’s impractical. Doesn’t do anything more than be a cool thing. Of course I’m also the guy with a bunch of flashlights just sitting on a shelf in my office…

780



You mean this one?





Here’s a closer look at two sabers I use… green for the good days, purple for the not-so-good days:

The one I’m using a custom driver in, though, is a rainbow saber. It is all colors… sometimes even at the same time.