First Impressions Emissar D4 w 5000k 219c and Anduril UI

I received this D4 on loan from a friend because I was curious about the UI. I have been EDCing a Jetbeam Rotary for several months now, and was curious about the electronic ramping of the D4.

First impressions of the D4:

cool ramping!
fun playing with the stepped ramping, I like it better than the smooth ramp
with a protected 16340 about 570 lumen max
with an IMR 18350 about 1000 lumen max

the light was stepping down in muggle mode, so I calibrated the thermal sensor
it works very well as a room thermometer now :slight_smile:

the light got ridiculously hot on maximum, so I configured max thermal to 31C, that made it step down from maximum, to about 300 lumens in less than 10 seconds

having learned that the thermal regulation is in play above 300 lumens, I proceeded to
then set the ceiling on ramping to about 300 lumens.

I set the bottom of the ramp to minimum, both in “smooth” and “stepped” ramping modes.

I set the stepped ramp to 24 steps, like an HDS. Noted that the D4 has the ability to toggle from maximum to last used mode, also like an HDS.

muggle gives about 2 lumen minimum, 200 lumen maximum

lowest low varies between 0.05 to 0.03 lumens as the battery loses charge…

tried the candle and lightning blinkies… not for me… but yikes! there are some really irritating strobes… very effective options for alerting drivers when I am a pedestrian crossing the street in the high traffic area where I live… There is also a very nice bicycle mode.

compared to my N219b 4500k, the 5000k 219c is less pink, no surprise there…

the battery check mode is very handy, and accurate!

there are lots of clicky codes that require me to read a manual, which works well and is easy to understand

I cant see the flicker, nor the PWM, with my naked eye in either mode

Impressive little pocket rocket, with a complex and feature rich UI.

Now Im going back to my N219b 4500k Jetbeam TCR-1, its so much more relaxing to use… No batt check, no strobe, no multi modes, no memory, no LVP, no clicking around. :slight_smile:

Choices are good.

Choices are indeed good! :+1: And we’re so fortunate to have so many in LED flashlights these days. Back in 2008 when I got my NovaTac 120P, I never would have expected that 10 years later we’d see the technology and capabilities we’ve got today. Consider the FW3A, another Anduril UI controlled flashlight that is a great design at such a reasonable price point.

When the next Anduril UI comes out for the Emisar D4, I’d consider it a notably better light than the Astrolux S43.

I agree completely, there is a lot of bang for the buck in these button pushers.

And I still really like the HDS UI in my Novatacs too. I wish Anduril had a Force Preset option like my Novatac. Otoh, I wish my Novatac had the awesome battery level meter that Anduril provides.

btw, I dont really know why the D4 site says to only use unprotected IMR… did I do something wrong by using a protected 16340?..
hmmm…
the protection did not trip… and I did not run it on max for more than a few seconds…
And Anduril has that awesome OverDischarge Protection built in.
I recharged the 16340 when it got to 3.6v… tell me Im good… please

I dont want to start hyperventilating

and, while were talking
if anyone here wants to sell me a Ti D4, please PM me
aargh
just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

The HDS/NovaTac programmable UI was a major ground breaker and it still has some nice advantages. I do hear you about forced preset options… yet… I find that the right granularity of stepped ramping pretty much serves the purpose. Also last mode memory helps cover the bases if there’s a very specific intensity you want to keep repeating between illumination sessions. My only gripe with HDS/NovaTac now, is that I find the Anduril UI easier to remember. HDS/NovaTac becomes easier if you use it frequently… but frankly, even when my 120P was my EDC, I’d forget because I didn’t have to enter program mode very often.

One thing I do miss is the persistent low intensity beacon in off mode. That’s a really, really nice feature of HDS/NovaTac. You can notice that quick flash much easier than glowing trits. And it’s more omni-directional, versus unidirectional trits. But I’ll take ODP and LVP over that any day.

Models with a button LED or aux LEDs have a beacon option in “off” mode.

What is force preset? I also thing the battery check feature of Anduril is very nice. I have a meter I can (and do) use on other lights, but a couple of clicks and I just know if I should be charging or not.

I think a protected 18350 would likely not fit well. You used a protected 16340, which is likely plenty short enough to fit fine. There is a lot of spring travel in a D4 for a shorter battery.

Can’t help with this one, I seriously considered buying a Ti version, but only have the two standard aluminum ones. Well not quite standard for the one with two different tints of XPL-HI and the Lexel aux board.

That is an HDS UI feature.

It toggles Last Mode Memory On or Off.
when LMM is Off, Force Preset allows me to specify the lumen level the light will come on at, from off.

so if I set Force Preset ON, at 5 lumens for example, then even if I use the D4 at a higher ramp level, for example 200 lumens, once I turn off the light, it would revert to turning on at 5 lumens again, instead of the Last Mode Memory of 200 lumens, in this example.

sometimes I dont want the light to remember to come on at 200 lumens, even if that was the last level I used when turning off.

of course the other way to accomplish almost the same thing with Anduril, is to use the press hold shortcut to minimum, and then ramp up to the desired level…

Force Preset just gives me an option for first turn on, that is not necessarily accessed by press hold, I could just click on at 5 lumens, every time… or whatever lumens I prefer first…

The idea of “force preset” or “manual memory” has come up a few times.

On a D4, there are four levels directly available from off:

  • Floor: Hold button.
  • Mem: Click button.
  • Ceiling: Double-click button.
  • 1x7135: Loosen tailcap, maybe click to drain power faster, tighten tailcap, click.

That last one doesn’t work on FW3A.

The floor and ceiling are configurable, and some middle steps are too if you use the stepped ramp mode. So, if you want a consistent way to reach level 65 (the highest regulated mode on a D4), one way is to configure the stepped ramp for 7 modes from 10 to 120. That way, step 4/7 is level 65. There’s even a tool called “steps.py” to help with getting exactly the right levels.

But that might not be close enough to satisfy the desire for a forced preset. So I’ve been wondering how something like that should work.

It would be relatively easy to set a desired level. Ramp to it, then click 5 times to memorize it. (3 and 4 are already used, so … 5?) The hard part is figuring out a convenient way to toggle between manual memory and automatic memory. Maybe add another option in the ramp menu? I’m not sure I like that idea. Maybe map “5 clicks, but hold the last click” to switch between manual and automatic? That’s a lot of clicks.

So I think it could work, but I haven’t figured out a very convenient way to work it into the interface.

What sounds good?

Could something along these lines work?

Five clicks from On, to turn off last mode memory and enable current brightness level as the startup memory mode.

Then five clicks, from on, to revert to last mode memory.

I like force preset as an added feature.

I’m not sure I entirely understand the manual memory function or how people want to use it, so I have a question. While on, in a ramping mode, which of these two sounds better?

  • Option 1:
    • 5 clicks: toggles between manual and automatic memory.
    • 5 clicks and hold the last click: saves the current ramp level to the manual memory slot.
  • Option 2:
    • 5 clicks: turns on manual memory and saves the current level.
    • 5 clicks and hold the last click: goes back to automatic memory.
  • Option 3:
    • 5 clicks: toggles between manual and automatic memory, and sets the manual level

Basically, it seems to boil down to whether to prioritize longevity of the saved level (option 1) or making the UI more intuitive (option 2). Or acting like the ramp style toggle and reducing the number of actions the user needs to remember (option 3).

There could also be an option 1B, which is just like option 1 but with the two button mappings swapped.

I see that from the OFF position, these are in the Anduril manual

these are toggles… that is, 6 clicks turns ON muggle… and the same 6 clicks turns OFF muggle

I would prefer for Force Preset to work the same way… that is… 5 clicks from ON sets current mode as the Memorized mode, and 5 clicks from ON again, reverts to Last Mode Memory

and btw
is there a Reset defaults for the D4?

There isn’t a factory reset function yet.

I’m not sure it’s intuitive to make a single action toggle the manual memory and also set it to the current brightness if it’s turning the feature on. That would mean the user needs to know in advance if it’s on or not.

Anyway, I added a compile-time option for this in fsm branch rev 424. It’s not enabled by default, but can be turned on by #defineing USE_MANUAL_MEMORY. It costs about 100 bytes. It could use some testing to make sure it works and does what people expect.

This version implements option 2. While on:

  • 5 clicks: Activate manual memory and save the current level.
  • 5 clicks, but hold the last click: Go back to automatic memory.

major respect for your design enhancement!
the way you chose to implement it is great

I suggest posting that info to this thread;

and feedback:
“The brightness in this mode usually goes from about 10 lm to 300 lm.

Note: If the light steps down in muggle mode, it probably needs to have
the temperature sensor calibrated. Use thermal config mode to do this.”

.

with muggle mode ON I got 2 lumen to 200 lumen w the 5000k 219c
the light did step down, and that was indeed fixed by calibrating the temperature sensor

.
its a great manual!

I’m wondering if maybe it should just use 5 clicks for everything. It’d keep things down to just one action, so it should be easier to remember. But it’d also mean two sets of 5 clicks to change the manually-memorized level.

I like the same command format as the other toggles, x clicks to enable, same x clicks to disable

however, the other toggles are from OFF, and there is already a 5 click command

for least confusion it May be wise to use 7 clicks from Off, instead of 5 clicks from ON, to toggle memory

totally up to other Anduril fans, Im only one newbie experience w Anduril, and I dont own the D4 I tested, so I defer to those with stronger preferences

thanks for considering my opinion

Not sure if my math checks out but I tried a floor of 13, a ceiling of 130 and 10 steps. Step 5 does appear to be at 65, as on my FW3A (which has a blink in the middle of the ramp) I get no blink if switch over to ramped mode and either increase or decrease the brightness.

Your math checks out. I made myself a spreadsheet mirroring the math of steps.py and just tried that setting and got the same.

If you want moonlight mode, floor=1, ceiling=130, and 7 steps also works.