If you double click from off does it go to Turbo? When ramping, the ceiling level is only half of Turbo. If it isn’t going to Turbo, try cleaning contacts and try a different, newer fully charged unprotected cell.
Double click from off goes to about the same brightness as ramping up.
Once, when I clicked the light off from the top of the ramp, it became extremely bright for a fraction of a second. I haven’t been able to reproduce that.
Cleaned everything again and swapped in a new known good cell. No difference.
I’m sure the three blinks every few seconds at [top of ramp /double click-should be “turbo” brightness] is telling me something. But what does it mean?
I think the only person qualified for this diagnosis is Dr. ToyKeeper.
I wonder if the FET broke. Output might not be very bright on turbo if the FET isn’t turning on properly.
Happened again, though still not repeatable:
From off, one click-and-hold; the flashlight ramped up to as bright as usual and started the 3-blinks every few seconds.
I lifted my thumb off the switch and got an exremely bright brief flash.
Can’t get it to duplicate. Could the switch be bad?
I”m at the “who can I send this light to” stage of confusion.
Indeed. Now imagine trying to tune a single PID algorithm so it will work on everything from a keychain copter to a package-carrier drone. They all have to run the same code, and they all need to have a good response without wobbles.
For the most part, the results are good lately on virtually every light… but the D4 is at an extreme end of the spectrum so it’s particularly difficult to tune.
Yes, Hank specifically asked me to remove muggle mode. So don’t expect to have muggle mode on any Emisar lights.
Yes, lockout is 4 clicks.
To go directly to the lowest level, hold the button for half a second from off. It should go to the lowest level in the current ramp.
The last few versions I sent to Hank have some pretty significant differences. I think he’ll be using the newest version on almost everything, but it seems there were a few sent out with older versions before I even heard that it would be offered on the D4.
Specifically, here’s what changed over time… at least, the bits which are relevant to the D4:
- 05-21: removed muggle mode
- 05-23: merged in a bunch of updates from the main fsm branch:
- rewrote thermal regulation
- made strobe-group modes auto-reverse like the main ramp does
- made lockout moon use 2 levels instead of just 1 (second click uses other ramp’s floor)
- made momentary mode also support strobe-group modes
- made brightest lightning mode flashes slightly brighter
- 06-05: adjusted D4 ramp to exactly hit the 1x7135 level at step 4 of 7, also merged again from upstream fsm branch:
- changed from “press-on” to “release-on” button timing when doing a single click or a hold from off… this makes it easier to get the timing right for the shortcut to moon
- made button release timeout a bit faster, so the light shuts off slightly sooner after doing a single click
- added a user-configurable option to switch from automatic memory (default) to manual memory (starts at the same level each time)
- 06-06: thermal regulation improvements on D4
I need to add a few things to the UI diagram. It doesn’t have any info on how to configure aux LEDs, how to use manual memory, or how to do tint ramping. But if it helps, here is the latest version of the diagram. This picture will get updated periodically as I change things:
That sounds like the FET chip died or got disconnected. If it stops going up at the first ramp blink, that means it only goes up to the top of the amc7135 chip’s range. Then if it blinks 3 times every few seconds, that means it thinks the battery is low, so it steps down. But if there’s no change in brightness, it’s probably stepping from a high FET level down to a lower FET level… and with no FET, they look the same.
Could you try holding the button from off, for at least five seconds?
At a guess, what I’d expect to see from a dead FET is:
- Light turns on.
- Light ramps up.
- Short blink, then ramping stops.
- About 1.5 seconds later, the light turns off or goes to a slightly different level.
If it does this, it almost certainly has a dead or dying FET.
The ramp is divided into 150 steps:
- 1 to 65: 7135 chip only, moon to ~140 lm.
- 66 to 149: 7135 chip runs at 100%, FET chip ramps from minimum to maximum level.
- 150: FET chip only, 7135 chip shuts off.
So if there’s something wrong with the fet, that last level should look a little different.
From off, holding more than 5 seconds:
— ligh turns on
— light ramps up
— two short blinks, about a second apart, and no change in brightness
— after a few seconds, does 3 blinks three times, then dims slightly and settles down to steady brightness.
— Another button press-and-hold, and it gets briefly brighter, then ramps down.
I emailed Intl Outdoor and asked someone to take a look at the problem as described here.
There’s definitely something wrong with the hardware. It sounds like it might be a bad ground contact though. If ground is really weak somewhere, it would explain both the low brightness and the low-voltage warnings.
For that, I’d take the tailcap off, take the tube off, thoroughly clean both ends of the tube and the contact rings it touches on the head and tail, then screw it all back together extra-tight. And if that doesn’t help, it’s probably not fixable without a lot more work and possibly extra parts.
Something else which might be worth trying is to take off the tailcap and hold a piece of wire against the battery and the edge of the tube. Then check if the light can go brighter. If so, the problem is likely in the tailcap, like maybe the spring or PCB was damaged.
Bypassingthe tailcap didn’t help —- but as soon as I put the tailcap back on (which I’ve done several times previously today with cleaning) — lo, the turbo brightness has recovered. “What are you doing?!” I hear being asked from the next room ….
A bit flickery on turbo, and fairly quickly I got three blinks and stepdown.
From off, the double click for turbo gets me a bright flash, then off, then turbo brightness. Is that right?
Okay, it sounds like the light has difficulty with the ground connection… but otherwise is behaving normally.
It may still be a weak connection even at the brighter turbo though, if it’s giving a low-voltage warning. That shouldn’t happen until it has been on for quite a while, unless the battery is really weak or the ground contact is still very limited.
I don’t really know for sure, but it might help slightly if you can put a thin spacer ring between the driver and the front end of the battery tube. I’m not sure what would work best… a flattened wire, a very specific type of washer, maybe even foil cut into the right shape… but something like that might improve the connection. Or perhaps the issue is inside where you can’t reach it.
Hey all. I’m not sure if this has been mentioned, yet, but I am wondering what the throw and/or candela has been measured as for the SST-20 4000K version of the D4! Wondering how it will compare to my other D4s, in terms of throw, when it arrives. Cheers.
I just wish the same since pogo pin keys where discussed. I’m probably not the only one to be a bit lazy when you need to order different parts from different places. I don’t understand why flashlights manufacturer (Emisar, FireFlies, etc) are not selling those keys yet as a separate accessories which could be added to an order, like a pocket-clip or a battery. Please someone, make this happen !
I know, right?
OTOH, customs really seems to like packages with weird-looking sharp things inside. I’ve gotten two packages with pogo pin adapters, and both were opened by customs to figure out WTF the weird-looking thing inside was. So that might make things interesting for anyone who tries to sell such a thing.
They also seem to be somewhat difficult to make, since the soldering is very precise and involves both sides of the board.
Wait, so if I’ll ask hank for a D4 or D18 with the latest 06-06 Anduril firmware I’ll get it without muggle mode?
Mine has continued to behave properly (giving me turbo on 2-clicks) after a few days.
Thanks to all for the troubleshooting suggestions.
Now what if anything do I need to do, assuming it’s in stock condition as received —- do I need to do the thermal calibration?
If it’s behaving well, you shouldn’t need to change anything.
If it’s regulating down too early or too late for your taste, then you might want to do new thermal calibration. It’s a bit of a pain to fine-tune on the original D4 though, since it’s just “hold until hot” and the value it picks is subject to quite a bit of randomness… so it can take a few tries.
So if it’s behaving well enough, I’d probably just leave it as-is.
Yes
What was the original maximum for this? I cant remember if it was 100% on my Q8 or if I was tinkering with the code. I kinda like having full blast lightning mode.
FWIW, I think the D18 might actually still ship with muggle mode. That might change next time he makes a batch of drivers though.
About lightning mode, there was a bug where it could only go up to level 143/150. That’s fixed now, and it can go up to 150/150. The actual values are totally random though, so I doubt anyone would even notice a difference.