TK's Emisar D4V2 review

Good to hear that the SST-20 3000K is more rosy in the D4v2 compared to the D4S. Then it should be pretty similar to the Kaidomain ones.

I have a 2700K SSt20 (below BBL line) from Kaidomain in a brass Lumintop IYP365 and I don’t find it rosy but far more orange with no green, its more pleasing and relaxing to the eyes but the light is even warmer so less ‘’bright’’ to use during daytime.

Its really nitpicking (also we don’t see colors the same way because we have different eyes). I like all of them unless its ugly cool white LEDs. :smiley:

I think the difference is only from the optic. A more flood light will be smoother and warmer.

If your sst-20s seem green, try it without the glass lens. Without it my D4S is much less green

I know I am a real tintsnob, but these don’t come close to the kaidomain LEDs.

Hopefully mine are just at the yellow side of the colour bin. Curious how you guys will find the tint when you receive it.

Just tried, still green.

Assuming Hank is using the same LEDs for building flashlight that he is also selling for parts, its the exact same LED. HB4 tint.

https://intl-outdoor.com/luminus-sst20-bare-led-p-936.html
Kaidomain 3000k LED

You should really try the 2700k version. If you want blue there is a 7500k version!

Yes I have a non ar-coated glass but I don’t even bother to replace it. The D4S is a bigger D4 meant for outdoor use, you can’t even notice the green on grass. :smiley:

I have them both in front of me. The kaidomain is rosy, the other is yellow with a bit of green. Can’t imagine they are the same led.

You sly dog! I never would have thought it possible to receive such a request.

I didn’t expect him to just say OK so easily too considering such customization adds to work and confusion during assembly. Let’s see if I actually get what I requested.

I ordered a D4S from Hank that way earlier this year and it arrived exactly as requested.

Hi i noticed 6 ramp stages when holding the button. can someone tell me how many lumens each step? thanks

I’d also be interested to know this. I’ve already changed my ramp config, but it’s still useful info.

Unrelated, let’s have a look inside the D4V2’s head:

hi . how did you change yours?

Can you still get the old D4? Because I really don’t like Anduril. I really hate it on my FW3A but I am too lazy to buy stuff necessary to flash it. I also don’t like aux light in there. Serves 0 purpose for my needs, adds to production cost, weight and provides an unnecessary point of failure. Should really be optional.

I welcome all the other changes though, good job there.

Unfortunately it looks like the original D4 is out of stock, and I really doubt it will become available again. People may be selling their original D4s if they’re buying V2s though, so keep an eye out for them I guess.

I quite like Andúril myself, as it has all the same basic features as Ramping IOS, with a load of extra goodies and customization hidden out of the way. The aux lights can be completely disabled too, though I understand your frustration at having to pay extra for them if you will never use them.

If you look at the Andúril UI flowchart, it shows you how to enter the ramp (or step) config mode. I set my ramp to go all the way from the lowest to the highest level, and my stepped levels to have three steps:
Floor = level 25 (~20 lumens)
Ceiling = level 105 (~1045 lumens)
Steps = 3
This means that the middle level is 65, which is fully regulated and quite efficient. (~150 lumens)

Totally impressed that anyone could actually feel the extra weight of a small PCB (which has more holes than surface area) and 8 SMD auxiliary lights. Those extra few grams are killer!

Oops, I still need to do that. I keep getting distracted.

It depends on the emitter type and tint, and the top half of the ramp also depends on the battery type, age, and charge level. Any numbers posted will be rough estimates at best.

The short version is:

  • Levels from 1 to 65 have regulated power ranging from 2 mA to 350 mA. The brightness goes from ~0.2 lm to ~130 lm. Runtimes go from 2 months to 8 hours.
  • Levels 66 to 150 also use a direct drive circuit so the power and brightness are less constant. Power use goes from 350 mA to ~20 A. Brightness goes from ~130 lm to ~4000 lm. Runtimes go from 8 hours to ~10 minutes.

In-between, it follows an “x^3” sort of curve, so a small change in brightness often makes a large difference in runtime. Going one step brighter than necessary may not look like much by eye, but it can cut runtime in half.

Mostly, it makes the ramp and the steps look like a fairly linear progression… on a perceptual scale. The actual numbers aren’t meant to be important. It’s meant to be easy to get the appropriate brightness for each task without having to care what the actual numbers are. If runtime is a concern, use the lowest sufficient brightness for each task, to get the highest runtime.

OTOH, I find I only need to recharge the battery every couple months even when I use the light a lot. So I mostly don’t have to care about runtime. YMMV though.

Those aux lights for me have the same effect as putting funny stickers and a keychain onto an EDC light. Completely unnecessary. But nice quote mining there!

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against aux lights in other lights I own, e.g the E07. But this is more of a shelf/look at it and drool light, not something I use as an actual EDC. I also see that many (probably most) people here love their aux leds everywhere but I simply personally don’t like the “AUX LIGHT EVERY FLASHLIGHT!!!” movement I feel is going on in recent times.

What I don’t like I about Anduril is the amount of stuff I don’t need and I can activate by accident on the one hand and that stuff I use often is overcomplicated in a way that does not suit my personal needs on the other. An example of both would be momentary mode, which I use quite often as default when I am outside at night. First of all it is easy to get into muggle mode accidentially - 6 instead of 5 clicks, and confirmation is a single flash of the light in both cases so you don’t know you made a mistake unless you want to use it. Not possible with the original D4 firmware, momentary is only 4 clicks with nothing mapped to 5 clicks and being confirmed by 3 short flashes.
And I also want it to be on turbo every time. I have no need for any other mode. But TK made it so that momentary is the brightness of the regular level you used last. So after you noticed your mistake by testing it, I have to unscrew the bezel because unlike D4 there is no way out of momentary. Then I have to manually ramp the brightness up to turbo (double tap to turbo is not working for this), turn the light off (because unlike D4 momentary can only be reached from off state), press the button 5 times to get the same result I get on the D4 by simply clicking 4 times (regardless of if the light was on or off).

So in short, the original D4 firmware fits my needs much better. Which also brings me to the (maybe off-topic) question if the original D4 firmware can be flashed onto the FW3A.

So you want Hank to manufacture and sell a whole other product just to meet your very specific use cases?

Sorry, if most customers didn’t want Anduril I don’t think they would have made the change.

The D4v1 was available to buy for a looong time.

Just means we need those flashing boards! If he can write a wall of text he can flash his to his preferences. (And maybe something better than both with a few code changes)