Sounds serious,
Call Judge Judy.
Can you PM me her number?
[quote=Stereodude]
What are you, the USB-C Police? There’s plenty of devices out there that use the USB-C connector without complying with the USB-C standard, just like there are plenty of USB Micro devices in the same boat.
Can you do us all a favor and read the BLF LT thread? The original light was designed with USB Micro, people asked for a change to a USB-C port for durability reasons, not USB-C compliance reasons. Should it have been brought up that since they would be using a USB-C port that it should also be USB-C charge compliant? Sure, but that wasn’t what was requested during the design phase of this crowdsourced, foreign manufactured light. It would be a mistake if USB-C compliant charging was a design requirement however in this case it was not. Now, since the church of USB-C demands it, the capability will be built into a forthcoming light. This however is a NEW FEATURE.
Once again, if this USB-C issue is such a giant problem just don’t buy the light, wait for it to come with the features you require.
Thanks for moving the whining to this separate thread.
I like being able to get my morning dose in concentrated form.
Oh, the humanity!
Stereodude, if you don’t like it don’t buy it or better yet go design your own usb-c compliant lantern if you want one so badly. Just stop complaining. Did you rant to the Raspberry Pi Foundation about how the rpi4 wasn’t 100% usb-c protocol compliant too?
Usb-a will never go away, usb-c is just another standard now alongside it like how the xkcd comic points out.
People made assumptions. People designing the light, people manufacturing the light, and people playing along at home all had different levels of knowledge of USB C and most did not understand how complicated it is. Everybody is learning more and that’s a good thing. Apple still hasn’t committed and the lantern doesn’t have a lightning port. And that is a good thing.
Sorry, but you’re wrong. Using the USB-C connector does NOT imply adherence to any of the protocol or charging standards on the backend. That’s even the official stance of the USB standards organization. The connector is just that, a way of connecting a cable to a device, nothing more.
Get over it.
I’m more upset about how my phone’s USB C Port is only USB 2.0.
Yes.
There are two stanards at play here I believe.
The USB-C mechanical design is one and the other is the USB version; 2. 3. 3.1 whatever
Perhaps our amateur lantern should not be sold to anyone who believes they themselves are professional grade. :person_facepalming:
Chill. This is not the only device with a C type USB port that fails on some tech point. It wasn’t the first, it won’t be the last.
Name 1 light which does this.
The SP36 and FT03 and several others experience the same issue.
I followed the Lantern thread from the first post. They delivered more than was promised originally with ONE exception: The out the door cost was desired (note I didn’t say promised) to be $40. That target was missed. I’m happy with the lantern and want to thank all of you folks that did the heavy lifting (and Sofirn as well). The budget part of the project was how much money you non-paid volunteers made on your hard work:-) (I’m joking… joking!!!)
Thank you all so much! Love the lantern, and the BLF wrapped batteries AmishBill did too are a fantastic addition. Great stuff!
Wellp, as long as it doesn’t spew toxic chemicals throughout your entire house when trying to charge it… 
Not only is the USB-C “totally wrong” the new Tesla pickup truck is ugly!!
Agreed that the target was missed, however in their defence, that target was set before a significant number of features were finalized. If I’m not mistaken, that target was set while the LED count was only 2 (maybe 4) and of a single color temperature. It was set before a charging circuit was decided upon. It was set before Toykeeper even developed the awesome features like candle, sunset and lightning…
I’m 100% fine with the slight bump in price considering all the awesome features I recieved. Given the choice I would have paid WAY more than what I did for the extra features that this lantern included.
correct. :+1: The 40-dollar original target was for a more basic design similar to the original V1 and V2 prototypes, (no tint ramping, only 2 or 4 LEDs, (the LT1 has 8) no configuration for charging rates and amp-draw rates, and a more basic firmware & driver, no button LED, and a standard 5-volt only USB micro charging.
Ok, enough whining, more doing. My LT1 arrived this morning, and before even switching it on for the first time, I modded it to solve the USB issue.
High-res gallery:
The USB specs demand CC1 and CC2 to be connected to ground with one 5.1kohm 10% resistor each.
Source:
!https://www.microchip.com/wwwAppNotes/AppNotes.aspx?appnote=en574276
Here are the locations of the respecive contact pins:
Source:
Here’ what I did:
First, remove the driver board by unscrewing the retaining bolts and untwisting the twisted wires:
I carefully soldered 0.05mm² wires to CC1 and CC2. Not my proudest joints, but a firm tug confirmed a connection, and a DMM said the adjacent contacts did not get connected by accident. I used a Quicko T12 station with KF tip. Highly recommended.
To connect to ground, I did not use those tiny USB contacts, but a contact from a driver which happens to be connected to ground as well:
Next, I built a resistor. I carefully matched 3.3k and 1.8k resistors to get exactly 5.1kohm with about 1% tolerance. I took a slice of prototype strip board to mount the resistors on:
After tinning the boadd, I “glued” the resistors on top using what I assume to be AMTEC-NC-599 flux, If I was not defrauded:
I heated up the assembly with my 858D rework station:
I soldered on the wires:
I put it in clear shrink tube to avoid shorts, and glued it to a free place on the driver PCB using RTV silicone. The black wire could use some more slack though:
The wires get twisted and the driver bolted back on afterwards.
The only problem is that I cannot test it, as I do not have any USB C output device right now. Maybe I will check with the IT hardware guy in the new year.
Superb!!!