Andúril 2 coming to Sofirn - The general Sofirn development thread

Everything with charging for me.

They announced the Anduril Q8 version yesterday: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/52894/1222

https://sofirnlight.com/products/blf-q8-anduril-led-flashlight

Appears to be: No USB charging, same LED's I guess, new battery level indicator on side switch.

Yeap. Saw it the other day and had to do a double take. Pretty cool. Hope they adjusted the thermal settings for the q8. Wish they added built in charging though.

I'll be interested if it shows up on their Amazon store.

What thermal improvements are you looking for? I’ve haven’t identified such a need.

I’ve read that there are some flashlights that use versions of Andruil made for other flashlights, so they may end up having an early drop off from turbo without the light getting warm? I guess you could go in and reconfigure it afterwards. Just wondering how much they tested with the settings specifically for the Q8.

TK already had special config files for the Q8 with the proper thermal settings. Of course that doesn't mean Sofirn actually used it, but hoping Barry got the firmware from TK directly for the Q8, so would be guaranteed.

I see what you mean. You hope they updated Anduril for the Q8.

I originally thought you were looking for a thermal improvement from Narsil.

Yea, best I can tell, Sofirn has previously sold only 2 Anduril lights: The SP36 and LT1. Most likely 1 of 2 possibilities:

  • they used the SP36 firmware on the Q8 as-is
  • or they got the latest Anduril build from TK specifically for the Q8

Her thermal regulation algorithms are tweaked according to how the host can handle the heat - basically will it react faster or slower. The FW3A needs fast response because there's not much thermal mass considering the amps/LED's, while the Q8 has decent amount of mass for it's amps/LEDs.

I don’t know what code Sofirn used on the new Q8.

However, I’ve been rewriting all the thermal code (and voltage and ADC) over the past couple months, because some changes I made in November made the thermal response get a bit weird. Basically, I did a pretty large rewrite to fix some bugs which had been hanging around a long time, and the rewrite messed up the thermal behavior on some lights. So I rewrote that too.

I’ve finally got it at a point where it pretty much “just works” on every light I’ve tried it on, whether that’s a tiny hot rod or a large and more moderately-driven light… whether it’s 1, 2, or 3 power channels… and whether it’s regulated or direct-drive or a hybrid.

Anyway, here are the test results for a BLF Q8:


It may look odd, but the curve is pretty close to ideal for this type of light. It could be a little smoother, but the jagged parts aren’t actually visible during use. Each adjustment is pretty slow and gradual, and only looks steep due to the amount of time which passed during measurement.

The output gets higher as the voltage drops because of how linear drivers work. When the input voltage is high (full battery), there’s a big difference between that and the output voltage, so the difference is burned off as heat. But when the two voltages are close together (low battery), there’s less heat and it can instead produce more light. So it gets brighter as the battery drops, because it’s attempting to maintain a constant temperature.

During the entire graph, output sags over time because it’s running direct-drive, and if it was water-cooled it would produce a curve identical to the battery’s discharge curve. Basically, it keeps sagging more and more quickly as the charge drops. The algorithm then fights against that to keep output and temperature from falling too much.

Then near the end it reaches its highest level and the direct-drive decay curve takes over until low-voltage protection kicks in.

The code isn’t published yet, but that should be resolved very soon because I’m nearly done running tests.

Nice! Eagerly awaiting the hex files so can try flashing on my Q8…

I don’t consider it “stable” yet because it hasn’t had much testing… but if you don’t mind using brand new versions which have large and not-widely-tested changes, they’re on my dev builds page.

Hi Barry, I hope there will be new version of c01sb with three mode. A medium mode will be useful with more runtime.
C01S is already perfect in other way for me.

At my request, Barry added SP32A v2.0 host to the store. I like the look. After 84 days the package arrived and I am very disappointed.
This is total diy. Each part of this flashlight came separately. On the one hand, it’s great, but I was hoping that at least the button would be pressed into the body. I was thinking a bit about how to put it together and when I was able to solve the mistery I broke the plastic pin that was to be pressed into the black disc. I hit too hard or at the wrong angle (I used small hammer). The effect is that if I would like to put it together again I have to wait for the next shipment with this pin (I hope that there will be no problem with adding to the next order).
Barry.
Button should be factory-pressed into the body of the flashlight imho. The fact that we buy hosts means that we want to choose the driver, led and optics ourselves. Not that we want to assemble the flashlight from scratch. Not everyone has the right equipment for this type of task.
In addition, looking at the construction of this button, it turns out that it is not waterproof!
Another problem. The tube that press the driver is too short. Standard pcb is 1.6mm thick, and a minimum 2.2mm is needed for this flashlight.

This has happened before. Be careful what you wish for, specially with e-switch lights. Much easier for PCB mounted switches and standard size drivers.

The SC31B is a much better candidate, but on a deal it's so cheap, not sure a host version is worth it:

Running Anduril now:

Actually I take that back. I see the price at $5.49 - wow! Give me a SC31B host, preferably with the switch PCB for under $10 and I'd buy a bunch!

And

You’re just salty cause you broke the plastic pin.

Not only. Sofirn sells this flashlight guaranteeing IP68 protection (The waterproof level: in accordance with IP68 (Ingress Protection 68 - withstands dust, dirt and sand, resistant to submersion up to a maximum depth of 1.5 m underwater for up to 30 minutes)).
I doubt that it will withstand even IPx3.
If Sofirn intends to sell a completely dismantled flashlight, it should be prepared that the plastic part that is machine pressed can be damaged if folded in another way.

Pretty sure they sell the complete flashlight garanteeing IP protection, not the host which you (as you did) could screw up. Then again, I’m pretty sure they thought about that… isn’t there some sort of gasket to put in between? When I took apart mine (sp31) I remember there was something stopping water ingress.

If they had to be prepared for everything they couldn’t sell the host at all. The buyer is expected to have the nessasary tools and skills to assemble it… that’s the point of buying a host to play around with. Selling one to a person that, for example, can’t solder would be a waste of time.

Then again, It is good to know that it would be easier to have that part preassembled. But it’s kind of annoying if you list them as PROBLEMS when some are obviously to be expected (the driver thickness).

For the price of that host… Can’t really complain. $5.49…
Reminds me a lot of the old Thorfire I got “free for review” that I couldn’t stand. That entire style of switch is a hard pass for me. Completely destroys the ability to mod. Wouldn’t want to assemble, either, for reasons it seems you discovered…

Yeh, gone are the good ol’ days of removable pills, simple tailswitches, interchangeable parts, and easy modding. I still got an assload of drivers, LEDs, etc., for modding the old-timers, but newer lights are nigh impossible to mod simply. Gotta drill this, grind that, epoxy-fill something else… nah.

I switched from even buying C8s, S2+es, etc., just to mod, to just getting off-the-rack lights and leaving them bone-stock. Also cut down my expenses from buying “host” lights on a whim, to only those that I can live with unmodded.