Has anyone successfully been able to change the thermal configuration for the step down? I been reading and watching videos on how to do this. But no matter what I do, nuthin has changed….light steps down from turbo after 10 seconds each and every single time. Any help is appreciated. Thanks all
Ha there! I've been changing them:
- be sure the light settles to approx. room temperature
- go to the temperature readout mode (called TempCheck on the diagrams)
- click quickly 4 times to get into thermal configuration mode
- the light should flicker, like strobe mode - you only got a few secs to start, but while it's strobing, click the # of times you want to set the temperature to. For example, click 20 times to set 20C. These clicks don't have to be quick - it's just the total # of clicks that count.
- Once you stop clicking, it will timeout in a few seconds, then the strobe will start again. Now you want to set the max temp for thermal regulation. If you want to max it out, click 40 times (sets 70C as the max temp). Again, it will timeout after you stop clicking, and don't worry if you click more than 40 times - it will still act as if you clicked 40 times to set the max temp to 70C.
You can confirm the current temperature right away, because as soon as the 2nd strobe finishes, the light returns to blinking the current temperature. If you set 20C, it should now blink out 20 or 21 or so. Unfortunately you can't confirm the max temperature setting.
Now if this 70C doesn't work for you, you can do some cheat'n -- . Repeat the steps above, but instead of setting 20C as the current temperature, click only 5 times for 5C. This will effectively raise your max limit to 85C, though your current temperature will be calibrated 15C low. So the good thing about this is the light will start to temp regulate at what it thinks is 70C but is really 85C.
Let's see if that works...
Thanks Tom e but still no luck. I even tried cheatin the thermal u mentioned. I think there’s just a defect with these mf01 mini drivers.
There are kinda question.
In reviews, current in maximum ramp level is around 5A. And in maximum ramp level there are trouble with 7135 overheating
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But regulated current is 2.4A. This is 6th level of ramping, not 7th! So, what s the connection between 7135 overheating and 7th level step downs, if on 7th level NO 7135 used, but something PWM from FET.
??
You are making a wrong assumption here. 7th level uses 7135 chips at 100% duty cycle. Only at max Turbo output do the 7135 chips turn off.
Lets look here
On the 7th level the current is 5А. But 7*7135 can’t provide this. That’s mean, that FET used. Correct?
On the 6th level we got 2.4a, that mean that on 6th level we should have save stepdown too.
Even if we have mixed FET+7135 mode on 7th level, how it is regulated? If we have current down from 7135, FET should increase current from itself to get overall 5A, is not it?
I will explain smooth ramping from moonlight up to Turbo. Let’s assume you set the top of ramp to Turbo so smooth ramping goes the full range of brightness. (BTW, this is how all the Texas Avenger based drivers work)
This MF01 mini has 3 channels. 1x6xFET
Channel 1 is a single 7135 chip (can provide up to .35A)
Channel 2 has six 7135 chips (can provide up to 2.1A)
Channel 3 is FET. (can provide well over 30A, other components will limit it.)
So at moonlight ch 1 uses a very low PWM signal, 1% maybe, to create very low output. This PWM signal gets higher as we ramp up. At 100% PWM duty cycle on ch 1 the single 7135 chip puts out .35A or 350mA.
As we continue to ramp up, ch 1 stays at 100% and ch 2 will be added in at a very low duty cycle (a few percent to make a smooth tint transition).
As brightness increases ch 2 continues to go higher in it’s duty cycle. When it gets to 100, ch 3 (the FET) will start adding in more current at a few percent duty cycle. At this point ch 1 and 2 both stay at 100 and the FET will climb up in duty cycle to 99%.
Only at 100% (TURBO) do ch 1 and 2 turn off. There is a small performance increase by turning off the other channels.
The reason the lower channels stay at 100% is to have a smooth transition as far as tint is concerned. For example, on a stock light with 7 steps, step 6 is a regulated 2.4A (total of seven 7135 chips running at 100% PWM duty cycle). If step 7 were to turn off ch 1 and 2 and make the FET do 5A, you would see a big tint shift. It would be even more noticable with smooth ramping as the tint would suddenly shift at the 2.4A to 2.45 range. People would complain.
With 3 channels there are 3 distinct tints.
Channel 1 has the tint of .35A. Toykeeper says the tint doesnt change due to the small range of current.
Channel 2 has the tint of 2.4A which changes a small amount due to the brightness change.
Then the FET has a tint of 15-17A which changes a small amount due to the brightness change.
So to smooth the transitions from each channel the ch 1 7135 chip stays turned on at 100% as ch 2 starts adding power and all seven 7135 chips stay at 100% as the FET starts adding power. This helps the different tints to more slowly be combined and look nicer to the eye.
To answer your last question, level 7 is not fully regulated. Only levels 6 and below are fully regulated.
Thanks Tom e but still no luck. I even tried cheatin the thermal u mentioned. I think there’s just a defect with these mf01 mini drivers.
Missed these posts for some reason. That's kind of strange. After these changes, how soon does it drop out of max/turbo? And what cell/charge level are you using?
Bonus!
Here is a video Toykeeper made showing the tint change between a single 7135 chip and a FET. It uses special software to cycle between 100% of the 7135 chip and about .35A on the FET. This means they are the same brightness level. The light on the right switches back and forth between the two channels every half second. The light on the left is just a reference to keep the camera from trying to compensate for the tint change. This big tint shift is what you would see if you ramp up smoothly and the 7135 chips turned off as the FET took over. I’m pretty sure people would complain.
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So the 7135 is more green than the FET? I could not tell which is which. Is it LED dependent? For example, SST-20 vs. LH351D vs. XPL-HI vs. SST-40 for example?
If the 7135 is more green, than a single channel FET Anduril driver would be the best tint option? At the lower output levels, Anduril will lower the clock speed, so "I think" this means more stable output from a FET at low output PWM levels. In NarsilM, i didn't lower the clock speeds and had trouble with the ramping being smooth on a FET only driver. I was fiddling with single FET drivers on the 6V extremely high amp modded lights I was working with.
For reference, the BLF A6 light in the video is a FET+1 design.
So the 7135 is more green than the FET? I could not tell which is which.
Yes, the 7135 only is giving you tint you would see at .35 amp.The FET only is giving you tint you would see at maybe 7 amp (or whatever amperage that led would normally pull on Turbo in that light).
I’m not sure what led the BLF A6 in the video has, but let’s say it’s a 5500K XPL which will look greenish at .35 amp and bluish at 7 amp.
Is it LED dependent?
Yes, it depends a lot on the led. Every led will have a different tint between .35 amp and 7 amp. Some have a bigger difference than others.If the 7135 is more green, than a single channel FET Anduril driver would be the best tint option?
Yes, you would get much more stable tint based around it’s tint at 7 amps. It will still change a tiny bit due to the brightness change, but overall it will look stable. If tint is most important to you, then a single channel FET driver is the best option.
From Toykeeper
The current at any given moment is either 350mA or zero (on channel 1 of a FET+1 driver) . So it stays the same color, regardless of brightness. However, start mixing in FET pulses and it makes the current change. So then the color changes too, in proportion to the amount of time the FET is on.
From 0 to 350mA average power, it mixes black and the 350mA tint… let’s call that 4500K. It changes in brightness, but not color. Then between 350mA and Turbo, it mixes the two white tints… like 4500K and 5500K. So the tint changes from one to the other as the mixture changes. It changes in both brightness and color.
There can also be some odd effects at the very bottom of the 350mA range though, since each pulse spends a bit of time at in-between currents during the leading and trailing edge of the pulse. So the tint can actually change a bit on moon mode. I think people like DEL have posted scope graphs of this effect, but I’m not sure where those posts are.
They sure jacked the prices up on these unless you order the 1 model/color/temp that is shipping from the US. Thats too bad. And the coupon expired. Oh well.
They sure jacked the prices up on these unless you order the 1 model/color/temp that is shipping from the US. Thats too bad. And the coupon expired. Oh well.
probably due to corona virus, everything will rise in prices sadly now.
Oh, thanks Jason for the replies above!
Jason and All, has anyone seen an official Runtime chart for the Mini? Or do they not exist for ramping lights?
We talk about the poor runtimes on Turbo due to the inadequate heat handling with many, including myself, reporting 30 secs or less. But this is compared to what? Has Astrolux ever claimed that Turbo should last longer than that?
I am aware of MoL’s mod plate and installed it in my two Minis. But are there official runtimes we can compare our before and after results to? Are we meeting spec? How would we know?
Jason and All, has anyone seen an official Runtime chart for the Mini? Or do they not exist for ramping lights?
We talk about the poor runtimes on Turbo due to the inadequate heat handling with many, including myself, reporting 30 secs or less. But this is compared to what? Has Astrolux ever claimed that Turbo should last longer than that?
I am aware of MoL’s mod plate and installed it in my two Minis. But are there official runtimes we can compare our before and after results to? Are we meeting spec? How would we know?
There are no official run time specs. The mini uses a FET driver so both brightness and Turbo runtime is influenced by what leds it has and what battery you use.
I just tested two Vapcell 26650 4200mah, and it is better than the Golisi 4300mah and any other rewraps of the same YDL 26650 high current cell
Tested the Vapcell 26650 4200mah and got this: 4,474mah and 4,361mah In comparison the Golisi 4300mah, which is a rewrap of the same YDL cell, measures: 4242mah and 4,146mah Tested output in a Copper MF01 Mini SST-20 4000K with UCL lens at 2s: Vapcell 4,474mah battery: got 4,410 lumens Vapcell 4,361mah battery: got 4,480 lumens Golisi measured 4,362 lumens See here for past test results on the MF01 Mini Vapcell got the best batch of the 26650 YDL cells compared to the competition, which…
So the 7135 is more green than the FET? I could not tell which is which. Is it LED dependent? For example, SST-20 vs. LH351D vs. XPL-HI vs. SST-40 for example?
If the 7135 is more green, than a single channel FET Anduril driver would be the best tint option?
In general, a 7135 chip at 350mA will be warmer than a FET using PWM to get an average of 350mA. On many LEDs, like SST-20 and LH351D, the 7135 chip will also be more green. Those LEDs get lower duv as the current increases, but not all LEDs follow that pattern.
So if you want the tint of a SST-20 or LH351D light to be colder and less green, using just the FET can be an effective solution.
However, it’ll also reduce efficiency, make the output not flat, make the bottom of the ramp really coarse, eliminate moon mode, and might age the LEDs faster. But it can still be worthwhile to get rid of the green tint.
So there is no option to calibrate volage within Anduril menu itself (I know I cant have everything, its a fucking amazing UI). Well its just a bummer the 0.1V difference is nothing catastrophic, but 0.3-0.4V is 10%… Hmm, wish there was a calibration option in anduril, like the ability to add substract +/- 0.1V. or insert a measured 4.2V battery and have an option to set “this value you are measuring is 4.2V”. I should go and beg ToyKeeper to add something like that into new versions of Anduril.
Anduril 2 allows voltage calibrations in 0.05v increments.
What’s Your Favorite?
OK… i know i am 2 years late to this, but the MF01 mini is easily one of my favorite lights and i just started reading this to find whcih Bin sst20 4000k was used. was it FA3? or FD2 by the way?
I like my silver version a lot, and i want the green. But HOW, HOW did blue or purple or red not happen? they look SO GOOD. makes me want to buy some more silver and anodize them myself… If taking the head apart wasn’t so difficult… OK, im done with my complaining.