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.
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.
From Toykeeper
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?
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
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.
Anduril 2 allows voltage calibrations in 0.05v increments.
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.
I think I remember someone saying they had 1000 pcs of the FA3 but they weren’t going to use them in the MF01S. They were saving them for another light or something.
on page 11 of this thread, it said astrolux had 1000 pieces of FA3, potentially for this light.
Has anyone ordered the aluminum w/copper head recently? Does it come with the plastic spacer insert around battery + or the new Brass spacer insert Astrolux has been using?
I’ve read in the threads that it was coming with plastic, but wondered if they updated the copper headed version like the did the all aluminum version, by adding the brass insert for better heat Mgmt
Also, I wonder if they will make the copper head version again once BG is all sold out? There aren’t many left in stock.
I ordered a aluminium with copper head in August 2020 and it came with a brass spacer.