The There Are No Stupid Questions Thread

Off-topic Chatter
900

Not exactly. It is the “There are no stupid questions” thread, so stupid questions are allowed, but it says nothing about permitting stupid answers. Take this answer of mine as an example, it is not allowed. Belongs in the Joke of the Day thread, maybe.

901

Ask a stupid question...

Get a stupid answer!

902

I'd re-read the OP.

903

To clarify, I was saying my post is stupid, not yours. I will edit to make that clear.

904

What’s the highest CRI LED I can buy on a 20mm star, and where can I buy it?

I’ve got too many cool white lights accumulated over the years. Time to fix them.

905

SST-20 4000K and below has the higher CRI and R9 of any emitter you can find installed on a star AFAIK.

Kaidomain and others might be selling some 291Bs mounted but IDK what bin they are.

906

Thank you

907

I had two questions, but a read of the original post answered one question. So here’s my second question: why is it that small gas engines are so much noisier than large gas engines?

908

You might think the smaller engine is noisier because it’s usually higher pitched. Humans don’t hear sound linearly. We have what’s called Flecther Munsun Curves. We are less sensitive to lower frequencies so a larger piston tends to sound deeper and quieter while a smaller piston is more “whiny” and louder.

Also, smaller engines tend to have smaller mufflers so as not to reduce too much power.

These are some general reasons.

909

https://www.virence.com/
Availability might be tricky, but I think he’d scoff at SST-20s.

910

FOR MY QUESTION:

This may not be budget but will just change the lens to black one, https://www.allmoparparts.com/sku/264274bk.html. It is from Recon and the price is not too nice and would it be a best choice for a recon light? Also, not sure if it legal to have one lens to be black and the other white…but would hope I can do that.

911

I would see what the cutoff pattern looks like. I’ve seen a lot of jeeps with projectors that just glared oncoming traffic like crazy. If these give you a sharp cutoff pattern and they are adjusted right, they might be okay.

912

Oof, how could I forget about Virence?!

To add to the reasons given usually a large engine will often simply have more material around it to soak up noise and vibration too.

913

Virence doesn’t appear to have flashlight-sized and -shaped LEDs, unless I’m misunderstanding the pages there.
I’d be looking for 20mm stars to drop into existing flashlights replacing the cold blue stock emitters.
His page seems to offer the largish square emitters which wouldn’t work with normal reflectors.

Virence’s CRI offerings do seem to be better than anything I’m aware of.

914

144A is a straight swap for an XHP50/50.2, 219 and 319 are 3535 pad. Optisolis and E21A are similar to XP-E or smaller and work well in small lights that have low current like AAA keychain plus he also has “quadtrix” boards for them that allow 4 to be mounted very close together and centered in a large enough reflector or TIR in an S2, Skilhunt H03 and similar.

915

Think that was a feature I had in Narsil - is that what it's running?

916

Yeh. I grabbed the narsim .pdf, and in the “advanced configuration” table at the extreme-right, the 2nd option is battery-level by indicator-light only.

Gotta follow the blue arrows, I don’t wanna try “interpreting” it and have you initiate the self-destruct feature.

917

I don't have a NarsilM light here to test it with, but here it goes:

  • go into battery check mode (from OFF, triple click)
  • confirm you are there - should blink 4x, then 1x for 4.1V, etc.
  • press&hold the switch til you see 2 fast blinks, and them one blink slowly
  • don't press anything, wait til it times out and blinks twice fast again, then twice slowly (skip setting #1)
  • now click the switch twice (selects enable for using the Indicator LED only, setting #2)
  • now wait it out til it finishes setting #3 (don't press the switch), finished with 4 quick blinks

That's All! Good Luck!

918

Reminds me of the "Baby Groot" scene "Don't Push This Button" in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (One minute long YouTube link below):

919

Ok, go back into the advance configuration - first 3 steps only. Don't press anything, but watch how it works - should be 3 settings, watch the blinks, see how it works. Keep in mind the setting you want to change is setting #2, the middle one. Each setting will timeout, then go to the next, when all done it will blink 4 times fast.

So another words, just see how it works -- don't change anything yet. If you feel comfortable recognizing the 3 distinct settings, then we can try setting them.

2 clicks enable, 1 click disables. I think you disabled setting #3 possibly.

So to fix it, you want to enable setting #2 and setting #3. Below is the snippet form the original Q8 manual (.doc file). Not sure, but think this is my version, or based on my version (what I wrote). Hope this all helps!

Configuration UI Operation

For Ramping, hold the button for 8 seconds, and for Mode Sets, hold the button for 3.2 seconds to activate the main Configuration UI settings. The light blinks 2 times quickly, and once slowly to indicate Configuration UI mode is active. As listed below, you can change or leave any of these settings – there’s no need to set each one. Clicks choose the value for each setting, and each click will blink the light to acknowledge the click. If you disable Ramping, then the next setting will be #2 under Mode Sets, and vice versa. If no clicks are entered in 3.5 seconds, the light jumps to the next configuration setting indicated by 2 quick blinks and slow blinks of the number for what setting it is (ex: 3 slow blinks means the 3rd setting). You can bypass the timeout by doing a press&hold to skip to the next setting. If you continue to hold it, it will exit configuration UI settings mode altogether, indicated by 4 quick blinks.

For thermal stepdown, the main LEDs will go to max output, if you click in under 5 secs, the set temperature will be unaffected, but more than 5 secs, the current temperature reading will be recorded as the new temperature to use for the stepdown – be sure you set it high enough – light should be hot enough to barely hold, or even hotter. Factory default temperature is 55C, but calibration will vary from unit to unit. When timed stepdown is chosen, it will blink, prompting to enter the choice of time, 1-7 clicks as described below.

To reset settings to factory defaults, in firmware version # display, press&hold for at least 1.2 seconds.

Configuration Settings – Ramping

Setting #

Function

Clicks

Defaults

1

Ramping Mode

1=disable, 2=enable

2

2

Set Moonlight Level

1 - 7 (PWM value)

3

3

Thermal/timed stepdown

1=disable, 2= Temperature, 3=timed

Timed: 1=60secs, 2=90secs, 3=2 mins, 4=3 mins, 5=5 mins, 6=7 mins

3-4

4

Blinky mode

1=disable, 2=one strobe, 3=all strobes/beacons

3

Configuration Settings – Mode Sets

Setting #

Function

Clicks

Defaults

1

Ramping Mode

1=disable, 2=enable

2

2

Choose Mode Set

1-12 (1-7 is # of modes) – see Mode Sets

4

3

Moon Mode

1=disable, 2=enable

2

4

Mode ordering

1= sets loàhi, 2=sets hiàlo

1

5

Mode Memory

1=disable, 2=enable

1

6

Set Moonlight Level

1 - 7 (PWM value)

3

7

Thermal/timed stepdown

1=disable, 2= Temperature, 3=timed

Timed: 1=60secs, 2=90secs, 3=2 mins, 4=3 mins, 5=5 mins, 6=7 mins

3-4

8

Blinky mode

1=disable, 2=one strobe, 3=all strobes/beacons

3

Advanced Configuration UI Operation

Activated from Battery Check mode by doing a press&hold for at least 1.2 seconds. The light blinks twice quickly, and once slowly. 3 settings summarized below, and operates the same as the main configuration UI.

Setting #

Function

Clicks

Defaults

1

Locator LED feature

1=disable, 2=enable

2

2

Battery level Indicator LED Only

1=disable, 2=enable

1

3

Indicator LED Enable

1=disable, 2=enable

2