The FW3A (and presumably other related models) has a lot of variability from one light to the next. One of the things which differs is how it responds to having the front half loosened. On some, itāll cut power in a quarter turnā¦ while on others, it must be unscrewed completely off. I have examples of both in my collection.
Soā¦ yeah, sometimes soft lockout is the only option.
Iāve pondered whether lockout should be on 3 clicks instead of 4, to make it faster to enter/exit. Then I guess battcheck would be on 4 clicks. Not sure if thatās how it should be though, or if the current setup is better. However, it would definitely be one of the more difficult changes to get accustomed to. I know weāre breaking backward compatibility here, but swapping those two seems like it would be particularly annoying for anyone who has lights of both the old and new versions. Weād trip over it constantly.
This definitely sounds like a good idea, hoping that I can flash my D4V2 flashlights with this new Anduril.
I can also vouch for a more subtle candle mode, itās a bit too violent at times.
It can also be a bit repetitive, but thatās probably a memory limitation.
Although itās a lot better than many flickering LED candles Iāve seen.
No doubt Anduril is the best flashlight UI made so far, I rarely justify buying a light without it. If so, the light should be pretty special (like Nitecore TUP with the OLED display).
Candle mode could definitely benefit from higher resolution in the brightness rampā¦ and more frames per secondā¦ and some adjustments to the overall algorithm. It also varies from one light to another, since the underlying ramp is different. I try to adjust it to be fairly consistent, but it doesnāt always come out quite right.
About low/med/high/off, thatās possible by using the stepped ramp. Set it to 3 steps. Itāll still have the blinkies and other modes available thoughā¦
ā¦ so thereās also a simple UI, and it inherits the ramp style (smooth/stepped) of the full UI. It just has safer limits and most of the other modes and functions are blocked. The code for that isnāt published yet though; Iām still working on it.
I would also like a very robust simple mode where 1C and 1H dont make any difference. Nothing else, no ramping, no lockout or any click sequence that may make the flashlight behave strange. Simple enough that you understand it after just a few clicks.
An option to set the UI just on/off to a safe but useful level - like good old lights, would be just enough in some instances.
PS: and if it was possible to make the light flicker when you shake it it would be perfect!
For a āsimpleā mode that is easy for muggles, a lockout mode presents the possibility of accidental lockout. And a muggle might never figure out what went wrong, and assume the light has died.
Thatās why Iām not sure if lockout should be included in the simple UI.
However, I donāt think theyāll assume it died, because the LED turns on while the button is pressed. It just doesnāt stay on. And if they loosen / tighten the tailcap, it exits back to the regular non-locked āoffā mode.
I may try to rework the ramping code a bit to allow for a single-brightness ramp. It might be a bit of a pain to configure, but afterward it should be able to do just on/off without changing brightness.
Itāll probably still have the battery check available though, and maybe lockoutā¦ so itās not quite a 1-function lightā¦ but at least sort of similar.
I would support that change, despite the potential for confusion. (And I think a lot of us will upgrade most or all of our lights once the new version is out, which will help.)
For reasons I cannot adequately explain, I can do a very fast triple-click every time, but four clicks is either much slower or a lot less consistent. I asked a couple of other people to try it too and they had similar results. Doubles and triples seem to be built into the human nervous system, at least for some people, while anything beyond that requires counting. Does anyone else have a similar experience?
So moving lockout from 4C to 3C would actually make a big difference, at least to some of us.
I realize this is crazy talk, but my ideal version of Anduril would have configuration options to enable or disable access to almost every feature from āsimple modeā individually. It would let people create the interface they want to use while eliminating anything that might cause confusion. (Note: I would still limit all configuration options, including these, to the advanced mode.)
Features I would make selectable include:
Moonlight Shortcut
Turbo Shortcut
Ramp vs Step Toggle
Lockout
Momentary Mode
Blinky Group
Strobe Group
It would be even cooler to have control over individual options within the groups, but that is probably going too far.
I have no idea how hard it would be to implement something like that, but it would sure be fun to have.
Iāve heard from a couple people that they canāt reliably get 4 clicks or anything above. Like, thereās a difficulty with counting the clicks at the same time as actually doing them. Thatās part of the reason for removing extra functions, so itāll be harder to hit the wrong function by accident.
I havenāt really had difficulty with it, but I donāt really countā¦ I treat it more like a musical instrument than like a counter. This makes it fairly easy to count pretty high without really paying attention, as long as the desired end number lines up with a musical phrase or a song. Like, if something needs a count of 96, thatās easyā¦ just play a song in my head which has 96 total beats (usually 3 sets of 4x8 beats), and at the end of the song Iāll have the correct count. Need to count to 400? Same thingā¦ just go through the song 4 times, and then add 2 extra 8-beat measures.
For a flashlight-specific example, thereās the factory reset function on 13H. For that, counting is hard but rhythm is easy. It lines up perfectly with the beginning of a song from DOOM:
Or another easy way to count it is more like 1234 1234 1234 5ā¦ or a rhythmic version of the same:
In the config modes, if I need to enter a large number and it doesnāt line up with a song, Iāll usually just break it into groups of 10. Like, a count of 31 is easy since itās 1 less than a song pattern so I can just stop one note short of the end. But if I wanted 52 or something else that doesnāt line up easilyā¦ so Iād count it out in a more traditional way:
Iām not sure what methods other people use though. It seems like actually counting would be difficult, but there are usually easy ways to count short sequences without explicitly thinking the numbers.
Would it be possible to have a āversion checkā similar to ābattery checkā ? There seems to be no simple way to determine what version of Anduril is on the flashlight.
I donāt think that will fit on most attiny85 hosts, but it could be done on chips with more space.
The way it works now is, in a few of the modes (like āoffā and ārampā), it checks for button presses which are supported in simple modeā¦ then if simple mode is enabled, it returns. If simple mode is not active, it then checks for button presses which are only allowed in advanced mode.
This could be changed to instead check for simple mode and the specific featureās simple-mode toggle, on each button press. It would increase the code size though, and require several extra vars stored in eeprom, and a much longer config mode of some sort to let the user set each option.
So itās doable, but a bit messy and probably wonāt fit at the same time as other stuff Iām hoping to add.
I think you should be able to set the max temp by holding the light until it gets too hot, then turning it off, like some other firmwares. I found the temp settings difficult to calibrate for some lights. Also, yea the framerate for candle mode needs to be higher. You might also adjust the range so it doesnāt flicker quite as high when its turned down. At higher brightness this is not as much of an issue.