Ok, I think I understand what you’re suggesting - the low channel tops out around the lowest stable level of the 5A channel.
I was thinking of using a 1x7135 channel full range, then either switching on the 5A channel in parallel as is done in 1+N x 7135 drivers. Alternately, if the different driver types don’t play well in parallel, then once the first channel reaches 350mA, the next step turns off the 7135 and turns on the 5A driver at the next logical step above 350mA.
But I hadn’t thought through what that would imply for the ramp resolution or scaling.
SKV89, thank you for sharing all those measurements.
I was under the assumption that 16x E21A mules would be limited to 7.5A CC only, and there would be no direct drive, because it isn’t safe. I am surprised that direct drive is enabled. Are you sure it is safe to use Molicel P26A for this?
I cleaned the contacts, and actually very lightly sanded them to make sure there’s nothing blocking the connection surface, but the flicker is still there. Now, when I say flicker, it’s very subtle. It’s only really noticeable when you’re not moving the beam.
I tried varying the floor from 1/150 to 3/150, and the flicker is evident on 1/150 and 2/150, as expected.
When moving it to 3/150, though, it’s as if the very low level flicker from 1/150 and 2/150 is still there, but is masked by the higher brightness of 3/150. I hope that makes sense.
It’s tolerable, I guess, but it’s also annoying when I notice it, and just knowing that one of my favorite lights isn’t stable at moonlight drives me mildly nuts since I use it every night.
Do you think there’s anything on the code side that could be done to eliminate this? I’m not familiar with the coding at a hardware level.
Thanks, again.
Edit: Would increasing the clock speed at level 3/150 make a difference? Or, maybe just disabling dynamic underclocking would be a reasonable test.
Yes, it makes sense… and is quite possibly what’s happening. There’s going to be a little bit of ripple. Let’s say there’s 1 unit of ripple. At a brightness of 2, it’ll be pretty noticeable as it ripples from 1 to 3. But at a brightness of 100, it’s not noticeable since it only goes from 99 to 101.
Lowering the clock speed threshold level might help a little, or it might not… it’s hard to tell without trying it on affected hardware, and I don’t have affected hardware.
Regardless, I sent Hank an idea for how to improve the low levels. I also posted it here a few comments ago. I don’t know if it’ll happen, but it’s at least being discussed.
I’ll most likely test switching off dynamic underclocking or lowering the threshold, but it will probably be a week or two. I’ll be sure to report back.
Just got my KR1, but just isn’t able to turn it on. I’ve tightened both head and tail of the light as much as I could and cleaned the sleeve from burrs using paper. It seems to be doing the factory reset just like this:
If it’s doing the factory reset, I’d say the inner tube is making at least some contact.
Did you also clean the contact surfaces (ends of tubes)? Generally, I clean them with alcohol on a cotton swab, but the contact surfaces of one of my KR4 tubes had to be very lightly sanded to fix a connection problem.
Also, on the KR’s I think it’s best to carefully tighten the head first. Once you get it working reliably, leave the head alone for battery changes.
That means the outer tube isn’t making contact. It might help to make sure there is nothing blocking either end of the outer tube, like stray bits of anodizing which might not have been removed, or anything else stuck on the ends of the tube or the outer contact surfaces in the head or the tail. Also, try to make sure the big spring in the head isn’t getting in the way.
Then make sure to tighten the tube to the head before tightening the tail. It shouldn’t need to be super tight.
Also, totally off topic, but… It’s not often I see “Posts: 1” on an account 6 years old. How did that happen? Often times, people will respond with a “welcome to BLF” message when someone makes their first post, but I’m not sure that works when so much time passed between creating an account and writing a first comment.
