Lume1-FW3X: Constant Current Buck-Boost & FET Driver with Anduril1/2 + RGB Aux

I ended up getting this:

30 awg ptfe stranded

It should arrive in the next few days. If it’s any good I could probably sell a few feet of each color if someone needs.

For 30-gauge, I’d recently ordered this after dealing with overly fat switch wires in another light recently: multiple colors, 60-ish feet each, 30 gauge silicone, $12.95 prime as of posting

The dupont wires I ordered were this item for my flashing kit recently (with SOIC8 clip, I don’t have a progkey yet), which looks to be an identical item to the one LoneOceans posted and $0.50 cheaper at the time of this post. Either will work if prices fluctuate.

I prefer to wait for the final version, but can you confirm that the discount code will work for future batches?

Unfortunately I have no idea how long the discount code will work for, nor have any control or knowledge of how many batches there will be (or if there will be future batches for that matter); this would be a question for Neal and Lumintop. They have a business to run so I assume that if it's selling well they will make more of what will sell; likewise with what they want to sell and which flashlights they want to put it in. I've just been able to convey my preferences to them but I don't know how much influence I have.

I'll be happy to help answer technical questions instead, thanks!

It seems that some folks are interested to change the firmware with their own modifications - what sort of changes are people thinking of making? Just curious.

A couple of firmware changes I might make:

Disable the FET for FW1A
Switch to single pin aux led control to use Lexel’s boards

I ordered a few with the mixed up programming pins

Just a note, unfortunately the Lume1 boards are unlikely to be compatible with Lexel's boards. I don't know what the exact schematic of his aux boards are, but the control is likely based on pulling one Attiny pin high or low to turn the LEDs on or off (or through pull up resistors in MCU).

However, the VCC voltage I'm running the Attiny at is different from the battery voltage, so the system may not work as designed. Likewise, the MCU used is different (1634 vs 85), as well as having different pins. Instead, the lume1 tri-LED AUX boards will allow you to recreate all functionality and colour combinations provided by Lexel's boards, as well as additional features provided by Anduril since Lume1 has individual RGB LED control exactly the same as the Emisar D4V2. This includes voltage display, a variety of flashing modes, colour combinations, and bright/dim settings.

The RGB Aux boards are included with the Lume1 driver for now as well, but tri-LED boards will require DIY assembly.

For FET disabling, yes the easiest way to do it is with the config files, just a one line change. The Lume1 also has 4 additional solder jumper pads that need some firmware to be taken advantage of. Perhaps toggling FET on/off could be one of them..

Anyway, I'd love to garner more feedback from the Lume1-Fw3x driver; perhaps I could roll them into improvements for future drivers. One flashlight I'm eyeing is the Noctigon KR4 and similar series but I haven't had a chance to purchase one yet! It would be nice to also including USB charging I think.

Yeah the brightness will be wrong with the Lexel boards, but I’m hoping that is just a resistor change. The ones I have light up (very dimly) at 2.5V. They look better IMO than the tri led boards.

I ordered few of them. Hopefully, they will be delivered smoothly without problems.

Speaking of the problems, I am OK with the programming pad for MISO and MOSI. It is something I can deal with. If I understand correctly, loneoceans has not tried out the version for the actual production yet. Also, hopefully, the driver will work fine without other problems.

I would like to thank everybody who has made this driver possible.

Is the FET in the Lume1 lower resistance than the factory driver? A stock FW1A uses an XP-L HI or SST-20 with a FET.

It should be higher resistance, I think he is just being safe.

Awesome! I guess this means I need to get off my butt and get the code merged.

I’ve mostly been trying to finish up Anduril 2 lately, but after that I’m planning to merge the Lume1 branch and the AVR 1-series branch.

It’s unfortunate about the swapped flashing pads. I should probably get myself another flashing adapter so I won’t have to constantly rewire things. Perhaps it’s time to put in an order with Hank…

My mystery ebay 30 AWG stranded PTFE arrived. OD is ~0.77mm, not the skinniest ever but smaller than silicone and assuming it’s legit should withstand high temp. Will investigate more as my drivers get closer.

In the detailed information, the following is noted:

“Max Turbo is done with a DD-FET, but the current path does go through the sense resistor, adding 20mR in the path. This reduces slightly the absolute max brightness. It’s possible to ‘fix’ this with an additional FET to bypass the resistor, but I’m not sure if it’s really worth the effort. This however can be beneficial for some kinds of lower V_fwd LEDs (marginally).”

So in a sense, that makes this driver even better for 219B’s, and I would think it should be fine for a single XP-L.

A related note, the FET is not PWM’d. If I understood right, the other components interact with it, and the resulting rise time of the FET is somewhere in the ballpark of a full millisecond. So the firmware works normally up to max regulated current, and then the FET 100% on / full turbo only.

I’m a little curious what the effect of trying to PWM it at high frequency would be - might it smooth the output at an intermediate value with ripple at the PWM frequency, or would it risk burning something out?

i have some 30 AWG solid wire-wrap silver-plated wire with Kynar insulation, measures 0.5mm OD, wire diam is 0.25mm. 50 in a pack, 5” long with 1” on each end already stripped off. i doubt this wire is being used to carry any significant current, it could be used as a fuse in a high current circuit.

I’m sure it’s a non issue but I’m pretty sure mcpcb can be higher than 100c but the wire (insulation) will likely never have good enough contact to cause issues. I only had down to 28awg silicone so just decided to get PTFE

Could this be used with very low vF LEDs, like red for example?

My drivers are in the country with an eta of Monday Aussie time. :smiley:
Now to choose the lights and emitters to go with them!

Mine were clearing on Wed, apparently - good old Australia Post being ded. Still in customs last I looked.

Mine is still UNFULFILLED...

I wanted a set but the $8 shipping killed it for me sadly. For $29.90 I can almost buy another whole FW3a with free shipping which makes it unjustifiable.