Sigh… :weary: what wrong with simple 5 modes? moon-low-mid-high and turbo? can they just build a nice light with simple modes? this is probably one of the reason I haven’t pull my trigger on this light even though I want to buy it since the first time I saw it. :~
Your question is simply redundant. Can't you buy another flashlight that suits your needs?
Very strange issue, on other Meteors it doesn’t flashes after second click. I hope, next reviewer can make video with this bug.
And sorry for my early topic about glued optics!
Sorry what i speak for Inferion… So:
Because with project is commercial, sorce code is closed, Inferion is not allowed to share code / PCB / and use this UI in another flashlights. But usually Inferion opens source code - this is already done for previos version of Indigo Driver (so, maybe it can be good start point for customised Meteor FW).
ToyKeeper can ask Hank to share current source code with him, why not? Why Infenion believes, what customizing of this code may be dangerous? Because level of many customisers is unsufficiant for this kind of driver. Sorry, at fonarevka we don’t know what can ToyKeeper do, we are really sorry if we have hurted ToyKeeper and DBCstm feelings. Of course, you can try and make more advanced UI, all what you need - HVSP programmer
LOL… I have enough flashlights that suit my need… I just want THIS light to suit my “need” 
Then UI2 should suit you. Unless you are afraid that you have direct access to modes the same way like Zebralight. I guess anyone more familiar with Zebralight would not feel so needy for less.
UI1 is simpler than any UI possible, not sure what is so scary, you basically have 3 modes as the manual says, you can ignore anything else.
Appreciate the honest response. I apologize if I over reacted a bit. Maybe my coffee was too strong this morning. 
This light obviously had an intense amount of work put into it. I’d say it’s head and shoulders above the competition, but it only comes up to their knees on the shelf. 
Probably most of my problem with it is in me myself, not the light. I can be a bit stubborn and set in my ways sometimes. Yes, I know, it’s true. I’m ornery.
Hank will be sending mine shortly and I’ll try to do a more elaborate review. I wanted to get this sample on out there to others in line since I ordered one so quickly myself. There are already quite a few very nice pictures in circulation, so I didn’t do that. And this not being my light, I didn’t work very hard taking it apart. lol I’ll be more thorough in looking at my own though. And in the meantime, I’ll try to memorize the manual better.
Don’t own any Zebra lights… I’m thinking something simple to use,somewhere along the line of BLF FET drivers
Can’t get any easier than simple moonlight-low-mid-high- and turbo… no need for extra fancy clicking here and there :~
Hikelite, can you tell me how to simply bump the mode from say Low to Med in the instance that low is insufficient? Do you Have to turn it off, then back on in Med? I was finding that not very intuitive, having to access a mode level directly instead of linearly.
For example, I have been using ToyKeepers A6 firmware almost exclusively of late. With this firmware I turn on my X6 with a firm click of the tail clicky and it’s in moon mode. A bump steps it up to the next level, a soft press and hold (about 1/2 second) backs it up into the previous level. So doing that from off gets you straight to Turbo with a click and a press. Or if say I think I’ll need level 4 to do the job at hand and I click it on then bump 3 times to level 4 and that’s too bright, that soft press/hold backs it down to 3 no problem. Easy to access virtually any level while in use without turning it off or cycling through all the modes to get there. I could easily have it with memory but I choose no memory so it always starts in moon. Yes, I have to cycle through levels to get to the higher end, but is that so much different than having to double or triple click the Meteor to get to High then double click again to shift to High 1 or 2?
It’s just new to me, and I’m an old dog, so the learning curve is steeper for me than some.
Dale I can't tell you that of course. I know you can use UI2 and cycle if that is what you wish.
Personally I am a 2-3 mode person so playing in the UI1 with only Low-Turbo and by double click I also have Moon, is excellent to me, no complications of cycling and remembering what was the last used mode. When I will get mine I will try to make a video showing just that (if others don't do it faster), of course I don't care to memorize in mind only that I need to use, basically 3 things: press, 1 click, double click.
Why do you turn the light off for change mode (I hope you use UI3?)? You must use fast and long click to increase mode number and doubleclick for decrease mode number. And you can program any light outpur for every mode as you want. Or you use another UI, not UI3?
I was finding UI3 the best suited to me, I just didn’t keep it long enough to figure out how it all works.
I figured my own is coming so I shouldn’t tie up the sample any longer than necessary, it’s on the way to next in line even now. Speed is of the essence.
Yeah, just a bit…
I get the impression I may have made Inferion feel insulted by suggesting the idea of modifying the Meteor… but no offense is intended. It’s just kind of what we do on BLF, home of “Check out this cool shiny thing, I bet we can make it even better!”
And then double the excitement upon finding out the light was designed by someone on another enthusiast forum, since that opens up all sorts of possibilities for collaborating. It even has the MCU pins broken out as pads for reflashing.
But if people don’t want to share code, they don’t have to. That’s fine. Different people have different ways of thinking. I’m sad that cultural or personal differences might get in the way, but it’s not a big deal. It happens. There’s even a book on the topic, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”. I come from a free software background, the bazaar, where everyone is welcome to participate in building anything they want. Sounds like Inferion goes more with the cathedral approach, where only a select few are trusted to build and everyone else is a consumer. Both work, but in very different ways.
Opinions of the Meteor interface may also be influenced by cultural differences. I personally find it a bit odd to have 17 different actions on a single button which transition from the “off” state to some other state, yet not have the ability to quickly and easily go up or down one brightness step from any level while it’s on. Would be nice if I could change that, but it seems unlikely.
As for practical matters of modding… I found the indigo 5.2 build yesterday but it has only a .hex, no sources, and it’s 2 years old. If I translated the page correctly, it sounds like the source is all assembly code instead of C. That significantly increases the investment required to modify it, on top of having to solder wires between each flash and use more expensive high-voltage flashing tools. Apparently it’s also prone to “failing open” if the code doesn’t work, meaning it could easily damage itself. One more barrier to entry for modding it. Not an easy project to jump into, especially without existing code to show the safe ways of doing things.
The Meteor is an amazing light which pushes the boundary of what’s possible, and I’m glad it exists. It’s truly a step forward for the entire torch industry, bringing the innovations of custom mod communities into the commercial realm. In that sense, it’s much like what we’re trying to do with the BLF EE A6. But I’m no longer sure I should buy one, since my main interest was modding it. It sounds like it’s not the playground I was hoping for, and would end up as more of a cute stubby museum piece on my shelf.
ToyKeeper, closed source is requirement from Noctigon. I think, you can ask Hank to give you source codes too. Or you can collaborate together for next beatiful version of this (or another) Noctigon light!
And yes, it is assembler .
Inferion always share sourсe code of previous version of his projects (and often last version too). And not only sourсe cobe but also PCB, schemes, etc. But this time it’s commercial project and Inferion can’t share source cobe because of contract with flashlight supplier don’t permit this. Sourсe code of Indigo 5.2 is in this message Показать сообщение отдельно - Indigo 5.0, или "не совсем форумный" драйвер? (Часть 2) . But, of course, Meteor has significally modified firmware, much more automated and better working. Also I used Indigo 5.2 in my flashlight for a long time and it’s work not bad.
Inferion use assembly code because Tiny85 has small amount of memory and if compile firmware from C it can’t fit MCU. Using other MCU is difficult because Tiny85 is very-very good MCU for drivers like subject flashlight and has many useful things inside the chip.
Hey, thanks! I didn’t see any sources when I looked, but I also don’t read .ru very well.
I can’t do much if the source is closed, even if I had a copy, since an open license is required in order to share anything with the community. In general I’m less interested in producing a product, and more interested in empowering people to make their own products.
On a different note, it’s nice to have some Fonarevka folks on BLF now. I know language tends to keep the two sites separate, but we’re both crazy about shiny objects. BTW, if there is any open-source code available, I’d be happy to include it in the torch code repository I’m maintaining. The link is in my signature below.
Yes, the attiny chips are awesome, and I would love to use the attiny85 because it has 8192 bytes available.
I understand about trying to fit everything. I’ve been using the attiny13a (1024 bytes) and it’s very difficult to fit the features I want! C is not so bad though; even with C I managed to fit 20 modes in 3 mode pseudo-groups into 1024 bytes, including dual turbo step-down, low-voltage protection and step-down, eeprom wear-leveling, dual PWM, some tint management, offtime measurement, and it still has 70 bytes left. The interface works like this.
(BTW, moon on that light is 0.3 lumens, max turbo is 3300 lumens, it’s 24mm x ~124mm in size, and it can be built for about $50 using parts from RMM’s amazing shop… so many cool toys available these days!)
Firmware of Meteor control many parameters, not only UI. It control input and output voltage, input and output current, inductance, internal resistant of batteries, temperature and etc. (Inferion can explain more detail) and use many mathematics models, filters etc. for drive MOSFET. It’s not only DC-DC step-up with different current output and some user interfaces. I don’t know about Meteor, but Indigo 5.2 use three different methods for current regulation depending of current amount. Meteor use at least two different methods (I can see when one method change to another). Maybe it has three methods but with my eyes I can’t see it. Even when used assembler now no free memory and for add some new functions first you must make more optimisation of existing code.
Boy it sounds like I’ll have my work cut out for me trying to figure out and explain how to program this light, when I get it.
You’ll have it tomorrow. :bigsmile: