“It’s not a linear scale.
The stated outputs are the power level, which can be misleading. Throw distance follows an inverse square law, while perceived brightness tends to follow something like an inverse cube. So, there’s usually not much point having a mode between 50% and 100% power.
For example, let’s say it puts out 1000 lumens and does 50 kcd lux. Here are the resulting levels in more detail:
0.1% power: 1 lm, throws 14 m, brightness 10/100
1% power: 10 lm, throws 45 m, brightness 21/100
10% power: 100 lm, throws 141 m, brightness 46/100
35% power: 350 lm, throws 264 m, brightness 70/100
100% power: 1000 lm, throws 447 m, brightness 100/100
So, to a human eye, the 35% level actually looks like it’s 70% as bright as the 100% level, and it throws 59% as far. Does the mode spacing make more sense now?”
Setting the linear numbers in the firmware is not the same as the non-linear output. Which of course causes confusion until you come to grips with the fact that you’re dealing with 2 separate things.
How does one ask for a discount? Is there an entry on the checkout page for a discount code? It’s been awhile since I bought things from Simon and perhaps I missed it. Or is it requested by email?
You purchase the light , but you don’t pay .
and you leave a message on the order to have discount for blf member .
And then Simon re-adjust price and you pay
What you do is place your order right up to the point of clicking buy or pay or whatever it says but don’t put in any credit card info. That will generate an order number. Send Simon a message through the Ali message system (you’ll see the links on the left of the page). Give Simon your order number, tell him you are a BLF member and you would like him to adjust the BLF price (15% discount) this is also when you need to tell him if you want to pay through PayPal. He will adjust the price and then you either pay through the Ali system or ask him to send you a PayPal invoice. You can also just send him a payment using his PayPal address and reference the order number. If you go that route make sure you send him another message letting him know you paid and include the order number and any other info. It’s all a little unconventional but it works quite well in the end.
Edit: I see George summed it up pretty well in the post above. I tend to be a bit…wordy.
EditEdit: So wordy that I got my very first rude mark today. :zipper_mouth_face:
Bistro mini, NO I do not like that. Filling up the last bit of space and have it work on this type of drivers is a huge thing IMHO.
I could live with bistro instead of Bistro
A coffee related name would fit perfect, how many of us will flash it, mod other lights with it or this driver? It is sure to keep some of us awake longer then without it
Oh, if I understand correctly, the driver isn’t part of the price change. The difference is the other upgraded components, like a copper DTP MCPCB and AR lens and probably a couple other things. But if you just want the body, he’ll probably have empty hosts available eventually.
I only mention the lack of promo deals because Simon doesn’t act like a typical businessman. Usually sales people have a mindset of price being elastic, trying to get as much money from the customer as possible, playing with margins and loss leaders and other games in an attempt to inflate sales… but Simon doesn’t really do that. He typically just sells things for slightly above his cost, without the usual pricing games.
It makes no difference to me what you do with it. I reflash most of my drivers too, usually even if they shipped with my code on them.
There’s also the BLF discount code, but the process of redeeming it is a little awkward and I always forget about it. I also kinda feel bad using it because it probably reduces his margin to zero.
When it’s in the “mode group select mode”, it writes a value to eeprom every time it blinks. Basically, it flashes once, sets the mode group to 1, then waits. Flashes a second time, sets the mode group to 2, then waits. Repeat this 12 times then loop. If you leave it doing this forever, it could potentially wear out an eeprom cell in under a month. However, if you merely changed the mode group once per day, it should last somewhere between 50 and 500 years. And for most people, changing the config only rarely, it should last well over a lifetime.
So, it’s basically saying… don’t use the mode group select mode as a signal blinker mode. Use it only when you want to actually change mode groups. The battcheck mode works far better as a signal blinker.
Oh, what happened in that revision is that I actually measured it.
In r217, the numbers were generated by a calculator (bin/level_calc.py).
In r218, the numbers were adjusted manually until my power meter told me the current draw was correct. It was an excuse to use my fancy new ACME Power Cape, and kind of fun because I could script a lot of it, like automating the button presses to change modes and enter config mode and such. I’ll probably measure again after I get one of the new C8s, to make sure the calibration is still good on production samples.
It’s weird that the numbers shifted the way they did, but I guess the 7135’s response curve isn’t as linear as I expected.
So, the values should be pretty close to spec on the drivers Convoy is using, but they might be a little skewed on other drivers using components from other sources.
Is that on a new Convoy driver, or on something else? It’s calibrated based on the hardware Convoy sent me, which had different response curves than I normally see.
It sounds like people are leaning slightly more toward biscotti, so I’ll plan on that for now.
Thanks J-Dub and George. It is a little convoluted but as you say it does work out in the end. The last thing I need is another C8 but this one looks interesting enough to get.
