I know this has been covered, so if you have any threads that you could suggest, that would be appreciated. Two legs are for power, and the 6 free legs are used for? Is the biggest hurdle in using some of the newer MCU’s just designing and building drivers? I understand that we don’t have firmware for them, but from what I gather it’s fairly easy to port the Attiny85 firmware.
2 legs power
1 leg unuseable reset pin
1 pin voltage divider
1 pin switch
1 pin switch LED
2 pins for FET+AMC
usually
new MCUs like the 1634 got like a dozen pins that can be used when you already have power and reset connected
just so far no BLF firmware runs on them so you can add fancy stuff like color fading aux board or stuff
Thank you Lexel, so if we gave up the ability to reflash (easily) we could gain another pin to use by getting rid of the reset fuse. But, not practical for mass production, and not much memory left on the Attiny85 with Anduril to utilize said pin.
There isn’t currently anywhere to attach an aux LED board in the FW3A, unless it was on all the time with no ability for the user to control the aux LEDs. Here’s the MCU pin layout:
However, if you cut pin 7, it could be used for this purpose. Basically remove the capacitor and resistor it’s attached to, put on a different resistor (optional), and attach it to an aux LED board instead. Flash new firmware with support for aux LEDs, and it should work.
Several times now after inserting the battery at the head and then screwing closed the light I’ve noted that the head sometimes stops screwing down a couple mm before it should. This appears to be caused by the inner switch contact tube being slightly off-center and hitting the edges of the narrow driver retaining ring. When this happens the inner tube does not make contact with the driver and the light does not work.
If this occurs, the light can still be screwed down by unscrewing and then rescrewing the head in several times until things line up right. But that doesn’t solve the problem and is frustrating to do. This issue occurred with both my FW3As.
Analysis and Solution:
The problem appears to be caused by the driver retaining ring not being screwed tight to the driver at the factory. If you encounter this issue, use tweezers to turn the driver retaining ring so that it is flush against the driver. Once the retaining ring is snug, this problem goes away completely.
Thanks for posting about this and including pictures!
That confirms the driver isn’t glued, and it also confirms the driver fit issue is completely fixed.
Also, if someone doesn’t know there’s a notch in the driver, it can be easy to miss… and then it’ll be confusing to figure out why the light doesn’t fit together quite right.
One of my 2 FW3A is not tightened.
This ring is very thin and the structure may not be very strong.
Maybe bring the retaining ring out when disassembling the battery.
But the chances should be small. Because it is not easy to disassemble.
Some retaining rings may have Burr.
You can take it off and trim it, or grind it with sandpaper. (Observant)
I was hoping somebody would run 3xXHP50.2 3V in there But I haven’t seen any triple MCPCBs that would fit.
The end result would probably be a hot light after 2 seconds.