Likely the least expensive way for Hank and his customers to deal with the problem is sending out said flashing kit for little money. Something like p&p would be. Guess that’s the plan, and I’m fine with it.
Tried to assemble one reflashling kits today, and tought my GF how to reflash the firmware, she has zero knowledge about flashlights,
took 5 mintus to reflash 10 pcs stock lights with the latest firmware.
Next step is how to assemble the kits with more precision, so that it will be easier for the reflashling process.
TK has suggested me to sell those reflashing kits several times, but I was too lazy to do so, and this time I’m pushing myself to
assemble those reflashlight kits, hopefully it will be much easier for the modders and have fun with the different fimrware.
Looks great Hank!
Will existing customers of the D4v2 get priority on ordering these kits? It’d be great to also be able to use this in upgrading future firmware.
Windows 7 works for flashing?
I’m using windows 7, it does work.
[quote=azhu]
Yes, the exisiting customers of D4V2 get priority to order those kits, or the first batch reflashing kits will be sold to the D4V2 customers only. We are trying to produce a socket which the needles can just be inserted into the holes without ever soldering onto the pcb, will test it this week.
It’s not as if too much money would be lost ,Hank won’t be losing the cost of a flashlight on every sendback because he knows how to reflashing & has got tools for it ,he can reflash the returned light & send it back (China shipping is cheap) it’ll cost mainly time ( lesson learnt that proper testing should be done in future ) let’s face it ,the majority of people won’t know what to do with the tool if they had it ,the only real problem is who’s paying to send back to China ,Paypal will reimburse sendbacks (in this country anyway) to help restore any lost credibility perhaps Hank would pay (or share it with the main culprit who caused it) like I said lesson learnt & won’t be making the same mistake again if it’s gonna cost. Learn & move forward ,progress in action.
That’s my opinion how it should work ,everyone else’s opinion may & probly will vary.
You don’t even have one, move along. If you don’t think it will cost too much money, why don’t you pay out of pocket? No? Okay then.
The idea with the socket looks great…I definitly wanna buy one!
Nicely done Hank!
@Hank
Will the USB device be part of the flashing kit?
Looking forward to getting one of these. Thanks for the support Hank&Toykeeper and please don't be disheartened by the reactions of some people here.
I enjoy Emisar flashlights/the Anduril firmware a lot and I'm sure I will order some of your future lights.
I am a bit concerned about the destructive nature of the bug. Bugs are common, and this one comes in a circumstance I would never check. I don’t intend to use muggle mode but the consequences of this bug are too extreme to feel safe. I wanted the light for the aux LEDs so unscrewing the tailcap defeats the purpose. That said, I’m happy to pick up a flashing kit at cost to fix the issue. Can this be used on the FW3A? I wanted to use the 50% fet firmware for Nichia 219B.
Also, I truly appreciate toy keeper’s efforts, this is a very obscure bug. And I never got a warning email.
Hank will the kit connect to a USB port? If it requires opening up the computer, it would be too difficult for most people.
Ok guys, Wanna test this and see just what happens for myself… but I haven’t ever used muggle mode before. So if I click 6 times it engages the dreaded muggle mode, I only have a short ramp and no turbo. No aux lights are on. No possibility to engage the blinkies. Do I have to have the aux lvp engaged to duplicate the problem? To do so, I would need this aux mode engaged BEFORE shifting to muggle?
I’m using an 18500 so heat shouldn’t really become a factor… then again heat shouldn’t really be a problem on a partially depleted 18650 either. (Technically, an 18650 at 3.7V is discharged) Nonetheless I would like to attempt to replicate this issue and see what the truths are…
The FW3A doesn’t need the key/pogo pin adapter for flashing because it doesn’t have the pads on the driver. You would want an SOIC8 clip and the USBasp device for flashing one of these. If the kit from Hank includes a USBasp, then you’d just need the SOIC clip.
SOIC8 Clip:
The USBasp connects to a standard USB port.
A really cool thing about the D4V2 is that they have flashing pads on the bottom of the driver. You would take the head off the D4V2 and place the key/pogo pin adapter on the flashing pads located on the battery side of the driver, then you run the software to flash the new firmware.
The hardest part for most will be installing the drivers in Windows and typing in the commands for the software. This is still pretty easy though. (even easier in Linux) I haven’t tried on a Mac, but I might just have to try it to see if I could write up a guide.
First off, there are two different variables to be cognizant of, before running the ‘glitch test’ and they deal with the cell being used.
The first is a fully charged cell and the second is a less than fully charged cell, as this matters in the half dozen tests I’ve run. Roughly at 3.80v.
At 4.2v (Sony VTC 5A), nothing happened in the 60+ minutes and 30 minutes that I ran the tests. The light didn’t turn on and start to strobe. A sample size of 2.
Next, with my cell around 3.8v, I entered ‘muggle mode’ and confirmed that I couldn’t get into turbo mode. I then turned the light off and started timing things. Over four tests, the light would start strobing and heating up, with no apparent ramp down. I quickly hit the button six times and the strobing stopped. I then confirmed after turning on the light, that I could reach turbo and that my AUX lights came on when I turned the light off.
Anywhere from 13-15 minutes for 3 tries, but Sunday night, I ran the test and at least to my mind, the light came on after only a minute, but it was a lower strobe output and the light didn’t get hot as quickly, as with the other tests. That was an inconsistency. Six clicks and I was out, however.
Cell SOC plays a role, but that one short interval between being off and coming on strobing, was a bit perplexing, but I’m sure I was performing things correctly.
I don’t need the doohickey from Hank and I’ll just never use the ‘muggle mode,’ is all.
Great light IMO, even with the flaw and otherwise, it’s quite a nifty feat.
Chris
This is a really clever design. It looks like the default pinout configuration can also be changed if needed for other lights by using a separable ribbon cable with Dupont connectors. That said, I hope the existence of this device for sale will be enough to cause some standardisation in lights which have exposed programming pads. Great progress, thanks for showing the development.
I would like to see via’s in all the pads, this would help locate the pogo pins and enable a secure and constant contact through the several seconds the flash takes. Just saying…