hi a bit off the budget light track,…
What’s the difference between say a NANJG 105C and that of a HDS lights driver?.
I see the NANGJG is in a high end light; Prometheus lights alpha, but someone mentioned on here, that they are a cheap $20 Chinese driver, and that the alpha is really only for a good looks.
so then, what driver does HDS use and is it any better as it seems HDS focus more on the inside than the out!.
American made/built?.
kind thanks .
Not sure what the HDS uses... But the nanjg is a $2 Chinese driver, but is really good. Step up would be a reprogrammed nanjg, like the qlite or ones from members here
Just got this reply from HDS Henry ,
Darryl,
We designed and build our own driver because we wanted the best driver available. We build them here in Tucson, Arizona.
From the details page:
http://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Edc/Details/
The electronics are the brains and muscles of the flashlight. We have designed the most advanced electronics available. The electronics provide the following special features:
• The electronics precisely and efficiently adjusts the power to the LED to generate the desired light output. It does not matter if the battery voltage is higher, lower or the same as the voltage needed by the LED. It does not matter if the battery voltage changes over time. It does not matter if the LED needs a higher voltage for the high power setting or a lower voltage for the low power setting. And it does not matter if the LED changes temperature over time. Our unique constant power regulation architecture just gives the LED what it needs to maintain a constant light output and gets it done very efficiently. We are the only company to employ this unique and highly sophisticated constant power regulation topology.
• The electronics are fully regulated so that the light output stays constant from the time you put in a new battery until the time the battery cannot supply enough power for the selected setting. The output stays the same whether you use primary batteries or rechargeable batteries. Other flashlights slowly dim over time and the light output changes depending on the type of battery used.
• The electronics are designed to use regular disposable lithium batteries as well asrechargeable Li-ion batteries. The two kinds of batteries must be handled differently. Our flashlights are the only flashlights with the advanced technology needed to automatically detect rechargeable batteries and provide you with plenty of warning when the battery is nearly discharged. This prevents the protection ciruit in the battery from suddenly turning off the battery and leaving you in the dark.
• Our flashlights are calibrated to provide a constant light output from one flashlight to the next. Other flashlights can vary in light output by as much as 2:1 from one flashlight to the next so you never know how much light you are going to get.
• The electronics provide a momentary burst output when the maximum output is selected. This allows you to see roughly 20% further than the normal high output so you can identify distant objects without sacrificing the high level’s long runtime.
• The electronics take advantage of the logarithmic nature of your eyes to increase the maximum runtime without a significant decrease in light output. Why give up half your runtime for a difference in output you can barely see?
• The electronics automatically detect when the battery cannot supply enough power for the selected brightness level and gracefully lowers the brightness by a single level. When the light output cannot maintain at least 55 lumens, the light will double-blink every two minutes to let you know the battery needs changing. The process repeats when needed as the battery is used up until the lowest brightness level is reached, at which point the light will blink continuously. This provides ample notification and time for you to find a safe place to replace the battery, wait for sunrise or wait for rescue.
• The electronics automatically monitor the LED and flashlight temperature to prevent the LED or the flashlight from becoming excessively hot. If the LED or flashlight temperature approach the temperature limit, the power is reduced incrementally just enough to prevent the temperature from becoming excessively hot - with minimal visual affect on light output.
• Your flashlight comes with preset brightness levels. On models with the rotary control, an additional “rotary” brightness level is included. The selected preset brightness levels depend on the model and maximum output. Each preset brightness level is easily accessed directly. No need to scroll through unwanted levels to get to the desired output. On the EDC Executive, EDC LE and EDC Rotary models, two of the preset brightness levels are directly accessible from off. On the EDC Tactical model, all presets are directly accessible from off. See your flashlight’s product page and manual for complete details on the factory presets for your flashlight and how to access them.
• Your flashlight can be fully customized to your specific tasks. Each of the preset brightness levels can be customized to any of the 24 internal brightness levels, Tactical Strobe, Emergency Strobe, SOS or Rotary brightness level on models with the rotary control. Other customizations include selecting the turn-on preset, automatic turn off, locator flash, pseudo momentary operation and disabling customizations.
• The electronics are protected from a reversed battery without resorting to placing a diode in series with the battery. A diode is an inexpensive device that only allows current to flow in one direction and will prevent circuit damage if the battery is inserted backwards. However, a diode in series with the battery is very inefficient. Replacing the diode with more expensive circuitry provides circuitry protection and higher efficiency.
If you read the rest of the page you will see how these lights are built to be very rugged, including fully potting the electronics and a fully floating battery design. These lights are very reliable.
You may also want to read our Frequently Asked Questions page:
Henry.
Nanjg 105C is in no way anything even remotely high-end. It's just cheap, reliable, extremely simple, and easily reverse engineered even by dummies like me with near zero electronics knowledge.
Truthfully comfy, much of the development on the BLF drivers here has been based upon your research as well
As it has been said, “Standing on the shoulders of Giants”
LOL, I'm a mechanic not an engineer.
That’s why it works so well for all of us idiots, had some engineer designed it it’d be way over complicated.
The description from HDS makes claims about their driver being the only one with a bunch of those features… but they’re not. It sounds like it’s mostly the same as any other name-brand driver, with only a few small differences. Sounds a lot like a Zebralight, actually, but with a bit more configurability (and otherwise less-impressive specs).
Looking at the specs for the new “EDC Executive Clicky 219B”, I think I’d probably rather have a ZL SC62d. It’s a very similar size with similar tint and CRI, but has twice the output and about six times the runtime (more on really low levels) for less than half the price.
I do not believe so.
The battery sensing means that the light knowns what type of battery is in the light and can set the threshold correctly for that battery (CR123 and RCR123 has very different thresholds).
I do also believe that their regulation is not only constant current, but somehow compensated to keep brightness constant. This might be with a temperature sensor and a build in curve of the leds output depending on temperature (That is just a guess).
The driver can obvious do both buck and boost, some other lights can also do that.
And then they do a calibration of the brightness.
Dont be fooled by ZL’s runtimes, they look so long for the output level cause ZL overrates their lumen numbers, less light = longer runtimes (they do it especially bad for the lower levels)
There are lots of lights which can maintain constant or nearly-constant brightness until they fall out of regulation (and have been verified by independent tests). A few even do this with a variety of different battery types, but not many handle different voltages very well. So, that’s a nice and uncommon feature if you want to use multiple battery types. Most lights freak out a bit if you change the input voltage.
Thermal-based current output exists on a few other lights, though it’s still uncommon. The first I recall seeing with it was the ZL S6330, with its “PID” system (288 individual brightness levels auto-selected based on temperature), which then made its way into some of their newer products… but I’ve heard it’s a pain since they have to calibrate each unit individually. Again, a nice and uncommon feature, though I rarely use the maximum modes and generally try not to get anywhere near the thermal step-down point.
Maybe HDS managed to get a flatter regulation curve or something, but that’s an optimization I’m not sure I care about. Other lights already get less than a 5% difference between initial and final output and humans can’t see such a small difference. It seems like diminishing returns.
The big benefits, from what I can see, are: Programmable output levels (without modding) and a nearly bulletproof body. Probably very good warranty service too. None of these are unique either, but they’re all very nice to have. And getting all those uncommon features in one place is particularly nice. It sounds like a great light, overall.
I mostly just don’t understand the price, since there are a lot of other very nice lights and most of them cost significantly less. The other EDC items in this price range tend to be limited-edition titanium models or custom builds or full of tritium vials or guaranteed to withstand assault rifle mounting or… something.
True, ZL’s lumen scale is relatively generous compared to some other brands. And their moon levels are under spec even on their own scale.
However, I find that the levels match up reasonably well with most other lights I’ve tried (with the exception of EagleTac), at least for levels above 2 lumens. Sometimes lower, sometimes higher. And the runtimes they claim seem accurate, even if the output for a given spec might be as much as 30% less than some other brands. Efficiency seems good too… selfbuilt’s measurements usually indicate best-in-class efficiency, or the most lumen-hours for its battery type at each level.
The moon levels in particular tend to be low… for example, 0.1 lm instead of the claimed 0.34 lumens. But it turns out that 0.1 lm is what I actually want, and I don’t know of any other lights which can actually run all night for months on a single Eneloop.
OTOH, ZL is far from perfect, and has its own set of issues. Those issues just don’t include efficiency or runtime.
200 dollars? For what? I see that it’s built to outlast the owner, and it has a nice driver, but come on. Sinner’s hosts are much nicer and are built of exotic materials if you are into that kind of things.
HTTP 404.
After fixing the link typo though, it seems to just link to a page selling the common nanjg driver for a curiously high price, minus the pre-soldered lead wires, and without much useful information about how to use it.
Yep thats just a standard 105c, doesnt even have custom FW. please DONT waist your money, these can be had for under $4 shipped from many of our supporting suppliers here.
Thanks just wondering why a cheap driver like this then is in such a pretty expensive light.
couldn’t the driver be expensive too or doesn’t it really matter?.
Its a fine driver, has good regulation and stock FW, that guy is a designer (and designs some beautiful lights no doubt) but he either doesn’t know how or doesn’t think he needs to design his own driver (or even write custom FW for that one).
It’s not like there are any rules anywhere about what driver a light should use. DarkSucks has been around awhile now so it’s obviously working for him.
Well it must be better, since it's more expensive. #CPFlogic
I use that driver in quite a few of my lights. Most of them have custom firmware though. Its main limitation is a somewhat small ROM for code to run, so there isn’t enough room to do anything really fancy. But then again, how fancy do you need to get on a single-emitter light with only one button?
It’s probably the most popular driver on BLF, and for good reason. It’s cheap, it’s versatile, it performs well, and it’s easy to acquire. Plus, there are quite a few nice firmwares available for it and free tools to make your own.