Would like to see support for second e-swtich.
+1 :+1:
I like all the suggested improvements.
Making config mode less easy to get into would be appreciated by me.
IMO going from lockout straight to on/ramp really stands out as an excellent idea.
Re naming the two modes I think Andruil 2 Basic and Andruil 2 Advanced sounds best.
If you changed the name entirely Andruil would surely have to have distinct advantages of its own over āAndruil 2ā for it to remain a viable option next to the second UI, for people buying flashlights. And if your improvements work out well - it wonāt. Then in my reasoning Andruil (as a brand) would sadly become obsolete. Hence I like Andruil 2 instead of name change.
May be wrong but those are my thoughts.
Thank you for all your hard work Toykeeper, your thoughts on improving the ui sound very promising.
Firstly, thanks ToyKeeoer for all your work on this. Anduril is brilliant.
Would you consider moving development from bzr to git for version 2? Obviously itās your baby and your workflow us most important. My guess is that switching to git would remove a barrier to entry to help encourage more contributions. Personally Iāve only used bzr a tiny bit and donāt grok it like I do git.
Splitting into multiple files sounds like a sensible move too. I find it much easier working with object oriented languages, so a monolithic C file is a challenge.
Thanks again.
Iām sure Iāll have more thoughts on this, but the first thing that comes to mind is to remove the blink at different stages in the ramp. Theyāre useful dev features, but they donāt add much to the usability, and people who donāt know what they are always think itās a glitch.
For anduril LITE make the key combination harder to exit. Maybe 5 presses and hold for 3 seconds on the last press. Also add an option on the normal UI to make double click from off go directly to turbo like Narsil. It would be nice to also have a shortcut which always goes to strobe at max.
For the UI name, Anduril Basic and Anduril Pro sounds good IMO. I feel like in the future Anduril LITE could be a whole separate firmware for brands that want something less complicated.
One thing I would really love to see in AndĆŗril is the ability to explicitly set stepped levels. Rather than trying to work out what high and low steps would place the fully related level bang in the middle, it would be awesome to be able to define āstep 1: level 25, step 2: level 50, step 3: level 100ā. That way, you can set it up to have levels at precisely the output or estimated runtime that you require (assuming a table of rough outputs per level is available like with the Emisar D4). Maybe a way to define output by lumens would be better, but I donāt know how this would work considering each flashlight has a different output at a given ramp level.
I see a fair few people say the current candle mode is a bit too flickery, and I think I agree. Thatās a minor thing though.
Lastly, I love the tint ramping on my LT1, but the shortcut isnāt as convenient as the brightness ramp. Not sure if this can realistically be improved much, but itās worth considering that we might start seeing tint ramping as a staple feature of enthusiast lights within the next year or two now that the option is available within the firmware.
Yh candle mode could be improved. Usually I find the flicker a bit too much, sometimes itās ok and other times itās pretty much ramping up and down.
Overall, I think they are all great improvements.
One thing that in my opinion would be interesting, is the ability to change the ramp settings of the simple UI from the advanced UI, maybe even changing it from smooth to stepped, in a way that when you revert to simple it remains locked. Being able to calibrate thermal sensors from advanced would be nice.
Another interesting thing IMHO, would be to have a āreservedā spot in simple UI (like click-click-hold) where you can put one blinky mode of choice, such as beacon or strobe.
From all the new features, as said by others, I would put emphasis on making it more difficult to change settings, especially thermal settings, but also ramp. Maybe having an option to lock and unlock that kind of settings.
As always, thank you for doing this for the community.
Well, since this would be a complete rework, would it be possible to add one more feature?
Voltage measurement adjustement. Similarly as there is temperature fine-tuning.
Currently the only option to fine-tune the flashlight is to recompile and flash the firmware.
This would make correcting any manufacturing defects much easier.
Oh yes, some of my FW3As are way out with their voltage measurements. 4.4V on a freshly charged cell in one, and 4.1V when I put the cell in another. Voltage measurement tuning would be great.
While I understand your reasoning, I really like the blinks. For FET lights, it allows me to know when Iām leaving regulated and entering FET world. Sometimes I prefer to stay below that threshold.
This is a great idea.
Agreed.
I would really hate to lose those ramp blinks on something like the D4. I always use them to avoid going over the FET threshold when I want to be efficient.
My use case is probably small enough to ignore, but Iāll make the request anyway. I use an EC03 for cycling, especially in the winter. I would love a ābikeā mode. This could be accomplished (at least) a couple of ways:
- Have the strobe modes (optionally) ārememberedā by mode memory. If I click off in bike strobe mode, the next time I click on, Iām back in bike strobe mode. Even a click-click-hold is tricky with winter mittens on.
- A new, dedicated bike-light mode that defaults to bike strobe, but might also have a way to access ramping or stepped (non strobe) modes. Meh.
Iāve actually considered doing #1 myself, but I still havenāt gotten the source from banggood for the EC03.
+2.
I donāt think reducing output by default is a good idea. Being a muggle does not prevent one from wishing to have the best lights out there.
Thatās why some buy 100klum lights from unreliable brands. And thatās why those who invested time in basic research buy 4000 lm lights from good brands.
When a muggle buys a 4000 lm flashlight but it actually outputs 1000 lm thereās a big risk of disappointment - and itās likely that a muggle wonāt be able to figure out that thereās a hidden switch that unlocks a ton of extra performance.
I think that the best way to make muggles safe is to:
- offer overheating and undervoltage protection
- include cell to make sure itās a good one
- include charging so thereās little incentive to remove the cell
- lock the cell inside so it canāt be removed without a special tool (but make the tool available to tinkerers)
- add features like the already mentioned output reduction when the light is close to some object. I know itās hard to do perfectly but even if you can stop half of damage induced this way - itās better to have it than not.
As to size - I donāt think that itās a good idea to limit the size to 8K.
Now that thereās Attiny1616 port available there can be many more features in the lights that feature this latest chip.
sounds GREAT!
Idea:
the Muggle mode could have a lower (fixed) Templimit
and in "Pro" the limit can be raised
that way the full power is available shorter and safer - but still there
This all sounds great to me. Any interface becomes more cluttered over time. Smart designers know when to bite-the-bullet (byte-the-bullet?) and rethink them.
I do recommend coming up with a new name for the new interface. If you just add a 2 or Pro after Andruil it will be āabbreviatedā out of existence in too many cases.
The LITE mode is an excellent approach, but I would like to see it kept really simple. Most people get into trouble by accidentally clicking an extra time or two and then they donāt know where they are or how to get back. In LITE mode nothing under four clicks should affect anything beyond on/off and brightness. I would be okay with a plain full-range ramp and nothing else, plus an 8H or 10H to get to the full-feature mode. If strobe or beacon needs to be available from LITE mode start those options at 4C or more.
I would put all of the configuration options outside of LITE mode. If a novice wants to customize they can toggle into the full mode, make the changes, and toggle back out, using the manual for guidance.
Put the change from ramping to steps into the configuration menus so that itās harder to toggle by accident.
I would love to see a configurable timeout-to-lock option.
I like the current two-stage options when in lock mode, but I guess I wouldnāt object to always going through the lowest mode first.
Making the auxiliary controls consistent would be nice. Having the option to separately configure button lights would also be great, for lights that can support it.
Thank you for asking us for input on this! I look forward to using whatever you come up with.
Now I want someone on the hardware side to make an equivalent to Hankās reflashing kit for the lights that have 8-pad connectors. 
I would like to see an easier to access aux LED control for the brightest aux modes.
Currently, on a light like the Emisar D4, dim Aux LED mode is all you need to find the light in the dark, and it is efficient.
- Bright aux mode is far too bright to be used as a āfind the lightā indicator. Itās bright enough to light up a room by itself and runs the battery down too fast to be left on all the time.
- It is bright enough it would be useful for those who might actually want to light something up with colored light. Similar to how some lights from Nitecore have a red led that is easily controlled.
- In order to be useful as an alternative light source like this, it would need to be a lot easier to turn on and off bright aux LED mode. Perhaps quad-click to swap from main LED to bright aux LED. And the configuration allowing this to happen perhaps could be enabled when configuring the light in settings mode.
- Dim aux LED mode could be kept as-is.
Please Toykeeper make Anduril easy to use and hide the configuration modes
less than 7 clicks shouldnāt change anything
changing aux mode from lockout should need 7 clicks like when unlocked (no more accidental aux mode change when you miss a click trying to exit unlock mode)
no more 3 clicks from on to change between stepped /smooth ramping
I like the idea turning on the flashlight after exiting lockout mode (4 clicks) without having to single click again