Pretty simple question, yet nothing out there seems to exist. Looked up the FX35 and H2-C, and they all come with multiple modes, including blinkies (ugh).
I just want to upgrade an F13 to use an XHP50, and just want a dumb 1-mode on/off driver with current regulation.
Any mods to either of the above drivers, say, to lobotomise the µC and have it just go 100%?
The H1-A should fit with an adapter ring, and has hidden strobe (it can also be modded to drive an in series triple).
Curiously, the other day I was thinking in this sort of F13 + H1-A project. I'd also like some high-CRI emitter, though. The in series triple sounds appealing but, optic & fit? 
Naw, same dealy as the others, as this is a 5-mode, even worse.
See, with something like a ’105, you can jump the enable-pins on the 7135s right to +V, and it’ll be constantly on (losing LVP, but…). If something like that were possible with those 22mm drivers I mentioned, I’d be happy. But I have no idea how much control the µC has over the boost-circuit’s output, especially if it claims no PWM.
Otherwise, with the Cu washers I got, I could just forego the XHP50 and use a jumpered ’105 to push an XM-L2, but then again, I got those buck drivers which already gets me about 1000lm (eyeballed, not measured) which I used in my original F13 mod.
loneoceans' GXB20 with custom firmware? Problem is you'll have to request him a custom firmware and DIY the stuff.
Looks like a lot of work. 
I feel your pain with respect to this under-developed firmware world of boost/buck drivers. 
Dunno. Kinda giving up in disgust with the obsession with modes and especially blinkies.
A good tac-light needs to be simple. 1-mode, on/off, able to do a flash’n’dash without ANY worry about changing modes. No concern about on-time, off-time, nothing. Yet unless you get a driver with overcomplicated firmware that can select 135 mode-groups, only 1 of which is 100%-only, you’re SOL.
Æons ago, I poked through Dr Jones’s page of various drivers, and was considering trying to just go buffet-style and grab parts to just do LVP and that’s it. But again, that’s limiting me to 7135-based drivers. And even 100 7135s in parallel, if an LED needs 3.8V and the minimum drop across a 7135 is 0.1V, then anything below 3.9V at the battery means decreasing output.
I was hoping for something like a boost driver that’d suck a battery dry ’til it hit the LVP wall yet still maintain a constant regulated output the whole time (when it’d then start a warning blink up to a complete cutoff).
From my point of view, I also tend to dislike drivers with PWM + 7135s, a combination which results in early loss of regulation (7135s start having trouble switching on and off beyond 4KHz, resulting in loss of regulation at even higher voltage) and… PWM! :facepalm:
Boost and buck drivers feature fully regulated modes, all of them. This means medium and low modes are continuous and efficient. If you choose appropiate cell and driver combos, you can also fully utilize the cells.
Now that the new Aspire 1300mAh 1100mAh cells are available, it is possible to combine 2S input in single cell hosts and an LD-29 driver for fully regulated 1S emitter flashlights. This results in better battery life performance than standard linear drivers with regular 18650/26650s due to the early loss of regulation and lesser efficiency.
If you don’t care about LVP the H1-A could easily be modded to 100% only by removing the MCU and just wire pin 1 or pin 4 to pins 5 and 6. You could then swap the sense resistor to achieve the desired current.
Jensen567, minimum input voltage for the TPS61088 is listed as 2.7V in its datasheet. That's a good li-ion cutoff point, doesn't it? Any other roadblock maybe?
It is, but it may run lower than that if it is already boosting, I haven’t looked into that yet. Most boost converters do have a minimum running voltage much lower than the minimum start voltage though.
LVP is really the only feature you lose with this conversion though. For a protected cell it is no problem, just make sure the protection can handle 10 amps if you push the output.
Wellp, right now with the driver I got in there, I could use 2 18350s (with sleeves) in my F13 for a 2S light (and it works quite nicely, but has pitiful capacity), and if I could get 26350s, I could do the same for marginally-better capacity.
I’d rather keep it as a 1S light w/ boost driver, using a 26650 or if needed only an 18650 in a sleeve.
But y’see the problem? All these possibilities for roundabout “solutions”, yet all I need is the appropriate driver to do what I want. <grumble>
Hmm, that’d work? I was concerned that the µC would have more “control” over the boost circuit. That’d be great if I could do that. Might just give it a try, and if it doesn’t work, sell it or give it away to someone who actually wants modes. 
Yep. When I’m running down my bobofett light, it’ll keep going just fine with barely firefly levels of light, but if I turn it off, there’s no way I’m turning it back on again unless I let the cell “rest”.
Yeah, I got only unprotected cells. Need to make sure I just don’t run it down too much so it doesn’t go supernova on me.
While it is not a high current cell, the only available purple 26350 does fairly good. It delivers close to twice the capacity of the Aspire cell if you don't push the load too much and while the output voltage is slightly lower, let's say it at least delivers close to 180% energy output of the Aspire cell, the current 18350 champion.
Marginally?
Yep, pin 5 is just a simple PWM output, with >99% duty in high mode, my suggestion would just pull this pin high, so 100% duty. Pin 6 is the Boost IC enable pin, so just pulling that high again.
Writing custom software for the PIC onboard that is simple one mode with LVP should be no problem though now that we have the pinout.
Mmm, I’m always sarcastic.
The one-size-fits-all philosophy…
Goes right along with “Let’s throw in all manners of blinkies. If you don’t want them, don’t use them” admonition.
Exactly. I got bobofett that eats dead AAs and is pretty much moonlight- or firefly-only. My EDC is a 1-mode ’502. I got a WK50 and BLF348-219 in my bag. My F1 is for varied nighttime use, and pretty much the only one where I use multiple modes (and only because I can doubleclick to turbo). My F13 is for nighttime snooping outside.
All my other lights, I “retired” from disuse. Even my VG10, I keep it around for some nighttime use, but only if I preset it to moonlight and have the luxury to switch to other modes before needing it for anything else.
Hmm, just realised now that even all my C8s are semi-retired. Nice throwers, pretty much all my modded ones are 1-mode, but I’m just not using them all, less and less, and now are kinda unused.
Hey, that happens when you have more lights than you know what to do with.
But yeah, I’m not about to take a dedicated thrower like the C8 and use moonlight mode on it. Makes no sense. It’s not a general-purpose light, not an EDC light I can just stuff into a jeans pocket, so yeah, it’s a dedicated thrower, and I want it to go full-tilt when I pull the trigger.
The most important feature of any tool is that it should never ever get in the way. Doesn’t matter if it’s a computer/OS (you listening, Monkey$oft??), guitar, car, drill, or flashlight. The operation of said tool should be seamless and organic. It shouldn’t require you to “think” before using it. The tool should become an extension of yourself.
If your tool doesn’t fit that description, then it’s a lousy tool.
Back to flashlights… If you have a doubleclick for strobe function in the UI, then you have to remember to not step through the modes too quickly, unless you want to lapse into an epileptic fit when you hit strobe accidentally. It’s a lousy tool when it makes you consciously slow-step through modes to avoid that.
I get your point, but it kinda defeats the purpose. I want to be able to drop in any cell and just have it work, and not have to cherrypick brands and colors for a specific light.
Same way like in a DD light, brand X will drive it nicely but brand Y will only push half the amps, or conversely, brand Y will drive the light nicely, but brand X will fry the emitters. I want to get fairly repeatable performance from any cell.
Right now, my choices here are either panny-Bs or 30Qs (or generic powerbank pulls, mainly pretty decent LG cells). That’s all I want to deal with in 18650-land, capacity or current (or “who-cares?”).
I got some LK 26650s to last me a while. I really don’t want have to get a bunch of very specific 26350s for each light I mod.
So, yeah, I admit there are some cells out there that buck the trend, but I don’t want to have to go shop around for them. In general, 26es are just not as energy-dense as 18s.
To me, it’s like having a car that only gets decent performance from brand X gasoline, and just lacks something if using any other brand (mileage, power, etc.). I really don’t want to get locked into a particular brand.
Hmm, PWM-output for a boost driver? Is that just a control-voltage (say, 0.00V-1.25V for scaled output)?
Got any schematics on this driver? Sounds interesting. Might be some other tricks to use. Eg, no need to change a sense-resistor (desolder, resolder, piggyback, etc.) if the output could be scaled by tweaking that control-voltage pin.
Yeah, the LiitoKala INR26650-50A is the 26650 cell of the year 2016 in every aspect. Buena, bonita y barata: good, beautiful and cheap. :-)
Besides 18650 and 21700s, the remaining formats are under-developed in some or another way. God of the li-ion cells, please go spank the big brothers, they deserve it.
26650s may not be as energy dense, but they're not that far at this moment and, anyway, even for a 5' 5" slighty like me, 26 gauge tubes feel more comfortable. :THUMBS-UP:
Any extension tube available for the UltraFire F13?
Original post date: Mon, 07/31/2017 - 10:39. Typo fixed.
Lightbringer, the F13 should make a nice thrower with an H2-C + XHP35, doesn't it?
Of course, this means going 2 × 26350s or longer cells with extension tube but, what extension tube? Yezl Y3 maybe?
Megacheers ^:)
The PWM signal is filtered and biased before being sent to the IN- pin of the op-amp. So it is just a control voltage, but without an MCU it would be difficult to change that control voltage, so swapping sense resistors is just easier. Schematic is posted over here.
I also have the H2-C driver schematic, and a similar MCU bypass could be done with that, but you’d either have to run the emitter in 12V mode, or you have to swap around the FB resistors for the MP3428 to drop the output voltage. H1-A is the superior driver anyway IMO. The addition of reverse input protection MOSFETs on H2-C thermally insulates the ground planes from the ground ring, which means the driver can’t dump heat to the host as easily.