As for tint, it is possible to actually get two different tints out of one emitter with this light, but I’ve tried to minimize that effect as much as possible. With one power channel running at 0.35A and the other running at about 5A, there’s a 15X difference in drive current. This causes the tint to change depending on which power channel is used.
I made a small firmware mod which runs both channels at the same overall lumen level, then switches the active channel every half second. It keeps a constant brightness, but the color changes every half second. Kind of neat.
But for the real firmware I’ve minimized this effect by using both power channels at the same time on medium and high modes. The end result is a gradual change in color as it goes up in brightness, instead of a sudden jarring change between two individual modes.
I’m pretty sure the tint changes in the video are due to the camera, not the flashlight.
Hmm, that is a strange effect, could we use it to our advantage? would it be possible to shift every PWM tick so the led would be in effect like 2 tint mixed leds?
I’d already seen that from Richards version of this driver. Pretty nice for the lower modes to have that more subtle tint, it’s almost a glow or something, makes it seem special.
Of course, a 3D bin to start with makes a huge difference over a cooler tint. My XP-L is more blue-white and almost looks teal in the lower modes, it’s really an interesting effect. Barely noticeable, but again, something special about it.
That’s what it’s already doing on medium and high modes, and the relative balance of each color changes with each mode so it gradually goes from one tint to the other.
Also, this means that the medium and high modes pulse between ~1600 lumens and ~140 lumens, instead of between ~1600 and 0. So the PWM is much much harder to see on this light. Not that most people can see 19kHz pulsing anyway; it’s way faster than almost anything else you can buy.
Well, I started to say I don’t have one to compare, but remembered that I gave one to my Dad. It wont be a fair comparison though, as this version of a special edition is considerably more potent than what Ealge Eye did for us before.
The 4 I have working are no longer in the same league. And the 2 I have waiting on a heat sink will soon join those 4 in the other realm. I have a couple on the way, if those don’t come in soon I’ll see if I can borrow my Dad’s SE for a beam shot. I should see him by tonight, I’ll ask…
I haven’t measured (need a proper host first), but I suspect the BLF X6 will still out-throw the BLF A6… for the simple reason that the A6 is a floody tube light and the X6 is a compact thrower. More lumens doesn’t necessarily mean more throw.
Personally, I plan on adding some DC-Fix to my A6 lens to make it even floodier. That stuff converts a spot+spill pattern into a smooth blend which gradually goes from a bright center to a dim edge, with a 180-degree wide beam. It won’t throw very far afterward, but it’ll work great as a bike headlight or anything else where I want to illuminate a wide area.
And for anyone who wants to use it for biking, I’ll have alternate firmware available with a 2-level flasher for use as a headlight. It stays on to let you see what’s ahead, while also flashing brighter to make you more visible without blinding other people on the road (also, greatly increases runtime compared to using a higher-brightness mode).
Yes. I use it on my other EDCs all the time. Anyway, I just added a compile-time option to choose between tactical strobe or the biking strobe. It uses maximum on the 7135 and maximum on the FET, to give a nice 140-lm handlebar light with ~1600-lm fast blinks for visibility. It should get about 7 to 8 hours runtime on a 3100mAh cell.
to be honest i really wanted the comparison between a BLF X6+Nice FET driver anyway so I it would prefer that, but i thought because a lot more have a stock one i ask for that instead and if you take some shots of the lower levels also that should be representative of the ~1000 lumens stock light.
The reason i am curious is, i like to run at night as i said previously in this thread, and now in the winter when the tracks is iced up with footprints i is almost impossible to get any speed going without a flashlight not to mention i would probably break something if i even tried running on icy dark tracks with out one
So i have been testing different lights, last night i used the BLF X6 3C with a BLF17DD in it and to my surprise it was way to throwy to be a good running light, the Zeusray in flood is much better but the tint is to cold so the gradations become a bit washed out, it would probably be even better with a much warmer tint & a FET driver.
For now my little Jexree Mini with the XP-L 3D tint has been the safest & best choice with the best contrast on snowy slick icy dirt roads, but it has to short running time to really be the optimum.
So i hope this EE A6-SE with a more floody beam profile & longer running time will be the best one yet
