Code now public! BLF A6 FET+7135 Light. Short 18350 tubes and Unanodized Lights Available

[Cobolt]

Please add me for 2 NW, thanx.

[cabfrank]

Thank you.

@Adoby

@cabfrank

Uh, what does that mean?

The output level will hold steady as the battery discharge, until the battery is almost empty.

Except for the turbo mode and the moon mode. They will fade noticeably while the voltage of the battery fall when it is discharged.

[ToyKeeper]

@cabfrank

Uh, what does that mean?

It means modes between 5 lm and 155 lm will keep the same lumen level for most of the battery’s life because those modes are regulated.

Modes above 155 lm will gradually decrease as the battery charge drops, with the effect being most noticeable at the highest modes.

Moon will also gradually decrease with voltage.

Another way to look at it:

• Mode 1: … moon is always weird; gets dimmer on a low battery
• Mode 2: regulated
• Mode 3: regulated
• Mode 4: 85% regulated
• Mode 5: 36% regulated
• Mode 6: 20% regulated, mostly direct-drive
• Mode 7: 100% direct-drive, drops with voltage

The semi-regulated modes will still drop with voltage, but the slope of that curve will be less steep than if it were direct-drive.

@chuckhov

What mode level is the highest using just the 7135?

The highest output the 7135 can do by itself is about 157 lumens. This is used only on the biking flasher. Other modes are calibrated to be evenly-spaced, and none fall exactly at the maximum level for the 7135 chip.

@Tom E

TK’s lumens measurements are on what tint? On DTP copper? Do we know exactly what the bin/tints are for the XP-L CW and NW’s?

I’m not sure what tint I got, but at a guess it looks like a 2-something. Warmer than a 1A and cooler than a 3C.

EE has promised DTP copper boards for the production run, but they didn’t want to buy the boards before production so the samples had to have their MCPCB manually swapped.

I’m not sure what exact tints the production run will have. Depends on what’s available.

[Tom_E]

Oh boy then - this may or may not be representative. Ok for relative mode comparison though.

[ToyKeeper]

Someone asked me if the Solarforce L2 clip would fit the BLF EE A6. The answer is yes, but it will need a piece of wire or something inserted into the tailcap to fill in the gap between two contact points. It also will have a ledge sticking out a little past the body, all the way around.

Here’s what it looks like:

Paperclip cut and bent to fit into the tailcap:

[ToyKeeper]

Also, here are some shots showing a cross-section of the beam. Some things to note:

• The AR coating on the lens is real, as shown by the blue halo. Expensive name-brand lights often do the same thing.
• Tint is different on the two power channels, so it will gradually get cooler as it gets brighter.
• Tint varies between spill and spot, as usual for Cree emitters when aimed by a reflector.

Here’s mode 3 and mode 6 with a default auto-exposure and fixed “daylight” ~5000K white balance. The light is resting about 2cm above a white table, aimed parallel with the table:

Here is the same thing but over-exposed to show the dim parts of the beam better:

Although these pictures are straight from the camera, they show the tint variation a lot more vividly than what you would see in real life. Human eyes adjust to the tint so it’s not as noticeable.

[cabfrank]

TK, thank you, and please remember, I will be begging for mode changing instructions when this pocket monster is finally here.

Thanks for your, and everyone’s, help with this great GB as well.

[processengr]

@cabfrank

TK, thank you, and please remember, I will be begging for mode changing instructions when this pocket monster is finally here.

Thanks for your, and everyone’s, help with this great GB as well.

A Big +1!!!

[chuckhov]

I’m taking a Placebo tonight, as my Red Convoy S2+ 8x7135 came today from Gearbest.

I really like it, but that is not to mean that I am being unfaithful…

Just screwing around a little bit while waiting for my One:-)

Have a Great night, everyone!

-Chuck

[Halo]

@ToyKeeper

Someone asked me if the Solarforce L2 clip would fit the BLF EE A6. The answer is yes, but it will need a piece of wire or something inserted into the tailcap to fill in the gap between two contact points. It also will have a ledge sticking out a little past the body, all the way around.

Here’s what it looks like:

That is pretty nice! EE should make a clip for us.

[B42]

@DBCstm

In group 1 with 7 levels, moon is so low as to be virtually useless (IMO) I have used it in a dark house late night, and outside. Even trying to see the camera settings up close and personal moon is so ultra low as to not be much help. I know there are those that will rejoice in this, and those that will groan. But really, it’s that kind of low…. easy to forget the light is still on because you can’t see the result.

In group 2 with 4 levels it’s not this way.

To rephrase it, those cheap little coin cell keychain lights with the 3mm tubular led? When the battery is almost run out? Like that.

Great work in having memory off/on options TK, the moon mode always first, no memory would make me question buying one. On moon mode lights I have a tendency to have to cycle through a few times to get the desired mode if I want anything other than max, since I frequently mis-count levels by missing moon mode and the level I intend to put the light on is bypassed and it goes back to moon, forcing me to count again as I go through modes. This moon sounds like its impossible to tell if its on unless its pointing at your eye kind of light. Its not going to be fun to buy that kind of light for gifts since regular “moon” (not moon to purists) modes already have complaints and questions as to why that useless mode is even there and why doesn’t the light turn on the first time you press on.

Its not that its useless to me, but most of the time you don’t want to see moon and the only time I and many would ever use moon, you would want to access it immediately. Just like other functions in scripts that I’ve written in “just in case”, in real use they get very very annoying if I have to go through the option every single time I use the script and rarely use the option. Its actually only in my imagination that I’ve needed moon, but hey, maybe some day I will and I’m all for having options, just not for having to go through all the rare case options on every usage. For most people, I think this is going to be the situation for moon mode. I just wish there was a way to have it both immediately accessible and out of the way so you don’t ever have to go through it, at the same time.

[awoody001]

This is sounding better and better. The more info comes out the more I like. I am already down for 1 CW but please add another 1 CW. Thanks.

[B42]

@ToyKeeper

@bugsy36

I can’t make it through the night with a 2500 anything anymore. I have gotten so spoiled with the max setting lately that I still even have to reach for a spare every now and then

Wow, one night? It takes me weeks or months to drain a cell. Then again, I mostly use low (~30mA) unless I’m biking (~450mA).

I’m still not sure what to do about turbo step-down. It seemed like there was a pretty even spread of answers from “keep it safe for muggles” to “full throttle all the way”.

I find that, starting at room temperature, it feels warm at 5 seconds, hot at ~35 seconds, and uncomfortable to hold after about 65 seconds. On the level it steps down to, it gets hot but never uncomfortable. If I had to pick a number, I’d say 60 seconds is probably about right.

(unless of course you run it on turbo with the light resting on a pillow or other insulator… it really should have good air flow or a hand around the head to sink heat into)

Yup people are very different in their usages of lights: its unusual if I dont run through the useful part of a single cell light’s battery in around an hour to two hours max.

[ToyKeeper]

@B42

This moon sounds like its impossible to tell if its on unless its pointing at your eye kind of light.

If you look at some later posts, the extra-low moon wasn’t intended and we’ve already got things recalibrated to fix it. The samples had a moon of 0.01 lm, but the goal is to get it to about 0.30 lm or 0.40 lm.

Numbers posted so far still aren’t final. In the worst case, moon might end up a bit brighter than desired on some units, but the plan is to make sure none have a uselessly-low moon mode even if we end up with wide variation between units.

Also, the second mode group has no moon. You can get rid of moon entirely if you want.

[MauiSon]

@ToyKeeper

… Having a larger-than-expected error margin on moon is unfortunate but not terrible. It just means perhaps it might be best to aim a bit on the high side so that even the lowest units have a useful output level. Instead of 0.2 to 0.5 lm, maybe it’ll have a range of like 0.3 to 1.2 lm, which is still a lot less variation than a FET has at that level.

Yes, please don’t let the moon get too low. I won’t be using the latest/greatest batteries and 1 lm is dandy.

[veer (vēer)]

Im asking this question in both 18650 BLF group buy threads, so excuse me, if this seems like repeating, the threads are big and dynamic to seek through them, so heres the question - how good of a thrower are these?

I own unmodified, stock Jacob A6 that I got for around 12$ a year or year and a half ago, and it has decent throw, so take this as reference light! I know that with A6 I can tell apart trees in a pine forest 400 meters away, thats for reference of somewhat usable throw out of mine.

[pilotdog68]

@vēer

Im asking this question in both 18650 BLF group buy threads, so excuse me, if this seems like repeating, the threads are big and dynamic to seek through them, so heres the question - how good of a thrower are these?

I own unmodified, stock Jacob A6 that I got for around 12$ a year or year and a half ago, and it has decent throw, so take this as reference light! I know that with A6 I can tell apart tree in a pine forest 400 meters away, thats for reference of somewhat usable throw out of mine.

The A6 is a tube light with a small reflector. It isn’t going to throw anywhere close to your jacob. The D80 will have more throw than the A6, but it will take a lot to get it to match the jacob. There are very few lights under $50 than can out throw a jacob.

[cabfrank]

Yeah, the Jacob is an outstanding stock thrower, and cheap. This is not a thrower at all.

[veer (vēer)]

Ah, sorry, totally ignored the fact that this is tube light, sorry and thank you :D!

[chuckhov]

Anyone have a link for this Jacob?

It’s a new one on me.

Thanks,

-Chuck