I’d be open to either
I know too little about driver topology and design to say which makes more sense
I like my M21F, The e-switch UI is good enough for me. except going into moonlight mode it can not change brightness without having to go to off and into memorized mode. Thrunite has the same behavior That is a my biggest gripe with the UI 
. For future drivers can this behavior change or a toggle pref so moonlight is apart of ramping.?
Wait, moonlight is not part of ramping? Weird.
From moonlight, you can double click to turbo then ramp down.
This is the same UI employed in the Pioneman K36, and the biggest issue I have with it. Once you get to turbo, there’s no way out but to ramp down while in smooth ramping. In stepped ramping, you have to keep your thumb on the pedal to get back to low…only option unless you want off (1C), and then return to turbo (high) with 1C to on. No reverse ramp option in stepped, and the smooth ramp is ridiculously slow to diminish output. Annoying to say the least. I would rather have 12 mode with memory. YMMV.
I’m also bothered by the inability to go from Moon to Low. It’s one of several minor issues I point out & suggest fixes for in my proposed improvements to Convoy’s user interface(s).
- Turbo is always memorized. It should not be memorized when accessed via shortcut.
- There is no way to go from Turbo back to the mode you were using. 2C should do that.
- The only ways to get out of moonlight are off and Turbo. Hold from moonlight should go to low.
- Holds take way too long (a full second). They should around 1/3 of a second.
- Low is too close to Moon and too far from Medium. Low should be brighter.
- Stepped ramp speed is too slow at 1 mode per second. It should be doubled or tripled to 2-3 modes per second.
- Smooth ramping is too slow overall, taking 5 seconds to ramp from end to end. The speed should be doubled so that it takes ~2.5 seconds from end to end.
- Smooth ramping is linear so the low end feels too fast and the high end feels too slow. It should be logarithmic instead so that it appears linear to the human eye.
These bother me enough that I do not use my M21D GT-FC40. I’ll be giving up the integrated charging and swapping in a Noctigon K1 12V driver soon with Anduril 2 so that it has a user interface that’s as well designed as the host.
Edit: updated bullet points based on discussion below
I completely agree, I have nothing of value to add to your post I just feel it is warrants being repeated so I quoted you 
This along with a proper compact, floody light with a side e-switch would very possibly put Convoy above Thrunite as the best lights for the money by miles.
What are the chances of getting a 21700 extension tube for the M21/L21 family?
Not to pick nits here but you don’t want to double the speed, just to implement logarithmic steps in the sequence, rather than linear ones like this driver and several others have done. This goes back to the human eye and perception of brightness (like the reason the original 10/30/100 modes were chosen).
But yeah, it would sure be nice to even out the ramp behavior. On one hand, slow ramping can be a real benefit at times, but that too-fast behavior on the low end sure is tricky to use effectively.
Stepped ramping should be faster by double.
That is a good nit to pick! To clarify, those are two separate issues. The time it takes to ramp from one end to the other is too slow, so ramp speed overall needs to be increased AND the ramp is linear so it needs to be made logarithmic.
Great point! I have noticed this as well but forgot to mention it. I will add it.
Well…same basic concept, though. Integrated, not separated. If you were to implement the logarithmic steps then you wouldn’t need to double the speed…if you did double the speed then you might want to slow it back down. lol. (Of course you can play with the ramp speed in Anduril 2 to get a feel for it…but it’s still using the logarithmic approach (or I think it is…I suppose TK could confirm and clarify the particulars).
Now on the other-other hand, I think it’s fantastic that Simon and others have put a lot of effort into drivers as of late. It’s not easy and it’s not inexpensive to do so, and right now “we” are…light years…ahead of where we were just a few years ago. And we’re doing all of this/getting all of this really on the cheap.
I still want both things. The ramp needs to be made logarithmic so it appears visually linear. That’s one issue solved.
The other separate “issue” of overall ramp speed is just my personal preference. I’m very familiar and comfortable with the ~2.5S end-to-end ramp speed of Anduril, so the ~5S end-to-end ramp speed in Convoy’s E-switch UI throws me off a bit.
100% agree. Simon is making tremendous leaps in driver quality and affordability and it’s fantastic.
Yeah, it’s crazy. Just a few years ago, your choices in budget lights were basically 8x7135 or a FET. Now we’ve got 8A buck drivers and 6V, 3A boost drivers for under $30.
Speaking of drivers, is there an easy way to tell which Convoy lights have regulated drivers? I’ve been going off of runtime graphs but not every light has a nice graph available like the L7 and M3-C.
Multi-cell lights, except for 4x18 and 3x21, are all boost or buck drivers, AFAIK. Also, anything that uses a 6V or 12V emitter (XHP50.2, XHP70.2, B35AM, SST70, GT-FC40) is going to be regulated.
For 3V drivers, the only buck driver is the 8A one used in the M21 series, as well as the S12, S16, and S21D. The 5A (in the 18650 lights) and 6A (in the 21700 lights like S21A and B) drivers are constant current, where they don’t convert excess voltage, they simply bleed it off as heat.
To add to this, 4X18A XHP70 has a boost driver but the SBT90 version is linear. All 3X21A’s are linear. L7 is buck. L6 FC40 is boost. All other L6 variants are linear.
Any SINGLE CELL light with a 6/12V LED has a boost driver. XHP70.2, B35AM, GT-FC40, SST70, or XHP50.2 (except for XHP50.2 in 18650 lights, that one is a 3V version).
For 3V, the 8A driver that comes in 21700/26650 lights when you select a CULPM1 or SFT40 LED is a buck driver. It’s also present in some S12 configurations and S21D.
I didn’t know that the 8A 22mm driver was a buck driver. Very interesting, makes a real argument for the S21B over the S21A with either options (or as a platform for driving higher current 3V leds). Cheeres for that.
Do you mean the M21B? The S21B uses the 6A driver like the S21A, while the M21B uses the 8A buck driver.