I’m still trying to budge my XP-L version out of Carol Stream, Illinois. It’s been there since 8/28. Maybe they are fixing any problems with broken LEDs??
Nobody was aware then. The issue wasn’t known until maukka found it, two weeks ago in this thread. It’s in his review, the first post.
Maukka found it, I wrote code to fix it, I sent the code to Tom (who wrote NarsilM), and I think Fireflies plans to use a fixed version from now on. So it’s a known issue. It still sucks for everyone involved, but it seems Fireflies is doing everything they can to make it right, including sending out extra hardware at their own expense.
Fireflies is a new company, and they’re making some new-company mistakes, but they’re learning quickly and trying very hard to do things well.
The issue isn’t about having enough program-erase cycles. It was about not turning off interrupts before reading or writing eeprom. Sometimes the writes would get interrupted and then saving the data wouldn’t work. But it was a random chance based on timing, so it would generally work after a few tries. It has probably been an issue for years, but nobody noticed.
Congratulations and thanks Maukka for a wonderful review!
I noticed the relatively new photometric intensity X angle profile, which I found you started with the Acebeam K30 review. Exactly what I wanted!
At what distance from the flashlight you measured it? Was it perpendicular to the flashlight axis or at a fixed distance? Could you post the table of values?
Probably other lights too. Hank mentioned issues with the Emisar D4 forgetting things when the battery was changed, which is why I rewrote the eeprom code. So the bug was present in RampingIOS V1, then fixed in RampingIOS V2. Both were a fork of an earlier version of Narsil, which seems to have kept the bug until just a couple weeks ago.
I just received my black XP-L HI 3A blemished one at a discount from Fireflies. If it wasn’t stated that way, I wouldn’t even notice any blemish at all. My initial lumen measurements were 5,431 lumens at 1s on freshly charged VTC5D. However, like my other ROT66 that were making low lumen output, putting a spacer between the tail cap and battery cage increases contact pressure between the battery cage and the head, which increased lumen output to 6,940 lumens!
I suggest everyone use spacers (e.g., folded napkins, rubber bands, etc.) and remeasure your lumen output. Two of my ROT66 had this issue with not enough compression at the contact point causing low output. The compression force relies on the resistance of the rubber in the tailcap pushing up on the battery cage. However, over time, the rubber gets permanently deformed and loses its elasticity so there’s less rebound pressure pushing up against the cage. For those people that leave the battery cage tightened in the flashlight for a period of time, retest your lumen output. I’m pretty sure it is a good amount lower than when it was brand new.
I like the tint on the XP-L HI 3A alot. It is about 5200k, a very clean NW/CW and when compared next to 219B 4500k doesn’t look green at all unlike many other flashlights. However when shined on actual objects and not just white walls, the 219b 9080 still does a far superior job at color rendering. The XP-L HI runs cooler though.
Thanks, SKV89. Good things to watch out for as light wears and some usable fixes as well. Also appreciate your honest comparison between XP-L HI 3A and the 219B 9080. Thanks again for taking the time and to all others that have and continue to share their experience with their ROT66. Cheers!
I haven’t found anything that work really well. Packaging foam works well initially but loses elasticity over time. Maybe cut spacers from expired credit cards.
