Yep.
I’ve gotten decent at catching it at/near the lowest point for regular day-to-day stuff, but would definitely prefer a log ramp.
Don’t really mind the full-power wave-thing as I don’t use it that often (I’m good with clicking it on/off as needed).
And for whatever reason pwm doesn’t seem to bug me as much as it does other people (’though tube-type fluorescent lights flickering at 120Hz does bug me after a short while).
For 10bux, though, I’ll live with it.
Fixing everything but pwm could be as simple as reflashing the µC that’s controlling it.
A ~10µF chip-cap right across the LED might smooth the output. Output would still be jiggly, but not a hard on/off.
Then again, PWMing is a linear function, filtering/smoothing the voltage accordingly to an LED with a ~3V “knee” not so much. Ie, 50% might filter down the 3.8V from the cell down to a spiky 1.9V, giving a nice moonlight mode as the LED barely glows at all, if at all.
’Though if it’s not discharged when the voltage is that low, charge would simply build up in the next round of pulses. Never analysed that particular function, maybe someone else could try it in the Real World™.
Fact is, pwm is the simplest and cheapest(!) way to modulate a high power load like an LED when you have limited voltage headroom.
If Motorola still made their hexfets, you could get a sampling of the current throughput from a sense-out pin, without needing a series resistor to sniff the current through the load. Output from the sense-out pin would be a percentage of the total current, eg, 1%, so a 1A load would give a 10mA output. Sniff that and modulate accordingly.
Alas, I don’t think they’re made anymore…