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No damage to home but work is without power for another 1 to 3 weeks. The wind blew hard here, but no trees down. We were on the east side of Ida and its surprising how 30 miles can change the landscape.
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The reason so many trees and electrical lines are down is because we had a record rain fall this year, and it rained for weeks daily soaking the ground making it soft and muddy until the day Ida hit.
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I’m glad to hear you are ok, and to see that you have internet. I hope the area recovers quickly.
FPJ
Doing runtime by hand sucks. I used to do it by videoing a lux meter and taking sample readings at various time intervals during playback. This gets old in a big hurry!
Automating runtime is fairly easy if you can come up with something to log voltage over time.
The sensor setup is something Terry Oregon came up with in his huge post about testing photo diodes for looking at light waveforms.
I then used his design to start my own measurements.
This works well as long as you are careful not to let the light overpower the photo-diode and clip the signal.
The OSRAM diode is very linear as far as I can tell. This same diode is used in many of the inexpensive Lux meters on the market.
I use PICO log software that comes with my PICO oscilloscope. But anything that can sample a voltage over time will do the trick.
A computers sound-card will work - just be careful not to exceed the input voltage max or it will fry your card (ask me how I know).
Some use a logging multi-meter (kind of expensive) or some sort of software/hardware to do A to D conversions and create a time-voltage log file.
I then use my Lumen Tube to get reference Lumen levels to correct the voltages measured to the actual Lumen output.
I make the plots using Excel or Libra Office Calc.
All the Best,
Jeff
Thanks pennzy, I appreciate your words 
When I wrote what I wrote, I was not complaining in that way, but just stating that even after many work for a review, sometimes people don’t care about reviews that are not “the mainstream” or of certain brands that are well known, well “adverstised” and even sold in some GBs here on the forum. But these mini rants of mine shall not be taken into account
Ooops, sorry! I never tested it, as I normally use the site as it is!
I just remembered that thread and posted in case you guys didn’t know it and wanted to try using it Sorry if it doesn’t meet what you are looking for.
As for the suggestions of Forsyth P. Jones, I guess they are interesting but I am not sure if they are feasible in some ways, specially because it is supposed to a) envolve money, b) envolve people’s availability when we know that sometimes we “leave” for a while or for good!
Still, I’ll be following the thread development and at least I can try to modify some things in my reviews (whenever possible) to provide some information “for the sake of flashlight science” :nerd_face:
Comments about reviews are always welcome. I should think.
How else can the reviewer learn to improve their offerings.
All the Best,
Jeff
PS one of my pet peeves is a review with many many ultra high res. photos.
Downsize those suckers so a page can load in my lifetime!
:+1: :+1:
Actually if all you are after is runtime.
A simple photocell will convert light to volts.
Then something to convert analog volts to digital and log that over time.
All the Best,
Jeff
Yes if I do runtimes I’m planning to use a simple phototransistor and an MCU board. I hope that’s enough. At first I was going to write Raspberry Pi Pico but then realized ESP32 would make things even simpler, since I could download the data and monitor things to my laptop by wifi, or put long term tests (sublumen moon modes that are supposed to last for weeks) online so people could monitor them over the web (almost as exciting as watching paint dry!).
I guess a thermal sensor would also be worth having, I’d like to have an automated way to shut off the light if things get too hot: any ideas about that?
Once we have AVR-1 Anduril drivers we’ll be able to have flashlights with real API’s like God intended ;-).
Ahhh but has anyone ever done a Freezing/Boiling test yet?? Video at the middle of the page. Boil it good!
"Run over by a truck, dropped in boiling water, set on fire and even sent to SPACE (111k ft)" 
> Automating runtime is fairly easy if…
Thanks! That post looks very helpful for the electronics part. I’ll probably end up going a different route for the software.
A Benetech GM1020 and an Elitech RC-4 will do. The MINIX diagram was done this way.
It was some years until I truly learned just HOW MUCH time it takes - not to mention the investment of real money in equipment - to do good solid comprehensive reviews. We have many here - some still around, some gone and moved on - who have done great reviews and/or teardowns for us. I am super appreciative of that and also have approximately zero sense of entitlement that would suggest I should complain when I don't see what I maybe wish I would. If I were to do so then I'd probably start feeling a little guilt over not investing that time and money myself to give the same thing back.
When I see the "marketing slick sheet" type of reviews...well, they are what they are and they serve their own purpose for people who are shopping for the light or perhaps new to the hobby, etc. Sometimes those reviews add a lot of great photos that show things not otherwise seen in product listings, and sometimes those can be very helpful to a modder even if measurements are not given on key parts (although it is fantastic when people take the time to add measurements for us). The reviews that go a step further with beamshots and especially run time or light quality graphs and such increase the time and dedication exponentially. Add teardown to that - assuming someone is willing and also willing to risk damaging parts or finish - and the time goes up still, plus the added time of inputting the information into a forum post/repository.
Not everyone is interested in the techy details or the modding details and this site serves all kinds of interests for folks. I just take those great tech and teardown reviews as a gift and try to express my thanks for their efforts, and when I can't find something I want/need about a light, I enjoy the exploration of discovering it myself on the bench in front of me.
As for a wiki type repository...man those are hard to keep up with and there are SO MANY lights these days. And compiling that info from so many available sources (here, youtube, reddit, websites, datasheets, etc, etc) could be a real labor of love. But that said, we've done it before and even if those things don't keep up with the future they're still great and worthy of the efforts (such as the excellent emitter repository thread here). I don't know how folks like Parametrek keep up with it and do such a good job...solo, and for the long haul. Based on some past experiences, my opinion is that it's also good to keep in mind that trying to use forum platforms as a sort of encyclopedia or reference base is difficult at best. Organized threads can be done, and stickied, and search fills up the gap. Trying to inject a more defined structure into an organic environment like a forum has a lot of drawbacks, as opposed to a for-viewing web page and such.
I think sometimes we take these people for granted and just expect them to keep on doing it or that they'll be around forever. I'll be the last one to suggest that someone isn't doing reviews the right way or should feel like they need to invest more of their own time or resources. Mukka, HKJ, TK, all the great guys mentioned above, the steady-reviewers who churn out videos all the time...it's great. If anyone falls short of information then either I can try to add to it, find it elsewhere, or explore it myself.