Lume1-FW3X: Constant Current Buck-Boost & FET Driver with Anduril1/2 + RGB Aux

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
501

Yes sir :)

502

Can you see what it is?

This is the installation of Lume1 with AUX board into FW1A. The main LED is XPL with 3D. It is an older LED, but I still like the tint. With the proper focusing, there is not much of the Cree rainbow. The CRI also seems to be OK for what it is.

Obviously, the reflector does not work. The lens/optic is used.

It works.

It was not a simple swap from the stock driver to Lume1. I had to do some work around. However, I managed to make it happen. I am glad with the result.

So, Lume1 with AUX board for FW1A is totally possible.

503

I always wanted to try this with a reflector light and drill small holes in the side and fill with Norland or something. Maybe if I had a drill press

504

It is a nice idea to drill holes and make windows for the AUX LEDā€™s on the reflector. I like lens/optic, so I did not consider any other ways.

505

i did my first lume1 driver and aux board yesterday

i used 30awg silicon wires and it was pretty simple, even with my chunky soldering iron tip

i only managed to make the green and blue wires though as the red wire was a little bit more difficult the the rest, it was to near the ground, ad with my tip i didnt want to risk blobbyness

,more drivers going to get ordered so i can do the rest of my fw3 series

also after i did this one, i found my smaller tip

after every wire i did i cleaned the area with alcohol
cleaned the tip everytime
i am proud of my job i did , this is the smallest soldering ive done

picture to come later some time

506

So no one even measured the currents in the modes?

507

Iā€™m also curious but i donā€™t have any meassuring equipment :(

508

270/910/200 resistors, rev B aux board. 1st run FW3A w/ shaved LH351D

509

Hi buddy

Where to get the revB from

Lumintop sold me the revA :frowning:

510

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/mtHUb4gp

I ordered 3 for $3.10 from OSHPark (above). Took about 2 weeks from order to my door (be sure to select 0.8mm, 2oz PCB). However, you have to move the components from the old board to the new one. They come blank if that isnā€™t clear.

511

Thatā€™s above my skill level reflowing

Iā€™ve got a few blanks but revA

And also a lume1 driver and aux board again revA

Any chance you have a few spare :-))

512

treellama was nice enough to give me a few of his RGB LEDs to make this one possible and I gave him my last board.

513

Just curious, is it possible to order an FW3x with the Lume1 board already pre-installed? For those like me who may not have the skill level to install this Lume board themselves?

514

Not at the moment. Only the Mokume and Damascus models came with the Lume1 driver.

515

Iā€™m not sure why you guys are so salty about this driver. Itā€™s certainly not for everyone but our hobby needs more innovation like this regardless of what you think about this specific driver. The results below speak for themselves but the summary is this:

There is NOTHING ā€œstabilizedā€ about the stock driver. The temp regulation is all over the place and it runs hotter with lower sustained brightness. The lume1 loses only 10% brightness after 3 whole minutes.

stock:
https://youtu.be/hiu09l-IYNg

lume1:
https://youtu.be/os2e_UYjg9Y

516

Contactcr, that is an impressive comparison display. Well done. Makes the tourture working with those tiny resistors and wires all worth it.

517

Thanks for sharing your test. I expected the Lume1 to sustain higher output due to lower heat production in the driver, but not that much higher.

If your stock driver is running the stock firmware, I believe it it is from a build before Toykeeper rewrote the thermal control code, which I think was rev 234. The newer firmware should also regulate better.

518

It was reflashed when I installed lexel aux board in it so its not stock firmware but far from the latest. I will reflash it sometime if itā€™s better. In any case it still does eventually go back up to just under 400 and begin dropping again.

This is with both batteries full. Iā€™m sure if you keep your batteries half full you can change them twice as often for better linear results!

519

Thanks again to everyone for your comments, critiques and suggestions! I'll be taking all of them into account for future revisions.

hinbli, that's really cool, I'm pleasantly surprised you got the driver with the FW1A even though I didn't design the boards for it; nice build!

contactcr, thanks for helping out with the rev B links. Likewise, thanks with the measurements! I have to say though, the results are a little unexpected and not quite what I see on my own FW3 (which begins to throttle after a minute or so depending on setpoint and starting temp).. The majority of the heat should be coming from the LEDs, so I'd expect both flashlights (if set to the same temperature limit), to regulate to similar brightness (maybe slightly higher for the Lume1 since there's a fair bit less heat in the driver itself), but the Lume1 driver should allow longer runtimes due to higher efficiency. With a Ti body though, I'm not sure what to expect since Ti has relatively lower thermal conductivity than Cu or Al (1/23 of copper, and I suspect the thermal settings need to be tweaked to work best in such a host..). If you have time, maybe you could try with Anduril2 firmware as well (see below). As much as I'd like to do some proper lumen measurements myself, I don't quite yet have the kit and setup to do so; any data like this is great feedback, thank you.

Anduril2

For those who have the Lume1-FW3X driver, here is an update for anyone interested in Anduril2. I worked on some fixes and adjustments and I've had it running my my copper FW3C for a while now, and so far I think it's running mostly bug free... but I'm sure I may have missed out some! If you're interested, please feel free to try it out here. I could definitely use some help with testing all the use cases.

.hex files for flashing: https://github.com/loneoceans/lume1-fw3x/tree/main/anduril2

  • If you're flashing a new 1634, set fuses as low = 0xE2 and high = 0xDE
  • If your PCB is dated 01/20 (Rev B), you have to swap MISO and MOSI if you're programming using Emisar/Noctigon's pogoprogrammer.
  • If your PCB is dated 06/20 (Rev B), the flashing pogopads are the same as the Emisar/Noctigon ones.

I'll put up a clean source once I've finalized all the default settings. I also tweaked the behavior a little and would appreciate any feedback:

  • Default Temperature Threshold - default 50C
  • New small feature I added in Anduril2 - Turbo Extra - +5C (or set your own)
    • The Lume1-FW3X is regulated through the entire range (low to 3A) + the highest level being the FET (no PWM is used). This causes the flashlight to heat up fast, but sometimes it's desirable to have the light have a slightly higher threshold temperature before throttling down. The Lume1 uses a 3.9kHz control signal because it is 10bit (instead of 8bit, which will have a ~15.6kHz frequency). As a result, I wanted to enable the scenario to not use a 'gradual transition' when on FET (which Anduril uses for thermal throttling), and only use it on the regulated ramp modes.
    • As a result, I added a new configurable definition TURBO_TEMP_EXTRA, which you can add to the thermal ceiling, only for Turbo mode. So for example, in this build, the default is +5C.
    • The behavior now looks like this - at all modes, the flashlight regulates to 50C. When the user goes to Turbo, the ceiling is raised to 55C, and the flashlight will not throttle until 55C is hit, whereupon it will drop out of turbo, and throttle the usual way via smooth transitions.
    • This value can be set to 0 to revert to the original behavior.
  • Minimum thermal stepdown current level - ~500mA output (1.5W)
  • Default brightness level - ~250mA
  • Default ramp mode - smooth
  • Simple UI Level and Steps - low (~10mA) to 2A output / 4 steps
  • Advanced UI Level and Steps - low (~3mA) to 3A output / 7 steps
  • Flashlight Model Number: 0314
  • SOS - enabled in Blinky Group
  • Oh and of course, factory reset by default re-calibrates the temperature sensor to 21C, which is not desirable in our case since the Lume1 driver already has a factory calibrated low-drift temperature sensor. So I added a flag to disable temp. cal during a reset.

For those who are new to Anduril2, the main UI change you will notice is the use of Turbo. I have specifically not set the 2C to Turbo flag, in line with TK's main purpose for creating Anduril2. At first getting to Turbo felt a little annoying, but I got used it it real quick! I like the 2H for momentary turbo from off and I use that most often. Otherwise, it's a simple flag to re-enable 2C to Turbo.

I generated two files, one for regular Turbo operation, one with 2C to Turbo. Which do you think should be the default?

Please read the manual here:

http://toykeeper.net/torches/fsm/anduril2/anduril-manual.txt

After flashing, your flashlight will be in SimpleUI mode. From off, it's 10H to get into AdvancedUI mode to unlock the features!

And finally an observation... if anyone of you made your own Tri-LED AUX board, the disco aux-LED mode is particularly nice... looking at the optic feels like looking into some sort of small portal.. or a flux capacitor thing.. I'll have to make a GIF soon..

520

Contactcr, no temp measuringā€¦ so turn off temp regulation on both Andurils and try again ;))