Mini Review: TLF/BLF FW3A Strobe Modes

stephenk · 2019-05-14T09:49:41.000Z

ToyKeeper:

I’m hoping to add momentary to the strobe modes sometime soon… I’ve just been really busy.

The plan is to make the light keep track of whether it was last used in regular mode or a strobe-group mode… and then momentary would automatically use one of those two. So if you want a momentary tactical strobe, go to the tactical strobe mode, adjust the parameters how you want, then turn the light off. Click five times to go to momentary mode, and it would do tactical strobe as long as the button is held.

This would also work in the other four strobe-group modes, though I’m not sure it would actually be useful to have a momentary candle mode or momentary lightning mode. It’s just easier to do all of them than to do only one or two.

That would be a great feature. Also, if the strobe mode could remember the last used ramped brightness, as per the tactical mode in Anduril, that would be great too. If that UI was in an 18650 light with a single XP-L and smooth reflector, it would be the ultimate flashlight for light painting!

ToyKeeper · 2019-05-14T09:52:33.000Z

Oh, er, BTW… the strobe brightness isn’t adjustable. It’s hardcoded to use full power on FET+1 lights, or use the highest regulated mode on FET+N+1 lights. So with the FW3A, the strobes run at about 800 lm.

This is, of course, adjustable if you modify the code.

stephenk · 2019-05-14T10:12:24.000Z

Thanks for the update. I thought it used the ramp ceiling? I’ve modified my review.

teacher · 2019-05-14T10:42:16.000Z

Thanks for sharing stephenk, I love these photographs….

steel_1024 · 2019-05-14T13:31:56.000Z

I like too

stephenk · 2019-05-14T21:22:46.000Z

Thank you all. Looking forward to using the FW3A in more complex scenes.

Omega_17 · 2019-05-14T23:21:51.000Z

Nice artistic pictures. There is endless possibilities thanks to the Anduril UI.

Firelight2 · 2019-05-14T23:27:30.000Z

Those light painting pictures look beautiful!

ToyKeeper · 2019-05-14T23:29:39.000Z

Omega_17:

Nice artistic pictures. There is endless possibilities thanks to the Anduril UI.

Anduril doesn’t make pretty pictures… it just blinks a light on and off. Stephenk makes the pretty pictures.

saypat · 2019-05-15T00:17:06.000Z

Stephenk makes the pretty pictures.
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I agree and would love to have some….

lumenzilla · 2019-05-15T04:20:01.000Z

Nice picture, very interesting (y)

stephenk · 2019-05-15T09:16:05.000Z

Thanks for the comments. Can’t wait to do some serious light painting creations with the FW3A.

Ryzbor · 2019-05-15T09:45:43.000Z

ToyKeeper:

Oh, er, BTW… the strobe brightness isn’t adjustable. It’s hardcoded to use full power on FET+1 lights, or use the highest regulated mode on FET+N+1 lights. So with the FW3A, the strobes run at about 800 lm.

This is, of course, adjustable if you modify the code.

Lightning Storm mode in a BLF GT type light would benefit from using full power FET instead of the highest regulated mode. just saying…

ToyKeeper · 2019-05-15T23:37:49.000Z

Ryzbor:

Lightning Storm mode in a BLF GT type light would benefit from using full power FET instead of the highest regulated mode. just saying…

Lightning mode pays no attention to FET vs regulated modes. It spans the whole brightness range… at random.

Looking at it now though, I did find a small bug. The range is level 2 to 143, but it was intended to be 2 to 150. So I just fixed that.

It won’t hit the highest level very often though, because it’s random with a low bias. This makes most of the flashes less bright, and the really bright ones only happen once in a while… like in a real storm. When I was writing that code, I had an actual lightning storm outside for comparison, so I adjusted things to look like what I saw out the window.

stephenk · 2019-05-16T10:27:24.000Z

I used the candle flicker mode for a romantic evening last night.

MascaratumB · 2019-05-21T12:32:54.000Z

@ stephenk, I knew you’d do something gorgeaus with all the strobes on the FW3A Awesome work

ToyKeeper:

I’m hoping to add momentary to the strobe modes sometime soon… I’ve just been really busy.

We can wait for that TK :innocent: It has been nice to play with the light so far and all the blinking modes :partying_face:

Lumintop · 2019-05-23T03:06:28.000Z

Great job, we like it, and more!

stephenk · 2019-05-25T06:25:21.000Z

Thanks for all the kind comments. A couple more:

Bike flash mode

Tactical strobe 80Hz

xevious · 2019-05-25T06:36:03.000Z

@StephenK — excellent work! I’m intrigued by your results. On your site is there a video showing a little of how you produce these?

ToyKeeper:

Ryzbor:

Lightning Storm mode in a BLF GT type light would benefit from using full power FET instead of the highest regulated mode. just saying…

Lightning mode pays no attention to FET vs regulated modes. It spans the whole brightness range… at random.

Looking at it now though, I did find a small bug. The range is level 2 to 143, but it was intended to be 2 to 150. So I just fixed that.

It won’t hit the highest level very often though, because it’s random with a low bias. This makes most of the flashes less bright, and the really bright ones only happen once in a while… like in a real storm. When I was writing that code, I had an actual lightning storm outside for comparison, so I adjusted things to look like what I saw out the window.

I used to work in meteorology while serving the USAF. I observed many lightning storms. I have to say, the FW3A lightning mode is very convincing! I’m very curious to know what kind of mathematical randomizing formula you came up with for it. Naturally, real thunderstorms can have long gaps between lightning, so yours are shortened a bit for user satisfaction. But it’s nicely done.

stephenk · 2019-06-18T10:16:05.000Z

Another light painting photo (Blade Portal) created using the TLF/BLF FW3A on party strobe mode.

PS: I still have an affiliate link for the FW3A and 20% off code: SKFW3A