Also, have you any thoughts about or interest in making fixed lighting drivers?
(or recommending a transformer (?) to take 110v down to what your drivers will accept)?
Lately I’ve had to look at what’s commercially available through licensed electricians
(kitchen being updated somewhat from its original 1923 spec).
The electricians don’t know what they’re selling, and it’s all from China anyway.
And dear lordy lord lord lord, opening a modern refrigerator means having your brain burned with electric-arc-blue-white light ….
DrJones’ H17F driver looks awesome. Has some great features not found in the drivers with smaller processors like PID and programmable modes.
However… I tend to prefer lights with electronic switches. Any chance of making a driver with similar features to the H17F, but designed for an electronic switch?
Desired features I’d like to see in such a driver:
Basically, a ~12mm MTN-DD driver that is optimized for twisty use, although it can be used for clicky lights as well. The twisty lights need isolation on the component side of the board so that you're not relying on the threads for isolation.
This is the driver after sanding down the tabs to get a nice tight press fit, and shows the notch's I made for easy removal. Swapped out the 13A for a Tiny85, and swapped resistors out for a much lower parasitic drain:
Is the amber LED really so much different than the red LED? I’ve read that the amber and red are so close in colour that one can almost not distinguish the two? I’ve never seen an amber LED in action.
Richard, do you have more amber XP-E2s in stock? If not, when are you planning to get in?
I can clearly see the difference. The amber is much more amber, for lack of a better term. It has a lot more orange / yellow to it than a normal Cree LED.
The amber XP-E2s have been in stock for months now...just checked and there is 10+.
Richard and/or anyone who knows… I installed a LD-29 2.8A buck driver in a flashlight with 3x XP-E2 R3 emitters in parallel and 2S 18650 cells. When I switch to low mode, I get a brief flash then no light at all. Low is supposed to be 5% so I calculated that each LED is getting ~47mA at that level. The other modes work fine. Any thoughts?
Interesting. I don't know of anyone who has used one before with a triple setup, but I can't imagine those not lighting at a 5% level. I would maybe expect that with a low moonlight level, but not with a regular level.
Have you tried it with a single LED to make sure the driver isn't defective? I think that would be my next step.
I haven’t tried with a single LED yet. I’ll try a single emitter when I get a chance this afternoon. The driver shouldn’t care how many LEDs are in parallel, right? Is it possible that the Vf is too low on a XP-E2 @47mA for the driver to reach? I’ve used another LD-29 with multiple LEDs before and I don’t remember having any issue. But that was a while back and I used it mainly on high. I just bought this driver from you, along with some other stuff, recently. But, I did have to add a copper ring to it to make it big enough to fit the driver pocket I was putting it in. I stuck the copper ring on top of the bottom board, and soldered it on from the bottom. I don’t think I shorted it to anything. Is there anything near the edges of the driver that if shorted could cause just the lowest mode to be lost?
I agree. I think that he may have plans for something like that as evidenced by the two switch pads on the H17F board; however, I haven't asked him if or when he plans to work on an H17F momentary firmware.
Tom E.: Do you have plans to add temperature sensor support to Narsil? Lack of that feature is why I have not really adopted it yet.
Yes. I have more C8 on the way, but I have been engaged in some pricing discussions for a few weeks on the small tube holsters. I think that the cost is going to have to increase on them because I can no longer get them at anywhere near the cost I was getting them at before.
That's a good question. I wish I had a good answer for it --- I have been considering not offering the option anymore because I just don't know if I'll ever have the time to do them like I used to. If I do offer it, it will have to be on a limited basis because sometimes there wouldn't be any lights, then someone would order a bunch and it would just kill me to have to try and do all of them.
It has a lot more orange / yellow to it than a normal Cree LED.