New and learning. *Driver help needed!*

Ok, I posted a thread in the general led section but it hasn’t been getting any hits. This forum might be more along the lines of what I’m trying to do. Sorry for the long post, it’s really not as long as it appears because its three posts in one.

Original post read:

New guy here. I’ve been doing a lot of searching and reading and hence learning.

This all started because I got a 1aa zebralight headlamp for backpacking. Then I got an olight t15 which is a 1aa light to go with the headlamp (I like to standardize batteries across my packs). From a preparedness standpoint I got a t10 body for a cr123. I like this for if I’m ever lost or trekking or the ‘end of the world’ hits and I can only find a certain type battery, then I have multiple options.

Well I really like the zebralight programming- hold to ramp, and double tap for the other intensity of that mode. I could care less about SOS and beacon crap.

I don’t like the olight’s programming- I just prefer tail clickys (reverse, forward, tactical, tail stand, etc. I don’t care I just prefer to push a button on the tail). The olight has a mix of button pushing and twisting for modes and extra SOS and beacon crap that you have to toggle through every time.

So, how do I get my cake and eat it too? How can I have a t10/t15 with a tail cap and zebralight-like programming? I’ve seen the threads about building your own lights and like the idea but I’m also wondering if I can reprogram my olight?

What do the talented and knowledgable people here think?

I followed that up with:

I’m still continuing my research and I came across the dereelight c2h. It is a p60 style host that takes a single cr123 and has an extension tube for 1aa. Couldn’t I then get my own p60 style reflector with brass pill, led (type left open for now), and a uc-controlled driver and program it myself? I could just replicate the zebralight programming and omit the SOS and beacon stuff that way.

I’m too new to this to know if that would work. I know you would have to be conscious of the voltage difference between the two battery’s when selecting components. That’s no big deal, I’m not looking for anything crazy bright, just so long as I could get near the same output as the olight I’d be happy

And lastly:

I got a dereelight c2h yesterday. So far I really like it… Better than the olight. My only complaint is the medium setting is not that different from the high setting. I still wish I could find a way to mimicking the programming of the zebralight.

Any thoughts? Would this get better exposure in a different section?

And now, here I am. Maybe the good people who frequent this section can help me! Thanks!

Howdy and welcome aboard. I’m not going to be much help on this one but maybe you could change your title to driver help needed. That might get Comfy’s attention and he seems to be the driver guru.

Good luck.

Done, and thanks!

It’s helpful if you post links to the lights you have a question about so that it’s easy to check them out. Driver swaps are a common way to change the UI (user interface) to get the desired selections. Other mods like sense resistor changes to alter output if the modes are ok but not the overall output. Sometimes mode separation is inadequate because it was designed for a different voltage cell than the one in use. Lots of variables to work with.

programing it yourself sounds like the only option. I like the zebra ui a lot, but I have found I can get by quite nicely with these modes, depending on the task and light: moon>lo>med>high>turbo, L>M>H>T, and T>H>M>L. I like to have my turbos on timers, (step down to high after XX (X) seconds) to save battery life.

There is no way your going to fit all of zebralight’s UI onto a 1k chip, the ATTiny13A that we’re using is what pretty much all the info around here is about and what all the boards are made for and what everyone can answer questions about. You can try it but you’ll need a bigger chip, a different programming clip (tho the USBASP will work as long as you choose an Atmel chip) and totally custom programming.

If C+ is your thing go for it and please share the results (success or failure) as open source here!

I’m good with the usbasp and c+, but what chip could I use?

You’re giving me hope! I think we can make this happen. After all, zebra did it

Well the problem with trying to find a different chip is all the hardware and all the different boards people are making on OSHPark all use the tiny13a and afaik only one other chip shares the same pinout so your going to have to design your own board first. (There is one 4k chip that shares the same pinout as the 13A but I forget exactly which one and I would think you would want an 8k chip for what your trying anyway).

Edit: according to the datasheet the ATTiny45 is the same exact size and pinout and it’s 4k, the ATTiny85 is the same and it’s 8K.

Is it the Tiny85? Same pin out but slightly wider if you look at Texaspyro’s 20 mm board. Mattaus can help with board design if you want to write code for a different UI.

I’ve done a custom ui on an s10 which I think is the same front end as the t10. I just removed their microcontroller from the driver and replaced it with my own. My ui was this one but it could be customized to whatever you want. I’ll upload a picture of what the modified driver looks like when I get home so you can get an idea of how much hardware work it requires

update:

that’s a SOIC-8 chip inside the heatshrink

Tiny25 would be the next logical progression…same exact size as Tiny13…but 2k, twice the space for programming

Just checked the datasheet’s- the 13a, 45 (4k) and 85 (8k) are exactly the same package, didn’t look up the 25 and my phone is about to die and I’m on 3G so I cant look it up to verify but it should be the same too.

ATTiny25 is 2K, same size as ATTiny13, ATTiny85 is a little larger footprint but is 8K

AWESOME! We’re getting some good input here. So getting different feedback on the 85. Some say same footprint, some say wider, some say longer. Can we find out which is it?

Also, is it worth trying the 45? Consensus seems that it’s the same footprint @ 4k. Would that be enough room to get it done?

Thanks a bunch to all that have contributed! I was getting rather discouraged at first.

Another thought: has anyone opened up their zebra to see what’s inside? I wonder if their chip would drop right in to a commonly available board? It would be a large investment just to rob a chip out of one, but if possible, one could just drop a run of the mill chip back in and off it as such. Cut your losses and still have the ui that you want.

Just a thought

Checked the datasheet’s and they are EXACTLY the same package size.

Hmmm… I will have to look around. I am curious too.

Attiny 25, 45, 85 datasheet

Attiny 13a datasheet

Side question: What is the difference between the 13 vs. 13a?

I’ve never opened any of my several ZL’s but I can say without the slightest doubt it’s not any of these Atmel’s and its unlikely it’s another one either. I’m 100% positive it’s not going to be able to be swapped with any of the ones we use here and I’m 98% sure it won’t be able to be reprogrammed (and it also won’t be able to be read, even a stock 13A can’t be read). The Atmel’s are PWM controllers, the ZL is a CC driver, the Atmel couldn’t even control the other hardware on the ZL board even if it was pinned the same.