New WildTrail (former LuckSun) BLF-D80v2 Sale is open.

contactcr · 2020-10-26T19:04:53.000Z

Sw1f7:

Does the BLF-D80v2 have a forward or reverse switch?
How does its throw compare to a good C8 with SST40 5000k?

Reverse.

If by good C8 you mean a direct drive one like this light is then the C8 will have longer throw.

Sw1f7 · 2020-10-26T20:04:25.000Z

Thanks

djozz · 2020-10-26T22:08:54.000Z

contactcr:

Sw1f7:

Does the BLF-D80v2 have a forward or reverse switch?
How does its throw compare to a good C8 with SST40 5000k?

Reverse.

If by good C8 you mean a direct drive one like this light is then the C8 will have longer throw.

But this one is more compact and feels better. And this driver plus firmware is superb.

Sw1f7 · 2020-10-27T04:58:36.000Z

Seems like a good choice of emitter too. Fantastic light, I need a forward clicky though with momentarily half press to last used ramp.

Would be great if these lights could be offered with a forward clicky option for people who need a tactical style light.

contactcr · 2020-10-27T13:30:32.000Z

Forward clicky makes it a few mm longer and IMO makes a lot of the modes more difficult to transition between. I don’t mind them on some lights though.

I see you said “ramp”, none of the lights with only one mechanical switch will “ramp”. However, there are dual switch lights that can work like you describe (Sofirn C8F). A bit bigger light though.

MtnDon · 2020-10-27T13:44:14.000Z

contactcr:

I see you said “ramp”, none of the lights with only one mechanical switch will “ramp”.

Depends. If a driver uses a attiny 13 and up MCU (best with attiny25 or higher) it could be flashed with Toykeepers Crescendo, which ramps. Reverse clicky mechanical switch is easiet to use.

contactcr · 2020-10-27T13:46:48.000Z

I should have known a senior member would mention this, lol. That is hardly a solution for 2 month member with forward switch request. BUT, yes technically correct.

Sw1f7 · 2020-10-27T14:01:03.000Z

Thanks for all the advice

This is probably getting way off topic but…

Here is a link to a Convoy C8+ with ramping
Convoy C8 with ramping driver

Will this work with a forward switch?

I have a C8G and it works great (I realise that it has two switches as mentioned, just saying). Set the ramp and then just use the half press to access it. Fantastic for night patrols. Only gripe is the CW tint else it would have been perfect for me. Hence me looking at the BLF-D80v2 which seems like a awesome light. Another user suggested that I could swap the emitter of the C8G but I’ll rather look for a stock light that meets my needs before resorting to modding.

flightless22 · 2022-01-01T00:56:47.000Z

Sofirn SP35/IF25 clip fits very well

Nachtfeuerzeug · 2022-01-01T01:52:46.000Z

Nice! Thank you.

Rusty_Joe · 2022-01-01T02:19:49.000Z

1 x sst40 (no ano)

d_t_a · 2022-01-01T11:13:04.000Z

Sw1f7:

Thanks for all the advice

This is probably getting way off topic but…

Here is a link to a Convoy C8+ with ramping
Convoy C8 with ramping driver

Will this work with a forward switch?

I have a C8G and it works great (I realise that it has two switches as mentioned, just saying). Set the ramp and then just use the half press to access it. Fantastic for night patrols. Only gripe is the CW tint else it would have been perfect for me. Hence me looking at the BLF-D80v2 which seems like a awesome light. Another user suggested that I could swap the emitter of the C8G but I’ll rather look for a stock light that meets my needs before resorting to modding.

This is an old message, but I just saw the question now. Will share my experience with regards to Convoy ‘ramping driver’ and a forward switch.

When the Convoy M21A was first released, it only had SST40 LED option, and uses a forward-clicky tailswitch.

I’ve tried the Convoy C8+ with SST40 LED and the Convoy ‘ramping’ driver (which uses a reverse-clicky tailswitch).

I wanted to try the same on the M21A (the M21A is basically a C8, but uses a 21700 battery instead of 18650 battery), so I asked Simon of Convoy to install an M21A for me, but uses the “ramping driver” instead of the default “4-mode driver” (back then, the “new 12-mode driver Biscotti clone driver” had not yet been developed, so there’s only the 4-mode driver and the “ramping” driver available for the SST40 LED with Convoy’s offering.

What I had not expected was that Convoy M21A used a forward-clicky tailswitch for the M21A flashlight.
And thus, the “ramping driver” does not work as expected — as it requires a “half-press” and “several half-presses” to get to the configuration settings.
With the forward-clicky tailswitch, “ramping” function won’t activate for the M21A.

I had asked Simon if there is a reverse-clicky tailswitch available for the M21A, but he said that only forward-clicky tailswitch is available for the M21A model (I think that was in the earlier stages of production).

Since I preferred reverse-clicky tailswitch, I stayed away from the M21A model, but a longer time later, I decided to order the M21A again when it was introduced with different LED variants.

When I received the M21A, I notice it was now using a reverse-clicky tailswitch now. So I swapped this reverse-clicky tailswitch on the M21A with “ramping driver” and it works now. The earlier forward-clicky tailswitch then went to the new M21A I got that uses the 4-mode driver (which works OK enough with forward-clicky tailswitch).

Chatika_vas_Paus · 2022-01-01T12:26:20.000Z

Rusty Joe:

1 x sst40 (no ano)

Uh. You’re late buddy.

buck91 · 2022-10-05T15:28:25.000Z

Is there a good explanation of the UI? The image on AE is turning my head inside out.

1stein · 2022-10-05T15:56:43.000Z

Dead topic reactivation award

Nonetheless one of my best hosts even beating C8.

Currently running on L4P 9A driver with SFT-40. A real pocket - rocket

Flintrock · 2022-11-11T13:45:17.000Z

Hi all. Just thought I'd pop back in from the dead to necro this old thread. I've just had no time for light things I’m afraid. Cool to see that bistro HD/OTSM was useful for it, and good for Lexel for getting that setup! Sorry I couldn’t support questions about this firmware more, although it still works.

For what it's worth. I did not configure a version of bistro-HD specifically for this light, and the manual was a modders manual, not a muggle manual. A modder selling a light might want to deliver a muggle manual. Bistro-HD does have many versions pre-configured but I don’t know if that’s what was used or which one. I wasn’t involved in this light specifically.

Here are a few things that may help with issues I saw come up in this thread, if anyone still cares about this old light and has questions about bistro-HD... I didn’t read this whole thread and much may have been eventually answered, years ago now…

Mode groups...

The default modegroup files for bistro-HD are all here:

https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~toykeeper/flashlight-firmware/trunk/files/249/Flintrock/bistro-hd/modegroups

I don't know which one was selected during compilation for this light, or if one was customized or added. If they are the v1.3+ groups (95% by Texas Ace and those before him) then hodor’s post #1234 on the previous page has things about right.

Other Bistro HD features that MIGHT be included with/helping this light or might not.

Thermal control:

Bistro HD 1.7.1 (which may or may not be the version in this light) has an optional (build option, not UI option) thermal control mode that is different.

It bumps down to a preset level (default build set to level 10) after overheating. A short press bumps it back to turbo (or I think whatever mode you were in) for 10 seconds minimum, or longer if it’s not overheated. It’s not meant to be a thermally regulated output. It’s meant to optimize ability to use turbo reliably to see something when needed, to cool-off to be ready to do it again while still providing useful light in the meantime, and to allow brief override. As a bonus it doesn’t create frequent random brightness shifts. I don’t know if lexel enabled this thermal control method or not, or if he customized the turbo standby level well for this light.

OTSM and standard bistro

I think OTSM timing is understood here. The OTSM CAP, and probable lack of OTC cap, may interfere with mentioned attempts to modify a standard (not bistro-HD) bistro firmware to use OTC or OTC-less (noinit) behavior on this light, but it may be possible (and may be documented in this thread already). It’s probably easier to just tweak HD configuration to taste, and keep OTSM than to do that, but to each as they like of course.

Reverse clicks

Someone mentioned the “medium” presses being a bit too long. This is easily configurable in the main configuration file that one should create a customized version of for each light/driver. For example in 1.7.1 I reduced it for the Q8 driver configuration as I found shorter timing is better on e-switches. Of course I have no idea how lexel configured it for this light. The default in HD isn’t super fast. But anyway, this is an issue for the light seller.

Menus

As I recall I think I made the menu options in HD always included, even for unused features. This means you don’t have to count blinks. The 5^th option is always option 5 (I think).

By default they are:

1: muggle mode

2: memory

3: enable moon

4: reverse modes

5: Modegroup-select

6: Enable medium click

7: Temp cal

8: reset

9: never mind about 9

Extended moon mode

If the light components are selected well, and PWM tables set well for the light, depending on the emitter, HD powersaving (if compiled in) allows the lowest moon mode (or firefly really) to last over a month in theory on a single cell (I never tested that long, but I’ve left it many days.)

About the firmware code:

ToyKeeper correctly pointed out that almost every line of code has changed or been reorganized from original bistro. That said, many, or most parts are still quite recognizable as bistro and evolved directly from it. Many of the modifications were optimizations and organization, for saving memory, adding OTSM control, and for allowing more comprehensive compile-time configuration (programming what the program will be really) and easier calibration, all allowing it to build so many different pre-configured drivers from the compilation script (Makefile) alone. Its soul is still very much bistro, and of course to a user it seems pretty much like bistro, but yes, from a sense of things like “is this vetted on some light,” it’s certainly not just a distribution of bistro.

I’ve been using 1.7.1 happily for real world use on a Q8 (e-switch) and a clicky OTSM light, and will use it again on e-switch lights too if I get a chance. I had ambitions to add some new features, but I haven’t touched it at all, but also haven’t needed to.

peg_matite · 2022-11-11T17:37:50.000Z

Thank you yes I would guess many of us have a soft spot for this “no nonsense” light.

zoulas · 2022-11-11T23:23:18.000Z

Is this still a attractive light today? Or is it old technology. As you know, lights are technology.

buck91 · 2022-11-16T15:05:47.000Z

Looks nice to me, but the price is too much.

Flintrock · 2022-11-17T03:12:54.000Z

I appreciate that it was built with 5+1 and not 6 or 7+1. I would actually consider building a single cell light with probably 3 or 4 +1. Even 2+1 is ok, and so is FET+3 (higher moon).

The reason is this: Once the battery gets too low to support all the 7135s, every mode between 1 and N 7135s becomes unregulated anyway, even levels that could still be supported if there were fewer 7135s. That's because it's still using all of them, at full power, and just PWMing them. It either can support them all or it can't. If it can't, it dims continuously as the battery continues to drain. You still have some of the efficiency advantage of least not PWMing the FET, (Edit: Nah, even that isn't true at that point).

I prefer a light where I could just set it at say 500 lumen level and it will last there until it can't. To me, the right place for that level is probably about whatever can run for close to 3 hours, so maybe a bit over an amp, and certainly not more than it can thermally sustain. But that's personal as each user may have a different opinion on how long they need to use the light before recharging, and it's easy to desolder a 7135 on these drivers. Of course this is an advantage of buck drivers, with the downside that they don't direct-drive very well.