I’m with you, Lexel. While I wouldn’t mind having a couple of ‘standards’ to cover the likelihood of some truly unique driver designs, I wouldn’t want to get into the confusing world of just not having any standards at all, and having to get a new programming key every time somebody makes a new driver board. I haven’t started flashing drivers yet myself, and when I do decide to start, I’d like to be able to buy one limited set of equipment and then get right to it. That’s how it was with the ATtiny13A chips, using the SOIC clip. Once it was figured out how to do it, lots of people were able to get on board. Since drivers are becoming more complex, and using different chips, the ‘Universal’ key could be a great help in keeping it simple for people.
And what about when somebody gets a driver board second hand (maybe already installed in a flashlight they bought), and has to try to figure out which ‘key’ was needed to re-program it? I know we’re in the early days of programming keys. Just like with any ‘new technology’ there will be competing ideas about the best way to make it work for the most people. Eventually, people will either end up standardizing themselves, or decide it isn’t worth the hassle. But, some of us would like it better if we could start the journey with trying to standardize, instead of just saying it doesn’t really matter, and letting it become a big mess.