Legally you must have a white light on the front of your bike and a red light on the back. There is a law that says these lights must not flash at a frequency above 4Hz. So they are very unlikely to trigger a seizure in someone with photosensitive epilepsy.
Strobe lights
You may come across strobe lights in places like night clubs, discos and theme parks.
In the UK, the flash rate of strobe lights is restricted to a maximum of four flashes a second by the Health and Safety Executive. This rate is considered to be safe for most people. However, some people with photosensitive epilepsy may still find strobe lights could trigger a seizure.”
We also have warnings on e.g. TV news that strobes/flashes may be in operation. It is taken seriously.
I really really don’t like the “flashy” modes and start feeling rather peculiar when trying them (not an epileptic). Some of the more aggressive “police strobes” are really horrid.
Even TK’s bike strobe is unpleasant.
I would like a none-aggressive flashy mode to use when say walking at night on dark country lanes using e.g. moon mode, and maybe need to “wake up” a motorist who may not have seen me, but am reluctant to point any torch with the typical aggressive blinkies at them. I wouldn’t like it done to me.
As for relying on a full-on “police strobe” to bewilder an aggressor, well, maybe it has some use, but thankfully it’s not something I feel any need for, even it it has some effectiveness. Perhaps I am naive.
You need some sort of electrolyte in the mix for that to happen. Unavoidable if exposed outdoors, particularly coastal environment, butgenerally a none-issue inside a (none-dive) torch, particularly when critical contact surfaces sealed with grease.
The worst I have heard of was mil. spec PCBs where operators had been swigging Coke (strong phosphoric acid) and contaminating the very carefully cleaned PCBS (tested by ionic conductivity of final rinse) with their dirty unwashed fingers before conformal coating. Coke trapped under con-coat = bad news. Re-education and banning of Coke from the premises apparently nipped that in the bud. Something maybe to bear in mind ourselves.
It's a compile time setting, but for the Q8 I set it to 18 Hz -- normal strobe. Police strobe is the 2nd strobe, and uses 2 frequencies, so I assume you want both frequencies.
8 times of (20,40) then 8 times of (40,80)
For each pair, ON time is the 1st # in msecs, OFF time is the 2nd # in msecs. So.... You can figure it out
Ohhh - just fyi, to get 18 Hz, I use (14,41), total of 55 msecs so 1000/55 = 18.18 Hz
Dang, one more thing. That post linked was from last year, pre NarsilM I believe. I think from that post asking bout it, I updated the default strobe to 18 Hz.
Yes, very easy to upgrade firmware - still need the clip and USBASP dongle. NarsilM is set up to make config changes with minor changes to settings in the code - don't have to write code, just change values, etc.
USBASP can be bought cheap, and the clip and wire - all depends.. Some cheap under $5, but you have to make up the wire yourself - don't know of anything bought off the shelf that just plugs in, unless a BLFer is offering that for sale.
Or there's other firmware options as well - the D4 version, or TK's new e-switch version,etc.
I ripped one wire from the switchboard out when I cleaned the screw holes. I resolderd it.
For my lamp I have to use longer wires, if I want to use a programmer clip. The LED wires are fine.
1st battery spring bypass. Sadly I didn’t have a measurement before bypassing and cleaning the shelf but it looks a little bit brighter.
The residue you see is flux that got cleaned off before assembly.
And “a little bit brighter” at around 5000lm it a lot
Tailboard with be-cu outer springs installed. Original springs were retained and be-cu added outside. Tail bump significantly improved due to triple springs.
After adding the be-cu springs this light gets hot fast. One minute at highest output and the head is almost too hot to touch.
Yes please I’ve got all the kit except for the clip (clues to the correct one for this MCU please), being undecided when you were still bending MCU pins to fit big ones on smaller footprints.
Way back when I might have suggested header pins on the driver, negating need for a clip, just pop on the connecting cables directly. Still think its not a bad idea, plenty of space, but here we are. Just holes to put them in afterwards would have been nice.
A sub-4Hz flashy at maybe 500 lumens, quickly accessible in any mode, then back, would be very useful to me.
Search everyone’s favorite online auction site, or your own favorite online electronics retailer.
FWIW, I bought a cheap clip despite negative reviews about difficulties grasping an IC. Mine seems to work fine, but I’ve only connected it a dozen times or so.
Well... What exactly do you want to change about it? 150 levels, 16 msecs per level, 2.4 secs from min to max, plus pause time at moon if ramping up from OFF.
Say for example you want it to be done in 1.6 secs, then easiest thing to do is use a 100 level table, use TK's Python script to generate it (I have the command line params documented in the source code where the tables are), and just need to set the turbo stepdown settings accordingly. No code needs to be changed, just a table replaced and couple constants tweaked.
zeroflow - only 5,000 lumens from that mod? Hhmm, should be better I'd think, over 6,000 on good cells.
tekwyzrd - those springs look real nice! Yea, would be nice if they still could be found.
@TomE: I didn’t measure it yet. 5000 was just a value to compare the term “a little bit brighter”. 100lm and “a little bit” is not much. But 5k lm needs a fairly big bump to look brighter to the average human.
It’s now about in line with a M43 Meteor.
It runs with Panasonic GA cells (VTC6 on the way) and the bump is clearly noticeable.
Edit: and that’s before trying to tinker with the code, being very much a hardware engineer, used to working with highly skilled software engineers to do the clever stuff
I cut a piece of 12 awg copper residential wire, formed a circle, and fit it into the head. It’s pressed into the space after the threads and acts as a snap ring to help keep the driver secure. I used a round jewelers file to enlarge the driver screw holes. Good contact with the tube and driver, o-ring covered by the head, and as luck would have it the flats on the battery tube are perfectly aligned with the top and bottom of the head. With the triple springs and the copper ring tail impact is still much improved and vigorous shaking doesn’t cause a power interruption or battery rattling.
