Runtimes will be approximate because the ramp is too smooth to be able to stop reliably at any particular level.
With a 3000mAh cell:
Standby: 0.02mA / 17 years
Lowest mode: 1.7 lm / 9.6mA / 13 days Medium mode (lvl 65): ~150 lm / 350mA / 8.5 hours
Highest mode: 2000 to 4000 lm / TBD / maybe 15 minutes
The output on the low levels (from moon to ~150 lm) should be fairly stable as the battery drains. The lowest mode might sag over time though, due to the brand of 7135 chip used. I’ve informed Hank about this, and I hope future batches will use one with better moon-mode performance.
The output on turbo will drop quite a bit over time due to heat, voltage sag, and thermal regulation.
On the medium and high modes, from ~150 lm to maximum, output will drop over time proportionate to how bright it is. For levels like 200 lm, the graph should still be pretty flat, but for 2000 lm it will sag quite a bit. Performance in these modes is a hybrid between current-controlled and direct-drive, so the typical direct-drive sag becomes more prominent as the light goes into higher and higher levels.
But I may be biased; I think everyone should get a soldering iron and firmware flashing tools, and dive into modding. Nothing will ever be exactly how you want it unless you create it yourself.
For someone just starting out though, the BLF Q8 or Emisar D4S are probably the easiest. In both cases, the processor is accessible without unsoldering anything. The Q8’s driver comes out with just a couple of loosened screws, or the D4S has flashing pads where they can be reached without removing the driver at all.
Just be careful to get the fuse values right in avrdude, because bad fuses can kind of “brick” the processor. It’s still recoverable with a high-voltage programmer, but those have a much higher barrier to entry. Known working values are in the bin/flash-85.sh script.
FWIW, TK is pretty demanding on her code. I have randomly flashed Anduril to quite a varity of lights with no adjustments to the firmware and have yet to see any discrepency. YMMV
After reviewing NarsilM I realized everything I am interested in can be done with Anduril. I wish my D4 had flashing pads, but even that light is pretty straight forward to do, now that I have flashed one D4 already.
Wow, I just put TK’s preconfigured Anduril on a D4. Awesome!
Love being able to configure the ceiling and still have turbo if needed. Will really help with battery life.
Of course all of the special modes are super-cool, will be going to bed with the Sunset or Candle mode every night!
Fully configurable beacon is the best beacon yet.
Thanks TK for all of your hard work!!
Has anyone tried running Emisar D4 with flat top cells?
Thing is… I have both flat and button top Samsung 30Q, all around the same age, but I have felt that with the flat top cell the light output is lower.
Today I have it confimed by a luxmeter in my phone. Ceiling bounce, same setup, flat top cell shows around 360 lux, button top cell 450-ish. Which is quite a significant difference.
Can anyone confirm my findings? Could it be due to lower pressure on the springs because flat top cell si shorter?