The “notch” in the ramp is only there as a reference point, to indicate that it’s roughly halfway up the ramp and has just gone between a regulated mode and a hybrid mode. It’s basically a mile marker.
Speaking of the Anduril D4 though… I spent almost all day and half of yesterday trying to tweak the thermal regulation response for it. It runs so hot that it’s really difficult to make the light respond correctly. And while testing, I managed to break the hardware — emitters started dying. So I think I’m done for now, at least until I get some new hardware. Then again, this was intentionally set up as a worst-case scenario for testing purposes. I was using a 219C model with the FET running at 100% power with a full 30Q cell. Hank normally sells those with the power artificially reduced, so my test case was theoretically worse than the real thing.
In any case, the results aren’t perfect but they’re a lot better than they were before I started. Before, it was overshooting and bouncing pretty badly. It still does now, to some extent, but it’s much milder and flattens out after one cycle, maybe one and a half at most.
To the right, the graph is basically just flat with occasional small step-ups to compensate for voltage sag as the cell drains.
Virtually every other light I’ve tested responds really well without bouncing, but the D4 is particularly stubborn because it’s so ridiculously overpowered. The 219C version especially so, because the emitter type makes it run extremely hot.
From what TK told me, my order was like 3 days short of having the new/true version of Anduril on it. I ended up with a dev build. I believe the new orders have the full functionality, but I could be wrong. I thought I remembered reading that Hank specifically requested no muggle mode, but I cant find that post to reference. Might have been on my reddit post.
Ha, arent PID controllers fun? Got my first taste of them with race quadcopters and the associated tuning. Nothing like trying to tune changes in attitude to be fast, responsive, and crisp with no wobbles on a quad with a 14:1 power to weight ratio.
I also find the D4 with Anduril quite interesting and I am thinking about purchasing one, perhaps the 3000K version with the SST20 LED.
Hopefully this does include the muggle mode. I cannot imagine, how muggle mode might be too confusing (since it a special additional mode).
Perhaps it would be helpful if the shop clarifies which version of Anduril is actually shipped.
I have d4 white blaster, after 2 month of daily use, 2 holed pockets and generated habit to squeeze the head, I changed the driver to buck one with stabilized modes. No more pocket weapon, 4A max. Still love d4.
I believe when you turn on, hold the button and it will stay at the bottom of the range for that time turned on. If you don’t change the level, next time you turn on it remembers the where you were before you shortcut to the bottom of the range.
If moon is the bottom of your range, then you can shortcut to moon. If moon is not in the stepped or ramped range, then I guess you can’t get there without reconfiguring. I’m writing this playing with mine, not looking at the diagram which helps explain things.
If you search for Anduril flashlight UI you will likely find a cool diagram that explains a lot. Its fun for sure!
My D4’s maximum brightness is really not very bright.
When I click-hold from off, the ramping lasts only about one second before it blinks and reaches full brightness.
When I leave it at that full brightness, it blinks 3x every few seconds.
Fully charged Samsung 30Q cell.
I don’t recall it being like this when I bought it some time ago.
I wonder if it’s sulking because I’ve been hanging out with a newer flashlight.
And, yeah, I could’ve input the wrong click sequence, as my fingers think the’re smarter than my brain about what I’m doing.
Any troubleshooting steps would be welcome.
I’d guess I’ve got a setting wrong, but not sure what to fiddle with first.
I tried 11 clicks and wait til stutter, which I think ought to have turned off thermal protection, in case that had gotten set to room temperature.
I notice sometimes the max output on my D4 isn’t as high as it should be. When this happens I take a Q-Tip and clean both ends of the battery tube and the contacts in the tailcap and driver. That fixes it right up.
If you double click from off does it go to Turbo? When ramping, the ceiling level is only half of Turbo. If it isn’t going to Turbo, try cleaning contacts and try a different, newer fully charged unprotected cell.
Double click from off goes to about the same brightness as ramping up.
Once, when I clicked the light off from the top of the ramp, it became extremely bright for a fraction of a second. I haven’t been able to reproduce that.
Cleaned everything again and swapped in a new known good cell. No difference.
I’m sure the three blinks every few seconds at [top of ramp /double click-should be “turbo” brightness] is telling me something. But what does it mean?
From off, one click-and-hold; the flashlight ramped up to as bright as usual and started the 3-blinks every few seconds.
I lifted my thumb off the switch and got an exremely bright brief flash.
Can’t get it to duplicate. Could the switch be bad?
I”m at the “who can I send this light to” stage of confusion.
Indeed. Now imagine trying to tune a single PID algorithm so it will work on everything from a keychain copter to a package-carrier drone. They all have to run the same code, and they all need to have a good response without wobbles.
For the most part, the results are good lately on virtually every light… but the D4 is at an extreme end of the spectrum so it’s particularly difficult to tune.
Yes, Hank specifically asked me to remove muggle mode. So don’t expect to have muggle mode on any Emisar lights.
Yes, lockout is 4 clicks.
To go directly to the lowest level, hold the button for half a second from off. It should go to the lowest level in the current ramp.
The last few versions I sent to Hank have some pretty significant differences. I think he’ll be using the newest version on almost everything, but it seems there were a few sent out with older versions before I even heard that it would be offered on the D4.
Specifically, here’s what changed over time… at least, the bits which are relevant to the D4:
05-21: removed muggle mode
05-23: merged in a bunch of updates from the main fsm branch:
rewrote thermal regulation
made strobe-group modes auto-reverse like the main ramp does
made lockout moon use 2 levels instead of just 1 (second click uses other ramp’s floor)
made momentary mode also support strobe-group modes
made brightest lightning mode flashes slightly brighter
06-05: adjusted D4 ramp to exactly hit the 1x7135 level at step 4 of 7, also merged again from upstream fsm branch:
changed from “press-on” to “release-on” button timing when doing a single click or a hold from off… this makes it easier to get the timing right for the shortcut to moon
made button release timeout a bit faster, so the light shuts off slightly sooner after doing a single click
added a user-configurable option to switch from automatic memory (default) to manual memory (starts at the same level each time)
06-06: thermal regulation improvements on D4
I need to add a few things to the UI diagram. It doesn’t have any info on how to configure aux LEDs, how to use manual memory, or how to do tint ramping. But if it helps, here is the latest version of the diagram. This picture will get updated periodically as I change things:
