Jerommel, typical use the other night ,hedgehog hunting(no not to eat but for the kids). Bam double click and garden lit up better than day. Under hedges ,hedges,around with a wall of 5000k light. After tweaking the driver temp setting I have enough of a blast to scan around for enough time. Most of us in use like to be on the conservative side for saving mah. When out and about for example I go easy with what ever light is in my hand. Regardless of size and how many cells feeding it. Kind of like an OCD thing. Yes always have to have some 100% outputs, just to show the darkness who is in control! Then usually wound back to conserve supplies with enough light for use.
It can handle 600 ish lumens pretty much indefinite , 1000lm for a good few minutes which even then can be over kill for many applications.
IMHO it’s pretty much the best $40 investment I have made in a light for an alround package. It makes such a great ‘go to light’ ,feel/size/output and awesome UI. It’s like having a pop can output in a light you can conceal in your pocket without looking like your pleased to see everyone
My car will go much faster than I drive it. Same with this light, heck same with most lights that I buy anymore. Just because it will do something doesn’t mean that it needs to be driven that hard all the time. Unlike my car, if I want to drive it at “full speed” I don’t pay a fine when I do.
I guess I don’t see the problem. It’s like any high performance product and being an adult.
Yes I use a single constrictor knot with 3 strand paracord (not sure total diameter) around the head end of the 18650 tube and it’s very solid. To make it hang around my neck facing down I run the loop end under a ranger band at the tail end of the battery tube.
It carries around the neck perfectly that way and won’t come free without your neck suffering some damage.
This was probably discussed before and I missed it, but the Optic in the D4’s has 2 small crack in the corner of one of the four lens. Noticed it on mine. Does not affect beam pattern. Contacted Hank and he immediately responded with pictures of individual optics and of a sheet of these Optics and all have the characteristic cracks which are just an unfortunate part of the manufacture process. Most here probably know this already, but just in case there is another old, memory-impaired member that was wondering the same thing, if I save even one person from having to send a repetitive email to Hank, this post is worth it. Hank has been very responsive to all my emails and am very impressed with him and the D4.
And many thanks, ToyKeeper, for all your efforts in thoroughly reviewing and championing this light to a v2 version so quickly and Tom E for this amazing UI! Really fun to play with and also to use as a real EDC!
Cheers!
I got a 30Q from BG as part of a BLF A6 bundle once and it took me forever to realize it had an impossibly clear and perfectly placed film on one of the contacts for shipping purposes. My vision is fine and I even looked and missed it several times thinking that could be the problem.
Jeroen, I do think the way you do all the time, but in case of the D4 just let it go. The theories are completely correct but in the practice of using the D4, a 20% lowered efficiency in the middle modes is not noticable. I took it out camping with a 30Q battery in it (admittedly mine has 3500K 90CRI 219C’s now) and what remains is that it is a convenient goodlooking compact flashlight with a great user interface and an incredable output range from sublumen moon to very very bright. I will seldomly use it over 350mA, so almost always it is as efficient as can be with a runtime that goes ways beyond my vacation.
I finally started on new thermal regulation code today. Currently charging up cells for testing, but the planned upgrades are:
Try a predictive PID algorithm instead of predictive latch-lowpassed PD. More “I”, less signal post-processing. Adjust based on accumulated “D” instead of immediate “D”, basically.
Round off the corners of the steps to make regulation less visible. (one more layer between target level and actual level, with a soft adjustment per clock tick when they differ)
At the very least, if it overshoots it should correct itself much faster. And the steps should be less noticeable. Hopefully it’ll also reduce noise in the runtime graph, but that’s optimistic.
Testing and tweaking always takes a while on these things though. It looks good in a simulation (even after increasing sensor noise and thermal lag), but real-world results may not match.
Once I’m happy with how it works, maybe I can finally take apart my green D4 and reflash it. It’s still running v1 code, since I only want to open it up once if possible.
(if this all sounds Greek, sorry, sometimes I slip back into my native tongue… at least I’m not speaking in S-expressions!)
Got my Solarforce clip yesterday and my copper washer from Oveready today. Dremeled out the inside of the clip and cut the washer and spread it out to fit snuggly in the cap. Very happy with this 4000K 219c modded green monster!
I actually just dremeled down the edges of the washer after I saw how sharp the ends looked in the picture.
