TK's Emisar D4V2 review

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

I seriously feel for you TK, having to deal with what I would call a non-issue that is being blown so far out of proportion. I vote to eliminate muggle mode altogether and force people to take responsibility for their own actions. None of my 15 or so Anduril lights have ever seen that mode.

Went on a short vacation recently and took Ham’r with me. Ended up needing a night light for my son and ran the 5 driver 17 emitter light in moon mode all night for two nights, cells were still showing 4.13V when we got home. Love the flexibility of this firmware, thank you again for upping the ante on my e-switch lights!

Still debating as to whether or not to mod my D4V2, I really find it a very complete light as is and the tint from these Nichia’s is spot on! Running the mid-compact 18500 and quite happy with it. My new “gold standard” for stock lights. (yes it’s gold, sand, wheat, champagne… whatever, looks Gold to me)

[ToyKeeper]

@Hoop

@NMJoe

does anyone have a comprehensive list of lights that use Anduril with this bug?

Refer to post #2:

“No other Anduril-based lights are affected. It is only the first batch of D4v2. And no other modes are affected… just muggle mode.”

Exactly. It’s only the D4v2, because it’s the only light with the new LVP-during-sleep function. This makes it change the aux LED color to match battery voltage, and also makes the aux LEDs shut off if the battery gets too low. It was kind of necessary since the aux LEDs are so bright.

The problem is, when I made it do the voltage measurements during sleep, it also enabled temperature measurements during sleep. They share an ADC channel, and it goes back and forth between the two every other cycle. And that would be fine, except apparently the temperature sensor goes totally bonkers while asleep. And even that would be fine, since the “off” modes ignore thermal events and the light resets its thermal history upon wake-up… but muggle mode wasn’t ignoring thermal events when it should.

So it requires a curious combination of different things to all happen at once before it fails. And no other light has that exact combination.

Hopefully no others ever will. I made it stop doing temperature measurements during sleep, and made muggle mode be more careful about checking when to respond.

[ToyKeeper]

@DB Custom

I vote to eliminate muggle mode altogether …

Same here. And originally, the D4v2 was going to ship with no muggle mode. It was taken out during most of development, then added again at the last minute because people were asking for it. It makes sense for such a hot light to have a “safe mode”… except, thanks to the bug I missed, it didn’t turn out so safe.

@DB Custom

None of my 15 or so Anduril lights have ever seen that mode.

… and that’s a big part of why I didn’t notice the issue. It’s a mode I never use except for testing once in a while. So it doesn’t get much real-world use… just lab-style testing. And the test plan didn’t include not using it for an extended amount of time.

[torchfanatic]

@varbos

The most important thing is that everybody who bought the D4v2 is aware of the issue so they can actively avoid it happening to them. Otherwise eventually it will start a fire. Or it will turn on when the owner is out of the house and maybe wife/partner notices and picks it up, getting a nasty burn.

Only the dealers can do this, I have already suggested that Hank email all buyers immediately. Since many have already experienced it, it is not a ‘lightning strike’ event. Even one day delay could cause some injury.

Secondary (and less urgent) is to eventually compensate buyers in some way. Whether this is a discount, or a return program, or sending out free/discounted flashing kits … it is up to buyers to decide what is acceptable and to pressure Hank for a good resolution. If some buyers don’t care … that’s fine, it is their prerogative.

I second this about a gesture of goodwill or compensation and I am still waiting on confirmation of the bugs being fixed as I am ready to order a 6500k one!

I didn’t get any email but glad I am checking this thread for regular updates.

I appreciate your work TK and Hank!

Keep it up!

[pennzy]

I’m all for people offering flashing services or Hank selling head assemblies at cost to affected buyers.

[ToyKeeper]

@FabienG

To summarize :

-If the muggle mode is not activated, all other modes are working fine, right?

Yes, all the other modes are fine.

[TexasToasted]

@ToyKeeper

@DarkShot

do the rotating aux colors fade between changes or is it an immediate change just like in the animation?

Just like the animation. All I did was convert a video to a GIF.

Is it possible to make the aux LEDs fade between colors with the firmware, or is there a hardware limitation preventing this?

[BabyDoc]

I have 2 of these early D4v2s. Although I seldom have use for muggle mode, I am concerned about the possibility of accidentally putting my light into muggle mode. Suppose that instead of clicking 7 times to turn off your auxillaries, you accidentally click 6 times and are in muggle mode without knowing it. (That has actually happened to me, so I don’t believe this situation is far fetched). You leave your light and come back to a destroyed light and perhaps your house in flames.
Then what about if you sell your light or give your light away. The next user would be vulnerable to the same danger and you might be liable.

These lights have a warranty and should be reflashed under that warranty. Perhaps, all of them should be recalled.
I really don’t want to be reflashing these lights myself. I wish there was someway this reflashing could be done in the USA,rather than shipping my lights back to China, but if it comes to me having to do the latter, I have to do it. I just can’t live with a potential ticking time bomb.

[brewster]

It seems TK and Hank are well on the way to sorting the muggle mode problem. Thanks for your positive actions. However, there are two aspects of it that I do not understand. I would be more confident of any proposed fixes if these aspects were made clear:

Why does the light not come on by itself with a fully charged cell?
Why does the thermal regulation apparently fail when the light does come on by itself?

[ToyKeeper]

@TexasToasted

Is it possible to make the aux LEDs fade between colors with the firmware, or is there a hardware limitation preventing this?

It’s technically possible, but not really worthwhile. Fading requires using PWM on the three color pins, but they’re not on PWM-capable pins. So it’d have to be emulated in software, which means it would have inconsistent pulse timing and wouldn’t look as smooth. More importantly, using PWM requires that the control chip stay awake, so it would use significantly more power. It’s more efficient to just leave the aux LEDs on; dimming them with PWM would not reduce the power used.

So… it could be done, but it would be tricky, the fade would have visible noise in the signal, and it would drain the battery faster. Not really worthwhile.

@brewster

there are two aspects of it that I do not understand.

Why does the light not come on by itself with a fully charged cell?
Why does the thermal regulation apparently fail when the light does come on by itself?

I’m not sure why the temperature measurements fail in sleep mode, but it seems to be voltage-related. It’s actually pretty surprising that it’s getting such weird values, because the reference manual recommends doing the measurements in a sleep mode. However, it recommends a different sleep mode dedicated to noise-reduction while doing analog readings. It wouldn’t be the first undocumented behavior I’ve run into, but it is perhaps the weirdest.

The reason why thermal regulation doesn’t work after the issue happens is because the light is still asleep. It can’t generate PWM signals while it’s sleeping, so it can’t dim the emitters to any in-between levels. Also, since it’s asleep, everything is massively slowed down. Instead of measuring 4X per second, it was measuring just once or twice per minute. And instead of the event handler running at 62 Hz, it runs at 8 Hz. Instead of PWM running at 16000 Hz, it’s effectively running at 4 Hz. So it does try to regulate, but it runs in extremely slow motion.

[Unheard]

Since Muggle Mode has been fixed, I see no need for its removal.

I’d like to get get an idiots programming kit to fix my D4v2.

[brewster]

Thanks TK for your replies to my two questions. I hope all this has been not too wearing on you, and that you keep up your enthusiasm to innovate. We are all grateful for your contributions to our fantastic flashlights (or is that flashlight fantasies?).

[Hank_Wang]

A couple of work/progress from yesterday until now which I want to share here.

1. We have sent the emails to notify the D4V2 customers and let them know that not to use the “muggle mode” anymore.
Some can understand, some are angry which we can totally understand, and it’s our responsibility to let them know the situation.

2. We are now working on the pogo pin adapters and trying to find a better way to assemble it.
As soon as it’s done, we will offer the kits at the cost price to the D4V2 customers. So that
the users can update their flashlights any time with the latest firmware. It can also be used for some other
flashlights with reflashing vias on the driver pcb. The anduril firmware is actually updated very often,
you can reflash the latest firmware with the kits.

3. We are trying our best to reduce the impact to a minimum level, I understand your frustration, but being a small
company like us, we are really not affored to recall, return or resend those D4V2 that you have. But we will help you to resolve this issue.

[Overload]

@Hank Wang

2. We are now working on the pogo pin adapters and trying to find a better way to assemble it.
   As soon as it’s done, we will offer the kits at the cost price to the D4V2 customers. So that
   the users can update their flashlights any time with the latest firmware. It can also be used for some other
   flashlights with reflashing vias on the driver pcb. The anduril firmware is actually updated very often.

Good to hear you’re working on an adapter, looking forward to it!

[SKV89]

Wow cool thanks Hank. The pogo pin adapter would be nice to have so we can try different firmwares.

The recall request from a few are just ridiculous especially considering how tiny a portion of the users use or even know about the muggle mode. It’s just blown way out of proportion by a few negative folks heres.

If BMW wont recall their vehicle for much more serious defects that affect every customer of that model year as I pointed out above, I dont expect a tiny flashlight company (if you even are a company) to do a recall.

[CalvinIS]

@Hank Wang

2. We are now working on the pogo pin adapters and trying to find a better way to assemble it. As soon as it’s done, we will offer the kits at the cost price to the D4V2 customers. So that the users can update their flashlights any time with the latest firmware. It can also be used for some other flashlights with reflashing vias on the driver pcb…

Having on offline store in California, we would be happy to buy one and offer free re-flashing services to local customers who have a D4V2.

[Unheard]

@Hank Wang

2. We are now working on the pogo pin adapters and trying to find a better way to assemble it.
   As soon as it’s done, we will offer the kits at the cost price to the D4V2 customers.

[Tally-ho]

@Hank Wang

2. We are now working on the pogo pin adapters and trying to find a better way to assemble it.
   As soon as it’s done, we will offer the kits at the cost price to the D4V2 customers.

I wish I had bought a D4v2 with the muggle mode bug to be able to get a pogo pin adapter for cheap.

[pint]

Replacement head arrived yesterday, just to go over what happened before…

I was using it as normal, as with most things theres a learning curve associated with it, so i decided not to try and attempt to alter anything from the default with regards to temperature settings.
One of the things that i kept doing was ending up in muggle mode, instead of AUX LED configuration, which wasnt an issue, or so i thought as muggle mode was(?) a safe mode.

So there it was left, sitting on a table top on its tailcap while i went to Work. Approximatly 9-10 hours later when i returned, i picked it up gain, the button had popped off ad the D4V2 itself - i pushed the button back in ans nothing it was dead, changed the battery, nothing still dead, checked the new battery - 4.1 volts, tried again still nothing, thats when I noticed the loose wire in the head that had become detached form the contact/pad.

After a little bit of communication a new head was sent out, and after a little more contact ( and confusion as to what to send back) i posted the old head back

This was/is the physical state of the battery that was in the d4v2 after it came out, the crimping effect on the outer sheath was not there before

Inside the battery tube

if you look you can see some marks on the inside, although im not sure if they were there before could be a side effect of the anodising process, where the component has come into contact witha suspension wire whilst being anodised - if so this will be present on other tubes.

As for the new head, I just tried it in muggle mode and after about 20 minutes it turned itself on turbo, and stayed there with no apparent step down, I kpet an ey on it, and removed the battery when it was too hot to handle, at a very rough guess it heated to over 80c and if left would have continued to heat.

If im not mistaken, one way to check it not in muggle mode would be to see if the strobe modes are active ( click click hold) if its in mugle mode nothing will happen, if in regular mode then the strobes will start

[M4D_M4X]

would it be possible to get a "Anduril download page" where one can choose which modes are active and also have initial settings entered(mode steps / temp limit / Hz etc)?

first choose the options and values and then download with those settings?

would boost the pogo pin adapter sales for sure ;)