FWIW, I’m not actually involved with this project. The code is all free to use and modify though.
Some thoughts on the issues people brought up:
- Jax Z1 drivers are bigger than the typical 17mm drivers used elsewhere.
- The BLF A6 drivers weren’t designed with a lighted tailcap in mind, so it doesn’t work properly with a lighted tailcap. With the same design on a larger Z1-sized driver, it likely also won’t react well to a lighted tailcap. It typically interferes with off-time measurement, which then breaks the UI.
- The Kronos X6 drivers required special changes to work with a lighted tailcap and different MCU. A larger version would probably work in the Jax light, but that might not matter if the A6-based drivers were already manufactured.
- The 45-second timer isn’t set in stone, metaphorically, but it might literally be set in silicon. A one-line firmware change can make it longer, or it might be safe to disable that entirely with so much thermal mass. But this could be difficult if drivers were already manufactured.
- Calibration is always a good idea, but again it’s hard if the drivers were already made.
- Producing a second batch of drivers (then including both an A6 and a bistro driver) would probably increase the price. Or I guess the older drivers could be sold separately, but would anyone buy them?
I don’t really know what’s going on; this is all speculation. However, I really hope that nothing was mass-produced before getting all the details worked out and getting the samples approved. If that happened, compromises might be necessary.
One simple option is to go back to a non-lighted tailcap.