There must be a only a few who both build/mod drivers and use AA/Nimh cells since Harleyquins Attiny nanjg 102 has been out for awhile and doesn’t seem to get built much.
what’s the website of Convoy ?
There’s no dedicated website, only a store on Aliexpress.
But the store is closed until feb 5th (China is on holiday).
Yes, there’s only so many people who master the complete series of skills required to build and program a driver. It would be cool if, like happened to the FET+7135 driver, that driver is sold on a budget by Banggood, or perhaps Richard can pick it up in his line-up of drivers.
Thanks!
I have not looked into Convoy before.
Exactly. I’ve heard of HQ’s driver and have glanced at it (this one ?), but I’m not good at soldering a whole pcb’s worth of SMD components. Maybe I just need to break down and get a reflow station. And I imagine not a whole lot of us have rework stations. Soldering a driver and star together is one thing, but I imagine the group of people comfortable enough to assemble their own drivers is much smaller. Also, how do you source all of the components? Harvest them from another board? Try to locate all of them at Mouser / Arrow / etc?
I’m not trying to put up walls. For the sake of learning, I’d be up for trying to assemble one. But either way, it’d be nice if they were readily available pre-assembled.
The vast majority of drivers available now were just offshoots of a similar hybrid design with Comfychair as one of the driving forces. A team worked together to come up with an FET/Attiny that has blossomed into what we have now and several times members have called out for a similar effort to produce something like HQ’s board. The breakthrough to widespread availability was driven both by several members producing variants but in the main by the efforts of team Kronos in the process of the A6 and X6 GB’s. That’s what actually led to commercially availability. For the HQ board to achieve a similar level I think a GB for a AA/nimh light is needed to get a manufacturer to make them. Once made initially they would find out exactly how much demand there is. The QTeam and team K are capable but may be otherwise occupied and they’re just interested members with the drive to do something. The AA team(whoever they might be) just needs a similar group will.
What kind of annoys me is that there are plenty of AA / AAA and dual chemistry drivers out there (plus dozens of other drivers) that (Chinese) manufacturers use in their lights, but they don’t seem to trickle down to the (Chinese) retailers for us to purchase.
Didn’t WWEFANS had an AA/14500 driver sale a few month ago? I ordered one but haven’t got a host yet to try it out. Maybe I should hook it up outside a light just to test it…
An AA/14500 tube light with the usual Convoy range of tints (from cool to warm) and Biscotti like UI would sell like hot cakes!
I’d be most likely one of the first 50 in the line to buy one!
What (more than kind of) annoys me that what is available to bigger Chinese flashlight companies is not available to Convoy…but it is what it is and we do what we can to push forward despite these boundaries…
The desert tan S2+ (and C8, L6…?) will certainly be nice.
A budget 14500 S2 mini would be great indeed!
However i wish Simon would switch all his lights to a non PWM driver without the ‘blink’ on low to change groups. I’ve heard of a new driver though… but i don’t remember whether it is already used in some lights.
That’d be ToyKeeper’s Bistro-based firmware, which many here call “Biscotti”. It’s available as an optional as long as you message Simon before finishing your purchase. So far I know for sure it works for the C8 and S2(+) models.
Yep… I’d be right there with you too. :+1:
I would be interested in a mini S2+ AA/14500 light too. I would be much more comfortable gifting such a light to family and friends. And emergency backup cells are just a convenience store away.
While at it, might as well ask for a mini-C8 too 
Edit: make it in a variety of colors and I’m sure each of us will buy multiple copies: black, grey, red, blue, green, tan, and clear. Plus BLF special edition copper, of course 
I’d buy several AA convoys if the driver was good.
I prefer 18650 lights but in all honesty I’d grab a convoy aa light or two. I keep a aa light in the truck as back up even though I have a couple spare 18650 in the glove box never know when something might happen. And have a few aa lights just in case in Katrina country have to be prepared. Can charge batteries in the truck as long as it didn’t go under storm surge but its easier to find common size batteries during a disaster. 2-4 weeks without power. Couple hundred aa and 2-3 convoy aa lights and I’d be set. I know it’s a little off topic. But my back up truck light is the energizer 900 lumen 6xaa light. Its a triple led $20 actually really like the light. Might see about modding it at some point. Same current just more efficient LEDs get more lumens from the same power