As far as I can tell from Convoy’s AliExpress store and some posts on BLF, the desert tan S2+, the clear anodised C8 and the BD series come with the Biscotti firmware. However, Convoy’s product listings don’t seem to be completely up to date so I’m wondering whether I’ve missed any models.
Does anyone know of other Convoy models that come with Biscotti?
I’ve read somewhere here that you can get biscotti on most of the lights in the Convoy store. You just have to direct message Simon (Convoy’s main rep) through aliexpress and tell him exactly what you want. For the lights that don’t have biscotti by default, it may cost around $1 extra to get it installed on them.
I think that’s it at the moment.
Frankly, I don’t get why they don’t all come with biscotti now. It’s so much better than their old 3/5 mode interface! Why would anyone prefer the old interface?!?
Yeah, I don’t understand either. Wouldn’t it be easier for them to streamline and put it on all their models anyway?
The only reason I can imagine for not installing Biscotti by default is that the options might be overwhealming for non-enthusiasts. I haven’t used the 3/5 mode firmware but I could live with it - for me the most important thing is a no-strobe option. I wonder what proportion of Convoy’s sales are to enthusiasts?
It seems like there are a few options you can request when ordering that aren’t listed on their store. I wonder whether that’s a deliberate decision to crater to enthusiasts without being overwhelmed with special orders, or they’re jusyt not great at keeping the store up to date?
I think it is simply a case that BG and GB request the specification from Convoy, and during the last order, that was the 3/5 mode firmware. Future orders from BG and GB may be with Biscotti.
Biscotti is generally a much better UI than the 3/5 user interface (the 10sec delay for memory in the 3/5 is so annoying). Myself and other light painting photographers prefer the constant 10Hz 50% on/off strobe in the 3/5 firmware. The variable strobe in the latest version of Biscotti is unfortunately rather poor for light painting photography as it seems to be on/off 33%/66% as well as not being constant Hz.
One reason is possibly the known issue with noinit click-timing that should cause it to not work on some small but not quite tiny fraction of lights. That can be fine for customizing but a bummer if you're selling a bunch. They (Convoy/Simon) probably don't know a fix is available now though, and to be fair, the fix hasn't seen much early-adopter testing.
Because everyone who need decent flashlight on a daily basis isn’t Flashaholic-enthusiast Ph.D? 
I can imagine that most of world population would prefer old simple interface. Or at least many of those who need decent flashlight just to work instead of study it, to play with it and then put it back in a drawer.
hunh? Biscotti is dead simple. It doesn't have medium press for reverse (not that you'd be forced to use it if it did). It doesn't have hidden modes (not that you'd have to use them). You can't reverse the mode order or disable "moon" in the menu (not that you'd have to ever access the menu, but I suppose you might by accident... only if you were playing with it though). The original didn't have a turbo step-down (HD does). About the only thing biscotti does differently by default than a standard light is the modes go from low to high, and there are a couple of more modes (5 solid modes and 3 strobes).
I think you're confusing it with bistro, which does have all those things, but where you still don't need to use them.
Yes, the Convoys that ship with biscotti don’t even need to be programmed, if you don’t want to. They come with group 1 (basically, all modes), and mode memory off. Though, many people probably don’t want that mode, as there are better ones.
I agree that it’s not easy to program them without the group info beside you. But you only have to do it once.
Maybe they could ship it with group mode 5 or 6 already programmed, to make it a simple 3-mode light for newbies. Or perhaps mode group 12 (only the max mode enabled), which makes it really easy!
I think the old 3/5 mode interface is not very useful. The low is okay, but then you jump right to almost half-maximum? The mode spacing is poor.
It has a reverse to the first output level in the mode group (at least with memory disabled, don’t know if it happens with memory on).
Ex: If you are in mode 2 (0.1/ 1 / 10 / 35 / 100), on the 35, with half press for 0,5s, it will return to mode 0.1%.
Agree with you that there could be another mode programmed, mode 1 is very “extensive”. Modes 2, 5 and 6 are my favourites.
However, to have mode 12 programmed, maybe it would be “dangerous” for “non-enthusiast” to have always 100% with 8*7135, for example. With 4*7135, i would be more feasible and less hot, even for longer usage.
I love biscotti driver. Sometimes I miss other functions on it (direct access to moonlight or turbo, without enabling the respective modes that start with these outputs), but I guess it is very good for a daily use basis!
I was thinking more of the Convoy C8 for that, where heat really isn’t much of an issue, and you probably want max most of the time. But, yes, on the S2+ it could be a problem, so group 2, 5, or 6 would be better.
Yes, an EDC really should have direct access to moonlight. But for most non-flashaholics, it probably isn’t important.
Ohh! On a C8, heating probably is not so much problematic, for sure! Thinner lights like the S2, S2+, yup, they’ll heat !!
Eheh, true! This was my enthusiast vein pumping loudly, ‘non-enthusiasts’ won’t probably bother with that 
Yes, I was surprised when I got the BD06 about a month ago that I ordered with Mode Option 2 (1, 20, 100) actually came with the Biscotti firmware set to Group 5. Hoping that it had Biscotti, I pressed the switch numerous times and sure enough it went into programming mode. So I set it to Group 2 (0.1, 1, 10, 35, 100) to give my brother-in-law more levels without the strobes. Hopefully he won’t accidentally get it into programming mode, but that seems highly unlikely.
It’s strange how the Convoy website does not state this as a selling feature for the flashlight.
That's not reverse. That's called it always turns on in the same level. No, that doesn't happen with memory on. That's the point of memory on.
I'd be really surprised if the click timing thing isn't an issue for a mass distributor. The original method reserved half a byte, 4 bits, set to 0 in ram and looked for one of those bits to corrupt to determine there was a long switch press (power-off).
Problem is, every ram byte has its own personality and "corrupts" to its own preferred valued. There's a nominally 1 in 16 chance those 4 bits settle to 0000 naturally (probably every time for that particular light), and the press isn't detected. That means the light will always turn on in the next mode, which to a Chinese distributor might I suppose be "enh.. good enough, whatever".
It turns out people think 1's are twice as likely as 0's. Ok, that makes it 1.2% if true. I don't know, compared to general QC issues out of chinese distributors, that's maybe be pretty good, lol. This is fixed in biscotti-HD though.
Thanks for the clarification! I inadvertently called it reverse as it allows to get back to the 1st output with half press for some time :person_facepalming:
Thanks :+1: