calipsoii
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2010
- Messages
- 1,412
3rd 4th Time's the Charm
Hi all! :wave:
I owe you a sincere apology for disappearing for.. (goes back and checks last project update)... oh boy
... way too long.
Last we spoke, I'd teased some shots of the components for a Version3 of the 15VP converter. The fact that I didn't excitedly come back here probably speaks volumes - it didn't work as intended. Not all was lost though! I learned a significant deal working on that board and it lead me into the creation of (drumroll please)... the 15VP Version4.
Looks pretty much like all the others, eh? At first glance - yes. But I'll tell you what's exciting about that picture:
The unsatisfying part about that driver? It only pushes 350mA to the LED on High and I want more. :devil: I'm currently waiting on my OSHPark boards for Version 4.1 which should (hopefully!) have an even higher drive current while retaining all of the benefits above. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
You may be wondering where all the pictures are! I certainly love documenting and V4 has been no exception, but I have a bit of bittersweet news that I really don't know how to say, so I'll just come out and say it: I won't be maintaining this build log on CPF any longer.
I wholly intend to continue documenting my quest for the perfect AA flashlight but will be doing so on my portfolio site. There are a number of reasons for that, the two most positive ones being:
I just wanted to pop by and give this thread a bit of closure. Should you be interested in how V4 came together and where it goes from here, you can find me on the internet! Forum rules permit external links but prohibit shilling... I'm not trying to sell you anything other than some pictures and text so I'm going to very cautiously drop this hyperlink here and we'll see whether the mods agree. 
It's been my very great pleasure to have you along on this journey - I wish I could personally thank everyone who took the time to follow along and interact with me. Old CPF'ers never leave though, so of course you're still going to find me lurking around (mainly in the Homemade section :thumbsup. I hope to bump into you there, and until then, I wish you all dark nights and bright lights!
Hi all! :wave:
I owe you a sincere apology for disappearing for.. (goes back and checks last project update)... oh boy
... way too long.Last we spoke, I'd teased some shots of the components for a Version3 of the 15VP converter. The fact that I didn't excitedly come back here probably speaks volumes - it didn't work as intended. Not all was lost though! I learned a significant deal working on that board and it lead me into the creation of (drumroll please)... the 15VP Version4.
Looks pretty much like all the others, eh? At first glance - yes. But I'll tell you what's exciting about that picture:
- It uses standard, widely-available parts
- A basic Lo-Med-Hi firmware is 26 lines of code
- The same basic Lo-Med-Hi functionality on 15VP Version 2 was nearly 1400 lines of code
- It's all contained on one 14mm board - the bottom has a brass battery contact
- Versions 1-3 have all been a two-board sandwich that take up a ton of room
- It has a large dynamic range
- From 1mA to 325mA LED drive current
- Every level is true current-controlled (no PWM)
- Every one I build behaves exactly the same
The unsatisfying part about that driver? It only pushes 350mA to the LED on High and I want more. :devil: I'm currently waiting on my OSHPark boards for Version 4.1 which should (hopefully!) have an even higher drive current while retaining all of the benefits above. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
You may be wondering where all the pictures are! I certainly love documenting and V4 has been no exception, but I have a bit of bittersweet news that I really don't know how to say, so I'll just come out and say it: I won't be maintaining this build log on CPF any longer.
I wholly intend to continue documenting my quest for the perfect AA flashlight but will be doing so on my portfolio site. There are a number of reasons for that, the two most positive ones being:
- It gives me a single place to post my builds of all kinds (flashlight-related and non)
- I have better control over the presentation of my builds, including:
- using more mixed media
- using expanded markup for my text and images
- providing a more mobile-friendly experience
I just wanted to pop by and give this thread a bit of closure. Should you be interested in how V4 came together and where it goes from here, you can find me on the internet! Forum rules permit external links but prohibit shilling... I'm not trying to sell you anything other than some pictures and text so I'm going to very cautiously drop this hyperlink here and we'll see whether the mods agree.
It's been my very great pleasure to have you along on this journey - I wish I could personally thank everyone who took the time to follow along and interact with me. Old CPF'ers never leave though, so of course you're still going to find me lurking around (mainly in the Homemade section :thumbsup
. I hope to bump into you there, and until then, I wish you all dark nights and bright lights!
