GDuP progress thread.

[Scottiver]

I think that if they are only compatible with A19's and Mules and not with the Aleph 1,2 and 3's then that's part of the problem. There are alot more Aleph 1-3's in the world than A19's and Mules. Plus the A19's and Mules are already a fairly new design that people might not be willing to spend the money on to upgrade yet, especially on a light that they just spent big bucks on in the first place.

[acourvil]

Your missing the point. Production units may be available in bare converter board, kits etc. But, these are not production yet. To request this now is absurb to say the least.

Wayne

I was responding to your request for more information:

I'm looking for feedback as to why no one is buying the GDuP light engines and lights now offered at the shoppe.

No communications is bad. I have not heard privately or publicaly from anyone one way or the other. The GDuP costs real tangible money on my end and many hours of time spent.

I've spent what I think is quite a bit of money at the Shoppe in the last couple months. Saying that I'm making an absurd request when I respond to you with the information that you requested seems absurd. My apologies if I provided too much information.

[chocho]

Hi Wayne and Cindy,

JUST TO MAKE SURE before I drop a wad of cash on these LE's.

These LE's are totally compatible with the Aleph 2 so long as I perform some minor surgery on the McR-20 (like this) right?

Thanks for your R&D!

-Chris

[easilyled]

Hi Wayne and Cindy,

JUST TO MAKE SURE before I drop a wad of cash on these LE's.

These LE's are totally compatible with the Aleph 2 so long as I perform some minor surgery on the McR-20 (like this) right?

Thanks for your R&D!

-Chris

Chocho, from what I've gathered from CPFer Nake, the minor surgery
on a McR20 may not be necessary if you use a McR20-S instead.

ie McR20 reflector adjusted for a Seoul led.

Apparently if you screw the Cree-LE until the Cree led goes into
the hole at the bottom of the McR20-S, you can find the correct
focus for it with this ready-made reflector.

The only thing that you may have to be careful of is not shorting the
Cree L.E in the process.

You can do this by applying a coating or protective film over it.

I'm sure if you PM Nake, he'll let you know.

[iconoclast]

... There are alot more Aleph 1-3's in the world than A19's and Mules.

Of course the latter options are the only ones still available to newbies

[nein166]

Afraid I'm in the X-Mas budget group but these LEs look great at the current config. I rarely need to use 1A in my flupic'd A19. I've been waiting for a CC multilevel like this and hope you can continue on to make these available as boards. Come January I'd like to buy myself a present.

[easilyled]

Are the color-bins of the Q4 leds used in the GDuP L.Es for sale
mixed or are they all the same bin?

If it is the same bin, any chance of divulging it?

[Nebula]

Wayne - I want to add my THANK YOU for your devotion to our hobby, as well as your commitment of significant resources (time and money) to bring the GDuP to fruition. I don't have an immediate use for this driver, but I do plan to order at least one this coming weekend. I see this as a good investment.

Again, thank you for making these drivers and for bringing them to CPF.

All the best,

Kirk

Edit: PP sent. One GDuP on the way. Thanks.

[TranquillityBase]

Wayne, are the pre-production GDuP LE's potted?

Thanks

[MarNav1]

Yeah Wayne I'll pipe in here an say thanks for all your efforts too! I am relatively new to Aleph's myself but I have 4 A2's in various stages and 3 A1's as well. Some of these don't have LE's yet as I was waiting for this driver. I'm not sure how the part's fit together but I'm in the market for 3 or 4 of these units myself. If we can get somebody to make a chart or sticky on what fits what that would help me out alot. Budget is part of it too, I'm thinking next month also. I didn't pipe in more because I didn't know what to ask I guess. So I think with a little more time people like myself will become more educated on this and know what kinds of things to ask for. Again thanks for your efforts and I will purchase soon.

[dstutts]

Wayne, received my Mule yesterday. This is my first led light and it is awesome.I have been following this thread for a while and I think LED Zepp and jch79 gave great reviews and I want to add that the UI is easy to figure out. I figured it out before it went in to calibrate mode, saving that for later.The three modes make for a light you can use anywhere. Thanks for your work on this. Dan

[gswitter]

I'd held off ordering one of the GDuP LE's because the suitable hosts I have already have decent LE's. A Q4/GDuP LE would be a no-brainer for a new light, but I couldn't justify dumping a P4/GD825 w/two-stage switch combo that I was happy with. I already have a couple A19's and snagged one of the Aleph Mules as soon as they were listed (before a GDuP LE was an available option), so the only host I could piece together from the parts at the shop would duplicate a light I already have.

The Mule minus LE sets in Don's latest wave fixed that problem, so an order for a GDuP LE was just placed. Looking forward to it.

[greenstuffs]

Hmm $120 for a LE is pretty steep for me hopefully there will be boards available so i can build my own I already purchased a A19 for $200 and with the new LE will put me around $300 for a light...

[Gimpy00Wang]

I just ordered two Aleph McClickie-Mule sets and plan to put a GDuP LE in one of them. However, that will have to wait until after the holiday. Rest assured...we're in "flashlight season" as I like to call it (more night time) so things should pick up after the holiday.

- Chris

[Carpe Diem]

Hi Wayne and Cindy...

I just ordered a GDuP LE and a black A19 head kit.

Thank you for doing the GDuP project!

[Kiessling]

Ordered one for the Aleph Clicky Mule.
But a SSC or even (gasp) a newK2 would have "attacked" a wider audience. I would be interested in new K2 LEs that just fit in all my Aleph stuff.
bk

[acourvil]

At the risk of taking this thread off-topic, what would make the new K2 more attractive at the 700mA max level of this LE? Is it just the form factor, or there something I'm missing?

[Kiessling]

The direct compatability with the old Aleph systems without the need for new reflectors and such.
At least I think having heard that this would be the case.
I'd gladly sacrifice some lumens for not having to exchange all the reflectors.
bk

[ibcj]

I received my GDuP's today and I am very happy with them. The fact that I never bothered to read this thread thoroughly and still picked up the light and figured out the UI in seconds, shows that it is very simple, but very effective. The levels are perfectly spaced out. The fact that it remembers the last level is key. I hate those clickies that you have to scroll through every time to find the level you want. I also don't need a clickie with ten levels and fancy strobes. Give me three nicely spaced level with an easy UI and I am content. The battery options is nice bonus.

One thing I did find interesting, is that on the one unit, when I first turned it on, it began pulsing from like a low-med-low-med..... I'm not sure why. I put a few different batteries in (fresh Energizer lithiums) and it continued to do the same thing. After a few minutes, it seemed to work fine. No other oddities noted.

Wayne, it would be an absolute shame to let this driver die. I can only hope that it lives on. As for the price, IMO it is totally reasonable. It is a custom built part that took a considerable amount of your time. People need to remember that you aren't going to be selling millions of them where you can dollar cost average them down significantly.
Thank you for all of your efforts in this hobby, they are greatly appreciated.

[LED Zeppelin]

One thing I did find interesting, is that on the one unit, when I first turned it on, it began pulsing from like a low-med-low-med..... I'm not sure why. I put a few different batteries in (fresh Energizer lithiums) and it continued to do the same thing. After a few minutes, it seemed to work fine. No other oddities noted.

nystrpr, your GDuP LE was probably in the calibration mode when you received it. It will ramp up and down 5 times, then pause at lo, med, and hi, ramp up and down again before returning to normal operation.

If you advance the level 16 times without stopping, you will enter the calibration mode again.

[dat2zip]

I've tried shortening the timeout to something around 1/3 of a second and the light works even better. By the time you stop when cycling it times out. It's very nice. This short of a timeout means removing the blink indication of timeout as that makes you look for it. Without it you would just use the light.

There is no real way of judging buyer perception, acceptance except for your vote with wallet strategy. I know no better way to know how well the product is/will do.

There are other methods, like pre-pay, sign up list etc. But, I think that only causes more headaches in managing the list and I refuse to take money up front.

If Don had not offered his light without LE there would still be the same quantity of GDuP LEs on the shoppe as it was a week ago. That for what ever reason can only be guaged as a non-start product. Had Don not offered the light I would have contemplated killing the program.

I am going to now proceed forward, but, the direction will be slightly different.

Instead of taking the risk and making a run of hundreds of converter boards I'm now going to make small batches and run them through like I do small proto runs. They will all be hand assembled at the local CM. I hope they have the bandwidth and time to do these batches. This will mean they will cost me more to make, but, each batch will be less capital I need to spend. If the batch/wave sells. I will do another. If the pace picks up down the road I will consider at that time doing full production of the boards.

I've got two designs now. I've split the design into two versions that I will be making a single prototype for test purposes. One will be the same as is and the spinoff will be a non-sandwich version that will hopefully calibrate to a lower level. This spin off will be the one used to make the miser version of the LE.

I will be ordering the GDuP, GDuP-lsense, GD Anode std, GD Anode extra thin.

I've received the new thinner inductors and I believe with the new thinner GDuP, GD Anode and inductor that the new height stack will fit in the standard EScan/Escrew combination to make Seoul LEs.

I've also dug up an EScrew PCB that I made a year ago for the Seoul. It's 0.030 thick and the Seoul reflows onto this board. This board + LED combo eliminates the copper disc when making the LE and makes the assembly easier to put together.

This time of the year is very bad to get any work done. US companies have down time during the Thanksgiving and Xmas period and coming right after that is the Chinese New Year shutdowns.

I have a gut feeling I should go to the CM and order the raw boards for production even though I feel very uncertain about it. Now is the time to do it. If I delay 1-2 weeks they won't get back till late Febuary due to the Chinese holiday shutdown.

I can't predict at the moment when the next batch is or what configuration it will be and I still don't know if I can make a Seoul LE.

I'm going to guess that if all goes well I'll have another wave of LEs late January.

Discrete boards will not be offered until production if production ever comes to fruition.

Wayne

[dat2zip]

The UI is very simple.

If you "tap" the light on and then off where the tap is very short. The "tap" will cycle to the next level when the light is turned on the next time.

What may not be clear is how fast/slow you can be between the "tap". The answer is infinite. You can "tap" (where tap is on then off briefly) and then set the light down. If you come back a week/month/year later and turn the light on it will be in the next level from the one that you "tapped".

This means that for most everyone you should have no problems cycling through the levels.

Even if you are not quick with the fingers you can do the following...

tap the light on/off. Re-compose yourself and prepare to do it again. Then tap the light on/off. Repeat this process as needed. Each time you tap the light on/off you need to note the brightness when you do this. If you pass up the level you want you only need to repeat this 2 more times to come back around to the level you passed by. But, this time you know where you are and should be able to stop on the desired level (two more times tapping).

If you "tap" 15 or more times without letting the light latch the current state the light will enter calibration.

Calibration mode starts with the light ramping up/down 5 times. If calibration mode is not what you wanted to do, turn the light off right after it stops ramping. You can count the number of times it ramps and then turn the light off after you count 5 times. Turning it off before it completes the 5 ramp cycles will leave the light in calibration mode and it will start and over again with the ramping sequence the next time you turn the light on. It is fun to force it into calibration to see it ramp up/down and then turn it off after the 5 times. This will not re-calibrate the light so it's fun and safe to do or annoying as heck for others...

Letting it go into calibration after the 5 ramp up/down it will start calibrating the low level by setting the light to some low light level and slowly ramp it down. This can take 15 seconds or more and it may not be visible as it goes slowly. You can carefully watch and it should slowly get dimmer and dimmer. Once it reaches the calibrated low level it jumps in brightness and then slowly starts getting brighter until it reaches the medium brightness calibration. This again may take 15+ seconds or even 30 seconds. Again it will jump in brightness and then either go up in brightness or down in brightness as needed for level 3. This usually goes quick in a few seconds or up to 10 seconds.

If it reaches this point it has stored each level internally as the new calibration start point and will then ramp the light up/down 5 times. The same ramp sequence starting the calibration routine.

Once it finished ramping up/down it will begin normal operations in low.

You can abort anytime during calibration. The calibration for each level is stored at the end of calibration level. Aborting between the 5 ramp/up down entering calibration and before completing low will do nothing. Aborting after it has completed reaching the low and calibrating the 2nd level will have stored calibration for low only.

I've seen it mis-calibrate the initial low to somewhere between low and medium. If this happens, just redo calibration. I've never seen it happen two times in a row. It seems the redo always seems to work fine.

Wayne

[Nebula]

snip, snip ...

If Don had not offered his light without LE there would still be the same quantity of GDuP LEs on the shoppe as it was a week ago. That for what ever reason can only be guaged as a non-start product. Had Don not offered the light I would have contemplated killing the program.

Wayne, I agree with you that Don's offering pushed the sales of the GDuP, but as I pointed out in post #128, I purchased solely to put a little money where my mouth is. Of course, I had hopes of finding a host light for the LE, but that was not the driving force behind my order. Survival of this project was, and remains, the primary reason for my order. However, at the end of the day I know that my single purchase hardly matters if others don't step up.

Instead of taking the risk and making a run of hundreds of converter boards I'm now going to make small batches and run them through like I do small proto runs. They will all be hand assembled at the local CM. I hope they have the bandwidth and time to do these batches. This will mean they will cost me more to make, but, each batch will be less capital I need to spend. If the batch/wave sells. I will do another. If the pace picks up down the road I will consider at that time doing full production of the boards.

I am happy to read that you will continue the GDuP, albeit on a smaller scale. Hopefully future sales will allow you to sell discrete boards as well as completed LEs.

I've got two designs now. I've split the design into two versions that I will be making a single prototype for test purposes. One will be the same as is and the spinoff will be a non-sandwich version that will hopefully calibrate to a lower level. This spin off will be the one used to make the miser version of the LE.



I've received the new thinner inductors and I believe with the new thinner GDuP, GD Anode and inductor that the new height stack will fit in the standard EScan/Escrew combination to make Seoul LEs.

The option to use the SSC LEDs should translate into more sales, as many of us already have the more SSC friendly reflectors.

I've also dug up an EScrew PCB that I made a year ago for the Seoul. It's 0.030 thick and the Seoul reflows onto this board. This board + LED combo eliminates the copper disc when making the LE and makes the assembly easier to put together.

Excellent news!

I have a gut feeling I should go to the CM and order the raw boards for production even though I feel very uncertain about it. Now is the time to do it. If I delay 1-2 weeks they won't get back till late Febuary due to the Chinese holiday shutdown.

I know that this is a tough time of the year and that the future of this project is not all that bright, but I am betting that once the CPF community gets word of how significant this new converter is, they will step up with orders. Go with your gut on this.

Wayne

All the best to you and Cindy, and Happy Holidays.

Kirk K.

[McGizmo]

Hi guys,
Glad to hear the GDuP is moving forward. I hope to do things with it myself; directly and indirectly.

I could follow the discussions on the UI because I have handled the light and understand the UI and its simplicity which is not necessarily clear in discussion of it!

Let me try describing it in terms that make sense to me and hopefully to some of you as well. The GDuP is aware of time and it considers each time the light is turned on. It asks a simple yes/ no question each time the light is turned on.
The question is, should I change levels next time?

You turn on the light and the GDuP immediately thinks yes. Yes means that the GDuP will cycle to the next level when the light is again turned on. However, if the light is kept on longer than the set "time out", the GDuP revises its assessment and thinks no. No means that next time the light is turned on, it will come on at the same level it is at this time. Each cycling of on to off leaves the GDuP with a Yes or No answer. If the answer was yes, it comes on next time at the next level of brightness and the cycling counted. If the answer was no, the cycle didn't count and The GDuP ignores it as if it never happened.

If you string enough yes cycles in a row, the GDuP will go into calibration mode.

If you want the GDuP to stick with the present set level, you want it to turn off with a no answer. If you want it to ramp up to the next level, you need to turn it off quick enough while the answer is still yes.

To relate to the other terms being used, the time out is when the answer goes from yes to no. It is easier for me to think of the GDuP having yes and no cycles of on time.

[LED Zeppelin]

The UI is definitely easier to use than describe.

Glad to hear that the GDuP is moving forward, it deserves to. I'd hate to see one of the few multi-level UIs that I like to use be die on the vine. I believe that once enough people get to try it out there will be demand to push it into full production.

It is a Catch 22 of sorts. The real demand will come when it is available as a bare board compatible with more Aleph LEs, but those production boards will only follow sufficent demand of existing GDuP LEs to support the investment.

I am relieved to see it moving forward in small steps that will get us to the production boards.

[jch79]

Glad to hear that the GDuP is moving forward, it deserves to. I'd hate to see one of the few multi-level UIs that I like to use be die on the vine. I believe that once enough people get to try it out there will be demand to push it into full production.

+1!

[acourvil]

Wow, just got one of these in the mail, popped it into an A19 and all I can say is that this is the UI that I've wanted for all of my lights.

[moeman]

I am going to now proceed forward, but, the direction will be slightly different.


Wayne

I am So happy to here this!!!

Thanks Wayne!


Chris

[Carpe Diem]

My GDuP has arrived and is great. The UI is easy to pick up intuitively, and if I can do it...well, then anyone can.

Thank you, Wayne and Cindy! And please make more of these great GDuP`s.

[liqht]

i got one of the assembled GDuP LEs (10 / 180 / 700mA with Q4) to put in my EN aleph McMule, and let me say this is gol-darn near perfect. i was glad to see you built some with a higher ouput level (700 in this case).

now that i've had a chance to play around with and get used to the UI, I LIKE IT.

i've never cared for the aleph 2-stage switches. sorry, just a personal preference. i wanted something that would work with the McClicky (best clicky in the world), and the only option was flupic. again, personal preference, but the flupic is just too complex.

so GDuP fills the bill exactly.

THANKS