dat2zip's STFu Converter Board designed for the SPY
Some of the features of the board:
1) electronic reverse polarity protection
2) any rechargeable batteries can be used if they are not to thick to fit in the SPY body
3) six power levels
4) all the levels are a very pure DC to the LED (the AC component is only a couple mV). You can not see flicker at any power level because there is none.
5) fastest light in the west!
6) you can change your power levels to what ever you want.
Improvements over the old DB board:
1) even in the tiny SPY it can run full power (1000mA) at 100% duty cycle.
2) more efficient than the old DB board and so uses less of the battery power and produces less heat.
3) does not flicker when changing power levels. even if you move the switch very slow it holds the current level till the uP sees the next switch state.
4) through a special mode accessed by removing the battery, the user can adjust the power levels. the intent here is that only a moderate change should be made from the current factory levels of 2mA, 30mA, 100mA, 250mA, 500mA and 1000mA. Some of the testers have made drastic changes to the levels and it has worked. There are software limits imposed on all the power levels; level 1 [ off to 100 mA ], level 2 and level 3 [~5 mA to 100mA] level 4 to level 6 [~50mA to 1250 mA].
5) power level one is a voltage source level and can be adjusted all the way down till the LED appears off. it can be lowered till the LED light can not be seen unless you are in a dark room and look directly into the reflector. It is dim even when compared with a micro tritium vial. In a pitch black room this is a fun thing to play with.
6) power level 6 can be adjusted up to ~1250mA, this would shorten the LED lifespan and consume a larger amount of battery power but the light output would be high. Duty cycle is 50% up here.
7) once the user levels are set the uP EEPROM saves the data and it never needs to be redone, even if the battery is removed or drains completely.
8) there is a mode to easily revert the power states back to factory settings.
9) there is a new screw attachment method for holding the board in the light that will make it easier for modders to break the light down and therefor upgrade to newer LEDs in the future.
10) when the STFu is in it's off state the processor consumes only ~5.8uA. This is so low that batteries can be left in the light for many years without being completely drained.
How to change the power levels on the STFu.
First, a little background. The spy has a knob that clicks the switch into 7 discrete locations. They are positions zero through six. Looking at the knob from the front of the light (the LED end), the knob functions like a standard volume control, rotating the knob CCW is the position zero or off direction and CW is the higher power direction.
Switch setting 0 is off. Switch setting 1 is the lowest power setting. Setting 2 is higher, and so it goes all the way to full power with setting 6. The default factory power levels 1 to 6 are: 2mA, 30mA, 90mA, 250mA, 500mA, 1000mA.
When you put batteries in the SPY and then snap the battery cap on, that will "power-up" the STFu processor on the converter board. I will refer to "powering-up" the light many times in this tutorial. So to power-up the converter simply replace the battery cap. Power-up does NOT imply turning on the LED.
What position the switch is in when you power up the light determines what mode the light will be put into. Normally you should keep the switch in the off position when changing the batteries. In this case the light works normally. This power-up-0 mode is the normal operating mode.
Also, If you power up the light with the switch in position 6 the light will come on at full power. I did this in case you do not remember where off is and happen to have the switch turned the wrong way. This would be called a power-up-6 and this mode is in all other ways, identical to the power-up-0 mode.
For those of you interested in changing the power levels from the factory defaults listed above, please read on. To adjust any of the six power levels you use the following power-up modes;
power-up-3 = reset all power levels to factory defaults and perform calibration
power-up-4 = lower a power level
power-up-5 = raise a power level
Once you do a power-up-4, you have nine seconds to move the switch to the setting you want to modify. During that nine seconds the LED is sweeping, it sweeps nine times. It does this just so you know you have time to move the knob. So move the knob to the power level you want to modify and wait for the rest of the nine seconds to pass. Watch and you will see the sweeping will cease and the LED will be on steady except every second it will flicker. Each time it flickers it will be a little dimmer. See the chart below to know how much dimmer it gets each time it flickers. When the LED gets to the power you desire simply turn the knob to the off position. At this point the light is back to the normal operating mode.
The power-up-5 mode works the exact same way as the power-up-4 mode except each time the LED flickers, it is getting brighter.
As an example: Say you want to reduce the power of level 3 from the factory 90mA to a new value of 75mA. You take the battery cap off, then you set the knob to position 4, then you put the battery cap back on and then quickly (within nine seconds) move the knob to position 3. When the LED quits sweeping, it will be powered with exactly 90mA of current. Then count the number of times it flickers. When it has flickered 15 times, turn the knob to the off position. You are done. assuming you started with a calibrated light you will have the following power levels ==> 2mA, 30mA, 75mA, 250mA, 500mA, 1000mA.
If after changing a power level the light does not come on when you turn the knob, perform a power-up-0. If you get confused and the light is not doing what you think it should be doing, perform a power-up-3. This will reset the light to factory levels and do a calibration. The cal will slowly sweep through the power levels and record the Vf data for your emitter. This calibration takes a couple minutes and requires new or strong batteries. Batteries that can run the light to the full 1000mA of power. If after you adjust a few levels, you are not happy with how the light functions, perform a power-up-3. If you are performing a power-up-3 and the light appears stuck at a level and is flickering pick up the light and hold it in your hand for a few seconds. When the calibration is finished the light will sweep a few times and then come on to PL3. During a calibration the light does not read the switch position. So if you want to stop it you will have to pull the battery cap off.
This chart shows how much each level changes each time the LED flickers and what range of adjustment you can perform:
PL1 changes +- a nats *** with a range of off to 100mA.
PL2 changes +- 1mA with a range of 5mA to 100mA.
PL3 changes +- 1mA with a range of 5mA to 100mA.
PL4 changes +- 5mA with a range of 50mA to 1250mA.
PL5 changes +- 5mA with a range of 50mA to 1250mA.
PL6 changes +- 5mA with a range of 50mA to 1250mA.
My intent as I designed the code's algorithms for the user adjustable levels was that you only move the levels a small amount. Please play with it, in any case, no harm can come to the light.
Loading Batteries
When you are putting the batteries in the light please keep this in mind. On the battery that goes behind the LED, please put the "+" end in first. The other battery goes in with the "-" end in first.
The battery cap must be pushed straight on. If it gets crooked it will stick and you have to take it off and start again.
You can not hurt the light by putting the batteries in the wrong way.
When changing batteries use power-up-0 (keep the switch set to the off position). Power-up-0 will flash the LED one time, this is telling you that it has powered up the CPU, read the EEPROM, initialized the system and then gone to sleep. However, no matter what power-up mode you go into if you see the light is flashing more than one time, you can abort by simply turning the switch off.
Easter Eggs
Hidden in the STFu are a few toys. This is intended for fun only. To get to the Easter Eggs on power-up-1, just play with it, and to get to the Easter Egg on power-up-2 you should read these 4 hints. They were posted one a day for 4 days. (July, Friday the 13th, 2007) gave the final Easter Egg hint #4.
Hints:
1) The easter egg is on power-up-2. :candle:
2) It rhymes with "SPY 00 5 midgets". :candle:
3) Don't forget your Euclidean plane geometry. :candle:
4) Baseball, hot dogs, apple ___ and Chevrolet.
BTW, the rhyme hint was "__ to 5 digits". Well there you go!
Having trouble with the Easter Eggs?
click here for the spoiler
*********************************************************
New for the STFu Flash software release 2.0 is the new battery meter feature.
The first batch of 007's serial number 201 to 230 are the first to use release 2.0 of the STFu software.
There are a couple changes. The biggest is power-up-6, that is now a battery meter. In the rel. 1.0 of the STFu software power-up-6 did not do anything.
click here for youtube video
This meter reads the average voltage of the two batteries. It flashes out three significant digits. So if the voltage is 3.14V It will flash three times then pause then flash one time then pause then flash four times. If one of the digits is a zero, it flashes a very short pulse/strobe burst for that digit.
The old easter egg on power-up-2 is gone. The power-up-2 mode simply enables the automatic power cut back mode, by default it is not enabled.
Some background info and what it is it for; The naturally sticky nature of the o-ring can grab the inside of your pants pocket and turn the light on. If you are going to EDC the 007 in your pocket, take the o-rings off! It is just that simple. To date I have never had the light come on in my pocket without the o-rings on the light.
Having said that, I myself do carry my 007 in my pants pocket and yet I still do want to use the o-rings ( I just like them ). So I added an automatic cut back feature.
If you enable it by using power-up-2 it will let the light run for 150 seconds then automatically set the light to power level 1. There it will stay until you turn the light off. However, you can temporally deactivate the feature (until the light is turned off and back on) by turning the knob down a level or by spinning the knob on very fast.
This automatic power cut back feature is not perfect. It can be fooled and so I must reiterate that the only safe way to carry the 007 in your pants pocket is without the o-rings on the knob. If you like simple solutions, stop right here and take the o-rings off your light and then stop reading this post.
To see the new power cut back mode work, first perform a power-up-2 and shut the light off (test the light to see if it is working normally, if it is not, perform a power-up-0). Next turn the light off and turn the light to power level 2 or higher, wait 150 seconds and it will switch to low power.
To temporarily deactivate the feature, turn the light on to any power level 2 through 6 and then reduce the level one or more clicks. Now the light can be used normally till it is turned off again.
To permanently deactivate the feature, run the calibrate (power-up-3). It will reset the light to factory settings and deactivate the auto cut back feature.
*********************************************************
New for the STFu Flash software release 2.1 is the new lock mode feature.
The second batch of 007's serial number 231 to 368 are the first to use release 2.1 of the STFu software.
The power-up-2 mode alternatively enables and disables the lock mode, by default it is not enabled ( the auto off feature in the old release 2.0 was deleted from the code ).
The purpose of this lock is so that you can throw the light in your back pack or any kind of loose pocket and not have to worry if the switch gets knocked to an on position. With the light locked it is safe and can not use the battery.
The naturally sticky nature of the o-ring can grab the inside of your pants pocket or back pack and turn the light on. If you are going to EDC the 007 in your pocket, take the o-rings off! I have never had the light come on in my pocket without the o-rings on the light. Having said that, I myself prefer to use the o-rings ( I just like them ). So I added a new lock feature.
The new lock is simple. Turn the light on (power level 1) and off three times quickly and the light will lock. When locked it will only run for 20 seconds. So each time the 007 is turned on you got 20 seconds of use. To unlock the light just use the same sequence again. It is just that simple.
With the light locked, if it switches on in your pack, it will not use much of the battery. If you get it out and forget you had locked it, it will still give you instant light, and that is very important feature of this lock! It is easy to tell if it is in the locked state or not because it runs at 1/2 power and sweeps to the commanded setting (this was the new egg, Griff).
Of course if you do not need the lock feature, do not enable it (power-up-2). The light comes with the lock disabled. Every time you run (power-up-2) it toggles the enable. If you run the calibrate (power-up-3), it will reset the light to factory settings and deactivate the lock feature.
Cheers
Dave
.
Some of the features of the board:
1) electronic reverse polarity protection
2) any rechargeable batteries can be used if they are not to thick to fit in the SPY body
3) six power levels
4) all the levels are a very pure DC to the LED (the AC component is only a couple mV). You can not see flicker at any power level because there is none.
5) fastest light in the west!
6) you can change your power levels to what ever you want.
Improvements over the old DB board:
1) even in the tiny SPY it can run full power (1000mA) at 100% duty cycle.
2) more efficient than the old DB board and so uses less of the battery power and produces less heat.
3) does not flicker when changing power levels. even if you move the switch very slow it holds the current level till the uP sees the next switch state.
4) through a special mode accessed by removing the battery, the user can adjust the power levels. the intent here is that only a moderate change should be made from the current factory levels of 2mA, 30mA, 100mA, 250mA, 500mA and 1000mA. Some of the testers have made drastic changes to the levels and it has worked. There are software limits imposed on all the power levels; level 1 [ off to 100 mA ], level 2 and level 3 [~5 mA to 100mA] level 4 to level 6 [~50mA to 1250 mA].
5) power level one is a voltage source level and can be adjusted all the way down till the LED appears off. it can be lowered till the LED light can not be seen unless you are in a dark room and look directly into the reflector. It is dim even when compared with a micro tritium vial. In a pitch black room this is a fun thing to play with.
6) power level 6 can be adjusted up to ~1250mA, this would shorten the LED lifespan and consume a larger amount of battery power but the light output would be high. Duty cycle is 50% up here.
7) once the user levels are set the uP EEPROM saves the data and it never needs to be redone, even if the battery is removed or drains completely.
8) there is a mode to easily revert the power states back to factory settings.
9) there is a new screw attachment method for holding the board in the light that will make it easier for modders to break the light down and therefor upgrade to newer LEDs in the future.
10) when the STFu is in it's off state the processor consumes only ~5.8uA. This is so low that batteries can be left in the light for many years without being completely drained.
How to change the power levels on the STFu.
First, a little background. The spy has a knob that clicks the switch into 7 discrete locations. They are positions zero through six. Looking at the knob from the front of the light (the LED end), the knob functions like a standard volume control, rotating the knob CCW is the position zero or off direction and CW is the higher power direction.
Switch setting 0 is off. Switch setting 1 is the lowest power setting. Setting 2 is higher, and so it goes all the way to full power with setting 6. The default factory power levels 1 to 6 are: 2mA, 30mA, 90mA, 250mA, 500mA, 1000mA.
When you put batteries in the SPY and then snap the battery cap on, that will "power-up" the STFu processor on the converter board. I will refer to "powering-up" the light many times in this tutorial. So to power-up the converter simply replace the battery cap. Power-up does NOT imply turning on the LED.
What position the switch is in when you power up the light determines what mode the light will be put into. Normally you should keep the switch in the off position when changing the batteries. In this case the light works normally. This power-up-0 mode is the normal operating mode.
Also, If you power up the light with the switch in position 6 the light will come on at full power. I did this in case you do not remember where off is and happen to have the switch turned the wrong way. This would be called a power-up-6 and this mode is in all other ways, identical to the power-up-0 mode.
For those of you interested in changing the power levels from the factory defaults listed above, please read on. To adjust any of the six power levels you use the following power-up modes;
power-up-3 = reset all power levels to factory defaults and perform calibration
power-up-4 = lower a power level
power-up-5 = raise a power level
Once you do a power-up-4, you have nine seconds to move the switch to the setting you want to modify. During that nine seconds the LED is sweeping, it sweeps nine times. It does this just so you know you have time to move the knob. So move the knob to the power level you want to modify and wait for the rest of the nine seconds to pass. Watch and you will see the sweeping will cease and the LED will be on steady except every second it will flicker. Each time it flickers it will be a little dimmer. See the chart below to know how much dimmer it gets each time it flickers. When the LED gets to the power you desire simply turn the knob to the off position. At this point the light is back to the normal operating mode.
The power-up-5 mode works the exact same way as the power-up-4 mode except each time the LED flickers, it is getting brighter.
As an example: Say you want to reduce the power of level 3 from the factory 90mA to a new value of 75mA. You take the battery cap off, then you set the knob to position 4, then you put the battery cap back on and then quickly (within nine seconds) move the knob to position 3. When the LED quits sweeping, it will be powered with exactly 90mA of current. Then count the number of times it flickers. When it has flickered 15 times, turn the knob to the off position. You are done. assuming you started with a calibrated light you will have the following power levels ==> 2mA, 30mA, 75mA, 250mA, 500mA, 1000mA.
If after changing a power level the light does not come on when you turn the knob, perform a power-up-0. If you get confused and the light is not doing what you think it should be doing, perform a power-up-3. This will reset the light to factory levels and do a calibration. The cal will slowly sweep through the power levels and record the Vf data for your emitter. This calibration takes a couple minutes and requires new or strong batteries. Batteries that can run the light to the full 1000mA of power. If after you adjust a few levels, you are not happy with how the light functions, perform a power-up-3. If you are performing a power-up-3 and the light appears stuck at a level and is flickering pick up the light and hold it in your hand for a few seconds. When the calibration is finished the light will sweep a few times and then come on to PL3. During a calibration the light does not read the switch position. So if you want to stop it you will have to pull the battery cap off.
This chart shows how much each level changes each time the LED flickers and what range of adjustment you can perform:
PL1 changes +- a nats *** with a range of off to 100mA.
PL2 changes +- 1mA with a range of 5mA to 100mA.
PL3 changes +- 1mA with a range of 5mA to 100mA.
PL4 changes +- 5mA with a range of 50mA to 1250mA.
PL5 changes +- 5mA with a range of 50mA to 1250mA.
PL6 changes +- 5mA with a range of 50mA to 1250mA.
My intent as I designed the code's algorithms for the user adjustable levels was that you only move the levels a small amount. Please play with it, in any case, no harm can come to the light.
Loading Batteries
When you are putting the batteries in the light please keep this in mind. On the battery that goes behind the LED, please put the "+" end in first. The other battery goes in with the "-" end in first.
The battery cap must be pushed straight on. If it gets crooked it will stick and you have to take it off and start again.
You can not hurt the light by putting the batteries in the wrong way.
When changing batteries use power-up-0 (keep the switch set to the off position). Power-up-0 will flash the LED one time, this is telling you that it has powered up the CPU, read the EEPROM, initialized the system and then gone to sleep. However, no matter what power-up mode you go into if you see the light is flashing more than one time, you can abort by simply turning the switch off.
Easter Eggs
Hidden in the STFu are a few toys. This is intended for fun only. To get to the Easter Eggs on power-up-1, just play with it, and to get to the Easter Egg on power-up-2 you should read these 4 hints. They were posted one a day for 4 days. (July, Friday the 13th, 2007) gave the final Easter Egg hint #4.
Hints:
1) The easter egg is on power-up-2. :candle:
2) It rhymes with "SPY 00 5 midgets". :candle:
3) Don't forget your Euclidean plane geometry. :candle:
4) Baseball, hot dogs, apple ___ and Chevrolet.
BTW, the rhyme hint was "__ to 5 digits". Well there you go!
Having trouble with the Easter Eggs?
click here for the spoiler *********************************************************
New for the STFu Flash software release 2.0 is the new battery meter feature.
The first batch of 007's serial number 201 to 230 are the first to use release 2.0 of the STFu software.
There are a couple changes. The biggest is power-up-6, that is now a battery meter. In the rel. 1.0 of the STFu software power-up-6 did not do anything.
click here for youtube video
This meter reads the average voltage of the two batteries. It flashes out three significant digits. So if the voltage is 3.14V It will flash three times then pause then flash one time then pause then flash four times. If one of the digits is a zero, it flashes a very short pulse/strobe burst for that digit.
The old easter egg on power-up-2 is gone. The power-up-2 mode simply enables the automatic power cut back mode, by default it is not enabled.
Some background info and what it is it for; The naturally sticky nature of the o-ring can grab the inside of your pants pocket and turn the light on. If you are going to EDC the 007 in your pocket, take the o-rings off! It is just that simple. To date I have never had the light come on in my pocket without the o-rings on the light.
Having said that, I myself do carry my 007 in my pants pocket and yet I still do want to use the o-rings ( I just like them ). So I added an automatic cut back feature.
If you enable it by using power-up-2 it will let the light run for 150 seconds then automatically set the light to power level 1. There it will stay until you turn the light off. However, you can temporally deactivate the feature (until the light is turned off and back on) by turning the knob down a level or by spinning the knob on very fast.
This automatic power cut back feature is not perfect. It can be fooled and so I must reiterate that the only safe way to carry the 007 in your pants pocket is without the o-rings on the knob. If you like simple solutions, stop right here and take the o-rings off your light and then stop reading this post.
To see the new power cut back mode work, first perform a power-up-2 and shut the light off (test the light to see if it is working normally, if it is not, perform a power-up-0). Next turn the light off and turn the light to power level 2 or higher, wait 150 seconds and it will switch to low power.
To temporarily deactivate the feature, turn the light on to any power level 2 through 6 and then reduce the level one or more clicks. Now the light can be used normally till it is turned off again.
To permanently deactivate the feature, run the calibrate (power-up-3). It will reset the light to factory settings and deactivate the auto cut back feature.
*********************************************************
New for the STFu Flash software release 2.1 is the new lock mode feature.
The second batch of 007's serial number 231 to 368 are the first to use release 2.1 of the STFu software.
The power-up-2 mode alternatively enables and disables the lock mode, by default it is not enabled ( the auto off feature in the old release 2.0 was deleted from the code ).
The purpose of this lock is so that you can throw the light in your back pack or any kind of loose pocket and not have to worry if the switch gets knocked to an on position. With the light locked it is safe and can not use the battery.
The naturally sticky nature of the o-ring can grab the inside of your pants pocket or back pack and turn the light on. If you are going to EDC the 007 in your pocket, take the o-rings off! I have never had the light come on in my pocket without the o-rings on the light. Having said that, I myself prefer to use the o-rings ( I just like them ). So I added a new lock feature.
The new lock is simple. Turn the light on (power level 1) and off three times quickly and the light will lock. When locked it will only run for 20 seconds. So each time the 007 is turned on you got 20 seconds of use. To unlock the light just use the same sequence again. It is just that simple.
With the light locked, if it switches on in your pack, it will not use much of the battery. If you get it out and forget you had locked it, it will still give you instant light, and that is very important feature of this lock! It is easy to tell if it is in the locked state or not because it runs at 1/2 power and sweeps to the commanded setting (this was the new egg, Griff).
Of course if you do not need the lock feature, do not enable it (power-up-2). The light comes with the lock disabled. Every time you run (power-up-2) it toggles the enable. If you run the calibrate (power-up-3), it will reset the light to factory settings and deactivate the lock feature.
Cheers
Dave
.
Last edited:
