Surefire Regulation
- Thread starter ganled
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Illum
Flashaholic
which light are you referring to?
greenLED
Flashaholic
Good luck finding out proprietary information.
Ummm, a DSP would be serious overkill, kinda like using a nuclear warhead to kill a fly.
I would expect a cheap PIC 16Fxxx or something.
Toshi
The A2 uses a PIC. I bet the ones with the hall effect switch also use a similarly cheap micro. I agree with the comment on the DSP. It's serious overkill.
flash_bang
Enlightened
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2006
- Messages
- 720
what's the DSP? why's it overkill? long posts please 
thx,
Flash
thx,
Flash
The DSP is a special Surefire model ordered for the Defense Standardization Program. I think it has somewhere over 200 lumens and can transmit data.
See:
http://www.dsp.dla.mil/
and
http://investors.saic.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=193857&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=893798&highlight=
and the last half of this article
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/sections/news/news/article_444492.php
and "Infrared-Thermal Friendly Force Identifier "
http://www.special-operations-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=1072
See:
http://www.dsp.dla.mil/
and
http://investors.saic.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=193857&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=893798&highlight=
and the last half of this article
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/sections/news/news/article_444492.php
and "Infrared-Thermal Friendly Force Identifier "
http://www.special-operations-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=1072
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Anyway, does anybody have any internal shot or any confirmation of a microprocessor? I would think that having a PIC is overkill. I was thinking that Surefire used a simple transistor based controlled circuit with a FET or something else. If they did have a microcontroller, maybe we can reprogram it to overdrive the regulator to push out more light, or we can program it for special modes such as strobe or a modulated beam.
what's the DSP? why's it overkill? long posts please
thx,
Flash
It's like deciding you want a microprocessor-controlled flashlight, so you use an quad Intel Xeon 7100 dual-core processor with 16 megs of L3 cache and 32 gigs of RAM running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, and put an HDMI and USB port on your flashlight so you can program the modes on a 1600x1200 screen in 24-bit color with a 3D GUI, and install Oracle server on three terabyte drives in a RAID 5 configuration so it can always recall the last mode on powerup.
From the current trends with programming languages, I expect this to happen within the next three years.
Toshi
Bullzeyebill
Flashaholic
I think that Surefire's regulated led lights use various buck, buck/boost and boost converters. Nothing special about their circuits, though they are probably not as efficient as Wayne's, or Georges80's. They seem to have built in polarity protection which also makes them less effficient.
Bill
Bill
Illum
Flashaholic
from whats available only A2 and L1 shots [siZe15s]
and some from Iced_theater as well [surefire PKEF-A]
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sysadmn
Enlightened
I'd suspect that using a transistor-based circuit is overkill
An 8-pin microcontroller, with PWM and an A/D for a voltage comparator, costs less than $1 qty 100. Most will run on >2V; add resistors, an inductor, and a capacitor (and maybe a FET) and you're done. (Well, you still have to write that ucky software...) It might seem silly to replace a two-transistor oscilllator with a uc, but you get higher efficiencies, ability to use the same module in more flashlight models, and much more sophisticated UI.
I would seriously doubt you could reprogram it - even if they're using an in-circuit programmable model, they'll probably lock it down to protect the proprietary software.
Regulators are built with single purpose in mind and are tailored to the specific application. There are no microcontrolled switch mode controller (this is what I think of when people refer to "regulators") that I know of. They all have analog and some digital circuits internally like op amps, bipolar or FET's, oscillators, comparators, flip flops etc.
sysadmn
Enlightened
I have not seen a driver chip with an onboard microprocessor, certainly not one that is user-accessible. Most small microcontrollers make pretty good switching mode controllers, but the expense of designing them in and writing the software limits their use.
On the other hand, if the OP was asking "Can a microprocessor control a switching mode chip?", the answer is yes. Low end chips usually have a voltage input as feedback to control the current. Some chips also have a PWM input; I think I recall a few that have MODE inputs (hi/lo). Obviously, a microprocessor (really microcontroller) could interface with these. I do not know if Surefire or any other commercial lights do this. A good example of this type of thing is the convertor that drives the backlight in a cell phone.
To try to drag this back on topic to atone, several of Surefire's lights are advertised as "microprocessor controlled"; it's very unlikely you could tweak the processor to get more output (but you might be able to change sense resistors, etc and get more light at the expense of reliability/life).
So, let me get this straight, Surefire uses a microprocessor controlled switching regulator that uses multiple buck boost units? Is this anything special?
Also, I though that hall effect switches are active and require power to sense position. Wouldn't the design cause inefficiency?
Also, I though that hall effect switches are active and require power to sense position. Wouldn't the design cause inefficiency?
