flupic vs. sandwich?

I've been around for a couple of months now. Apparantly I was a long time flashaholic and just didn't quite realize it. Had a couple of SF's, including Rem. 870 forend. Then I got an SF L2 a year ago and had a hard time swallowing the price for that. Wife freaked over that too. Wow, I love that light. Now you guys have really pushed me off that wagon. Just recently got an HDS U60XR (wife doesn't know know the full price of that rascal) and am now drooling, eagerly waiting for, an FF3 in Ti. (and I think the price is a bargain!)

Anyway, I think I have a handle on most of the terms and parts. Still trying to figure out a few others. A sandwich is basically a controller for the LED. It regulates the Vf from the battery so the LED runs efficiently. But I still don't know exactly what a flupic is. Is it the same thing as a sandwich? Just a "smarter" sandwich that is programable for different levels. Did a search, read a lot, and still not sure.

Please correct me if I'm wrong about the sandwich, and explain a flupic.

Thanks guys
Lukus

lukus said:

Still trying to figure out a few others. A sandwich is basically a controller for the LED. It regulates the Vf from the battery so the LED runs efficiently. But I still don't know exactly what a flupic is. Is it the same thing as a sandwich? Just a "smarter" sandwich that is programable for different levels.

Click to expand...

Welcome, Lukus!

A sandwich (sammie) is a completed "assembly" comprised of a converter board (electronics), a Luxeon emitter, and an emitter board. There are a couple of different types of converters that can be used to make sammies; each has different ways of driving the LEDs and different input/output current and voltage settings.

A FluPIC converter is, in a sense, a "smarter" converter board because it can be programmed to display a variety of modes. Goldserve makes FluPIC-based converter boards that allow you to make sammies with them. They require the use of higher voltages (3.6V or so), while you can use "regular" sammie boards with V as low as 0.8V, or much higher.

You can also use any of these converter boards and not make sammies out of them.