Anduril UI, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

richbuff

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Hi guys,

I like to not start new topic threads, but the spirit compels me to open one here and now, about as titled.

First, there are 510,204.08 Anduril user guide topics on the internet, written by leading luminaries in the Flashlight World.

Next, I have read them, studied them, fully self motivated to get "it", cheerfully motivated to get "it", even with En that is not easily processable by moi, and I am still having difficulty fighting off a strong and persistent thought that this new topic thread is needed here and now.

Next, a hearty Thank You for the leading luminaries that have developed and continue to develop Anduril. Next, a hearty Thank You for the leading luminaries that have written and posted Anduril user guide topics on the internet.

Next, let's get started. Press the button to turn on the light. Press the button again to turn the light off. Ok, got that. Next: Turbo: Must turn on light first. Next, double click. To Sum, Turbo: Click to turn on the light, then double click for Turbo.

Next, now that we have On, Off, and Turbo under control:

Selecting the desired light output.

The first thing that comes to my finite, Anduril newb mind after reading the official PDF instructions and 510,204.08 Anduril user guide topics on the internet and briefly playing with the light, is that default ramping (or stepping), up to the top of the ramp (or the top of the stepping), may possibly include a default ceiling below the Turbo level.

Now, some of you may notice that I virtually never use text formatting. I chose to format the word "below" in italic, blue text color. This, for me, is a big deal. Not red font (for Admin only, in my book), not large font (absolutely never for me), not underlined (never, for me), not even bold, because the Hindenburg is not exploding. Only because default ramping or stepping to select maximum light output, may possibly hit a ceiling below Turbo, is why I text formatted the word "below" in blue italic.

To make this big deal not happen, you can first decide that you want to make this big deal not happen. Next, we need to enter the new world of Anduril programming. First, we will set maximum light output in ramping mode to Turbo equivalent, then we will set maximum light output in stepping mode to Turbo equivalent.

First, click once to turn on the light. Next, four (4) quick clicks. The light clicks once to confirm that you have mastered this critical step. Next, the light flashes very rapidly, to indicate that right now, you need to click once to set the ramping minimum to the minimum. Do so, by clicking once, then wait and do nothing for four (4) seconds. After the four seconds passes, the flashlight will flash twice, to indicate that the flashlight will now flash very rapidly, to indicate that right now, you need to click once, to set the ramping maximum to Turbo. Do so, by clicking once. Then wait and do nothing for four (4) seconds. After the four seconds passes, the flashlight will go steady to indicate that now you have Turbo as maximum in ramping mode. Now turn the light off, to avoid entering uncharted territory. Press once to turn the light on, hold to max ramp, then double click for Turbo. The Turbo will not be any brighter than the max ramp. Yay!

Next, do the above in stepping mode. First, turn on the light. Then three quick clicks. Now you are in stepping mode. Now, four (4) quick clicks. The light clicks once to confirm that you have mastered this step. Next, the light flashes very rapidly, to indicate that right now, you need to click once to set the stepping minimum to the minimum. Do so, by clicking once, then wait and do nothing for four (4) seconds. After the four seconds passes, the flashlight will flash twice, to indicate that the flashlight will now flash very rapidly, to indicate that right now, you need to click once, to set the stepping maximum to Turbo. Do so, by clicking once. Then wait and do nothing for four (4) seconds. After the four seconds passes, the flashlight will go steady to indicate that now you have Turbo as maximum in stepping mode. Now turn the light off, to avoid entering uncharted territory. Press once to turn the light on, hold to max step, then double click for Turbo. The Turbo will not be any brighter than the max step. Yay!

My dear readers, please feel free to post additional content in this thread.
 
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Bronco

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Rich, first and foremost, you should be commended for the time, energy, effort and dedication that was put into laying out the "bare bones basics" of the Anduril flashlight UI in such a manner. It makes for an excellent jumping off point for anyone seeking to understand the labyrinthine workings of this product.

But honestly, the mere fact that such an effort is required almost perfectly encapsulates why I want nothing more to do with Anduril, Narsil, Gollum, Bilbo or whatever other Middle Earth inspired, community developed UI is due to come down the pike next. Two of my last four purchases from Vinh have been tossed in the junk drawer because of this amateur hour nonsense. My Noctigon K1 completely changes modes all on its own while shut off. Even locking out the tail cap doesn't help. In the morning it will have smooth ramping - in the afternoon it will suddenly be stepped. The next day, the ramping will max out at only 50% of full output. Why? Who knows? But I spend more time with this light doing factory resets than I do illuminating things. And my BLF GT mini is almost completely useless at this point. It now possesses only two levels - turbo and firefly, with nothing in between. And as a bonus, it steadfastly refuses to be factory reset. That's plenty enough for me, thanks.

If you can just give me turbo, firefly and maybe three evenly spaced levels in between, I'll be a happy camper 99.95% of the time. If you really want to go crazy, throw in a strobe every now and again. But there are no words to express how little interest I have in custom programming ramping levels or 'thermal regulation step down temperatures' on my flashlight. Please understand that I'm not saying I want these UIs to completely go away. I have no doubt there are plenty of flashlight enthusiasts who take great masochistic pleasure in living with such arrangements. All I'm asking is that flashlight manufacturers give the rest of us, folks who favor reliability over complexity, the ability to opt out of these ridiculously complicated UIs. It's to the point now where you can't even give one of these lights as a gift to a non flashlight enthusiast.
 
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KITROBASKIN

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

If the user interface is not reliable, can it really be called a user interface? The Emisar is potentially great. That Lumintop FW3A could be great, but is less consistent than my Emisars, to the point of non use.
 

Patriot

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Rich, that was well described and I think it will be very helpful to people learning Anduril.

I agree that the single most important factor is reliability. If these UI's are causing issues or doing things like overheating chips during ramping modes, I don't want anything to do with them. Mateminco/Astrolux have had so many issues that I wouldn't purchase a stock version. Vinh does different things to mitigate many of these factory issues of course. I've had a learning curve with Anduril/Narsil but because they've worked like they're supposed to, I've been willing to invest the time to learn them. Although I've practiced to access 75-85% of the features without having to resort to UI maps, I've found that I don't have a need for most of the things these UI's can do.

Reading what Bronco had stated, made me think that when it comes right down to it, I love ramping but probably not the rest of Anduril. The problem I see with making something like ramping-only mode, "programmable" from the existing Anduril UI, is that it can become unprogramed. The last few people that I've let handle my PreonVN managed to deprogram my VN4 settings, just by playing with it for 20-30 seconds, usually reducing it to a single turbo mode. No normal person would ever be able to switch it back without the VN4 map, so it can be a liability. I have some flashlight savvy friends who have knowledge of most of the LEDs, understand all the cell sizes and can figure out most manufacture's UI's in less than a minute but hand them an Anduril light overnight and they'll think I played a mean trick on them. Overall, I think Anduril/Narsil are too complicated unless someone just absolutely adores the complication and nerd factor. I don't adore it. If nothing else, it does expand the mind and helps one to realize what's possible from a single button interface and how that language works.

I'd like a UI that ramps from moonlight to turbo, has instant access to both and a voltage check is handy but not absolutely necessary.
 

Bronco

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Reading what Bronco had stated, made me think that when it comes right down to it, I love ramping but probably not the rest of Anduril. The problem I see with making something like ramping-only mode, "programmable" from the existing Anduril UI, is that it can become unprogramed. The last few people that I've let handle my PreonVN managed to deprogram my VN4 settings, just by playing with it for 20-30 seconds, usually reducing it to a single turbo mode. No normal person would ever be able to switch it back without the VN4 map, so it can be a liability. I have some flashlight savvy friends who have knowledge of most of the LEDs, understand all the cell sizes and can figure out most manufacture's UI's in less than a minute but hand them an Anduril light overnight and they'll think I played a mean trick on them. Overall, I think Anduril/Narsil are too complicated unless someone just absolutely adores the complication and nerd factor. I don't adore it. If nothing else, it does expand the mind and helps one to realize what's possible from a single button interface and how that language works.

I'd like a UI that ramps from moonlight to turbo, has instant access to both and a voltage check is handy but not absolutely necessary.

While many of my issues are the result of spontaneous mode changes, it's a brilliant point you make about how easily these UIs can be completely undone in a manner of seconds in the hands of the unfamiliar. I'd be monumentally happy with the simple, stripped down, non-reprogrammable ramping UI you've described.
 

AmericanDissent

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

I agree with much of what's been said here. Once the novelty of the Anduril lightning storm and candle mode wore off, I found myself not using much of anything unique it had to offer.

If I was in the habit of handing any of my VN lights off to button/clicky masher newbs, I'd probably turn on programming lock. Vinh's driver VN4 is pretty much perfect for me, but if I'm being picky, I still want a few more "D for 100" options.
 

Agpp

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Myself I love Andruil, but I only have it in lights that feature programming and I stripped it down.
For me complexity is an issue and it did happen to me more than once to accidentally enter some mode that I don't even find useful. Yeah, this firmware seems to include all but the kitchen sink. Fixing that is not trivial but it's not very hard either. Maybe the next step for this firmware would be to allow enabling / disabling features in configuration....
And I find my customized Andruil to be way, way better than any other UI that I've used.
 

richbuff

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Hi Guys,

I have google searched high and low for instructions to configure the D4V2 auxiliary leds. I have found out that there are four modes: Off, low, high and rainbow. Also, colors. And more. And still more. But, after viewing videos and reading tutorials, nowhere can I find any instructions posted or videoed, that explains how to change the auxiliary from rainbow to low colors to high colors to off. I have stumbled accidentally upon one or the other, but I get trapped in a dead end and have to factory reset to get to low rainbow again.

From on, click 7 times..... and then I am supposed to be able to read Andurils' mind in order to get any further whatsoever. This, with google searching the entire world wide web. And I am a pretty smart person.

If anyone can post or link, I will edit the first post to add the instructions.
 

Patriot

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Rich, just so I understand...

We're trying to "change the auxiliary from rainbow to low colors to high colors to off?"
 

Patriot

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

From off, Press and release 7 times rapidly each time you want to change from OFF/LOW/HIGH/PULSE

From off, press 7 times and hold on the 7th. Keep holding down until you reach your desired color. Release button at desired color. Rainbow/waterfall mode is also among your color options. EDIT: If the aux are set to "OFF" in the OFF/LOW/HIGH/PULSE obviously none of the colors will display after 7H (7 click hold).


EDIT: and sorry I don't have a link and I don't remember where I learned that one.
 
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richbuff

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

OK I think I got the off, low, high, blinking. Just simply click seven times and release, and you will be in one of those four modes. The next time you click and release on the seventh time, it toggles to the next of those. Then go ahead and click seven times and release, and then you will simply be in the third of those. The fourth time you click seven times and release you go back to where you were.
Color selection: click seven times and hold on the seventh time. The different colors will then be presented to you in sequential series, as long as the button is held down. Simply release the button when the desired color is presented in its turn in the sequence. The solid colors are easy to detect and select, but the rainbow/waterfall mode is difficult to detect and select.

Thank You For posting the links and your instructions!
 

Agpp

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Note that this configures aux LEDs only for the off mode. Lockout has a separate setting. You configure it in a similar way, but you start from lockout and you do 4 clicks instead of 7.

Myself I have different settings for off and lockout so I can always immediately tell whether my light is locked out.
 

Patriot

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Nice Rich! I'm glad you're in business!

Agpp, good points about the selectable aux lock-out colors! I know a lot of people set their lock-out color to 'red.'.
 

richbuff

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Hi everyone,

There is a post from ToyKeeper posted a few minutes ago in response to a question posted somewhere on the world wide web, about: "...firmware version 2020_03_18....setting the aux LEDs to show voltage..".

srvctec: "...thought there were just 3 colors..."

ToyKeeper: "...Oh, right. When I merged the Noctigon K1 code, it also merged in the higher-resolution voltage colors. ..."
 

richbuff

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Re: Anduri UIl, ultra newb, your first time, starting with the bare bones basics.

Currently, there is lively and comprehensive discussion out there somewhere; ToyKeeper et al discussing the possibilities and the reasons for Anduril having a type of muggle mode as default, and the more advanced feature set as not default, due to the need to address various issues arising from muggles purchasing Anduril pocket rockets.
 

StagMoose

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I have a D4v2. I don't generally like these types of "toy" lights, but I get the appeal for some folks. I did figure out how to use it and it becomes fairly intuitive with some practice. However, the lights themselves just aren't that robust and sometimes the electronic issues do pop up. I use it as a nightstand light for the candle or very low modes.

I don't have any of the more expensive lights by Vinh and don't ever plan in getting them or any other crazy UI lights. The novelty wears off for me and then a month later I have to remember how to use it. At least anduril is straight forward for turning on and going brighter and dimmer if nothing else.

I'll stick to my simpler lights that reliably do what I expect of them, even if it is only 1-4 modes. I know that doesn't appeal to everyone but it does to me.
 

1313

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I have been really enjoying anduril in a FW4Avn I got here from the classifieds. Yes it can be overwhelming in options but the basic operation is very simple. Click on, hold to ramp up, hold again to ramp down, etc. If you get stuck in some crazy mode just take the battery out and put it back in.

I think overall do prefer a rear clicky, especially since those aren't as likely to accidentally activate in a pocket. But ive really liked anduril and the ramping brightness. These lights are not for handing to someone that doesnt know what they are doing though, since two easy taps and it can get hot enough to melt through a pocket. Not a knock just something to consider with these.
 
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