Sold/Expired Want Beta Testers for FLuPIC (POP2 compatible)

Hello everyone!

I am pleased to announce, after a week of wrestling and debugging without an in-circuit debugger, I have completed my version of POP2 like firmware.

The firmware features 5 modes:

LOW (always starts from low)
HIGH (up to 400ma)
BURST (what ever the luxeon can pull, up to 600ma + 400ma)
STROBE (10Hz)
SOS
SET LOW MODE (18 brightness levels ranging from 5-95% of 400ma)

I am requesting a few things from you fellow CPF'ers. Any input to making the perfect flashlight would be welcomed.

I have thought of a few more enhancements. I could add detection code for long and short push button switches if and if you choose to use push button switches to advance states, you could solder two legs of the PIC together to put it into PB mode.

For now, I have mostly copied the great UI that DJ has made with the exception of low brightness setting at the end of the states rather than smack in the middle.

I am living in Toronto, Canada and would like some beta testers. Right now, I have the firmware on a Q3 POP2 board so I can send you a compatible PIC chip programmed with a customized firmware for a small charge.

For more details, PM me and we can even create a custom UI for your liking! Thanks for reading!

EDIT: I can sell a kit with two LDO chips and and a preprogrammed part for testing. You must be proficient in soldering SMALL parts! PM me for pricing and program configuration options you would like to see!

EDIT: For those who own POP2 boards and would like to see a custom interface, I can program and part and you would be required to remove the old PIC and solder the new one on.

I have a spare Q3 already taken apart, Id be happy to test it for you if youd like.

Shane

I'd like to mess around with this too & glad to let you know what I think.

R

I have made the program very modular and only 50% code space used. I hope I can add customization options with like shorting two legs together or something like that.

here is a suggestion
modes that are rarely used should go on the LONG Press or second button detection area.

modes that are usually used should be instantaneous. that would be High and off, or high low off, or high USER off, ALWAYS starting with HIGH /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

a person shouldnt have to go through wierd low use modes, to get a light JUST ON or just off, but HAVING cool strobes and dimms and all that other stuff is EXCELENT.

so i am never knocking modes, i just think that the moronic simplicity of it should exist in a single press, and Searching for cool modes should be the real work effort or time for the user. even if the programmer has to SUFFER /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

VidPro,

That is a valid point. As DJ has mentioned before, the Q3 is quite limited in terms of what I can do because of the switch mechanism. Once you cut the power, there is no more power to the controller unlike the HDS and ARC4 which uses a PB and detects short and long presses. I can build support for someone to be able to hook up a PB and somehow power the PIC without cutting the power to implement more sophisticated menus.

I was even thinking of having an option to auto-dim the light after say 15 mins, or 30 mins. These would not be user accessible in the menu but instead, shorting out two leads on the PIC itself.

Keep the mind juice rolling!

I think always starting with high is only good for outdoor / daytime users. As a theater/nighttime user, starting with low is much better than waking the SO and blinding myself when I get a flashlight off the nightstand...

I think this difference needs to follow through on everything in the UI with a single pushbutton, unfortunately.

In theater mode, you need to turn on low, raise the level up if necessary, and turn off without raising the level any more.

In woods mode, you want to turn on high, lower the level if desired and have easy temporary access to high again.

Of course, some of this is more relevant with more than two levels, which I think it the best reason for a uP light - otherwise, the McE2S solution strikes me as working much better (or maybe the nano-3 when I get to try it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

Good news,

I have just did some simple tests and it looks like i'll be able to incorporate two activating mechanisms with one chip.

What I mean is that I can either use the On/Off switch and go through all the modes like the the current interface

OR

Use a momentary push button switch and detect single clicks, double clicks, single pushes, and double pushes to go directly to different modes. I am still working on this detection algorthim but preliminary tests show that this should be very possible.

I plan to accomplish this by supporting the two together. To get the push button mode, power must be applied to the PIC at all times and hook up a momentary switch from PIN7 of the pic to VCC and I would have already put on a small 10K pull down resistor for the PB siwtch. To activate PB mode, one should bridge pins 3 and 4 together.

How does that sound everbody?

I would like to be in, but will need to be provided everything as I did not participate in the original offering by dj.

Just tested the actual circuit with the push button function and i'm getting SOME success. I may need to tweak the delay and debounce of the switches.

If ANYONE that can provide me cheap or free PCBs for this circuit, PLEASE contact me! Thanks.

Can a MOD please this thread out to Homemade and Modified? I am sorry I posted it in the wrong forum. Thanks.