RyanA
Flashlight Enthusiast
Thanks Wayne!
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GDuP progress thread.
- Thread starter dat2zip
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I am working on the next generation code for the GDuP.
The new code will phase out the UI.
I have preliminary code that is still under development, but, it is far enough along that I have good confidence it will become reality.
The new code will "auto" calibrate each level when power is applied and the microprocessors determines the current to the LED is off by more than 10% of target. When it determines this it will servo the current to the correct value and replace the stored default value with the new value.
Also, in this release I have added temperature sensing and battery voltage monitoring.
Temperature functionality: throttle level 3 to level 2 if too hot. Prevent auto calibration on power up if too hot.
Battery voltage functionality: Do not attempt auto cal if battery voltage is too low. The regulator may not be able to maintain proper regulation if the battery is limiting it. When out of regulation an auto-cal could generate a bogus cal value or try forever to ramp up the level.
As for when it will be released it is too soon to tell. Any Aleph LE with GDuP could be upgraded. Some programming holes would need to be drilled and I have the fixturing and tooling to add the programming holes on the anode board.
The bare board could also be re-programmed in a special programming fixture.
The same code would run in the SOBuP if I ever get time and capital to run the SOBuP.
Wayne
The new code will phase out the UI.
I have preliminary code that is still under development, but, it is far enough along that I have good confidence it will become reality.
The new code will "auto" calibrate each level when power is applied and the microprocessors determines the current to the LED is off by more than 10% of target. When it determines this it will servo the current to the correct value and replace the stored default value with the new value.
Also, in this release I have added temperature sensing and battery voltage monitoring.
Temperature functionality: throttle level 3 to level 2 if too hot. Prevent auto calibration on power up if too hot.
Battery voltage functionality: Do not attempt auto cal if battery voltage is too low. The regulator may not be able to maintain proper regulation if the battery is limiting it. When out of regulation an auto-cal could generate a bogus cal value or try forever to ramp up the level.
As for when it will be released it is too soon to tell. Any Aleph LE with GDuP could be upgraded. Some programming holes would need to be drilled and I have the fixturing and tooling to add the programming holes on the anode board.
The bare board could also be re-programmed in a special programming fixture.
The same code would run in the SOBuP if I ever get time and capital to run the SOBuP.
Wayne
Testing has been completed.
I really like the way it behaves. The current implementation uses blips and ramps to provide information.
The following signals are coded as following:
1 blip: This occurs on power up if the LED current has not reached target after 10 attempts (2 seconds). This will occur on a virgin light and first power turn on as the factory defaults is rarely the correct target value. This can also occur on higher power levels with a battery that can not provide the required current to keep the regulator in regulation. If the converter running full power and it is not in regulation a single blip after 2 seconds could occur. This may occur in the grey zone where the battery has not fallen below the low battery threshold.
2 blips: If one blip occurs the microprocessor will attempt auto-cal on this power level. If it is successful it will blip two times. This is the normal virgin power up sequence where a single blip occurs after two seconds and two blips occur shortly thereafter signifying auto-calibration completed successfully.
One ramp down/up: This is a low battery warning signal. The microprocessor has detected the battery voltage is around 2.5V. You can continue running at the current level. The ramp is a signal only. It will not change power levels or do anything else. It will occur only once after power up. It may occur on power up signifying low battery has been detected immediately.
A blip does not flash the light in that the light quickly dips to near off and the quickly comes back to the current light level. A flash would be just the opposite where the light would quickly get brighter then reduce back to the current level. A blip does not intrude on the night vision as it will not make the light go brighter. Currently a blip is 15mS and between blips is 50mS. These short pulses are subtle yet still visible. Blips with duration of 50mS were very noticeable.
A feature that does not blip or ramp is overtemperature. If the light is on high and over temperature limit has been reached the light will automatically change to medium. This occurs when the uP temperature has reached ~125C. For most useages this will never occur. I could not get this condition to occur on a Mule light unless I used a hot air gun to heat the light up. It seem to trip when the light was basically to hot to handle.
The next batch of boards are being queued up for production. The new boards will be 13mm in diameter (1mm smaller) and correct the trace resistance in the sense resistor path.
To summarize. Once auto-calibration has occured on each power level the light behaves like the current GDuP. It turns on, cycles and no blips, flashes or ramping of the light occurs. The blips, ramps only occur if there is an error or if re-calibration occurs. The one and two blips will occur in the first 2-15 seconds of operation. If you had a virgin light and turned it on for the first time and you waited for two blips (~10 seconds or less) you could cycle to level 2 and again wait for the one and two blip sequence. Cycling to high and waiting for the one and two blip sequence would complete auto-calbration on this virgin light. From now on you should never if rarely ever see the one or two blip except when the battery gets low.
Remember on a primary CR123 you could get a single blip on high for example which would be a possible indication or early warning the battery is getting low.
I am also opening the door for custom configuration of the three levels.
For example, one could order low to be lower than 10mA. Say 2mA. Another example would be for rechargeable li-ion and have high at 1.2A. Another version could be a mizer version. If you desire a auto-cal version of the GDuP please enquire and we can accomodate you. We will change the ordering system in the near future to reflect all these variations and options. For now you can post here, pm me or send us an email.
Lastly, I believe this is product grade. I believe this would make a good fit in a real product that would be sold en masse to the general consumer. Most converters that have a UI and requires a manual to operate the light is not something I would consider product grade. Since I am extremely happy with this UI I have moved the production of the SOBuP to a higher status and it will occur sooner. I did not like the 15 clicks to get into calibration as it was easy to get into for a novice user and would catch many experienced users off guard. It bothered me enough that I didn't want to offer that UI on a new board.
Wayne
I really like the way it behaves. The current implementation uses blips and ramps to provide information.
The following signals are coded as following:
1 blip: This occurs on power up if the LED current has not reached target after 10 attempts (2 seconds). This will occur on a virgin light and first power turn on as the factory defaults is rarely the correct target value. This can also occur on higher power levels with a battery that can not provide the required current to keep the regulator in regulation. If the converter running full power and it is not in regulation a single blip after 2 seconds could occur. This may occur in the grey zone where the battery has not fallen below the low battery threshold.
2 blips: If one blip occurs the microprocessor will attempt auto-cal on this power level. If it is successful it will blip two times. This is the normal virgin power up sequence where a single blip occurs after two seconds and two blips occur shortly thereafter signifying auto-calibration completed successfully.
One ramp down/up: This is a low battery warning signal. The microprocessor has detected the battery voltage is around 2.5V. You can continue running at the current level. The ramp is a signal only. It will not change power levels or do anything else. It will occur only once after power up. It may occur on power up signifying low battery has been detected immediately.
A blip does not flash the light in that the light quickly dips to near off and the quickly comes back to the current light level. A flash would be just the opposite where the light would quickly get brighter then reduce back to the current level. A blip does not intrude on the night vision as it will not make the light go brighter. Currently a blip is 15mS and between blips is 50mS. These short pulses are subtle yet still visible. Blips with duration of 50mS were very noticeable.
A feature that does not blip or ramp is overtemperature. If the light is on high and over temperature limit has been reached the light will automatically change to medium. This occurs when the uP temperature has reached ~125C. For most useages this will never occur. I could not get this condition to occur on a Mule light unless I used a hot air gun to heat the light up. It seem to trip when the light was basically to hot to handle.
The next batch of boards are being queued up for production. The new boards will be 13mm in diameter (1mm smaller) and correct the trace resistance in the sense resistor path.
To summarize. Once auto-calibration has occured on each power level the light behaves like the current GDuP. It turns on, cycles and no blips, flashes or ramping of the light occurs. The blips, ramps only occur if there is an error or if re-calibration occurs. The one and two blips will occur in the first 2-15 seconds of operation. If you had a virgin light and turned it on for the first time and you waited for two blips (~10 seconds or less) you could cycle to level 2 and again wait for the one and two blip sequence. Cycling to high and waiting for the one and two blip sequence would complete auto-calbration on this virgin light. From now on you should never if rarely ever see the one or two blip except when the battery gets low.
Remember on a primary CR123 you could get a single blip on high for example which would be a possible indication or early warning the battery is getting low.
I am also opening the door for custom configuration of the three levels.
For example, one could order low to be lower than 10mA. Say 2mA. Another example would be for rechargeable li-ion and have high at 1.2A. Another version could be a mizer version. If you desire a auto-cal version of the GDuP please enquire and we can accomodate you. We will change the ordering system in the near future to reflect all these variations and options. For now you can post here, pm me or send us an email.
Lastly, I believe this is product grade. I believe this would make a good fit in a real product that would be sold en masse to the general consumer. Most converters that have a UI and requires a manual to operate the light is not something I would consider product grade. Since I am extremely happy with this UI I have moved the production of the SOBuP to a higher status and it will occur sooner. I did not like the 15 clicks to get into calibration as it was easy to get into for a novice user and would catch many experienced users off guard. It bothered me enough that I didn't want to offer that UI on a new board.
Wayne
Sgt. LED
Flashaholic
:twothumbs So what's the price of an up-grade.
LED Zeppelin
Flashlight Enthusiast
Wayne, great ideas there.
I do find the calibration mode catches me by surprise, especially with the silicone switch boot being so easy to depress.
I hope you can implement a similar UI for the Remora/Shark someday.
I do find the calibration mode catches me by surprise, especially with the silicone switch boot being so easy to depress.
I hope you can implement a similar UI for the Remora/Shark someday.
Sorry, I didn't reply sooner. Drilling the holes was to risky the way I was doing it by hand. To much risk in damaging the main board under the anode board. The air gap separating the two boards is only about 1mm spacing. Punching through the anode board to fast would result in drilling the contact pad and that would render the light engine from getting re-programmed.
Using a small drill press solves this issue. I just tested the process and it is more controllable in depth.
I will offer upgrades for a fee of $25.00 + return shipping. You can email me if you are interested.
I can make it standard or mizer version which would be 1/2 the LED current level offered in the standard or custom levels for another $20.00.
If you are running on li-ion only I can offer a plus version and up high to 1A or possibly higher.
Email for more info or details.
I will be making a batch of LEs with auto-cal GDuP and the LED will be a Cree XRE WC tint and R2 in brightness. I will post when they become available.
Wayne
flex76italy
Enlightened
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 405
Hi Waine,
i can connect in parallel 2 or 3 GDuP boards?
i can connect in parallel 2 or 3 GDuP boards?
Yes, you can connect more than one in parallel.
I would not recommend it. If you do there will be three microprocessors. Each one would be independant and it wouldn't take long for them to get out of sync. I can easily see one getting double tapped and others single tapped during cycling and once that occured things would never be the same and it would be nearly impossible to get them back in sync. I suppose with the current UI you could tap them into calibration and then abort calibration to get them all back in sync.
With the new auto-cal UI there is no way of resetting them.
Ideally you would want one microprocessor and many slaves LED drivers.
You could unsolder the uP on two of the boards and wire the PWM control single from the master to the other two boards to make them slaves.
Wayne
Wayne, with the new auto cal code, I assume changing the sense resistor for a lower value will have no affect anymore? Do the GDuPs that include the revised anode board with the access holes have the new code? I recently used a GDuP in a build where the calibration mode seemed to be different & I was not aware of this new development. I still need to go back & review your posts again a few times. 
Seeing that I missed these posts some months back, are the current GDuPs shipping have the new code? Just trying to get an idea of what I have on hand. Thanks for another great developement! :twothumbs
Seeing that I missed these posts some months back, are the current GDuPs shipping have the new code? Just trying to get an idea of what I have on hand. Thanks for another great developement! :twothumbsI have been working with two customers using the new auto-cal code. One has finally identified his abnormality as being the LED. Some LEDs are cutting out at low currents. This was initially thought as being a bug in the code at low levels.
The 2nd customer is having issues and I am now investigating this issue. When I am completely satisfied there are no more bugs in the code I will then release the code for general use and they will be offered on the shoppe. Sorry, it has been months now, but, I am not going to release till I am totally satisfied with the stability.
Wayne
The 2nd customer is having issues and I am now investigating this issue. When I am completely satisfied there are no more bugs in the code I will then release the code for general use and they will be offered on the shoppe. Sorry, it has been months now, but, I am not going to release till I am totally satisfied with the stability.
Wayne
kaichu dento
Flashaholic
Thanks to ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond I'm considering one of these for my Haiku but am curious as to how the mA levels compare to the present output on a stock Haiku. There was a post mentioning a possible 3mA low, but the site only shows availability down to 5mA, and yet I am unaware as to what kind of output that would give me. Does anyone know what the stock Haiku mA levels are?
Just a quick bump to an old thread! First off I want to thank Wayne for the patient help in getting my GDuP mated up into an ECan with a nice Nichia NVSL219 high CRI emitter. I have always loved the size and "throw" (or lack thereof!) of my mules and I wanted to add a high CRI mule to my arsenal. The build went great and then I backfilled the head with some nice aqua glow powder. Now it makes an easy to "find on the nightstand" 3-speed light. It is funny, I have done quite a few P60 builds lately and not many ESeries lights in a while. I forgot how small the E series stuff is! That is even a greater kudos to Wayne and the Shoppe for providing such great, high tech drivers and supplies. Thanks again to The Shoppe for breathing new life into my tried and true mules!
[h=3]kbb[/h]
[h=3]kbb[/h]
PoliceScannerMan
Flashaholic
Hey Wayne, I sent my 10/200/1200 GDuP to Vin with my Haiku, he says its like Low/Med/Med, no high. I sent EM yesterday. Any ideas? He's tried several Batts, including IMR.
fyrstormer
Banned
I've seen that happen before. It sounds like it was just programmed wrong.
PoliceScannerMan
Flashaholic
If the battery can't drive the LED hard enough (ie dead battery) then you may experience high less than high. A fresh charged cell may be required to get all the levels to calibrate properly. The default levels are not correct and need calibration to be proper. Medium and high by default are around the same values.
I actually change the source code to change the number of levels and the brightness for each level and then compile the code. Therefore, I hope each and every time that I made the correct changes, values and settings. But, as we all know humans can make mistakes.
Wayne
Wayne
I actually change the source code to change the number of levels and the brightness for each level and then compile the code. Therefore, I hope each and every time that I made the correct changes, values and settings. But, as we all know humans can make mistakes.
Wayne
Wayne
PoliceScannerMan
Flashaholic
Thankyou Wayne.
