LuxLibre

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Changelog

All notable changes to LuxLibre. Versions follow semantic versioning: the firmware version is LX_FW_VERSION in firmware/core/lx_version.h. A release that does not change the firmware keeps its version.

0.5.0 - 2026-10-24

Hardware

• Drawings of every EDCO body (hardware/tools/edco_drawings.py): A3 sheets at 2:1 (DXF, PDF, PNG) for EDCO v0.1, EDCO-18, EDCO-14, Mini-16, Mini-14 and Prism, in the style of the FlashKa v0.7 drawings. Each has a top view, a section, a bottom view, both end views and a feature table with tolerances. 83 dimensions are registered against the parameters and 43 main sizes are measured on the solids, with 0 differences (report).
• Animations of every EDCO design (hardware/tools/edco_anim.py): the light turning and the light coming apart. The EDCO Prism also has its beam stepping through the colours.
• A true-scale lineup of all seven lights (hardware/tools/lineup.py) for the README and the web site.
• EDCO Prism v0.1, reference design #4 (hardware/edco-prism/), a concept: a sealed 18350 light of 83 mm (Keeppower UH1835P) whose beam is white or any colour. A white SST-20 and red, green and blue LEDs under one 24 mm Carclo quad optic (about 1,250 lm in turbo with all four, simulated), the colour LEDs on a buck-boost rail and three linear sinks, an RGB-lit button, waterproof USB-C, a finned head, the EDCO Mini’s keyring tab and an M version with magnets. CadQuery model with checks, STEP files, renders, and a comparison with the Skilhunt MiX-7 Gen 2.
• EDCO Mini v0.1, reference design #3 (hardware/edco-mini/), a concept: a sealed keychain light of about 70 mm in two sizes, Mini-16 (one 16340, Ø20 × 73.5 mm) and Mini-14 (Ø17 × 69.4 mm, needs a made-to-order cell). An SST-20 behind a TIR optic (944-978 lm out of the front, simulated), red and UV side lights, a waterproof USB-C socket in the side of the head, and a keyring tab with an obround hole at the tail; the M versions (Mini-16M, Mini-14M) add two magnets in the end of the tab. CadQuery model with checks, STEP files, renders, and a comparison with the best 60 mm keychain lights.
• EDCO v0.2 (hardware/edco-v02/), a concept in two sizes (18500 and 14500): an SST-40 at up to 5.7 A, USB-C on the side under a twist collar, a crenellated finned bezel.

Firmware (LuxLibre 0.5.0)

• Colour beam for boards with LX_HAS_COLOR (red, green and blue LEDs next to the white ones): 5 clicks from off (on boards without side lights), 2 clicks for the next colour, 4 clicks while on switch white and colour at the same brightness, and the indicator shows the new colour for a second. Parameters COLOR_SET, COL_R, COL_G, COL_B and TURBO_ALL (turbo also lights the colour LEDs); the colour used last is stored. hal::set_color() in every port (ESP32-C3: an MCP4728 I2C DAC), a colour-LED model in the simulator, the console command color N [NAME], a colour test board and tests. Adding the parameters resets stored settings to their defaults once (the calibration is kept).
• Settings page (site/luxlibre/): changes the parameters of a light with the LuxLibre firmware over USB-C (Web Serial) and picks the colours of a colour beam; make docs also writes its parameters.json.
• Side lights for boards with LX_HAS_SIDE: 5 clicks from off, 2 clicks switch red and UV, parameters SIDE_RED and SIDE_UV; hal::set_side() in every port (two LEDC channels on the ESP32-C3). Adding the two parameters resets stored settings to their defaults once (the calibration is kept).
• Simulator: side-light power, the electronics’ current while awake (LX_SIM_MCU_UA), the charge current (LX_SIM_CHARGE_MA), and a wake-up on USB power.
• Board headers: edco-prism, edco-mini-16, edco-mini-14, edco-v02-18, edco-v02-14.
• The CI job builds every ESP32-C3 board header with ESP-IDF, the EDCO v0.2 sizes and the Mini-14 included.

Documentation and web site

• docs/comparison.md: every LuxLibre design against 14 popular everyday-carry lights (Olight, Fenix, Nitecore, Emisar, Skilhunt, Acebeam, Wurkkos, RovyVon). It covers light at 30 s and after 10 minutes, throw, runtime, size and price. The other lights’ figures were measured by independent reviewers and every one has its source; the LuxLibre figures are simulated. The data is in docs/data/flashlights.json and the charts come from tools/comparison_charts.py.
• The README starts with a light chooser: the lineup, a card for every design with its animation and links, the lights at a glance, the comparison, and a “where to go next” table.
• The start page of the web site has the same chooser: pick a light on the true-scale lineup to see its details, and take it apart. It adds an interactive comparison chart (light, runtime or throw, with details on each light), the drawings, and links to the settings page and the FlashKa pages.
• The design pages show their drawings and animations.
• A new README banner and social preview with all seven lights (hardware/tools/make_banners.py).
• Easier to find your way on GitHub: a menu at the top of the README and a repository map; every page starts with a path back (LuxLibre › Lights › EDCO Prism) and long pages list their sections; the design pages end with links to the previous and next light. hardware/README.md shows every light as a card. The cad/ and assets/ folders have a README that shows every drawing, 3D model and picture (hardware/tools/folder_readmes.py), and firmware/, firmware/boards/, site/ and hardware/tools/ have one that explains what is in them.

0.4.0 - 2026-10-23

Hardware

• EDCO v0.1, reference design #2 (hardware/edco-v01/), a concept. EDCO is a round, sealed everyday-carry light without a laser and without a radio:
  • a Ø20 × 93.5 mm 6061 tube with a closed tail. The battery and the electronics slide in from the front as one cartridge (LED holder, main board in a POM sled, the cell, a tail board). A bezel ring screws onto the tube’s M18 × 0.75 thread, clamps the LED holder and is locked with thread-locker. The holder does not turn while the ring is tightened, so the LED wires never twist;
  • five seals, with IPX8 as the target (not tested): an O-ring on the LED holder, the glued TIR optic, a stainless button cap on a clamped silicone membrane, a waterproof vertical USB-C socket whose own seal ring seals in the tail wall, and a glued PMMA light pipe for the charge indicator;
  • USB-C in the centre of the tail face is the only way in: charging, firmware updates and settings. A lanyard hole runs through each tail corner. One stainless button sits in a scalloped pocket near the head, and “EDCO” is laser-marked on a label flat;
  • the FlashKa v0.7 light engine and cell: an SST-20 Gen 2 LED under the LEDiL LISA3-RS-PIN optic, the TPS62095 4 A driver, DW01A cell protection, the TP4057 charger and one Vapcell INR14500 F15. The ESP32-C3 module becomes the bare ESP32-C3FH4 chip with no antenna (the radio is never started). The laser, the key board and the pogo pins are gone;
  • simulated with the LuxLibre simulator (LED at 85 °C): 966 lm turbo and 162.5 m of throw. Full turbo lasts 74 s with the timer off, and High (592 lm) lasts 237 s (FlashKa v0.7 in the same simulator: 56 s and 184 s). It then settles at about 290 lm with the body at 47.4 °C and runs about 141 min from turbo;
  • CadQuery model with fit, wall and interference checks, STEP files of the three aluminium parts and of the assembly, and renders in black and clear anodising. A rough cost is given, about 710 USD for one light and 235 USD each for five. The open points before ordering are listed: USB-C samples, the deep bore, the thread, standby current, the boards, and the EU battery-removability rule (design rule BAT-2).
• FlashKa: unchanged (v0.7 current, v0.6 and v0.5 kept).

Firmware (LuxLibre 0.4.0)

• New board firmware/boards/edco-v01: the FlashKa v0.7 power stage on an ESP32-C3FH4 with one digital button on GPIO3, an RGB indicator and no laser. It uses the modes layout, a temperature limit of 49 °C (the round body would otherwise pass the 48 °C of THM-1) and a thermal model of the EDCO body for the simulator.
• ESP32-C3 port: boards without a laser (LX_HAS_LASER 0) now build, because the laser pin is only used on boards that have one. The CI job builds the EDCO board too.

Documentation

• The README, the hardware and documentation indexes, the flashlight types, the licensing table, the porting guide and the start page list EDCO.

0.3.0 - 2026-10-23

Hardware

• FlashKa Keychain v0.7 reference design (hardware/flashka-keychain-v07/), built on v0.6 with the same module, charger, laser, ring and button ladder (no GPIO change):
  • a 1000 lm light: a Luminus SST-20 Gen 2 LED under a LEDiL LISA3-RS-PIN TIR optic (no front window), a TI TPS62095 4 A buck in the same current loop (full scale 3,552 mA), cell protection on the main board (DW01A and an SE8830A dual MOSFET in the cell minus, new net BATN, Kelvin-sensed; a trip switches the light off until USB is plugged in), new cell and LED pads with 24 AWG wires, and a body 4.8 mm longer than v0.6. Simulated: about 1,045 lm out of the front at switch-on (966 lm with the LED at 85 °C), 6,605 cd and 162.5 m of throw; full turbo for about 58 s and High (about 601 lm) for about 210 s from cold, then about 280 lm in 25 °C still air, about 137 min from turbo to the low-voltage step-down;
  • one 14500 Li-ion cell, a Vapcell INR14500 F15 (1,500 mAh typical, 1,150 mAh minimum, 3 A, flat top, no protection board of its own; the Vapcell K10, 1,000 mAh and 8 A, is the documented alternative). Nickel strips welded to its ends carry the current (bought pre-tabbed or welded with a small spot welder; never soldered onto the cell); it lies on two floor rails, held by foam. R3 is 2.0 kΩ, so the charger gives about 500 mA, the F15’s standard charge (a full charge in about 3.5 h; charging pauses while the board is above 45 °C, which is normal). The firmware’s 2.8 A cell-current limit is 93 % of the cell’s 3 A rating, a documented deviation from LuxLibre rule BAT-1 (turbo only). One cell sags under the turbo current, so turbo dims as the cell empties: 966 lm from a full cell, 775 lm from a half-full one (LED at 85 °C, simulated);
  • the three keys on the centre line of the bottom face, in a 0.5 mm deep bezel, their faces below the bottom face: a clear cast PMMA main key with a frosted ring that carries the light of the ring LEDs, and two black urethane rubber side keys (Shore A 80) with a raised chevron along the light (held like a presenter: ^ next, nearest the head, and v previous) and a glued-in stainless stiffener;
  • a key board (19.0 × 14.8 mm, 4 layers) with the three switches, the two ring LEDs and their resistors, screwed to two bosses of the floor; six gold pogo pins (Harwin P70-1010045R) join it to six new target pads on the main board; its silkscreen shows which way round it goes;
  • both boards in one JLCPCB panel (45.0 × 32.5 mm) with black solder mask;
  • no 3D-printed part in the light: the resin print kit, the stainless caps and the laser marking are gone. The PMMA main keys and the POM-C parts are ordered as two machining kits (JLCCNC machines plastic parts only from 30 × 20 × 8 mm), and the side keys are cast at home from Smooth-On ECON 80 in a resin mould printed by JLC3DP, with a machined aluminium mould as the durable option (drawing FK-H-08);
  • a rugged exterior: a faceted octagon of 99.2 × 20 × 18 mm (eight flat facets with 3.4 mm legs; the lid is a 3.4 mm cap on a flat seat, held by four M1.6 × 6 screws), recessed panels with a 0.2 mm diagonal V texture and transverse grooves at the head and the tail; no marking at all, with an optional lid laser label for lights that are sold or given away; the laser set screw (now M1.6 × 5) sits under the lid instead of in the bottom face;
  • the lid pads now hold the main board against the 7.4 N of the pogo pins; a key press no longer lifts the main board;
  • comparison renders and a chart against the RovyVon Aurora A2 (beams, size, output over fifteen minutes), with the source of every number;
  • honest light figures: every lumen figure says whether it is at the LED or out of the front, and whether it is at switch-on or with the LED at 85 °C;
  • the cost: one light 859.28 USD and five lights 299.27 USD each, every fee, shipping and VAT included (v0.6 in 0.2.0: 620.21 and 239.00 USD). The optic, the 4 A driver, the protection, the key board and the cell’s own parcel from an EU battery shop add cost; a printed resin casting mould, ECON 80 rubber, one merged JLCCNC + JLC3DP parcel that stays below the EUR 150 customs line for one light, no front window and a cheaper LED board keep it down. The workbook prices the panel texture, economy shipping, a cheaper pogo pin and Sugru as options, each with what it costs in quality. A small spot welder for the cell’s strips (about 40 USD) is a one-time tool, not needed with a pre-tabbed cell;
  • cost workbook, build guide, design chapter 14 and hardware package for v0.7; the build guide prints the laser warning label (made from the label artwork by hardware/flashka-keychain-v07/tools/label_picture.py).

  Designed and checked by software; not yet built.

Firmware

• FlashKa firmware 0.7.0 for the FlashKa Keychain v0.7: one code base with a compile-time board selection (Cargo feature board-v07); LED ceiling 3.0 A enforced in one place; turbo 2,850 mA (about 966 lm out of the front, estimate) for 60 s, High 1,530 mA (about 601 lm), moonlight 3 mA; new profiles; one Vapcell INR14500 F15: 1,400 mAh in the estimates, 130 mV/A load correction, the F15’s voltage curve, charging at about 500 mA, low-voltage step-down 3.15 / 3.20 / 3.25 V, a 2.8 A cell-current limit kept as a documented LuxLibre BAT-1 deviation (turbo only, at most 60 s, regulated); the battery percentage, the runtime and the reported LED current follow the current the driver can deliver from a part-empty cell. On the v0.7 the profile’s temperature limit is the set point of a regulator (50 °C, Endurance 47 °C; it holds the light just below it and keeps turbo and High at full output until the temperature gets there). Simulated with the thermal model of the octagonal body and the cell, 25 °C still air: turbo 58 s at full output, High 210 s, then about 280 lm, about 137 min to the low-voltage step-down; turbo from a half-full cell about 775 lm. Reproducible image flashka-fw-v0.7.0-merged.bin (SHA-256 6554028f…). Firmware 0.6.0 for v0.6 boards unchanged (rebuilds byte for byte).
• Firmware installer: one page with both images and a required board choice (“FlashKa v0.7 - three keys in the middle” / “FlashKa v0.6 - stainless button”); it reads the firmware already on the light and asks for confirmation when it belongs to the other board; files for the other board are refused.
• Control app 0.7.0: recognises the board from the light; v0.7 profiles, 2,850 mA turbo limit and estimated lumens out of the front on a v0.7; demo light “FlashKa v0.7” with the same temperature regulator and the F15; the Custom editor explains the temperature limit per board; charge pauses are shown as normal.
• LuxLibre: board header flashka-keychain-v07 for the F15 and the octagonal body (CI builds); a board header can give its cell’s own open-circuit curve for the charge estimate (LX_BAT_OCV_MV) and, for the simulator, its curve and the driver’s headroom (LX_SIM_OCV_V, LX_SIM_DROP_MOHM); simulator: LED flux table, optic factor and body model from the board header (--preset board), CSV column lumens_front. Boards without the new options build as before. The LuxLibre firmware version is now 0.3.0 (ver prints LuxLibre 0.3.0).

Documentation

• Top README, hardware index and project site: FlashKa Keychain v0.7 as the current design, v0.6 as the previous one; banners and social preview made from the v0.7 renders (the script is hardware/flashka-keychain-v07/tools/make_banners.py).
• FlashKa v0.6 README: a note that v0.7 supersedes it and that its firmware sources build both versions. The v0.6 firmware, web and protocol documents describe firmware 0.7.0 as well (firmware.md, section 9).
• Reading paths and flashlight types name v0.7 as the current FlashKa; the firmware overview lists v0.7 among the ESP32-C3 boards with its own board header; SECURITY.md lists the 0.3.x line; the build report form asks for v0.7 builds (key board, machining kits, cast keys).
• Design rules and review checklist: DFM-7 is worded “fabrication outputs made by a script”.

CI

• The flashka workflow runs the host tests of both firmware variants, checks the v0.7 cost workbook and, in its experimental image job, builds both firmware images and compares them with dist/.
• The firmware workflow builds the simulator of every board header; its ESP-IDF job also builds the flashka-keychain-v07 board.

0.2.0 - 2026-10-21

Hardware

• FlashKa Keychain v0.6 reference design (hardware/flashka-keychain-v06/), built on v0.5 with the same body size, cells, LED, LED driver, laser, charger and module:
  • a stainless-steel main button in an RGB light ring (two ring LEDs on the three GPIOs of the old status LED);
  • two more buttons, next and previous, beside it on the bottom face; the side button S1 is gone;
  • presenter mode: the light becomes a Bluetooth LE HID keyboard (HID: human interface device, the standard for keyboards and mice) that turns slides;
  • the laser is the pointer in presenter mode, with the same limits and hardware interlock as in flashlight mode;
  • “fighter-jet skin”: engraved panel seams, laser-marked rivet rows and stencils instead of the knurl and the side grooves;
  • PCB hold-down pads: lid bosses with silicone pads hold the board against its ledges when the buttons push it up;
  • a second RF window in the floor, under the antenna, so that Bluetooth also works with the bottom face up;
  • Bluetooth protocol version 2 for the web app (mode, number of paired computers, presenter settings and commands);
  • files renamed from the working name “Aurora” to FlashKa (the v0.5 folder keeps its names).

  Designed and checked by software; not yet built.

• FlashKa firmware 0.6.0 (Rust) with presenter mode, and the web app and firmware installer for protocol version 2. The firmware image is reproducible in any folder: hardware/flashka-keychain-v06/firmware/build.sh fixes the build date and maps the machine-specific source paths, and the two crates form one Cargo workspace. The same applies to the v0.5 firmware, whose image was rebuilt this way.

Firmware

• Board header flashka-keychain-v06: the v0.5 pins, limits and defaults, with the buttons on a resistor ladder. Only the main button is used; next and previous serve the FlashKa firmware’s level steps and presenter mode, which LuxLibre does not have.
• ESP32-C3 port: resistor-ladder buttons (LX_ESP_BTN_LADDER_ADC_GPIO, LX_ESP_BTN_WAKE_GPIO, LX_ESP_BTN_MAIN_BELOW_MV). The ladder pin is read with ADC1 at 2.5 dB and its own calibration, “pressed” means below the main-button threshold, a second pin on the same net wakes the chip from light sleep, and the other buttons are ignored (a held one is checked from light sleep instead of keeping the chip awake). Boards with one button are unchanged. Written against ESP-IDF 5.3; not yet compiled with ESP-IDF or tested on hardware.
• CI: the ESP32-C3 job also builds the v0.6 board and is marked experimental (allowed to fail) until it has been compiled once.
• CI: a new flashka workflow runs the FlashKa firmware host tests, rebuilds the firmware image and compares it with the published one (experimental), runs the web app and installer tests in a browser and checks the cost workbook.

Documentation

• Hardware index: FlashKa Keychain v0.6 as the current design, v0.5 as the previous one.
• Porting guide and ESP32-C3 port README: resistor-ladder buttons (how a board declares them, the threshold, the wake pin, bring-up checks).
• Reading paths, flashlight types, simulator and firmware pages name both FlashKa versions.
• Project site on GitHub Pages (site/) with the FlashKa control app and firmware installer; a new top README with renders and web app recordings; SECURITY.md; a “build report” issue form.

0.1.0 - 2026-10-15

First public version.

Firmware

• Portable core in C++17 (embedded subset): 150 geometric levels, ramp / modes / simple button layouts with a table-driven user interface, turbo with timer, battery check, beacon, SOS and strobe, lockout that survives reboots, factory reset, laser support with limits, momentary turbo on boards without a laser.
• Thermal regulation: PI regulator on a predicted temperature in fixed point without truncation dead zones; output hysteresis, a 5 s dwell before the output may move back, and an integral dead band, so that noisy or coarse sensors never cause flicker; gain ranges limited to values tested not to oscillate; a short off does not reset the cap; hard shutdown that a calibration offset can only make earlier; sensor-fault fallback.
• Battery: low-voltage warning, step-down and latched cut-off with a floor per chemistry that no setting can go below; cell current limit from the board’s LED model; Li-ion, LiFePO4 and NiMH charge estimates; charging temperature window (ports may not even probe for USB outside it) and USB level cap.
• Pocket protection: stuck button ignored while dark (also on USB, where the charge window keeps running), light switched off and locked after POCKET_S while on; optional auto-lock.
• 50 ArduPilot-style parameters with ranges; storage with CRC-protected parameter block, a separate calibration block (in its own flash page) that survives factory resets and parameter-list changes, and a wear-spreading state ring; text console with wdtest watchdog test and defaults [all].
• Ports: host simulator (tests), ATtiny1616 and CH32V003 (build and link, not yet tested on hardware), ESP32-C3 (experimental).
• PC simulator luxsim with keychain and 18650 models, sensor noise and resolution, and make sim BOARD=<board> for real board headers; plotting script; 47 unit and behaviour tests.
• ATtiny1616 brown-out fuse target (make tiny1616-fuses); ESP32-C3 brown-out detector and watchdog panic reset enabled.

Documentation and tools

• Design rules (69 rules in 10 categories), choosing parts with a worked 1200 lm 18650 example, flashlight types, testing procedures, firmware architecture, porting and simulator guides.
• tools/lux_calc.py calculator (standby, runtime, cell current, throw, thermal, trace width, divider, NTC) with tests.
• Templates: requirements, design log, decision matrix, BOM, design-review checklist, test report.

Hardware

• FlashKa Keychain v0.5 reference design (formerly “Aurora++”): KiCad, CAD, drawings, production files, cost workbook, build guide, the v0.5 Rust firmware with Bluetooth web app. Designed and checked by software; not yet built.

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