What Is Anduril, and Do You Want It?

Anduril is firmware, not hardware: the program running on the microcontroller inside the light, originally written by a developer known as ToyKeeper and released under an open licence. Because it is open, manufacturers can adopt it freely, and a large slice of the enthusiast market has. Emisar and Noctigon ship it as standard, and many Wurkkos, Lumintop and Sofirn models use it or a close derivative.

The version most current lights ship is Anduril 2, which added the Simple UI concept — a stripped-down mode with the advanced features hidden — after Anduril 1 developed a reputation for being intimidating.

The practical benefit of open firmware is that a light you buy today can gain features later. Most Anduril lights can be reflashed over their charging port or with a simple clip, and bug fixes and new features from the community keep arriving long after the manufacturer has moved on.

The headline difference is ramping. Instead of clicking through low, medium and high, you press and hold and the output rises smoothly; release when it looks right. Hold again and it ramps back down. You can set any output level in the light's range rather than the three or four somebody else picked.

This sounds like a gimmick until you use it. Choosing the exact brightness for the task means you are almost never using more light than you need, which shows up directly as longer runtime and a light that stays cool. Anduril also keeps a stepped mode for people who prefer discrete levels, configurable to however many steps you like.

The core controls are consistent: one click on, one click off, hold to ramp, double-click for turbo, triple-click for a strobe or battery check depending on configuration, and four clicks for lockout so it cannot switch on in a pocket. Those five actions cover normal use, and most owners never go further.

Below the surface, Anduril exposes an unusual amount of control: thermal ceiling in degrees, ramp floor and ceiling, step count, aux LED colour and behaviour while the light is off or locked out, beacon and candle modes, momentary mode, sunset timers, and a battery-voltage readout blinked out in clicks.

Setting these is where the criticism lands. Configuration is done by counting clicks and holds through a menu the light describes only in blinks, and there is no screen. Changing the thermal ceiling means clicking into a menu, waiting for a series of flashes, then clicking a number of times to set a value. Most people do this once from a printed diagram and never again, but the first encounter is genuinely bewildering.

Anduril 2's Simple UI is the answer for anyone who does not want this. It hides the advanced menus, limits the ramp, and behaves like a normal light — and you can switch back and forth. If you are buying an Anduril light for someone who is not in the hobby, put it in Simple UI first.