For everyone who had the temerity to buy that shit you should send a new flashlight head with corrected USB port cover, with corrected driver, with corrected user interface and with corrected a button and button indicator!!!
That will be a moral satisfaction!
^ THIS!
I been sitting here playing with it and can not for the life of me understand why anyone thought this was a good UI.
They tried to simply port the functionality of the BLF A6 to an e-switch light, and it's apples and oranges - the two types of lights have very different UI's for a good reason. To do what a power switch light does is not practical because it's an easy built-in function to turn off a power switch light, not with an e-switch. e-switch lights give you a lot more capability, but you have to go with the technology advantages you have with the e-switch.
I think you should never implement multi fast click operations where the UI uses single clicks to navigate modes. You either have to slow down the single clicks, or you will hit into a lot of inadvertent fast clicks for changing modes. They chose to slow down the mode changes so you can't fast click unintentionally. Also slowing down the single clicks means you can do double clicks without taking action on the single click, so it works better - it's a total pain because things are slow, but you don't get flashed from a single click action when you double click. Ideally a double click, when used, should be something that steps up from a single click. Say from OFF, you single click to go to last mode, but click quickly again it goes to turbo. You are counting on the first single click and emphasizing it more on the 2nd fast click.
Double and multi clicks work great with a ramping UI because you use press&holds as opposed to quick clicks. This is what I did in Narsil, but when in mode set operation, double and multi clicks don't work - it would interfere with fast clicking thru modes.
well, if there was ANY copper in that tail spring, it flaked off while my less-than-careful and increasingly forceful machinations created a model for a theme park thrill ride
GRRrrr! :rage:
the revealed metal is shiny silver, SS?
(never did get it right)
I think an e-switch light should almost always use single-click for on/off. If you can’t articulate a really good reason for doing something else, do that.
Update again,
We suggest you don't open the head optionally so as not to damage the lamp or other head accessories, by the way, if you have ordered 2 stainless steel material S42, but have not shipped, we will ship the newest to you, without any problems.
Please wait more patiently, we will reply your mails one by one and the factory need sometime to produce the new items, thank you for your understanding!
Best Regards,
Swi
Hi Swi,
Apart from the new needed parts, a much bigger problem that people have is the user interface, the S42 is almost unusable because of the way it is operated. Even people who are used to complicated flashlights have the immediate problem that when the light is switched on, it can not be switched off again and instead of off it goes to TURBO. Please try it yourself.
Is the factory also working on a new user interface so that the flashlight can actually be used?
djozz
+1
So far we have focused on the mechanical issues - battery tube and usb cover, but now that some of us managed to get the light working, the user interface appears to be an even bigger issue. Almost everything about it is wrong!
So I wish BG would also produce a new version of the driver with a new firmware and either send it for free to the actual owners who ask for it or make it available as a separate part we can buy…
A couple other comments on the S42:
- Although it seems to have the same head/optics design as the S41, the beam contains far more artifacts - you can clearly see them while rotating the light
- Long click from off to lock/unlock the light is very unpractical and probably unsafe. This combined with the long click to turn off, which itself can only occur from the second mode, makes it incredibly complicated to use the light for a short burst: Two seconds long click to unlock, one click to turn on in moon, one other click to move to the next mode, two seconds click to turn off and another two seconds click to lock again - 3 long clicks (6 seconds) and 2 short click!!! :person_facepalming: :weary:
But not only that.
The current consumption in the “breathing light” mode is 1 mA. This means 1 month in this mode and 16340 / 18350 battery will be discharged completely. However, the button’s indicator will blinking green optimistically.
I'm not a fan of long clicks to shut off the light, but many e-switch lights use it and I don't see lots of complaints about it - Lumintop, On The Road, Manker. However this S42's hold time is excessively long. Lights I have that single click ON/OFF have to be long clicked to change modes, such as Sunwayman, DQG, Olight. Of these, some change modes too slowly, others maybe too quickly.
The Manker and OTR lights I find annoying that a simple click when OFF does nothing. At least the Lumintop turns the light on to last mode.
The Manker, OTR, and Lumintop change modes on simple clicks, but if you click fast, you will get strobed on the Manker and OTR - easy to get very annoying undesired actions. The Lumintop at least avoids that by not supporting double clicks at all.
Models I'm discussing are the Lumintop SDMini, OTR M3, Manker GODMES T01, Sunwayman C20C, DQG Tiny 26650 3rd, Olight S1.
Could they run the Q8 firmware on the S42? Narsil is it?
Somehow, the S42 is a pico Q8…
That's what I'l be doing for sure, but it's a driver replacement.
S42 with Nichias is necessary to put a spacer 0.8mm under the mcpcb, if not - no good focusing and a lot of horrible artefacts in light beam. And aluminium shelf under mcpcb is only 1.5-2mm, very thin. UI with double click to change strange modes and long-press to turn it off is terrible. Dislike this flashlight.
@martinoss88
Oh, have you beamshoots before and after?
I did notice small speckels in the beam of the stock light.
Before
After
It would be awesome if you decided to post how you did it when you’re done with it!
My 40mm 18350 battery tube just arrived, by domestic (US) mail from City of Industry, CA. The threads are longer on both ends, solving both of my original battery problems (front threads too short to reach the driver board, rear threads too short to screw onto battery without damage). I was able to use an AW 16340 as well.
Presumably the USB port cover is coming next month.
So now it works reliably, but the design issues remain:
Still for the low pre-production price paid, I will rationalize a use for it.
I did ceiling bounce tests today with a S41 219b and my S42 219c in 18350 configuration… and the S41 is consistently 25% brighter! I expected the opposite.
Did i miss something?
That is my experience too.
+1 here.