Which type of usb charging port do you prefer on flashlight

You can see the archived poll results on the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221220093741/https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/72809

for more clearly: Custom usb charging port is the port that the manufactures design and make by thier own and it’s not an international standard

Type C is the future, but for today’s need I prefer micro USB. :sunglasses:

I think the word you're looking for is proprietary.

Either magnetic or type C. Didn’t vote because the poll doesn’t me allow to express such preference.

Based on the lights I have and how I use them, I would say magnetic charger (proprietary, as said by raccoon city).

(With this I am not sayin the other types are useless; on the contrary, they are, I just prefer to use magnetic chargers. Apart from these, Micro USB is my choice, as there are many cables laying around… :smiley: )

I voted micro b everyone has a dozen of those cables around. The USB c is much newer my phone now has it. But flashlights don’t need to charge at 3+ amps. The two amps the micro b can do is plenty.

My wife had a phone about a year and half ago that was USB c and the factory cable caught fire in the phone within 2 weeks of use. It burned the charging port up. Original wall block, original cable, phone and battery. Luckily we were right there on the bed and smelled it and saw the smoke rising. Battery was perfectly fine I kept it as a back up for mine.

now that i have a phone with usb c i would have to vote that, also the charging is fast if a light would use that contact.

I prefer type C

Charging speed has nothing to do with connection type, at least for as long as the current capabilities of the connector aren't exceeded.

The USB type-C connector is a bit more robust than USB micro-B and a tad more current capable. The USB micro-B is widespread and cheap; I can even buy 10-packs of USB micro-B male connectors for less than $1 on eBay. Both are great and I endorse availability of both options.

On the other hand, screw propietary connectors and standards.

Cheers :-)

I voted for the micro… you can find it at any gas station, or anywhere.

yeah, i guess so, English is not my native language :frowning:

USB-C for me. I like that it plugs in either way.

Micro for now.
C will be fine when & if it becomes ‘standard’.

C because in a few years when almost all devices are using USB C I don’t want an outdated port on my flashlight.
Futureproofing :slight_smile:

C > Micro because it’s more durable, non-directional and will definitely be the more common connector at some point in the future even if it isn’t yet.

Magnetic charging like Armyteks or Klarus, where it works with any battery. Not having to deal with rubber port covers or worry about them failing is nice. Just don’t make it like Olight where it only works with their proprietary batteries.

Type C would be my 2nd choice because it is reversible, more durable, and it would be nice to get all of my electronics using a single cable type.

C is where we’re heading. Micro is terrible

Magnetic chargers kinda suck because you have exposed contacts which can short, but also require a proprietary connector.
Not only do you need a different magnetic charger for every brand of flashlight but you also can’t use the regular USB C cables you probably already have (or will have) for phones and computers.

It is possible to make USB C ports waterproof so that they don’t require a cover, but the cover is still good to prevent dirt from getting in.
Some flashlights have the USB port inside so it is protected by the flashlight body instead of a cover.

So in other words, charging speed has everything to do with connection type, if we don’t want to be stuck with current charge rates forever. A new USB standard needs to emerge with higher current capacity. Frankly it is all madness. (Most) Flashlights are not tiny and would benefit from a larger charge port, that is not only capable of more current but more mechanically robust. The batteries themselves are obviously another limit to charge rate, but there is and always will be a race to improve them and a need for standards to support evolving battery tech.

It is very common for both USB C and mUSB sockets to break off of PCBs, at least their solder joints do. For this reason I feel that either are terrible choices for anything that is not disposable and costing under $10, but it becomes absurd when on a phone or camera costing several hundred dollars, or something like an LED flashlight which, if it did not have terrible design choices like that, might be viable for far longer since tech advances tend to only make incremental brightness updates to flashlights, not anything revolutionary to the core purpose of making light. In other words a good flashlight could last for decades of casual use.

Flashlights should use USB A. Phones and other thinner devices should use USB mini-B. Nothing should use micro USB or USB C. The consumer electronics industry has seen over 50 years of consumer devices with flaky connectors (starting with 1/8 headphone jacks ?) and still hasn’t learned much. It’s one thing to make “disposable” products and another to make them so fragile that core functionality is lost because they tried to save 3 millimeters worth of connector size.