All Westerners sleep in crowded rooms, walk dogs at night and hunt scorpions.
Not exactly.
Standard aluminum SC52 which was used heavily and then had most of the anodizing forcefully polished off.
Hahaha, this will go underappreciated but its golden.
Whoa… 2nd light from the right is definitely a Zebralight. An older one, judging by the body ribbing pattern. Did you do this yourself or send it out to be chromed?
You’re planning to go near water don’t take your non waterproof light with you.
Potting is a viable solution for USB-rechargeable lights not being waterproof with their flaps open. Fenix, Nitecore, and Armytek offer lights that have USB charging and stay waterproof even with the flap open.
I take an opposing view though: I wish many of the other devices that use USB charging had removable, standard-size batteries I could put in one of my several slot chargers instead. That lets me have the device back in action with a full battery immediately. In theory, I don’t mind a device having both, but using removable, standard-size batteries is far more important to me.
Okay, so the usb socket is potted from behind and is thoroughly waterproof to 50m… what’s to keep crap from getting wedged in there, saltwater or acids corroding the contacts, etc.?
I got enough issues with some knurling trapping crap in the valleys, so imagine a usb socket getting crapped up.
Well made nickel-gold plated contacts should not immediately be affected by saltwater.
Like other equipment, I would just clean it after use.
Some possibly-unpopular opinions:
- Most of what we do in the flashlight community isn’t about seeing in the dark. For some it’s entertainment, for some it’s fashion, for some it’s work, for some it’s mostly social, etc… but if it was just about illumination, we probably wouldn’t be here.
- More people should make their own user interfaces. It can be fun and educational, and nothing will ever be as good as something you made yourself.
- A 1x7135 driver is generally sufficient for most practical purposes. Brighter and more efficient designs are nice, but suffer from seriously diminishing returns.
- Simple answers are rarely accurate, and accurate answers are rarely simple. Almost nothing is ever truly black-and-white; it’s pretty much all shades of grey… and even that is probably oversimplifying things, because the most topics have complex multidimensional solution spaces. Reality is complicated and nuanced, not simple and gratifying. If a belief fits on a bumper sticker or is satisfying to express, it’s probably not true. So beware of things which feel good to say.
You’re right.
Or maybe….
“Truth” is the result of believen beliefs, with feelings being one of their results.
And if I don’t plan to go near water but end up going near it anyway? Hasn’t the “electronic hits rain puddle” thing never happened to you? To me it has.
- That is very very true. The hobby goes way beyond having a portable light source. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to explain it to muggles.
2) I don’t really need to, not after you launched Biscotti :heart_eyes:
3) Honestly, as far as practical purpose goes, I feel a 3* or 4*7135 Nichia S2+ doesn’t quite do it for me. The moonlight at 0.1% is nice, but most of the time I use a torch, the 1% is too low and 10% is too high. Might swap the driver for a 6x7135 from one of my CREE’s, and all should be good in the ’hood.
What's up with Sunwayman?
For people whose needs and tastes vary significantly from the majority, we have a lot of source code available for extensive customization. It can be a little daunting at first, but most people who have tried it found it was significantly easier than they expected.
As I was saying just a few posts ago, more people should make (or at least customize) their own user interfaces. There’s really no other way to get a perfect flashlight, because we all like different things.
You’re implying the UI on every light has the “muggle mode” of Anduril (a UI specifically designed for enthusiasts). That is not the case. There are a number of highly customizable tail and side switch UIs where accessing the settings mode takes a great deal of effort.
The state of the industry is just sorry. It’s easy to make outstanding lights beause most makers don’t even try.
To illustrate that: several months ago we had a launch of a light that:
- did literally nothing innovative
- screwed up basic stuff so badly that lights would self-destruct
Yet it generated a lot of enthusiasm and many positive reviews. Because it’s the only light in its size-led count class and once you right the wrongs yourself it actually works well.
When I count innovative flashlights that came out this year - nothing comes to my mind. I’ve seen a hint that one party tried to implement an obvious thing which should have been a standard for several years already. As of now it’s innovative and may come out this year.
"Unpopular Flashlight Opinion Thread" OK?.
Practically Speaking: ...
The next mode Memory is dumb. It's awkward, "Excuse me while I cycle my light back to moonlight mode. I'm sorry about killing the "mood/moment". Resetting to a particular mode takes time. Time you won't spend if you are in a hurry. Somebody please give me a scenario when this memory function would be of any use. Except for the following or anything just like it:
A dark night (duh!!) walking through a public space known to harbor muggers, terrorists, rapists, robbers, and other undesirables. You set your trusty 1200 lumen retina burner to come up on strobe on the next click. You place it in your off hand at the ready next to your hip. You may or may not utilize a less bright light in your primary hand.
Except for some pretty unusual sets of circumstances the next mode memory usefulness does not offset it's inconveniences. It should be replaced by instant/quick access to turbo/strobe in all cases.
Oh, you’re in good company here… almost no one likes that. It’s mostly only used on cheap generic drivers, and the person who wrote the code likely had no idea what they were doing. It probably only exists because it’s easier to implement than a better interface.
[quote=ToyKeeper]
Well good. Thank you for that. I had seen plenty of gripes about unavoidable strobe modes but nothing about next mode memory. I was beginning to think there might be something about it that was practical and I didn't understand. Then I got one of those cheap generic drivers (UltraFire UF-A3). Honest, it was a very inexpensive impulse purchase. I just wanted something to plug the AA/14500 hole in my lineup. This one also has the dreaded high-low-strobe firing order. I now have some better samples coming. Looks like my granddaughter will get another flashlight. 
Cheater! Popular opinions don’t count! 