As an edit to the UI I posted, since it's for BLF I'd recommend double-press to turn off instead of long-press, and use long-press for ramping.
Click and hold ramps up,
Click -> Click and hold ramps down,
Click -> Click turns off.
Also, my UI design would allow for a press-both-buttons lockout mode.
BLF Edition:
Power: Turns on, turns up, turns off.
Click from off to turn on at low (last emitter used)
Double-click to turn off, or just have single-click turn off (and have it wait a slight moment, as Anduril does, to see if there's a second click.)
Click and hold to ramp up
Click -> Click and hold to ramp down
Emitter button: Changes what emitter is active
What should a click from off do? Mode shortcuts, probably.
While on:
Click Switches between flood and throw
Click and hold Toggles on/off "both emitters".
So, if you're on flood, this toggles the throw emitter while leaving flood on.
If you're on throw, this toggles the flood emitter while leaving throw on.
Press-and-hold both buttons to lock out.
Press both buttons to unlock.
Quite sure the more people involves, the more options we’ll get. But let’s take a wider look.
Assuming the Authors aim in creating an over - time classic, widely accessible and for many applications. Shouldn’t we think of ‘the market’? I don’t think (with all due respect) BLFers are a representative group. We’re all crazy about flashlights. To make it right, the Authors should ask a question, who is the potential customer. Let’s say it’ll be very lucky at BLF and sells in number of 1000. And then what? Mugles who bought are likely to return due to too complicated UI.
Why not to use advanced processor and program it (flash the bios) just before sending? The same way we choose led temp. or ref type, we could choose software. Like at MTN. This way the light could reach more people, be more flexible and satisfy each group. Moreover, modding this light could be extended by multiple software versions.
Anyway, I think the success of this light depends on its sales. BLF won’t bring more than 1000? But if it becames common at gas stations… BOOM,millions….
So… The software could be developed, best if market research could prove which exactly functions are desired most by a regular buyer. Who that buyer is (statistics on many factors) etc…
Well, let’s make a high CRI light with a simple, but good UI like this:
Moonlight (0,5 lumens) — Low-Low (5 lumens) — Low (40 lumens) — Medium(200 lumens) — High(500 lumens)
Shouldn’t be too hard now, would it?
With a SST-20 95CRI 4000k, a reverse tailswitch, simple coated clear anodization, OP reflector, 2x AA compatibility, it could be a killer.
The only problem would be the cell choice and USB charging.
USB charging could be implemented with 1x AA NiMH LSD cell included in the box, but the cell would’ve to be included at all costs.
2x AA could be doable, but not required.
Multiple cells except for parallel Li cells (eg, the DC7) do not take well to in situ charging without at least some kind of rudimentary BMS, so yeah, stay away.
And alkaleaks will take a crap in the light, so the pricier the light, the more bux someone has to throw away to replace it. And smart people who experienced that before will likely stay away from such a light unless it’s cheap enough to be considered disposable.
As much as I like my TK4As, I rarely use them anymore except with brand-new cells, and at the slightest hint of a weak cell, dump them and burn them down as singles or doubles in cheaper lights. One of the brass nipples in the tailcap is already “browned” from a hateful little alkaleak that started to do its thing.
Suggestion? At the risk of making the light slightly bigger, stick the cells in a separate sleeve to at least try to contain leaks, and insert the sleeve in the light itself. Alas, pennies count, so I doubt that’d happen.
Of course someone’ll want to be able to fade between flood/throw in a continuous way (like the T1 lantern mixing CW⇄WW), so of course people’ll be demanding that as well. :person_facepalming:
Or have buttons fade between flood/throw, and overall brightness up/down.
Designed for muggles, overcomplicated by demanding “flash[ao]holics”…
Are the cells in series or parallel? I'd ideally like good NiMh support. Parallel would be cool for the "use on 1AA in an emergency" factor, and I believe Sofirn is getting some experience with boost drivers of that type already
Damnit, I was just thinking that. Boaz was going on about having a sort of snap-on diffuser cap for I think a Q8, so yeah, something like that would/should work fine.
Everyone’s fixated with pushbuttons to control things, but what do most crappy plastic lights have since the 1930s? A slider. Slide forward to turn on, backward to turn off.
In that vein, and thinking of the magnetic slider in my DV-S9s, a 3-position slider can be used to turn the light off|low|high and that’s it.
Or if pushbuttons are a must, an “up” and “down” button.
Up goes off→low→high→high→high→…
Down goes high→low→off→off→off→…
and that’s it.
Add another brightness mode or so, but that’s it.
No blinkies, no shortcuts, no nothing. No longpress, no click’n’hold, nothing.
So simple a monkey could use it. So who’s smarter, you or a monkey?
Do waterproof slider-switch designs exist? I think they are used in diving lights, right? Slide for off-low-high would be cool. (and it will make this light more attractive than my MT22A)
At least I agree on a very basic UI, 3 or 4 brightness modes and nothing else. And it helps if the flashlight is really budget. And if it runs on 2 AA cells, I think that USB charging is overkill, everyone has a NiNh charger and is used to charge these batteries. You can give this to muggles no problem.
Oh, and batt-check could be a plain indicator led somewhere, if it lights: charge soon, if it blinks: almost dead.
Magswitches usually have about 10mA parasitic current, though. And probably need a fairly higher voltage (closer to 5V than 3V, let alone 2.whatever when under load).
You can probably put 2 pb switches under 1 boot to make it look/feel like a rocker switch, but a (nonmagnetic) waterproof slider might be hard to come by (read: I haven’t ever seen any).
