I mean I own more than a few of these turbo monsters. Butt honestly this is getting reeeeediculous. I might as well play pinball wizard pushing buttons while on benzedrene so I can stay just under turbo for at least more than a minute - ya know have the time where I can actually truly enjoy the light’s vast touted illumination abilities for a change.
Right now I feel if I blink the thing’s metamorphosing into a completely different flash than I thought I was getting.
At the rate this turbo bizness is going pretty soon we’re gonna have flashes that stay in turbo for no longer than 2 seconds before they do the thermal ramp down boogie. Or as oft seen nowadays play the UI programming shuffle which hopefully works on the particular driver version you may or may not have received. I might as well keep a run time to thermometer degree conversion probe rammed up the tail end already.
I think we’re going in the wrong direction in all this. Or at least going turbo nuts.
Watt direction is the right one? Or at least the sensible one?
I gotta tell ya the FIRST thing from here on out for me at least is to focus on how LONG the the thing actually can stay in Maxo Blasto mode. 20 secs ain’t happening for me. Might as well leave turbo mode off of it. The heat hassles for me ain’t worth it- not for 20 secs - much less the high drain ( hopefully not fake) battery treasure hunting and all the other permutational gyrations that go with it.
I’m at the point where if a flash manufacturer tells me you’re not gonna get turbo with our lights, just only up to pre-turbo cusp, I might go with that deal and let everyone else out blast me for 20 secs and an extra $50.
Ok enuff ranting I gotta get back to watt I was doing: reading all these GD threads to understand how come my latest flash isn’t performing like it should for 20 secs on TURBOOOOOOOOOOOO.
A while ago I felt exactly the same about turbo mode but I’ve since learned to live with and enjoy many lights with limited turbo.
It’s all about the way you use turbo, try not to think of it as a constant setting, rather a quick ramp in brightness if you hear somthing rustling in the bushes a fair distance away.
I love my Emisar D4, it won’t hold turbo for long but it can still maintain a decent brightness for a good amount of time and is smaller than many less powerful lights.
Should I start writing the list? I’m at work and need to drive home 2 hours later…
The first came in to my mind is Nitecore HC33. 1800 lumens at power on, 1450 lumens at 10 s, 1300 at 20s, 1100 at 30s……
Pathetic…
Yeah, this exactly. We’re a little spoiled around here, with new multi-thousands-of-lumens lights coming out all the time. But, a small host can’t handle the heat generated well enough to protect the emitter(s) and driver from frying, not to mention the burns you might get yourself. Like DENGOH says, the best way to get a longer lasting turbo is to:
Yeah, it’s just marketing to make people buy because of bigger numbers and not something actually useful.
It’s been discussed plenty of times before on the forum.
Manufacturers won’t stop doing it though.
Let’s face it. Most LEDs in their present form can’t keep up with the amount of ever increasing batt amps getting pumped out.
Hellfire, Osram is going in the OPPOSITE direction. Maybe they’re tying to tell us something. Like we’re going in the wrong direction, maybe?
It’s obvious to me that even today essentially LEDs as they’re currently designed for the most part will not be keeping up with batt output developments butt we’re trying our damndest to pretend they are with this turbo craziness.
Manufacturers won’t stop doing it? Most lights we buy around here are designed by BLFers and have BLF member developed firmware provided to the manufacturer. They make it because we WANT it. It’s not the other way around. Yeah, some of you guys will never find Turbo to be useful or interesting, but a lot of us do.
If it only had 500 horsepower for 10 seconds and only immediately after filling the gas tank then no, nobody would buy it.
This is not the same thing.
Also, a car’s power is not only for speed but also for acceleration, handling, etc.
There is no limit on acceleration even though the speed limit is 55
Well, as long as we’re correcting each other’s analogies, it would be more like a Ferrari having 2000hp for 10 seconds. And I’d bet money that lots of people would buy it. It doesn’t have to be practical to be valuable.
EDC was mostly meant for occasional use or work in close distance. So they fit nicely in pockets. But now many want turbo in EDC, so step down is the only way to have Turbo in EDC. Manufacturer can’t think of any other way to it.
Ok so this Top Fuel analogy translates over to flashlights in turbo mode. One problem:
Flashlights aren’t Top Fuel dragsters so it’s an extreme analogy. How about something more towards the middle?
Let’s say most turbo lights today are analogous to high performance sports cars limited to speeds they can attain on twisty short distance roads.
IDK, all the high performance sports cars pushed hard I’ve been in at least gave me more than 20 secs of wood. This may be a mid range sh*tty analogy too however depending on how good a driver you are to begin with.
The reason I used the Top Fuel analogy is precisely because it is overpowered to the point that its use ‘must’ be limited in order to be ‘safe’ to use at all. Turbo in our small flashlights ‘could’ be allowed to run longer, but it would be unsafe.
EDIT: …also because Enderman brought up a car analogy, so I went with it.
