You remembered my lost EDC from 4 years ago Wow! Good memory! Actually, Iāve not lost it again since. Iāve just changed from keeping it in my front pocket to my rear and the longer tube causes it to be pushed up and out of my pocket. (Iāve had to move it to my rear pocket since phones are getting so darn big - too big to accomodate a flashlight in the same pocket.)
Thatās a great idea, but single click to turn on should always (no memory) go directly to a āusefulā general use mode so anyone could pick it up and use it.
After losing one to the snow, and finding it months later (it wasnāt in the snow at all), all of my pocket lights either come with a properly fitted pocket clip (that I use) or I wonāt buy it. My brother lost the exact same light and refound his also. He also uses the pocket clip now.
Thus begins the slippery slope of turning the muggle mode into a full fledged UI with a learning curve. Sure, we think itās simple, but to most āitās just a flashlightā and shouldnāt be so complicated. If it didnāt have memory it would act as a single mode muggle light, but with the bonus ramping UI for those who may be more interested in it.
A better way would be to make the whole button a magnet. And you epoxy a plate underneath it.
So you get a verry flat T-shape, upside down.
If you consider this while construction it is easy to chose a standard flat barrel / coin sized magnet while altering the size of the bezel arround the button.
CRX did this kind of mod on his titanium Tool AAA, before he added the lit switch.
EDIT:
The first three pics:
original switch cover
plate + magnet + a top cover?
both side by side
As the backside bezel is screwed on, Lumintop could ad two switch covers, on metal, on magnetic. The user can choose.
And the optic wouldnāt alter.
Iām fairly certain that the design is carved in stone at this late date. Maybe it could happen, but I think it should have been brought up in the design phase and not now.
Understand, I have no inner knowledge, but in general after a design is finalized and is this far along, changes are doubtful. I also donāt think making this light larger (would adding a magnet make it so?), if that would be the result, is going to happen since one of the design parameters was/is itās size, and lots of us bought it with that in mind. Itās essentially the size of the D4, with small variations, for $30.
Taken from post #1, the underline is mine:
The FW3A
Small elegant EDC triple flashlight designed by Fritz15
Runs on a single 18650 battery.
94.8 Ć 25.5 mm
But maybe Iām all wrong. It wouldnāt be the first time. But I do know that if it was made larger it wouldnāt do the job for me and I wouldnāt want one. I donāt need another light, but I want this one due to the stated design goals.
- I read about a magnetic tail cap before.
And other stuff too
- I suggested a back and forward clipp.
- Slots for tritts
lanyard hole
But you rarely hear something from the dev. team. (As I understand The Miller does more general communication)
Not one word what they think about it.
Also silence in the german forum.
I find that quite frustrating.
I dont think it would be much larger.
CRX solution has the same size, for a smaller lamp.
We have a 18650
As comparison a Skilhunt H03 Magnet is
16 x 2 mm with a 0,5mm thick cap on it
If we want it super sticky we can go with 3 or 4mm thicknes.
From the drawing, there is the switch cover missing, but I guess 1 to 2mm is needed.
If the lamp is 4-5mm longer and I can chose between a magnetic and non magnetic tail without altering the length and optic I would go with 5mm more.
Hi, if you look at the cross section of the light you see that itās not easy to put a magnet under the switch. The actual switch would need to have to parts of you donāt want the magnet to be visible from the outside.
Regarding the slots for tritium vitals - most of the buyers would probably not use the slots, so I think itās a better solution to see if one of the modding guys here can come up with a switch that has tritium slots milled in.
Also, the design is pretty much decided on right now. The clip is as it was designed but weāll look into the possibility to make it mountable between head and body as well if it does not bring any significant design changes to the design.
About muggle mode, there seem to be three ideas floating around:
Single-mode on/off at ~150 lm. (already implemented)
Idea #1, but add hold-to-ramp from ~5 lm to ~300 lm.
Clicks cycle through 2-3 levels like a common cheap light. Order/spacing not yet determined.
To exit muggle mode, itās currently āloosen+tighten the tubeā.
Fortunately, a factory reset shouldnāt be needed. It might be possible since itās a thing people seem to like, but the settings arenāt particularly botchable.
However, it occurs to me that loosening the tube will also physically disconnect the buttonā¦ and when tightening the tube there may be no way to ensure that the button will connect before power. So, it may be a good idea to avoid anything which involves button-press detection at boot, and anything which involves clicking the button while power is disconnected.