If you give a NON flashaholic a light which UI would you prefer.

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

https://web.archive.org/web/20221220093741/https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/72890

Certainly the memory UI when high would be the default mode. I presume most people want to press a button and have a reasonable amount of light. I’d even adjust it to medium.

Hey Matt,

Did you miss to offer "DEFAULTS TO LOW" on purpose? Actually, I would prefer the light to start on low after turning off. But that option is not available so far.

Yes. This is mainly to do with lights that are not for us. For me I know I would prefer the memory, but even this seems “complicated” to a lot of outsiders. The reason I didn’t put default to low as an option for this particular light is 30% of non flashaholic consumers would power it on and think that it was just a really dim light. It wasn’t until I started selling on amazon that I realized this. You can write something in a listing title, in the bullet points, take several pictures and make infographics about it, then put a set of instructions in the box, and still have hordes of people be like “Yep, doesn’t work”.

I given lots of lights to friends and family that were 3 mode with memory (or similar), and never really had anyone say it was a problem. However I am wondering how often they have trouble with it and just never said anything….

For another example I will use my father-in-law. He is a brilliant and capable man. A professor of psychology, award winning ball player, and a capable handy man (runs tractors, chain saws, you name it). When I asked him what modes he wanted in a custom light I was building him, he said “How about ON and OFF?”.

Yup, father in law is right; “how ’bout on and off.”

Which is precisely why NEBO lights are so popular, OFF/ON, pull on the handle bingo, instant lantern. 99% of the people I show my lights too, especially andruil based lights, have zero interest.

A good friend wanted a light, was impressed how bright some of mine were. Ended spending a hundred bucks on a Fenix. Tail click off/on, and side switch to go through the 4 modes. Magnetic usb charger to boot. Never even has to take the battery out.

Also one of the reasons I want a simplified version of the LT1 with white and red combo for camping.

I have a light that is high-med-low with memory. I let others use it a lot when I go camping. When I have let others use it they find it confusing. They seem to always expect two additional modes which either increase or decrease in brightness. So situations where the light turns on to medium results in a dimmer mode and then a much brighter mode, when they expected another lower mode. Or staring on low the light gets brighter but then dimmer. they seem to have trouble knowing what mode they are in visually and where they are at in the sequence. Strangely enough and from my limited experience, this seems far less prevalent in low-med-high with memory lights. I’m not sure why though. It could be my one light with hi to low order doesn’t have the best mode spacing and contributes to the confusion (I personally wish both low and med. were dimmer… and high brighter :slight_smile: ).

The second option seems ok to me. I think repeatability is key for non-flashaholics. So they know it will start bright and get dim from there. They’ll cover the lens with a hand, shirt, or just point it up or away until they get to low, if that is what they are going for. Very seldom is medium ever used.That’s my experience.

Hope that helps.

1 mode , no buttons. single smash turns on and off.
so easy even someone living in 2020 but born in 1600 can operate :beer:

1 mode flashlight. Or perhaps a twisty to set brightness. Half presses are complicated….
A light that can use AA or AAA.

If a 3.7v cell goes into the flashlight then include cell and charger.
My personal limited experience is that most people don’t want to mess with charging. Just slap in a new cell and that’s it.
The middle ground is a light with build in charger.

Rotating ring with off-low-medium-high and nothing else. Sofirn SD05 easily wins the simple UI contest.

Low, high, no memory

:+1:

You want something with two modes, a high and a low. They will set a hot light down and walk away or else not see something with “moonlight” and overdrain the cell. This is yet another reason why all lights need two switches, a separate one to control all modes.

Yeah, NOTA for me, too.

Sadly, that’s why MLH-with-nomem is so popular with The Muggle. I got used to M on my (Xeno) E03, and rarely bap the switch for L or H, so I treat it like a 1-mode light. Also why I never got any otherwise nice-looking OnTheRoad lights.

Lights which default to H, eg, my big honkin’ Tacklife, heavily diffused, I also treat it like a 1-mode light, even when I don’t need full blast. I just can’t get all worked up to hit the switch a 2nd or 3rd time. :weary:

As for The Muggle, I’d also push the magring selector like the Sofirn diving lights, even though parasitic drain can kill the cell if not “maintained” by The Muggle, so for that I’d also have to DQ any light with too much parasitic drain.

The SP10 I gave to my gf, she “presets” to M or so, so that she can just click it on/off and have usable light that’s neither too dim nor too bright.

I think she’s okay with her Cometa, but forgot if I left memory on or turned it off.

With one major caveat, one of the best lights for The Muggle is probably this 4×AAA LuxPro light, heavily diffused. Really nice soft-touch tailswitch, driver-in-tail so it’s just one switch which will take you to your desired level within like 4 clicks. Defaults to H, so it’s as simple as click-on/click-off, only cycles if subsequent clicks are within N seconds of being turned on.

Would take a 21700, but I’d need to add a tall spring to the driver first. Protected cell with built-in usb charger would make it perfect for The Muggle without having to worry about an alkaleak crapping the bed in an impossible-to-get carrier.

If you configure the Hell out of it, the SC31pro would be great for The Muggle. Turn mem on/off, set manual mem, whatever it takes, to kinda dumb it down but still let it be used in non-lobotomised form.

In short, it’s not so simple. And that’s why 2×AA Maglites are still incredibly popular.

If I?

I gave two non-flashoholics FW21 Pro, that I purchased specially just for them, because they are very nice people and therefore, should own a very nice flashlight. This, so as to bring these nice people even more joy than they already have from life on earth.

But, I did not give them the hot little screaming pocket rockets, replete with Anduril, until after I spent a few hours educating them about all aspects of it. Now, they are new, budding flashoholics!

Something like Biscotti is good for muggles. Most classic Convoy and Thorfire lights were good for muggles too.

FIL for the win.

Boruit D-10 . King of the budget headlamps ... just like a old lumintop AAA Tool starts on a medium mode .

You're right in saying people want light right now .. but all muggle mode type lights are actively turning them down for them . So muggle start in med mode has to be a perfect answer .

Like every idiot here I hated the thought of a med low high mode order but after using it for years it makes perfect sense and like putting the toilet seat down .. after you get trained . It actually makes sense .

flu===sh

…until you get blinded in the middle of the night when you grab one that starts on M and not L (or F).

That’s why the only 2 I grab for at night are the ones with lit sideswitches, the GTmicro (level 1 for F) or the SC31pro (ditto), as I know press’n’hold starts at firefly levels.

If I grab the Xeno, even in WW, it’s “Aaaaaah! Bright lights! Bright lights!”. Forget about going back to sleep after a blast of that…

Father in law knows best. On and off are the only modes non-flashlight nerds want or need. The AAA Mini Mag LED and the Mag ML25 twistys are pretty simple and easy to use.