"Grandma" flashlight

Yes, it is available that two year standby of one 18650
FC11 max 11W

What is the current draw when turned off?

Quite true.

This is basically the flashlight my grandmother used, with the exception of the button (which was metal), and LED insert with the green ring. From what I can recall, it had a small, intense hot spot and little spill, so the beam was not only dim, but poor quality.

Aside from basic safety features to account for a modern Li cell, the more I think about it, a single-mode version of an existing light, with conservative parameters is probably all that a “grandma” will need or ark for. If you want anything fancy, give it a TIR, OP, or frosted optic, to make the beam more versatile, and won’t blind her if she catches sight of it directly.

Also note the price that light is being sold for, or plastic lights like this.

I have to be honest I think a flashaholics idea of an ideal light may not be an ideal light to someone who cares nothing about modes, interfaces, grip, knurling and multiple buttons. As such another vote for 1 mode basic light.

Example:My mother is in her 70’s but quite sprightly and uses a light to walk out the back to check on the animals etc. She has absolutely no interest in the vagaries of flashaholicism. I gave her what I thought was the most basic light I had being a Fenix HL23 headlamp with 3 power settings and the problem was it comes on high, and she forgets or doesnt care to turn it down. As such the battery runs down more quickly, and I find the light in the bottom of a draw one day because she got tired of continually changing batteries and/or turning the light levels down. She went back to using some cheap plastic light.

We went through what grandma (grandpa?) needs in the grandma light development thread (link) that started 2 years ago, part of the discussion is repeated here. In practice, any light that works is good enough for most old people and flashlights like that are around already. If it is unreliable, put three of those in the drawer, one will likely work.

My approach was instead not to focus exclusively on what works for eldery people, but also make it desirable for us flashlight enthousiasts (and there are eldery flashlight nuts too, as BLF proves). That is why the magnetic ring came in (every flashoholic loves that), why compactness is required (no flashoholic likes a needless bulky light), why good tint and CRI was chosen, and it must look good too!

For me, a light like that, robust, always works, does not drain when not in use, with easy to use magnetic ring, with USB-C charging, with good tint, and not overly expensive, is as desirable as any cool new cutting edge performer with latest technology. And it works for grandma too.

of all the qualities of a flashlight I would probably say tint above all else is something that means absolutely nothing to the average grandma, muggle or even security guard or cop. I think I could give my friends and even my brother who is a cop three different tinted light and ask them afterwards what their favorite tint or colour was and all would go “huh?”

Just chiming in, I think a super basic but well-made, inexpensive light like this would be a fantastic option to have, not just for grandma. I would love to see Wurkkos pursue this.

This multi-stage slide switch would be the ideal system I think, easy to use even one-handed, and very obvious which mode the light is set to.

Something like 50/500 lumens would be great. For a single output level, I would think around 200 lumens could accomplish just about everything.


Most importantly, the light should be available in multiple bright, fun colors. A very simple design, like this Rayovac, but aluminum:

26650 would be the ideal battery, thick and high-capacity. 26800 would be amazing form-factor wise but it’s too obscure. It would be especially awesome if it could run off either one li-ion or multiple NiMH/Alkaline cells, just because so many people are averse to good batteries.

A quality driver running an inexpensive and efficient LED, something with a good balanced beam in a larger optic… maybe XHP50? Long runtimes and low heat with consistent output should be the goal. A large triple might work well too, I can’t speak for all but I feel like grandma would appreciate a beam with good coloration, I know mine does :laughing: Around 5000K would be great, it’s nice and “normal” so it wouldn’t put anyone off but would still be pleasant

Exactly. As much as I was trying to get her into using a “real” light, she kept going back to those craptastic 3×AAA lights, because they were simple on/off, and had just enough brightness to light up what she wanted to. No crazy modes, nothing.

Again:

People don’t want ¼-inch drills, they want ¼-inch holes.

Anyone designing new drills often forgets that.

Definitely interested in a grandma light.

One Mode. A Medium-ish 300 Lumens is plenty.
Can take primaries. As much as we hate alkaleaks.
Inexpensive. But a 1hour shutoff timer would be great if possible

For the interface I would say click for high/off, hold for ramp up/down. This seems more intuitive than cycling through even 2 modes and gives more flexibility as well.
Maybe have something like 10c to toggle memory mode on/off. Would have to be something not done accidentally to have it at all.

Single 2170 with usb-c seems good. I like the idea of charging only to 80% if it’s sitting around a lot.

Maybe offer it in lh351 and sst-20 2700k, 4000k, 6500k. I think color temp is actually something a lot of people notice. Some prefer the warm color and some associate coolness with bright/high tech. But not sure if offering this many options would lead to analysis paralysis and people buying for themselves would just move on to another light, or if they would just get whatever the default on amazon was and be fine with it.

Nothing with modes seems simpler than a rotary switch. It is very easy to turn, even with old hands.
Everyone knows how a volume knob works. Turn it clockwise for more output.

The Sofirn SD05 “diving” light only draws ~70uA when off. It has a 4AH 21700 battery. 4AH/70uA = 2381 days
The self drain on the battery is probably higher than that.

I checked a couple other magnetic ring dive lights marked Volador (Willcrew DX30 and DX60, thought to be manufactured by Sofirn). They also measured 70 to 80uA standby drain.

Point is, magnetic ring lights can be made with low drain. Now they need a USB port for charging. (no longer dive lights…).
The examples given are brighter than necessary. A lower output version of the SD05 with a charging port seems about perfect to me.

Since this doesn’t exist, for gift lights, I like dual switch lights with built in charging. Tail switch is on/off (most people get that), and side switch selects brightness mode. Flashlight works even if you forget it has a side switch! Problem is the charging. The tail switch is mechanical so the light must be turned “on” to charge. Not as easy or intuitive as a rotary switch, but these are available with charging.

FB

Get grandma a Porsche 911 and then when she says " You know I cain"t drive a stick .much less see the road .! "

Shrug and say "Oh man I forgot that .. can't return it so it looks like I'm stuck with it ."

"What do you think about paddle shifters granny ?"

After the final plan is confirmed, I will submit the project and start the design as soon as possible

What features/host are you looking at?

I thought we had dozens of such lights at home depos and walmarts.

They often run on C and D batteries.

Yes as well as AA and AAA, that is exactly what you want for a grandma light. tell a grandma that batteries she uses and has to charge, can explode, or catch on fire, it will not take a second before she tells you “get that crap out of my house and never bring it here again”. i got that from not so old people, they just do not want worry about another thing that can burn their house down, or something similar. not to mention they tend to forget things, like cells in charger for days. or accidentally put a cell wrong way, or something else, (iirc we had a thread about an explosion of a battery in a charger, that was not supposed to be recharged). or was it cpf?

You realize you don’t have to have a dedicated charger right? You can just build it in and have it cut off when finished charging. Cylindrical cells are safer than the pouch cells in your phone or your laptop and you don’t see people freaking out about those.

FWIW… my mother, who is a grandmother, uses a twisty light just fine. What I think would work well as a grandma light is a twisty with a low and high. And maybe a hidden SOS (low/high/off/low/high/off in continuous succession would trigger SOS).

Plenty of “Grandma” lights already available in hardware stores.