New light on Kickstarter called "DARKFADE"

… 45degree angle . Why not 48 or 38? We can set any angle on L or T shape headlamps and have free hands! Why not to make just a horizontal clip for headlamp to wear it on your front pocket or pant belt? BTW its nice to wear headlamp on neck too.

I’m all for innovation and new designs, so I’m glad these guys are trying something a bit different.

That said, some flaws prevent me being interested in this light (mostly covered already):

1) tilt to adjust brightness is a bit of a gimmick for me, as others have said, how’d you change brightness if it’s clipped to your belt etc…?

2) I don’t agree with their super-ergonomic design claims, if I’m out walking, this design will require me to walk around with my arm up like a t-rex… I still find tube lights with side button most convenient.

3) Didn’t watch the video (I hate the dumbing down, “video-ification” of communicating) but how does this work as a headlamp? I want the light pointing where I’m looking!.

As an additional comment, my first impression was that this was a tilt forward/back for brightness light, which would have actually made more sense (tip forward to light your feet, requires less light than pointing up at the path ahead).

Can’t wait til we get a BLF light that does this.

If it could run something like MicroPython then you could potentially record and create different interfaces with the accelerometer and machine learning.

Some ideas:

  • Shake for strobe
  • Beacon mode when dropped (accidentally)
  • Turn off thermal step down if being thrown
  • Don’t turn on in pocket

And please don’t forget: “Gimme all ya got” (if you need to jump over the bad guys).

Ten years or so ago I remember Maglite introduced these 1in diameter cylindrical LED 3XAA LED flashlights with tailswitch. I got the 200XL model, and it was a programmable multimode light that used position sensing for its UI. What I loved most is the same as the the big innovative feature on the Darkfade:

Hold the button down and twist the light axially for variable ramping brightness. It was incredibly intuitive and simple to use compared to the L-M-H-Strobe-SOS sequential UI hell, hold for OFF that plagued almost all lights at that time. That motion sensing of the 200XL was sheer genius and I wonder why it was unique to that Mag 200XL... until the Darkfade.

The price is way too high, but at least they're using a Samsung LH351D and user swap 18650s. Darkfade is very proud of its charging circuit offering full functionality connected to a Powerbank with USB-C. Clearly a near field flood task light with that lens.

I applaud any attempt at innovation and give them credit for that. 45 degrees, hmm? Alas the price is a deal breaker. A for effort, Darkfade.

There’s a program called GlovePIE that allows actions from a Wii remote to emulate keyboard/mouse actions. Might be worth looking into if you’re interested in this kind of thing.

I really do like the idea of a multifunction/multicarry flashlight. And that’s why I’ve carried an armytek wizard everyday for the last 3 years. I keep the clip on the tail end for a deep carry in a cargo pocket. The clip goes on in multiple positions in both directions. So if you do have it clipped to some piece of clothing or harness that’s not dead center you can rotate it to point the light directly in front of you or wherever you want it. Same thing when you have it on the ground. You can achieve whatever upwards angle you want. The wizard is going to win in clipping it to various things on your person over this clip that doesn’t rotate or go to deep carry. Button tops or flat tops. A very wide smooth beam pattern with no discernible hotspot. In the advanced mode you can come on in Firefly or in the main mode or in the turbo mode or if you really want you can come on in the blinkies. You can lower the level without going up or you can raise the level without going down. The switch functions as a battery level indicator. It is not perfect but once you understand it you can get a pretty good idea of where you’re at voltage wise. You can put it into the headlight mount without removing the clip depending on where you have the clip. The wizard has a high Cri model at 4500k. I use the C2 pro warm at 4000k. I think it’s pretty clear they studied the wizard and a few other models over the last few years. They probably were looking at a right angle light and couldn’t really come up with something that was better than options that were already available. They finally came up with something that is different but I don’t see where it is better at all.

I like it. If the reviews are good, I’d buy it.
I don’t understand why everyone is so negative. Sure, some of the marketing stuff is just unnecessary patting themselves on the back, but they’re not wrong. The light looks much better than any right-angle light I’ve seen, there’s no rubber flap on the USB, you can use any 18650, the Samsung LED is universally liked, the way to change brightness is interesting and might work great. All of us have dozens of flashlights that are largely the same, this is a breath of fresh air for me. I haven’t bought a new light for probably a year now, there’s just nothing interesting on the market in my two favorite categories - 18650 and 14500. Thought of getting the Skilhunt M150 but honestly their logo is so ugly that it annoys me every time I see it.
One objectively bad parameter is the price. But I’m sure after they sell the initial batches, the demand (if there is a demand in the first place) will cool down and maybe a few months down the road we’re gonna start seeing discounts.

You know, the fact that the the flashlight is supposed to have drag-and-drop software updates makes me wonder if someone can macgyver this thing to run Anduril….
Would make the whole acceleratorometer thing pointless, but it’s a funny thought!

I keep thinking… what if you’re left handed?

I’m not sure what difference that would make?

Have you ever tried to rotate your left wrist clockwise 180 degrees?

Just did it, no problem and I have nerve damage in my left hand. It’s literally no different from the right hand, you just start palm up with the left vs palm down with the right. If you have a problem doing 180 degrees clockwise with your left, do you have a problem doing 180 degrees counterclockwise?

Do you often find yourself picking up a flashlight and holding it with your palm up? Is that a supposedly easier/faster/better way to turn on a flashlight? And where is the button that must be held down while this action is being done? It’d probably be quite difficult to reach it comfortably with the light held that way. Or perhaps the light would be held reversed as well, to make the button easily reachable. But then, you’d be shining the light at yourself…

I wonder where they sourced the stainless steel bezel as it exactly looks like the one from my Skilhunt H04 RC (down do the bevel on the edges etc). Even the optics looks similar. Maybe the same manufacturer?

Aren’t their lights made in China? If so your point is moot.

Yes but there’s also no way these lights are manufactured in the USA. Maybe partially assembled, but probably not.

Nevermind about the point being moot —my statement was a non sequitur. But either way, Zebralight doesn’t have much to do with the situation.

Has it been established the ramping works from off? If not then it’s not even an issue. It’s quite simple, left hand or right hand, the light is held with the button facing upward and rotated 90 degrees either clockwise to dim or 90 degrees counterclockwise to brighten. So if the ramping does work from off, a right handed person would face the same “issue” if they wanted to turn the light on at full brightness.

It’s not even an issue,grab the light as you normally would and rotate your wrist and hit the button and proceed to hold the light in a comfortable position.

Regardless though, the light is programmable anyway, so the controls could be reversed for lefties anyway if they want it that way.

No no no