Rotary flashlight design idea - rear dial

Quick prefix: this is a design idea and not a mod per se, so if I’ve got this in the wrong category, my upfront apologies.

I really love the control of infinitely-variable rotary dial lights! But I have this idea that I’ve always wanted to see made and I wonder if I’m not the only one: a light like the Nitecore SRT-6 or the JetBeam RRT01 Raptor with a forward clicky in back, but move the rotary dial all the way back there as well so you can work the switch with your thumb and then without flipping the flight around in your grip, be able to spin the dial up or down as needed. This would have a few downsides that I can foresee which wouldn’t bother me but could be deal-breakers for others. It would definitely make keep carry pocket clips difficult or impossible, and of course would also basically mandate a hammer grip. And it might make internals more complicated since the driver/sensor would have to be on the tail end away from the emitter.

I imagine there’s no real demand for a setup like this or it would already exist, but it’s a light design I think I would love, so I had to see what others think of the idea.

HDS rotary?

LOL, right you are! I don’t know why in the world I thought it used a rotary head… I discovered those years ago but I guess the price point put them out of my mind and I forgot they do indeed have what I’m imagining… I haven’t looked them up in a while, I wonder what they have in the lineup these days. Maybe I should just save a little bit longer for one of them…

Imalent DM21 (2015) has both wheel and button on tailcap.

I gots one.

Dang that looks really cool… adjustable spot/flood too! I won’t lie, I kinda want one but I think it’s just a bit large for my EDC. I’m digging seeing these lights I didn’t know about!

Ahh, very nice! I looked that up, that’s an interesting idea with the dial being partially ‘shielded’ by the body tube, I hadn’t thought of that. It would solve one of my theoretical problems of accidentally twisting the dial during pocket carry.

The old Niteye MSA10/MSA20/MSCxx were magnetic ring rotaries at the tailswitch.

Yes. That and HDS Rotary.

The idea of a magnetic ring at the tailcap is not new.

Overall, I think it’s a good idea. With both the switch and the ring at the tailcap it might be possible to operate all the controls one-handed. No need to flip the light around or use two hands like with the more common arrangement of ring in front and switch in back.

Sadly, I’m not aware of any new magnetic ring lights with the ring in the back. Magnetic Rings as a whole seem to be mostly out of fashion. There are fewer good quality modern options available now than there were 10 years ago.

IF you must have a button Plus a dial, then yes, putting them both on the tail makes sense.

And yes, that creates a pocket clip challenge

personally, I prefer no button, Just a Dial,
the two RRT-01 models before 2020, got that right:

the dial on the head naturally lands between my fingers when I unclip the light… no other manipulations necessary
the clip screws to the tail without issue
the dial does not rotate by itself in my pocket