Hello :-)

Introduce Yourself
1

tl;dr: Hello! :slight_smile:

Long version:

Hello,

I have been reading posts here in the last months and finally I signed in. I got into flashlights with a Sofirn SC31 Pro a little bit over a year ago. I introduce myself by telling you what I like and donā€™t like about my four/five flashlights. :wink:

Sofirn SC31 Pro

  • What I like about the SC31 Pro: Anduril User Interface is amazing, moonlight mode, small, compact, bright, still a little bit of throw, usb-c-charging.
  • What I donā€™t like: I bought the cold white (6500k) versionā€¦ Yeah, it was a mistakeā€¦
    Recently I changed the LED to a 4000k LH351D with High Cri! :slight_smile: I bought the new LED on an mcpcb board, but still, it was not easy because I have no experience in soldering. Now the beam has more rings than before. I bought the wrong TIR lenses (only flat ones) which look not so good. I will buy other TIR lenses or perhaps an SST40 5000k. Donā€™t know yet. :smiley:
    I think the Sofirn SC31 Pro is a very good light!

Astrolux ST01 (SST40 LED)
I wanted something with more throw but still small. The ST01 throws not quite as far as I expected because the review I saw had measured very high throw numbers.

  • What I like: still small enough for me; bright, good throw for itā€™s size, usb-c-charging.

- What I donā€™t like: Hold-for-off, user interface, a little bit less throw than in reviews, a little bit bigger than I expected (diameter at widest: 30mm; the specs and the review: 27,5mm).

  • Hold-for-off: I donā€™t like that I have to hold the button for a short time to turn the light off. I am slowly getting used to it but it is not really for me. A short click to turn the light off is better. I also donā€™t like other things in this user interface: I have to cycle through all the modes and over the brightest modes (turbo) to switch down to a lower mode. For outdoors not good, but especially indoors a problem where turbo is just too bright.
    The Astrolux ST01 is good, BUT the user interface is a dealbreaker for me personally.

Astrolux A01
Small keychain flashlight, AAA recharchable battery. I think it has Nichia 4500k with high cri. I like the light for itā€™s simplicity. But of course I have not much experience with other ones, except:

Astrolux K2 (gave it away to familiy):
Itā€™s impressive bright and throws far (for the keychain size), nice 4000k (SST20-LED high cri), usb-c-charging. It has many features like some additional colour leds, but also a good basic UI, like ramping up AND DOWN. The switch is a little bit too small and hard to click.
Not really negative or positive: Those small lights just have shorter runtimes than bigger ones. But they are small. :wink:
I think it is a very good, little keychain flashlight. Since I gave my first one away to family, I will probably buy another one for myself in the future. :slight_smile:

Convoy S21A (XHP50.2 LED 4000k)
I think it is good. The 12 mode driver is good. Not as good as Anduril. But for me it is much better than the UI of the Astrolux ST01 because I can always jump back to the lowest mode (no need to switch through all the higher modes first). And of course: one normal click to turn the light off.

BUT I have some issues with the Convoy S21A since I use it with a TIR lens for cycling. It changes modes and turns off by itself. I will open a thread with more details later and will ask for your help/advice. :smiley:

cu

2

It's a pleasure to know you, Peppergeo!

3

Welcome!

There arenā€™t very many things that are universally agreed on around here, but Iā€™ve never seen anybody say anything positive about long-click for off. I still have stupid bike lights that have it, but I got rid of all my flashlights with that obnoxious monstrosity of UI design.

4

Thank you! Iā€™m happy that Iā€™m not aloneā€¦ :blush:

5

Ummm, almost all early lights with e-switches used longpress for on/off, and click for mode-switching. I was teethed on those lights.

Longpress for on and shortpress for off, or v/v, is retarded, horribly asymmetric. Thatā€™s why I rarely buy Wubens; great hardware, brain-damaged UI.

For a pocket-light, longpress for on would somewhat reduce accidental turn-on, so would also have longpress for off. That was the norm, and like I said, almost all early e-switch lights had that. (original SP10, F1, SP31, etc.)

Only fairly recently did shortpress for on/off come into vogue, so now longpress for on/off is being pushed out. Custom UIs were almost always longpress on/off; those with narsim/andy made shortpress on/off common.

So I can go either way, as long as I can ā€œget used to itā€ when switching lights.

6

Welcome to BLF Peppergeo! Looks like youā€™re on your way to modding some of your flashlights. If so, I suggest you get a decent soldering station sooner than later. Doesnā€™t have to be that expensive, but will make a big difference vs just using a cheapo soldering iron.

7

Hi all! Iā€™m from New York City! Iā€™m new here!

8

^ This ā€œlarry123ā€ joined and made 2 spam posts shortly after this one. Attempt at a spam bot, I think.

9

I donā€™t mind it, but only for small EDC lights, like keychain ones with sealed enclosures (no physical lockout). RovyVon used the double-click for ON to circumvent accidental activations and then uses a long press to turn off, because single clicks advance brightness. For larger format flashlights, long press is a real annoyance.