Recently tested a Convoy M21F with the ramping driver.
But I really wanted to buy an S21E…… however I’m having 2nd thoughts based on trying out this driver.
By and large the UI is ok. The ramping is a little funky, kind of feels sluggish to react then rockets from one end of the ramp to other in a blink of an eye.
Not a deal breaker for me….
But this is:
If you click and hold from off you get Moonlight (well low, I assume the same output as low end of the ramp).
Great…. BUT BUT BUT.
There is no way to slightly increase output once in this mode.
I find I often want to turn a light on in its lowest mode, to preserve night vision, not blind myself and not piss other people off who might be near by. Use case is mostly indoors or in a vehicle. Outside is less of an issue, but an S21E would be firmly an EDC carry….
When in Moonlight you can double click for Turbo —— never ever gonna use this.
Turn it off.
Turn it off and single click on —- which instantly produces a mystery box of the mode memory and you’ll have no clue to what mode it’ll activate on. Likely high if you used the light outside or for ceiling bounce illumination.
Such a shame as other than this Humdinger of design flaw the light looks great spec and price.
Hoping Simon might see this and have a way forward in updating the driver UI to allow you to access the ramping modes after you turn it on in Moonlight. Really that is all it needs and I’d then be more than happy to buy one or more of these.
I agree that mode memory in general sort of sucks. Whenever possible, I disable it. The answer for Convoy would be to allow the user to disable it and always have the light come on at low. Or, yes, enable ramping from moonlight. (the cheap little Sofirn SC18s that I just got allow this)
But, it is not a “mystery box of mode memory”. The light simply comes on at the last used level. My solution is to always set the light to low before turning it off. Problem solved.
Probably not the most elegant solution, as it requires the user to actually think… but it works. So I don’t consider this to be a fatal flaw…
Just for discussion… not argument, Because I have no desire to change your mind. I quite respect your perspective! But, if I find a light that I like overall and want to continue to use it, in spite of an imperfection, then a minor workaround, is definitely a solution for my dilemma.
I agree, your solution is to just find something that doesn’t have any features that annoy you. I wish you the best of luck… so far, I have not found any flashlight that meets all of my expectations and desires perfectly.
BTW, there are a few threads here that Simon monitors and answers questions in. Maybe it would be worth posting a feature request in one of them. OR PM him and ask him directly. I know that you are not the only one that has commented on this… Who knows? With enough input, maybe he will fix the perceived problem.
The ramping driver overall needs a rework. My guess is that Simon wanted to offer a less-complicated alternative to Anduril, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. After having tried the ramping driver on one convoy, I am resolved not to buy any other lights from convoy with that driver in it. Simon’s hosts are great, and some of the e-switch models do look attractive to me, but the driver just doesn’t cut it. It unfortunately is a dealbreaker for me. I totally understand OP’s sentiment.
Not to dog pile on here, but Pioneman uses the same driver in their K36 (their version of the M21F). I concur with the criticisms expressed thus far. In my sample, the driver bricked about two months ago. Received in February, so it’s demise was well out of any “warranty” period, and from experience not worth the effort of pursuing any remedy from P-man. I’m not a modder, so a driver replacement is not in my wheelhouse. The switch was terrible as well (although I see they’ve changed it up in their recent rework of the design). Shame, because I wanted to like it and it was my only MAO light at the time. It’s a nice looking paper weight, though.
I, also wouldn’t consider another light with that driver.
Convoy’s e-switch UI needs some work. Anduril would be perfect on these lights, but otherwise Simon may need to look at the latest UIs from the competition. Skilhunt’s latest UI, Sofirn, Acebeam, etc.
Something like this for example.
Click on to last used mode/click off.
Hold to advance modes.
Hold from off for moonlight then hold against to advance up from there.
Double press from off/on to turbo
Triple for strobe I guess.
4 to lock/unlock with momentary low mode
And just drop the ramping if it’s going to suck. Non anduril ramping can’t seem to get the speed right, shooting through the low end too fast.
