If someone makes bargain-bin flashlights, are they really going to do any market research first?
I don’t like SOS mode either, but I doubt a poll will help. I’ve talked to some of the people who make that sort of light. Many just use whatever parts they can get cheap. Some actually do care about the UI, but they’d see “15% of people want SOS mode” and decide they need it on every light.
If BLF had a condorcet or approval voting system, a different type of poll might help a little… like “Rank these 10 modes by how much you want them”. Then companies might pick the top 5 or something, and if SOS isn’t in the top 5 they’d leave it out.
Plus, if I were going anywhere that I’d expect to get lost and need a rescue (middle of the ocean, out in the sticks, whatever), I’d want one of those dedicated egg-shaped omnidirectional strobes that can keep strobing for a coupla days straight, not a flashlight that just shoots its beam in one direction.
for an adult pool party ata friends house once? i first drove across the river form the house, and put a really cheap light i hated on “blinky” and left it there. Thought it was neat i could see it from the pool party.
no one noticed. As a HAM radio guy? i was probably the only person there that likely REALIZED the blinking was even an SOS call, lol
I POINTED OUT there was an ongoing “SOS call” going off non stop, up in the woods on the far hill? NO ONE thought anyone should call anyone to tell them.
===
i decided, after that? SOS mode was useless as t!ts ona bull, in todays world…
All these one dimensional reasons to not have strobe available in your flashlight are unrealistic. If you are tracking into the wilderness, you want to carry as little weight as possible and have several means of signaling. Single-purpose items mean more weight. Also, you don't have to go on a wilderness track to get in trouble. Say your car goes off the road into a raven where you're hidden from view. Your pinned, can't reach your phone, it's dead, cell service does reach that spot your in, etc. Pointing that $10 flashlight in your pocket up at the trees above the roadway might be the one thing that gets you some attention.
EDIT: That being said. Strobe, SOS, etc in the main mode selection cycle is not something I tolerate in my lights. Best hidden, but easy to access.
If the sos/strobe is hidden i dont mind, On a number of flashlight if you double click the button fast while the flashlight is on, that gets you into strobe.
Agreed when it comes to true outdoors flashlights.
Small 18650 tube lights in the Convoy S class are not what I carry into the wilderness, except as lightweight backups. When three quarters of my lights are just accessories I wear in an urban setting, this point no longer holds true. I prefer these without unnecessary and complicating features, even hidden.
True. However we are headed towards a general survivalist mindset metatalk here. I’m an awful lot more worried in case I drove off the road if I didn’t have seat belt cutters(two kinds of, including preinstalled on the belt) in the vehicle than whether my flashlight has disco modes. A decent window breaker tool or two is important too. Actually I’d be worried about freezing to death after an otherwise survivable crash in case all occupants are unconscious, it’s cold and outer layer of clothing has been removed as is typical during winter for longer trips. There’s probably a hundred more relevant threats and solutions than being trapped unnoticed in a ditch or ravine and having a SOS blinking flashlight. In case the light helps, having it in the first place is probably more important than blinking modes.
Same here. Any light with forced disco modes is an unfinished project and on queue for a driver swap or modification to remove this unnecessary and hazardous feature.
I think sos and strobe should be hidden. Double click, reverse to strobe sos etc. In my area I use strobe a lot. We have raccoons and possums that come and take feed. And the strobe makes them run off mostly. 2000lumen xpl2 strobe really shocks them. The sos to me is good if broke down at night or changing a tire. You can put it out to make other drivers aware, without making it look like a nightclub outside. A beacon at 1/second would work to. Besides roadside repairs I’ve never needed SoS mode. But glad to know its their. Especially living by large water masses and thick woods. If on your last struck of luck a sos signal would last longer in the woods or water then strobe. Say your lost been walking around your battery is starting to deplete. You call for help or don’t return at designated time. Your flashes of light from sos will last much longer then strobe will. But if your in the city or suburbs chances are sos/strobe will never be needed
I’ve noticed this as well if going into a area I’m not familiar with but know will lose service in the sticks. If yly set the GPS before you lose signal it works fine as long as it can reach a satellite signal.
I use to do a lot of geocaching and in some areas signal is spotty to non existent.
We can take that situation, your flashlight is much stronger then your cell phone. I’d bet that if you drop your phone or crashed into a tree your cell phone would be cracked or crushed before ypur flashlight would be unusable. And most traffic would probably keep driving someone would eventually call and report it and or if a cop or similar passed by would stop and investigate.
A $20 light can be fine in the woods or ocean. Granted much better choices. But my eagle eye x6 stock got rained on, dropped multiple times and kept on trucking. Convoy c8 as well is durable. I do landscaping and carry my x6 daily. Rough vibration from weedeaters hours daily. Used in rain, dropped in mud/puddles. When you get tired you’ll put the weedester against your side at times. Pretty much direct vibration on your flashlight. 10,000rpm unbalanced vibration. Flashlight parts are cheap. I’d trust a stock eagle eye x6 in any wilderness. I’ve since rebuilt it led swap with extra thick solder joints to handle the abusive vibrarions. But for over a year it took it 5 days a week 8-12 hours a day just fine. Mud, water fresh and salt its never let water in. So there are some $20 lights that are extremely tough and I’d trust in the bush or on the water.
But back on topic I don’t want sos or strobe in the ui rotation. But I do have a use for them in hidden menus.
I don’t have a use for SOS or strobe, so I’d rather have something else in the mode slots.
I can see a use for a 1Hz beacon, a bike strobe or a battery check mode, though, so I’m fine with those, as long as they’re hidden or placed at the end of a no-memory mode sequence so I can do a long press to skip them.
If we only could find the guy in China responsible for deciding on putting SOS into the driver chips.
And talk to him.
Whoever he is.
Yeah, I’d much rather see a bike strobe filling that slot.
It would be quite useful — both for pedestrians crossing busy streets, for bicyclists, and
heck, a bike strobe would work to attract attention just as effectively as the “SOS” signal in an emergency ’come help me out here” signal.
I hate blinky disco modes. I won’t buy a light that forces me to go from low to hi modes through a disco. Its not 2005 anymore. In 2017 there are just too many affordable options. No reason to force-disco onto myself anymore (thankfully).
Any fool buying a new light will look at all those modes and imagine just how many times he’ll be able to use them.
Someone who never went camping or sailing or anything, ever, will imagine himself lost in the woods or in the middle of the ocean, and how his handy-dandy new Nuculer Blast™ flashlight will save his life by allowing S&R to find him.
Or just, “Hee-yuk! These blinky modes are kewl!!! Derp…”.
There are a lot more of Them than there are of Us.
I don’t actually mind having blinky modes, but I do mind when they’re in the way, and they’re almost always in the way.
With dual-switch lights, it’s usually a long-press or double-click. I’d rather have the long-press change regular modes in the opposite order as a short press. A double-click, when a single-click changes modes is easy to activate by accident and really obnoxious. No UI should ever combine single-click to change modes with double-click to do anything.
It’s often similar with e-switch lights, but I’ve seen even worse offenses against good design with those. The big advantage of an e-switch is that there can be shortcuts from off to useful modes like low and high. I’ve seen lights where the only shortcut from off is to strobe (the regular on/off action is mode memory).
Armytek and Zebralight do this well with single clicks being on/off and shortcuts to high, medium and low being easier to access than blinky modes. If you’re designing an e-switch UI and you don’t have an idea that’s unambiguously better (and you probably don’t), copy one of those.
