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.
To say I disliked them would be an understatement.
Steve
I agree 100%.
I have never used the mode (other than playing around), but I could see it’s use.
Lateck,
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).
Flashlight VENDORS.....MANUFACTURERS..... ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION ?????
請停止手電 SOS閃爍
我們不想要它Nope, probably not.
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.
In general I agree… Repeated taps should be treated as a bunch of single taps, changing mode each time.
But there might be an exception. I forget; have you tried Crescendo? What do you think about the way it maps multiple taps?
Strobe and SOS do nothing but attract Zombies
I was mostly talking about e-switch UIs. I haven’t used Crescendo, but it makes sense to me. It behaves kind of like some of the e-switch ramping UIs given the limitations of a single mechanical switch. Each shortcut in Crescendo does something distinct. It’s really close to a translation of the Armytek Pro-model e-switch UI (which I like) to a mechanical switch, but with ramping instead of 8 discrete modes.
What I find really objectionable is UIs where clicks cycle through a series of modes, so you’re likely to click repeatedly, but clicking too fast triggers some other action you didn’t want, usually in the form of a blinky mode.
I doubt that…
People i know who have used one of my lights HATE it when it unintentionally ends up in strobe mode or any other useless mode.
Frankly, i consider moonlight mode to be one of the useless modes too.
People want to see something when they turn the light on, so it should just turn on bright enough.
Even lo-mid-high 3 modes often means having to push a switch more than once, which is often not user friendly in real life.
Yeah, the ThorFire S70S is a good example of how annoying it can be.
4 modes that could have been 3 modes, and when you want to cycle through them faster you get 4000 Lumen strobe… :person_facepalming:
The hidden moon mode (long press from off) is too dim to be useful too…
As long as their hidden and not easily accessed, I’m ok with it. I personally don’t use them.
Only the slow 0,2-0,3Hz high/med and low beacon is useful to me.
I like having the HIDDEN blinking modes. It is one of those things that I don’t want in the normal sequence to change light levels. The blinky modes could be useful if you ever truly needed them. The vast majority of us will neve need them. Fortunately.
Bob
The poll could also include “yes, but as a hidden mode only”
personaly I’d much prefer a hidden beacon mode to strobe/SOS as its the best way to preserve run time fpr an emergency marker.
Personally hate those modes, probably useful for some particularly bike riders but I’ve no use for them at all. When available on a flashlight I want them to be hidden or otherwise require the user to select the mode group required. That way people who want the modes have access whilst others like me can avoid them too.
I think I speak for all BLF members when I say that we LOVE SOS Blinky modes!
Strobe, S.O.S., Beacon... they're all good... and don't hide them.
We love 'em so much that every mode should be a disco mode.
If it can't induce a seizure, it's totally worthless! 
The forum has gone to heroic ends to create extraordinarily epic drivers ……because budget light vendors continued to make lights with crap drivers in them . Even when members here open sourced their driver software to anyone who wanted to use it ….Manufacturers continued to be lazy and stupid …and cheap .Even Convoy had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the dark ages .Why it took anyone 3 years to use something so good that was offered freely is beyond me . Congrats to all the companies smart enough to use drivers better than many major brand light manufacturers …
I really like a alpine beacon and that’s it .Sos ,Strobe and even the bike blinky really piss me off .Strobes make users lose I.Q. points .
I recommend avoiding the flashy garbage …there are enough dumb lights out there already for those who like them.