whatever the manker U11 uses - is too low, i think it is 0.2 lumens
you can;t see @#$ % with it
wle
I read the low is 1 lumen on that U11
whatever works for your situation is the right thing
you are probably dealing with non black of night adaptation… with more ambient stray light affecting your dark adaptation
the lowest firefly on the Manker E02, is only useful to me when I wake up in pitch black darkness, to see the toilet paper, before I go back to sleep
that firefly is definitely useless during the day, I cant tell its on, unless I hold the LED up to my eyeball
tritiums are also useless during the day, but amazingly useful to see a light on the nightstand, when I wake in the middle of the night…
you may not be of an age that wakes up multiple times needing to pee
thats when firefly became relevant to me
I dont like turning on the bathroom light, in the middle of the night
hope thats not too graphic
different strokes for different horses
Exactly this! I have the Manker E02 and it is very good for this, second only to the RRT 01
[quote=cyclops]
Sorry, I was just referring to the specs. I have the orignal run Ti which I think many of us got for $5 
Its my most fav middle of the night bathroom use light!
[/quote]
Sorry Jon the Thrunite Ti he's talking about is a 2 mode crusher in aluminum with like 5 colors not the silver three mode light you own .
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/9006#new
Also a thrower in a moon mode vs a floody light may have the same numbers and yet look like one is much brighter .
I use rechargeable and never really sleep with the light on, but during the summer, I travel on long motorcycle trips and camp each night. My bike (Harley Ultra Limited) has lighter ports and even a usb port, so I can typically charge during the riding day.
However, in the fall and winter I backpack and camp where there is no.power and no ambient light. I have a 21w solar panel for sunny days, but I want to take lights with me that can hold up to several days use without charging.
It is amazing how much light .5 or 1 lumen can be with a diffuser in a tent when there is no ambient light (overcast…no stars or moon). I camp where the nearest town (population 298) is 15 miles away, so it is DARK!
I just got a Manker E02 and armytek wizard pro Nichia, both very low Firefly modes!
Has anyone on BLF ever proposed a “Moonlight/Firefly Challenge?” Perhaps a challenge in which we post about activities and duties we were able to perform using the moonlight mode? It would be interesting to see what folks could accomplish using this mode on their light. Last night I left my Thrunite T1 on moonlight mode when I went to sleep. I placed a diffuser on it and woke up while it was still dark outside and was pretty pleased with the amount of light .5 lumens gave me.
I spent 20 days hiking the JMT with a Thrunite Ti-3. I will admit I did use the low mode occasionally, but 90% of the time I used moonlight in camp for cooking, inside my tent, or just in my sleeping area when a tent wasn’t needed. One Li primary lasted the whole trip, and is still in the light.
Did you have a spare?
Glad to see someone else mention the Ti3 for the very nice moonlight. Used to be my favorite as well. Currently would be the Tiara. Moonlight modes are kind of an interesting thing to me. As far as I am concerned they are essential for an EDC light. What a moonlight mode is and what makes it good is another story. Bottom line for me is that I can see what I must in the dark without disturbing night vision or those around me.
It took me a while to appreciate the low moonlight mode on the Tiara as it is noticeably lower than any other light I have. The second moonlight mode is rather amazing to me in that it is a very useful amount of light that doesn’t mess much with night vision but it would disturb a sleeping partner or those around you at a concert if you want to read the program so I wouldn’t really consider it a moonlight mode but more of a very very efficient low light mode. It is good to have both.
I did, for half the trip. I had sent it ahead to one of our resupply spots. So I had to carry an extra battery for the last 100 miles.
I never did any calculations, but here’s one. Li primary AAA is roughly 1200mAhr. Current on moonlight mode is about 10mA with the Li Primary. So that’s 120 hrs worth of low, or moonlight. Medium is about 60mA, so a total of 20 hrs on medium. Even if I used it 2 hrs a night on moon, and 15 minutes on medium (I never used high) 20*60/4+20*10*2=900mAhr. So still 300mAhr to spare. I bet I never used the light 2 hours any night of the trip.
Now my favorite moonlight mode is the aux board on my D4 with a short tube. Its always on, 24/7. I put it down on the dresser next to my bed, with head down on a small decorative recess on the top. I can easily find the light at night, don’t need to turn it on, and it can last about 500hrs on a charge using only the aux board. Of course the light gets used daily for other tasks as well (my EDC) so I’m charging it every 3 weeks or so.
My ZebraLight SC52w L2 0.01 lumen moonlight mode, besides being pretty cool, is essentially used as a reversed lighted tailcap to find in the middle of the night next to the bed. The only time I use it that way is on vacation (or away from home) when I don’t bring my other flashlights. It’s amazing that the flashlight has such a wide range of lumens!
Tiara is my most recent light…and I agree. Plus, 60 advertised days of moonlight mode is impressive is such a compact package. I wonder how long it will stay lit with the new battery in it. I replaced the 900mah with an 1100mah vapcell. I am new and not familiar with calculating runtime.
What I do to avoid disturbing others is simply use aspheric flooder in low mode.
Aspheric’s sharp beam cutoff means that there’s no spill going sideways and it’s easy for me to avoid shining at them. Then only reflections reach them and reflections are way less than even minimal direct light.
I don’t want to take mine out of rotation long enough to test it. Most likely it will do more than 60 days with that battery. I have the A1 so have less battery capacity available. Have only run tested on high so far and the specs for that are definitely conservative.
I bought extra Vapcell 18350s so I think I might just go ahead and do a runtime test on my Tiara C1. I have enough lights that I can take it off line for a couple of months. Just really curious about actual vs advertised results…not to mention the higher mah cells.
I suggest you get a light meter… and create some sort of lumen reference… here is a cheap and practical example:
…
made an interesting discovery about lumens today
it is sunny, at noon, and my light meter was reading
1.2 lumens in the shade on my desk, and
34 lumens in the sun on my desk
I went outside and pointed the meter directly at the sun and got 67 lumens…
this is the first time I have tested ambient light levels… it gives me some perspective regarding the flashlights I use, and at what brightness…
I have a lot of fun with my light meter, it is also useful for runtime tests, because brightness changes greatly during runtime
a simple light meter I use:
it helps me to check if I need to change batteries, without opening the light…
when output drops to about 50%, I recharge…
I did not have a styrofoam ball, thats just a plastic lid from a vitamin jar, with a few pieces of paper underneath, that I used to calibrate to the output of a known light…
…
imo a voltmeter is also an important tool to use during runtime tests
I dont have the patience for runtime tests that take more than a day
Im happy just to be able to verify lumen levels, and test the maximum mode for runtime, to get some idea of what to expect
Yeah, I really do need to set up a light meter. I should set a low lumen cut off point for the the test. Maybe go in a set points during the day and measure output to see if there is a drop?
That set up looks pretty simple. Thanks!
for a sub lumen runtime test, I would use a low voltage cutoff to end the test… 3.0v for example, w LiIon
for a higher output runtime test, I set a timer to recheck periodically
Use a 1/4 fraction for the alarm. I might set a timer for once per hour, if the runtime is claimed to be 4 hours…
some reviews have really nice runtime charts… I dont know how to do that, or what equipment it takes
here is a commercially available intergrating tube built by one of our members, that comes precalibrated
click the pic for more details