I keep hearing about how these strobe modes are supposed to disorient. I don’t find them that disorienting, more like irritating. It also seems like if they are disorienting, that the person holding the light would be nearly as disoriented as the person at which it is pointed.
Yes, I understand the light will be brighter when pointed into your eyes versus away from them, but in a confined area, a good deal of the light will be coming back at you anyway.
I agree completely. A 6000 lumen light in the eyes will be quite painful to the other guy but give you full visibility with no downsides.
A strobe has almost the same effect on you as the other guy.
I see no reason for strobes other then for fun.
Did you guys read the full OP of the CPF link? I've also heard the benefit of strobe modes directly (ok - one person in between) from current Special OPS guys.
Everyone has a right to their opinion, but I tend to listen to the guys that use it, have experience with it, have been trained with it, and have conducted tests and studies.
Of course though, Spec OPS tend to carry small light weight tactical lights, so 500-1000 lumens is more the norm for them, so a BLF GT in not quite is the same category, to say the least...
To date I have never seen of or heard anyone in the US ever be trained or told to use a strobe mode under any conditions. Thats not to say it can’t happen but when I have asked about it, they all gave an answer like mine above. The effect on the good guys outweighs the effect on the bad guys over a solid beam of light in the eyes.
From personal experience I can say I have noticed the same thing, a strobe is simply annoying, the actual beam of light in the eyes is what actually causes any kind of tactical advantage to the user.
As long as the strobes are hidden and/or can be disabled I don’t mind them, I just don’t see a real world use case where they would actually be a benefit.
Keep in mind those studies in Europe was done for pairs of officers. The officer that was holding the light was basically limited to holding the light while the partner moved around to apprehend the subject. Things change when it is just a single person.
If a self-defense situation all you should need is the reflex slamming of the eye lids that happens from having a bright blasted into the eyes. By the time they open them again you should either have your gun drawn or be half way down the block.
If I have a chunk of aluminum the size and weight of the GT on my hands, the strobe is the last thing I would try on a self-defense situation.
Tom,
Yes, I have read that post in the past, and just read it again. There is plenty of good information there, and I really appreciate all the work you have done on this UI to incorporate it.
From the CPF post:
I’m still a noob but I’m pretty sure that the Q8 is much more in the flood camp than the ’tight beam’ camp.
(Which is unimportant cause this is the GT thread - d’oh)
I don’t know how close to a ‘tunnel of light’ the GT will be, so perhaps this will make a difference.
I understand that you are adding this function to a light that is attempting to be a whole lot of things. I’m also betting that 99% of the people who think they want this tactical strobe are never going to actually train with it at all. It’s more a warm blanket feeling of “it will make me safe”.
I’ve said it before,
This is the GT BLF thread.
Whups, you are right. Will edit.
I'l double check with my Spec OPS source. He's been out in San Diego at the Seals facility least a couple of times in support of the equipment we have out there. He heard it from them, and another Seal in the Washington DC area. Since it went through just one guy to me who heard it direct from a Seal, I kind of figured it's pretty reliable.
Of course this could have 2-3 years ago, and lots of things could have changed. I'm curious myself, but again, everyone can have their own opinion. I do know Maxtoch sells mostly to hunters, law enforcement and military, so interesting they not only support strobe modes, but dedicated a button to it on one of their newest model. I also know they have a history or listening to us and making changes directly from customer input. They were one of the first to sell a true dedomed thrower on a large scale, and this was from us directly.
Top level spec ops guys all train a bit different and have different gear. I have no doubt that there are situations where a strobe would be used. Remember though that once again, those are teams of guys, just like the study in Europe.
I should have been more clear, I have never heard of anyone being trained to use a normal flashlight strobe when alone.
I mean common sense says that if strobes even worked 25% as good as people describe you would see Cops using them daily. It would make their life so much easier and safer.
Strobe works fine, Police strobe as well, I just try to avoid them 
. NarsilM is now patched for full functionality in the GT.
The only real difference, from the MCU perspective, is that the two control channels are not additive, they multiply instead. This affects the ramping tables, mode-set definitions and brightness definitions for things like moon-mode, blinks and strobes.
On regards to disorientation, remove the remote phosphor from an led and switch it on. It is extremely disorientating with no strobe so with a strobe, this would be very very effective.
Just the reflection from a surface is enough, I wouldn’t like to get it shone directly in my eyes
Right on for the 18 Hz strobe Tom. This is NarsilM on the GT, LED current in yellow, MCU pin 5 in blue:
Tricky to get clean traces on a SM circuit without $$$ equipment, but this should give an idea of what we have.
Turn-on transient, 0 to 2.5 A, nice and smooth, no glitches:
Ditto for turn-off:
Zoom in on LED ripple current at 2.5 A. We are at about 30 mA (1.2%), the hairs on top of that can be ignored, that is EMI picked up by the scope:
PWMing to get output lower than 20%:
This is what the switching node is up to (this is the junction of the FET, inductor and recirculating diode - the heart of the buck convertor):
And just for fun, related to above discussion, police strobe:
Narsil ramp to 2.5 A, blink to indicate 100%, then ramp back down to 0.
The ramp programmed at the moment is a cube-root curve, similar to TK’s firmware. (The noisy part below 20% is where the PWM kicks in.)
Ramp table:
Great work with the firmware, DEL.
How low can the output go? I don’t find super low moonlights very important in this kind of light, but I’m curious.
Thanks for all the work you are putting into this.
With the analog dimming set to 20% the light starts to turn on with PWM dimming at 2/255. I measured 0.44 mA with that setting, which is pretty low.
Edit: Firmware is all Tom’s labor of love. I just tweaked some settings to fit the hardware.
+1 on the thanks for all the work your putting in DEL.
Some of the waves look like they would be a surfers dream. 
Nice work DEL, despite not grasping all the scoping stuff it sure looks great 
even for me
Thank you very much Tom,it is what I wanted exactly.
Wow DEL - those measurements leave no doubt, for sure. The police strobe is cool, then PWM is shown clearly, and the ramping,and plotted! Wow!! I'll have to show that post to my EE buddy here. Of course they do this kind of stuff all the time, but our scopes, analyzers and stuff are somewhat dated.