Deleted!
Why Fake?
Our flashlights are manufactured in the factory: NINGBO SUNGLAD LIGHTING CO., LTD.
A few stock photos installed by mistake does not make us a fake.
We have a small team, and we are flashlight enthusiasts who want to launch our own project to transmit information using light in the absence of other communication.
But we need budgets to realize this idea. So we are launching sales of improved flashlights from the Chinese factory.
I just ask for constructive critics related to the product, not the picture.
Anyway I am grateful for the information I got here.
You made a mistake using fake photos and fake people?
Thank you very much for your comment. I’ll try to clarify.
- 2C activation is made to avoid accidental activation in a backpack. And also not to create a lock mode. Most users rarely use the lock mode.
- 1 sec hold causes temporary turbo. as soon as you release the button, the flashlight turns off.
- Change of operating modes is changed by holding 0.5 seconds. You can see it in the schematic.
- Turn off is 1 click. The green line is 1 click.
- Strobe turns off with one click, after waiting 3 seconds. If you press before 3 seconds, it goes to SOS.
- We have ECO mod - 15 lumens. This is enough to run for up to 10 days on battery power.
- Two different off are made to show that one press does not turn the flashlight on.
Guys, I’m not going to be anybody’s advocate but this is going in the wrong direction imho. As the only BLF owner of these Beaconix flashlights I feel overwhelmed by all the negative feelings taking over the discussion.
These flashlights are not that bad to receive such feedback. True that they need upgrades. In many directions. But we were given trust by offering these flashlights here although Eugene must had been aware of the imperfections.
Can’t we be nice and try to help? Despite all the findings made here I’d happy to stop the roast and start the help.
These are just my free thoughts.
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The mistake was made by the designer who used this photo. We have requested professional photos from the factory to make sure everything is in order. It’ll take two weeks.
Thank you for pointing out the mistake. We didn’t do it on purpose.
As soon as we solve the problem with optimal UI, I’ll send you some of our flashlights and you can decide whether it’s fake or not.
That’s not the problem. The lights are okay. Not great, but also not terrible. There is a lot of room for improvement though.
But I have a problem with
- illegal used images (“Tony”)
- poor control of the things others do (“mistake was made by the designer”), you cannot blame other guys, you have to check that by yourself prior to publishing!
- corporate speech (“we want to create the best and most innovative flashlight on the market, created by flashlight enthusiasts …”)
- no statement about labeling OEM lights as theirs and also no statement if these lights are FULLY developed by themselves
It is very likely that these lights are OEM products with just another label (or minor changes in the host or other details which are offered by the OEM on purpose to avoid too many similarities), and if some “flashlight enthusiasts” will establish such a brand they should create a product on their own, or at least a good product with own (well tested) UI and very good LED. These “Yinding 5050” aka “Sanan LED chip-based round-die emitters” are currently almost everywhere, at least it seems so.
There are so many sources of real and good “inspiration” out there, so creating a unique flashlight from an OEM product is not as hard as it seems…
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The point of a lockout mode is that it’s optional. 2C every time you want to switch the light on will get annoying fast. On almost every light, 2C is turbo, and 1H is low/moon. Having 2C be normal on and 1H be turbo is going to cause a lot of confusion. Also, 2C can still happen in a bag/pocket; there’s a reason 4C is generally the standard for lockout. 2C is good as an intentional action to get the highest output, but for the average user, if they pick up a light, they are going to first try 1C to switch it on, then likely 1H if that does nothing. 2C is an extra action that to most people implies to do a more extreme/higher output action and not something most people would think of just to switch on in the standard way.
Why’s there an additional state between on and off then? Maybe I’m not understanding that, especially since a white line is indicated as being 3C. Also, 1C off / 2C on is just going to cause more confusion.
I understood it, I’m just saying that’s a terrible design. 3 seconds is too short for strobe, and if you were trying to use it defensively then the light going off randomly is an awful idea, plus there’s no way to turn it off again without going through another mode, which would be a pain if strobe was accidentally activated (say, by accidentally doing 3C instead of 2C to switch on, will probably happen a lot).
I suspect this is the UI the driver comes with from the manufacturer, and not something that you engineered, but if you want to improve it, a lot of people here know a lot about how to design a good UI, and IMO you would do well to listen to them. Obviously, I consider myself one of those, but I’m far from the only one, and the majority of things I suggested are close to universally regarded as the right thing to do.
If you do sell it with this UI, you might definitely want to clarify that; perhaps have the arrow loop round to the same state. As it is, this diagram doesn’t make much sense in terms of how state machines are normally defined, even putting aside that IMO it is overall a badly designed UI.
Yeah, I saw it in the list; I’m saying that in general, most people want a shortcut to the lowest mode, for example when in a dark area with dark-adapted vision, you do not want to accidentally turn the light on to high if you want to avoid ruining your dark adaptation. Especially since 2C is on with mode memory, there is absolutely no guarantee what mode it will come on onto.
For that matter, there’s no way to activate turbo from any state but off too, which is going to be another thing people will find extremely frustrating. Say you’re on a medium mode, and want to get some more distance, you have to switch the light off, then back on in turbo mode, and there is no way to get turbo as a steady state, so you have to hold the entire time you are using it, then switch it off again before going back to medium…
I’m glad you told us the factory where they are made, when looking on their facebook page they demonstrate a whole range of lights that are indeed the same as all the ones already on Aliexpress under numerous brand names. Even the one I posted in the video is featured on there.
My question is this, apart from the brand name what makes your offerings different from the plethora of almost identical lights already available for much less cost?
1stein is correct, lets not let this turn into a hate thread - but in order to do that you have to provide some proper answers - starting with,what exactly is it that makes your lights different from these cheap ones? does it have different driver, is it higher quality, and why? does it have a different led or optics? did you design it or did you just provide the factory with a name they put on it for you?
Answering some of these questions might help turn the tide, because from a laymans point of view at the moment they all look the same, but with slightly different host machining and different names.
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Agreed.
I offered genuine feedback about the UI (if this is actually done by Beaconix themselves (and not, as I suspect it really is, by whatever OEM…), I would even be happy to help them improve it…) and it feels like the response was just a justification of design choices. Feels slightly disingenuous when the diagram was posted with a request for comments… I tried to be constructive in my criticism and not just bash it unfairly, but the truth is, it’s not a UI I would even gift to a nonenthusiast.
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Noted.
The white thin line is the transition, not the 3C.
The past UI is simplistic.
We used to want to use a more advanced version. Many things have been taken into account here. Here it is:
both UIs were designed by me.
That one is marginally better, but still some major issues:
- 2C should be a shortcut to turbo, not low
- Turbo is momentary only
- Strobe auto-exits after an extremely short time that IMO makes it useless for any actual defensive use (e.g. stunning an aggressive dog - last time I used turbo do that, it took me more than 3 seconds to reach my dog to get them off), and can’t be switched off without going through an additional mode if accidentally activated. It is especially useless for defensive purposes since it seems to exit to off instead of to turbo.
- Lockout has a weird shortcut
- No way to exit lockout to off, only to on
- 2 seconds is an extremely long lag to get to turbo even when momentary. A lot of usage of turbo (momentary or otherwise) is likely to need fast activation.
What you got right with that one:
- 1C on
- Lockout mode
- Shortcut to eco
- Indicator LED can be switched on/off
Overall, it’s more usable than the previous diagram, but still something that would cause me to recommend against a light.
It’s possible to have a good simplistic UI. Here’s a few start points:
- 1C on/off. 1C should always be to switch off when on, regardless of specific state.
- 1H to change brightness when on
- 1H from off for moon
- 2C for turbo (from any state except lockout)
- 2H for momentary turbo
- 4C from off for lockout
- 4C from lockout to switch on, or 3C to unlock and stay off
- Personally I dislike 3C for strobe, but that one is common enough that it’s probably fine to include too.
With all the UI discussion, I wonder whether there is a real (reprogrammable) microcontroller on the driver board at all or whether it is one of those drivers that is only equipped with a driver chip like the PAM2803 or similar.
If this is the case, then “improving the UI” won’t be a big deal, as new driver electronics would have to be developed for this, and will this OEM simply do this?
Well, that’s an awfully nice thing to say, isn’t it?
All things in this conversation considered - it’s a pass for me. No hard feelings, hustle wherever you can. Best of luck.
The manufacturer will develop a new driver board for our brand. At this stage it is difficult to say which driver will be used.
We are currently focusing on UI
If a new driver (and firmware) will be developed, I suggest following:
- no PWM (flickering), stay at least over 5000 Hz
- real Moonlight (below 1 lm), since it is a zoomable light even very low luminous flux will be visible on surfaces due to high luminance in focussed state
- for battery indicator (if no display will be used) I suggest a intuitive and easy way for checking the battery:
– green (full)
– yellow (half empty)
– red (almost empty)
– red flashing (really empty) - smooth changes of light mode and turning off and on, like in some kind of ‘animation’
For LED, a neutral white variant with slightly rosy tint is also a very good way to get positive reviews by enthusiasts.
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A few things that others have mentioned so I won’t go over them. If you’re trying to sell to flashlight hobbyists, there’s a bunch of other flashlight companies like Sofirn, Wurkkos, Lumintop, Emisar/Noctigon, Acebeam, Fenix, etc who also compete for hobbyists money, and they’re prety much cornered the market. You need something very special to win our money and what you’re selling now won’t do it. Major props to 1stein for presenting these to us, so thanks for that.
UI: Move strobes, blinkies, beacons outside the main mode rotation. Isolate them with a triple click (like everyone else).
One click on, one click off, please. If you’re wanting a solution to unintended activation, electronic lockout or mechanical lockout
OR just flash Anduril on there.
Driver: Regulated (buck/boost) or a non PWM linear driver. Buck drivers have gotten cheap so it won’t add to much to the cost (ask Wurkkos how they did it)
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