Standardized UI for ALL flashlights!

Spartan · 2019-04-15T19:41:45.000Z

Pete7874:

Spartan:

Multiple UIs are a serious safety issue. Currently i have 4 recent lights with 4 different UIs and two more from from legacy lights. To my wife and any muggle, in a life and death situation, it may very well be death.

For emergency, it’s best to just get some single mode lights or ones that can be programmed to function as such. The simpler the better. Fancy UIs have their place, but not in this case.

Agreed.

Even if not one simple on/off, just two or three steps to take advantage of the huge lumens that some are capable.

Lets say a 2500 lumen light that has 300, 1000, 2500. . 300 for sustained emergency measured in many hours, 1000 for sustained searching and 2500 for emergency b/e inspection with the added bonus of blinding perps.

Pete7874 · 2019-04-15T19:47:29.000Z

Spartan:

and warns anyone outside that there is someone home.

If you’re inside watching TV, wouldn’t anyone outside already know you were home?

Besides, you don’t need 5000 lumen to let others know you’re in the house. A Convoy S2+ on full power will easily accomplish this as well, IMO. And no need to unscrew it either since it has a physical switch.

BurningPlayd0h · 2019-04-15T20:06:55.000Z

Spartan:

Pete7874:

Spartan:

Multiple UIs are a serious safety issue. Currently i have 4 recent lights with 4 different UIs and two more from from legacy lights. To my wife and any muggle, in a life and death situation, it may very well be death.

For emergency, it’s best to just get some single mode lights or ones that can be programmed to function as such. The simpler the better. Fancy UIs have their place, but not in this case.

I agree and disagree……

The “panic” situation happened recently when we thought we heard something in our house. Watching tv and suddenly some loud noise……shut off the tv……I quietly shuffle to the den and grab the Q8…she grabs the phone….I turn on the Q* and NOTHING……oops, tighten it up……ramp it up……shut it off so we have surprise advantage and wait for any new noises. Nothing. Do a quick tour to make sure nothing there.

Take away is that I had a tiny WTF because I forgot that I unscrew the lights and had to hold it against my body to ramp it up. The Coast HP 14 is simply click on to full power. She would NOT grab the Q8 to investigate, she would grab the Coast. So now, I have to find a light that replaces that and put one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom, one in the family room and one in each car.

So yes, the Q8 is a hobby light…and NOT a hobby light. It’s 5000 lumens not only flood the entire house or yard, but on an inside the house inspection, it’s light penetrates massively through the curtains and warns anyone outside that there is someone home.

LEO and military used 60 lumen Surefires for years. If you want task-specific features you have to pay a premium for them, there are “tactical”/self defense oriented big-lumen lights out there… they just aren’t as cheap as a Q8.

Spartan · 2019-04-15T20:08:51.000Z

Pete7874:

Spartan:

and warns anyone outside that there is someone home.

If you’re inside watching TV, wouldn’t anyone outside already know you were home?

Besides, you don’t need 5000 lumen to let others know you’re in the house. A Convoy S2+ on full power will easily accomplish this as well, IMO. And no need to unscrew it either since it has a physical switch.

No…on the TV. It’s a big house and the family room is in the back.

Yes…on the Convoy S2+. I’m getting the SP33 to see if it’s “emergency light” useful particularly it’s 2500 lumens and then the Convoy. I can get the Convoy in red and floody.

No…on the volume of light. Out of curiosity, my wife flashed the Q8 on the window. It blows by the curtains and light up the side or rear yards. There is no question of surprising someone outside.

Hugh_Johnson · 2019-04-15T20:59:28.000Z

kat:

The lights with mechanical switches should only have 2 modes, hi and low.
But the switch should only switch between 1 mode and off when using it normally.
The 2nd mode can be activated quickly by pushing forward the button like on the Fenix. Then the light remembers the selected mode for normal switching

Great. So they’ll have 0.1 lumens and the full 3,000 lumens, which are two of my most frequently used outputs. Which means you introduce thermally limited run time for any in between need. Which doesn’t exist anyway.

Lightbringer · 2019-04-16T03:22:46.000Z

Try ramping with a tailswitch-only light…

Jack_Kellar · 2019-04-16T16:53:19.000Z

Lightbringer:

Try ramping with a tailswitch-only light…

Fun. Only not as fun as wrenching your teeth loose. With a pipe wrench.

Hugh_Johnson · 2019-04-16T16:59:17.000Z

FW3A?

kat · 2019-04-16T18:25:42.000Z

yes FW3A has ramping on tail, so there you go, the UI can be applied to any type of light!

toddcshoe · 2019-04-16T18:29:45.000Z

kat:

yes FW3A has ramping on tail, so there you go, the UI can be applied to any type of light!

That is because the driver and eswitch are in the tail. You couldn’t use that same UI on a mechanical switch light. So no, it couldn’t be applied to any type of light. It might with some but, most would require extensive modifications.

Hugh_Johnson · 2019-04-16T18:31:51.000Z

kat:

yes FW3A has ramping on tail, so there you go, the UI can be applied to any type of light!

So you don’t believe in single mode lights? Sofirn C01 is one of my favorites.

Dougiestyle · 2019-04-16T18:33:28.000Z

I was indoctrinated to the quality light scene with the A6. It’s the one I like, so it’s in all my lights. Easy peasy.

Tally-ho · 2019-04-16T20:11:41.000Z

kat:

yes FW3A has ramping on tail, so there you go, the UI can be applied to any type of light!

Forward clicky and reverse clicky also have their own advantages and not all manufacturers will bother with the particular internal design required for a tail e-switch.
We understand your enthousiasm for the ramping UI and those who coded it will probably be flatted, but they would probably hate to see those who don’t need it or prefer something else, to be “forced” to use it if it would become a monopolistic/unique standard.

There are many people/manufacturers designing driver and UI and they know that not all people like or need the same thing, there is zero chance that they will definitely adopt zak’s personal preferences. Not mentionning that manufacturers will differentiate from others with their own UI.
Then in reality no, it will never happen, so no need for a ramping UI proselytism/evangelism/monomania/fixed idea.

You were joking/trolling, right ?

Deputy_Dog · 2019-04-16T20:48:31.000Z

Kat

Also, electronic lock-out is useless. Nobody uses it! It makes turning the light on again a mess. So that’s another useless mode out.

I can’t agree more! :+1: Particularly for any tactical use.

toddcshoe · 2019-04-16T21:07:22.000Z

This has become a, make it my way and to hell with everyone else, thread.

Jack_Kellar · 2019-04-17T11:56:11.000Z

toddcshoe:

This has become a, make it my way and to hell with everyone else, thread.

You mean “my way or the highway”? Yeah, I tend to expect that from newcomers to any of the hobby forums I visit. Dunning-Kruger at its finest

ZoomieFan · 2019-04-17T12:10:44.000Z

smithd1:

I would say that perfect for you is terrible for me.

I support options and reprogramming capabilities.

One doesn’t exclude the other.

Make a 100 mode UI.
Allow the user to set an output percentage* for each mode (including blinkies).
Allow the user to set the number of active modes.
Add option for ramping.

That way user-A can configure a two mode light with high and turbo, while another user can configure 5 moonlight modes and a blinkie.

*=A user configureble percentage. Not a hardcoded percentage.

Hugh_Johnson · 2019-04-17T14:45:06.000Z

Programmable modes creates its own headache. In particular for muggles and those who simply like simplicity.

I was playing with my new C8+ and accidentally entered programming mode by cycling through the levels a couple of times. I personally like options and even enjoy some level of complexity but I can see how this would annoy many. Or those you’re out with.

What about my single mode twisty? Silent for checking on the kids. Are we saying we want that to fall under a single ui?

manithree · 2019-04-17T15:00:30.000Z

toddcshoe:

This ~~has become~~ from the very beginning was a, make it my way and to hell with everyone else, thread.

FTFY

Just a few switch configurations (hardware UIs) I can think of just off the top of my head are:

Single Switch:

Reverse clicky
Forward clicky
Selector ring
“Other” ring (continuous, maybe)
Slider
Side e-switch
Tail e-switch
Twisty (I think there are multiple twisties - my ShiningBeam iMini worked like a twisty e-switch)

Multi-Switch

Power + e-switch
Multi e-switch

Just making all those work the same is virtually impossible, not to mention ludicrous. But, hey, I got confused once, so lets make them all illegal except the one I like.

Lightbringer · 2019-04-17T15:22:27.000Z

ZoomieFan:

Make a 100 mode UI.

Allow the user to set an output percentage* for each mode (including blinkies).

Allow the user to set the number of active modes.

I suggested that a looooong time ago. Leave N “slots” available. Be able to program each “slot” with a percentage (eg, 1-255). First 0 (ie, off) ends the list.

So 255/0/0/0/… is a 1-mode full-on light.

50/0/0/0/… would be a kiddie/muggle light, 1-mode, around 20% max.

255/80/20/0/… would be descending-order 3-mode light of around 100%/30%/8%.

And so on.

Maybe have “special” values 254/253/252 signify strobe/SOS/beacon.

Go crazy…

(Hownahell you’d program those values without a PhD, I have no idea.)