Very disappointed -- Manker U11 user interface

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Back in Feb I ordered a Manker U11 on a whim, as someone said in a thread on here how good the UI was, allowing you to do certain things. At the time, the info online was a little limited to how the UI worked. So I ordered before fully researching the light.

It turned up yesterday (brown box from FastTech, which I know there have been some issues with).

And what a disappointment it is.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the physical light, the output, the beam profile. Even the tint is perfectly liveable as it’s not a nasty CW. Build quality looks good too.

But the UI???

WTF!!!

How can a designer get it so wrong and miss by such a margin.

I’m suspect there will be those that don’t agree with me, although I’m not sure they would be able to justify it, not if you really think about how it works.

Requirements on a light like this are pretty simple:

-activate to moonlight from off
-activate turbo from off

These probably the modes that will suit most people and are the modes you don’t want to faff getting too. Most other modes you’d probably be more content to spend a little more time getting too.

The U11?? Nope, completely fails at this.

For those who don’t know.

Quick click from off gives you moon.
Long click from off gives you last used output.
Double click from off gives you strobe.

Now some of you might be thinking a long click and memory will solve this. But it doesn’t. As it means you have to remember what mode you last used, which is a PITA. So chances are when you do a long click, you are not really getting what you are after, so still have to click through the modes.

Here lies another problem. If you double click while on you also get strobe. So this means you cannot cycle through the outputs quickly.

EXAMPLE:

You activate moonlight, and step up to Low. You turn it off.

You next sometime later want turbo. You long click, but get low, you slowly cycle through the modes. If you are lucky and count correctly, you’ll get turbo, if you are unlucky you’ll get strobe. Or if you miscount you’ll get moonlight and need to start over.

A terribly annoying and awful setup. :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

With an electronic switch, you can quick click, long click and double click. Surely 3 ways to activate the light should at least allow you to start at either end of the output modes That’s just obvious.

As a more advanced tweak, maybe it would be nice if you start in Moon that the next mode is brighter. But if you start in Turbo, the next mode is High. There are almost no occasions you’d want to go Turbo to Moon as a use case…

But you might want to step it down a tad, without having to cycle through all the modes.

I truly do not understand the premiss with which strobe is given on lights like this. I know for those who want it, it needs to be accessible. But there must be a better way.

Logically, the number of people X the number of occasions you’d want Moon or Turbo has to much greater than the 0.0001% of people who 0.00000000001% of the time need to use strobe? It’s a specialised feature forced on the masses as the sacrifice of common sense and a better overall product.

The thing is, the U11 actually has two mode groups…. essentially too different sets of modes. So why the hell could one of these groups not bury the strobe modes???

The “pro” group has the Zebralight programmable outputs for the different outputs. Which I’m sure some will claim as invaluable. But the reality is, they serve no practical function what so ever. And the defaults for the “General” mode seem to be as good as you can get with the choices anyhow.

Two more stupid design elements.

-Burst mode. This tries to maintain a stable constant output of turbo mode (what ever you’ve programmed it to be, there are 3 turbo settings). Sounds like a useful feature, until you realise that it’s a hidden mode on the pro group only.

So assuming you are in pro mode, you first need to double click and get strobe and get dazzled, click again for breath mode and be in darkness, click again for SOS, click again for beacon and click again to get to the constant Turbo mode….

That’s 6 clicks…… of careful timing and a variety of dazzling modes before hand. What a F*cking stupid setup.

-Breath flash. This is actually a really cool mode, it makes the side switch gently flash, so you can find the light in the dark. But to get to this mode you have to activate strobe first…. WTF :person_facepalming:

And when in this mode it’s challenging to get to any other sane mode. I suspect most of the time you’d want moonlight, or at least a quickish way to turbo….

Such a shame.

A potentially great light, blighted by short sightedness on a badly setup user interface.

2

Short click on moon
Long press on turbo seems logical yes
They could have added short click, followed by long for turbo if they wanted the strobe so badly though this seems like the ideal way to start strobe.

3

I haven’t got my U11 yet, it’s still being shipped to me.
However I saw a video review of the flashlight that said 0.5sec press turns the light on with last mode memory, but a shorter press turns on to moon; just like The Miller said too.
Turbo mode, I guess they didn’t think of instant access to that, I can live without this though.

4

I also have a U11 and I can’t really say anything better about the UI. I’ve said it elsewhere already, but its just…okay. Its usable. Personally I think any UI that relies on long-presses to do important stuff is doing it wrong. I don’t use my U11 very often so maybe I’d get used to it, but when I do use it I find myself mis-clicking a lot. Try to turn it off? Gets brighter instead. :confused:

But putting that aside, I do still think its the best small, throwy, edc-style light with USB charging on the market. I prefer it to my MH20 so much that I gave the MH20 away.

5

I just find it a shame. If the UI was better, it’d probably be the best light I’ve ever owned or bought. But with the UI the way it is, I instantly found it annoying and hard work. And all to easy to get it doing something it shouldn’t be, or rather that I didn’t want it to be doing.

6

I love the U11 interface, I understand that is not the best for some people , but is only one opinion.
My opinion…. I like it. I always turn off in high mode, I always know what is the mode of turn off….

(perhaps will be better a easy access to the Turbo constant output, this is the only thing that I do not like it……yes… is not perfect, but is not bad interface)

7

My feelings about the U11 are similar and about flashlight makers/programmers obsession with strobe modes in general. Kinda new to the flashlight world but this infatuation became clear early on and is puzzling considering its limited use. As CD laments the makers should and can provide modes where the strobes functions aren’t even an option.
His example of Breath Fresh is spot on. Great idea until you blind everybody in the tent with you getting through the strobe so you can use the nifty little glowing blue creature to help you find your light later. Really silly.
Otherwise this is an great light and this foul trait won’t prevent me from making it my EDC since with some muscle memory the strobe can be avoided. Remarkable potential with a major swing and miss on the UI.

8

I’m not saying you can’t like it. But you can’t defend it for being fit for purpose. As it is requiring you to actively pre-set it for your expected next use, even if you don’t know what that use will be.

As an example, I don’t know if you use moonlight or not. But if you do, say you get up in the middle of the night, grab the U11 and quick click to moon, but you want a little more light. So you advance to low.

So how do you know reset it to have Turbo as the memory mode, without blinding yourself?

Alternative example. Being human, you are not perfect. You were using the light and had it on either low or mid. You can’t remember…. you turn it on, you wanted turbo, but got low or mid. But you’re aren’t sure which. How do you now get to turbo without running the risk of one too many clicks and getting moon?

9

Yes, I’m not a big fan of the interface either. There definitely should have been a way to instantly get to Turbo. Also, as far as the Turbo constant, I have no idea if I’m actually switching it on when in advanced mode. Anyone have any insight into what I should be seeing when I get past the SOS and Beacon modes? Should I click to turn on Turbo constant when I see something specific or can I just click in the mode right after Beacon?

10

Yes, the blinkies and special modes sound like the junk that far-too-many manufacturers add to their UI’s to satisfy the LCD crowd.

So, why not just use it as a regular 4-mode non-memory light? Click to turn on at lowest, then click to ramp up the modes. Long-click to off is a little odd, but not too bad. You don’t ever need to go into the special mode area.

I need instant access to moonlight, but I don’t really need instant access to turbo if it’s not too cumbersome to get to. If I needed to use it as a tactical light, I could use mode-memory. I agree that’s not ideal, but it’s workable.

11

Constant turbo and “regular” turbo look the same, so no you won’t see the difference by eye, at least not initially. What you will notice (or at least should) is that constant turbo doesn’t step down the same, the light probably gets a bit hotter, and runtimes suffer. Its really the same output, just a different regulation.

12

Damn, I actually genuinely love the interface and I think it’s the best I’ve come across. On the flip to this, the BLF A6 interface I really dislike - going against the grain here :stuck_out_tongue:

13

Blasphemy!

Kidding, kidding. :slight_smile: Glad there’s tons of great lights on the market right now so that we can all have something we love.

14

wow the U11’s interface sounds awful.

Instead of double-click for strobe, they should have made it:

double-click - turbo
triple-click - strobe

15

It’s not something I want in all flashlights. But it’s a feature in at least one I carry every day.

There’s one reason I like a quick way to get strobe on: being a pedestrian crossing traffic.
I nowadays (as I approach age 70) set a flashlight on to strobe before stepping off the curb even when there’s no car in sight. Day or night.

When some idiot comes around a corner at 50mph in a 25mph zone, there’s no time to fiddle with clicking around to find the strobe setting.

So I just turn it on regardless. 98 percent of the time it’s unnecessary.

I like those odds

I’ve probably saved my own life a couple of times by alerting drivers waving my strobing flashlight while crossing the street.

And I once — in rainy dark rush hour traffic — jumped off a bus and stood over a hit-and-run victim in a busy intersection with my little flashlight on strobe, while someone else did first aid, until the ambulance got there.

The little CR123 pocket light strobe stopped traffic in three directions, long enough.

Yeah, I’m still spry enough to run. But dammit, I’d rather make the bastards slow down or stop, and think.

And I’ve had several drivers stop and lean out the window and say “Hey, GREAT flashlight” — and only one complain that it was too bright.

16

That depends on if you think strobe is a useful mode. I don’t, but for those people that do, they want it easily accessed in a panic. Triple-click is probably too difficult to manage if you need to stobe someone, RFN.

IMO, strobe should only be included on a dedicated tactical light. At most 3 modes: high (default), strobe (easy to access secondary mode), and low (for writing tickets or something like that).

For an EDC, none of the flashies make any sense. The only possible exception is a steady blinky if you’re using your light as a bike light for daytime visibility. That’s probably not too common, so I don’t want any blinkies on my lights. Usually, they include them, so I can only appreciate when they’re well-hidden.

17

Yes, I’m aware of that. What I was asking about was the interface when you are turning ON the Turbo constant.

18

I wouldn’t do that at night. It can disorient or distract drivers, and that can make things worse. As a pedestrian, I use a light in a steady medium mode at night, and that’s plenty bright enough to alert them to my presence without distracting them from their other surroundings.

But, I admit I’m an awful driver, so I probably get distracted easily. Still, it’s bad drivers like me that you don’t want distracted any more than I already am.

19

How if like this,

5 modes, always start with moon.

  • have memory as bonus
  • have direct access to strobe if need it.
    Have some option to change brightness level for each mode (except moonlight).
    Well…. don’t have direct access to turbo (except as memory mode).

I prefer double click from on become turbo, but assume other mode/feature just as gimmick, is current UI that bad?

20

Haha it’s true, there so many right now with so many different interfaces!

I wanted to add to the discussion of why I love the Manker U11’s interface so much. I’ve had it on pro mode since I got it and the whole setup is just great. The mode that you choose is split into two groups, which in my head is two distinct things which can be accessed by the quick double-click. I absolutely love this. No half pressing or holding it down for 0.5 seconds or something. It’s a double tap.

Straight to moonlight is great, especially as I intend on using my torch when my eyes are adjusted to the dark. A quick single press cycles upwards the modes through to turbo. Turbo can be accessed by just long pressing the button when the light is off. This is just so accessible imo. I find it awesome.

If at any time I need to go to a special mode like the beacon for cycling, or battery checker, whatever, it’s all on a separate group so I do the double click and cycle to what I want. It’s so separate. It’s fantastic. Also, guys, the way you can program the individual mode levels is so so sweet.

When you’re done you just long press and it switches off, which feels like the most natural way to do it seeing as a single press is already occupied by other functions.

You can probably tell I love it. I think it’s exactly how a multimode interface SHOULD be programmed. I find it so intuitive.

The only qualm I have is that the double click to swap groups should be three clicks as it’s actually too easy to swap to the second group and enter the first mode strobe when you actually just want to rise up the modes in the first grou…oh and the fact that my damn led is about 1mm off-centre ಠ_ಠ