Which flashlight do you like best in China? As a Chinese person, I really want to know

[wolfgirl42]

@ToyKeeper

• A built in screen requires a complete hardware re-design including a much bigger and more expensive MCU chip. This, in turn, requires rewriting all of the software from scratch. It makes hardware difficult too, because it needs a place to put a screen and it needs new types of waterproofing.

Theoretically it could be done over i2c without much additional code size (definitely shouldn’t be a problem if moving to the t3216 for RGB models), but the main problem would just be sourcing an appropriate display and getting manufacturers to adopt it (and explaining exactly what the requirements are in terms of which displays they can use). A simple 1 line display would certainly be useful - my immediate thought would be for ramp mode, to show ramp level and battery, e.g. with a 12 char display you could have 069/150 3.8V (maybe voltage alternating with temperature?), then for things like config menus, it would display what item was being configured (e.g. for 9H from off, RAMP STEPS, JUMPSTRT LVL on the appropriate menu items), and when switching channels, displaying the channel name for a few seconds (CH1, CH2, BOTH, BLEND, AUTO, etc). Could make battery check configurable between “blink LEDs only”, “display only”, and “both” too, for example. Would be nice to work on one day. Would also be possible to have a language setting or language firmware versions maybe, so non-english-speakers get it becoming somewhat selfdocumenting.

Bluetooth is definitely harder though, and would probably need a dedicated bluetooth chipset (although communication between the two could probably be accomplished by i2c again), but one the main problems with bluetooth is signal - a conductive metal body that is also the battery negative means it would need some form of external antenna to work.

@吴名氏

Olight is a first tier brand in China, while Mateminco is a second tier brand in China. They are both well-known, but I find it difficult to give a subjective opinion because I have not purchased their products, which is beyond my knowledge. There are many people who choose Olight, and their store also has a lot of products. In contrast, Mateminco’s stores are relatively deserted.

Heh, surprising. Olight is somewhat of a “gateway brand” here - most enthusiasts don’t like them much (primarily due to proprietary batteries and charging, but also their choice of LEDs), but since they are heavily marketed, if a non-enthusiast has heard of an enthusiast-adjacent brand it’s generally one of the heavily marketed ones, most often olight.

A lot of Astrolux lights are made by Mateminco, but some have been made by others as well ( I know Sofirn is one).

What about Wuben and Lumintop? Do they sell their lights in china? They’re also both OEMs for various other brands who contract out their manufacturing.

@吴名氏

I have no intention of associating gender with anything else, just stating the facts.

I understand, just interested if, as it did seem like you implied, non-male enthusiasts are rarer over there. Although I don’t really know much about chinese internet demographics in general specifically, I guess.