A light as little as a few lumens can be seen a very long distance away,particularly in the dark so when one is in need of rescue he will turn on the SOS light in the hopes that it will get someone’s attention , this could happen in minutes or 10 hours later! So do you really think an injured,lost individual (possibly down on moral too) could punch out SOS for 10 hours!It’s also important to remember that although a potential rescuer could see u as a result of the SOS , it is highly unlikely vice versa so you can’t exactly signal SOS manually when u see someone.
So me personally l would say that SOS is an essential function on a light I (personally) could even argue that it’s those lights that are built ‘needlessly’( not specifically like a single mode weapons light) without SOS are just trying to be ‘fashionable’ or pretending to be ‘tactical’ (I have one like this). Ymmv
Yes.
Yes.
In the military I had the knowledge and equipment to contact you regardless of whether you were in a plane, on a ship, in a sub, in the Amazon on a wooden raft or on top of Mt. Everest. As long as you had a phone I could communicate with you.
Sure, but you’re not likely to be EDC’ing a means of communication beyond the normal cell phone on a daily basis. You’re much more likely (particularly if you’re a member of this forum) to be EDC’ing a flashlight on a daily basis.
Precisely why I made the points I made in post #29.
Not every flashlight needs an SOS, strobe or beacon feature. The ML under my bed doesn’t really need those modes. But a small EDC style of flashlight is perfect for those modes if/when the user needs them. As I said in my previous post, you don’t really need a spare tire…until you get a flat. You don’t really need and SOS mode on your EDC flashlight…until your in situation where it is necessary to signal for rescue (as well as needing your hands free for other tasks). Having an SOS/beacon/strobe mode isn’t a guarantee but it is a useful tool that provides options. And in an emergency situation you’re going to want all the options you can possibly have. Hopefully all of us will never be in a situation where we’ll need this mode. But you can see just in some of the responses in this thread where such a feature may have been quite useful.
I have no idea if my Convoy s2+ morse code mode actually spells SOS, but that and the strobe mode could one day save me. If I fell in the hadleigh country park from my bike, and broke something, It is a pretty large area of forest, then an open area with a mountain bike track.
From this mountain bike track Canvey Island (My home) is visible, so I would point it that way and either strobe or use SOS, someone on Canvey would definitely notice someone in hadleigh country park at nightime flashing a torch, and would likely call police or ambulance to check it out, as the Mountain bike track is the one used during the 2012 olympics, now open to the public.
You know there’s a reason why so many people here began designing their own drivers. Because the majority of lights we purchase do not have good drivers in them. I personally have spent about $100 on drivers for my lights because of this. Which is a drop in the bucket compared to some- but I have a smaller collection. Most people do not and will never use a strobe. I feel like there should still be well designed lights with strobes… or even hidden strobes. But if you can’t hide a strobe, then you shouldn’t program it into the driver in the first place.
Its absolutely useless, until you need it. Much like the torch itself really, except youre far more likely to need light, than blinking light.
Unless youre a lighthouse… wait, they dont blink.
isn’t nanjg SOS just plain SSS,SSS,SSS?
I think the history is that early flashlights worked only in intermittent mode, giving the battery time to rest. Later acid dry cells could sustain light when new, but could flash for a long time after they got too low to stay on, so intermittent mode was retained. That wasn’t a good sales pitch, so the idea of signaling was invented as a more romantic justification of the intermittent mode. So, after decades of talking about Morse code, when they changed to reverse clickies to allow easy mode switching, they added automatic SOS.
I have a hidden SOS mode in the light I take hiking, because If I fell to the bottom of a gully too steep to get back up, my cell phone probably wouldn’t reach any base station. That is far fetched, but I finally thought of a use.
Yeah, my take on sending SOS is, first, it shouldn’t be easily done accidentally, and also first, it should be actually sending ….S.O.S….S.O.S…. when it operates.
NOT SOSOSOS or SOSSOSSOSSOSSOSSO
Sometimes a flashlight wanders away from their owners and a flashlight gets lost and scared. 8)
Convoy lights can allow you to convert between three and five mode. This can give the user the option to just have H,M or L or have two signaling modes as well. Nice feature that makes both sides happy.
:bigsmile:
Also, some flashlights are insecure and want to be noticed.
I think that is because they use Nanjg 105c drivers with two mode groups. That is what I have in my hiking light.
Does anyone know why this flashlight turn off randomly ,even with a full charge on the battery?
Its for the flashlight equivalent of coral spawning.
Start a thread, give them a tad more information. Maybe the make of light, make of battery. Maybe describe how long it runs for before turning off. Maybe describe what happens if you shake it, tap it in your hands etc.
Is this FACT or simply YOUR opinion?
Not criticising but I THINK it’s important that if it is simply an opinion,then that should be stated so ppl don’t absorb the wrong info.
Again ,pls don’t be offended
I really like the 2 mode group on the Nanjg 105D boards…one group is 3 mode no flashies, other mode is 5 mode w/ flashies and SOS
Is there a good place to purchase these for modding?
The main reason why a flashlight needs strobe and SOS modes is that it inflates the feature list. It helps to sell the flashlight.
If it is somewhat hidden it might not be such a bad thing either. Two mode groups, like the Convoy floashlights, is a very simple but very effective way to hide but still have available.
I am very impressed with the location beacon mode on my NiteCore HC50 headlamp. Simple very short flashes on full power with pretty long intervalls. Incredibly visible and very low power, especially if you direct the light up into a tree canopy. If I had to make a choice I would prefer to have that over SOS.
WanaiPava
I don’t recall any flashlights having this flashing stuff until recently, with the Chinese led lights, although the term “flashlight” came from the early days (the ancient days) of flashlights.
Here what I posted once on why we call them flashlights, instead of the British term “torch”.
FLASHLIGHTS
Quote:
Early flashlights ran on zinc–carbon batteries, which could not provide a steady electric current and required periodic ‘rest’ to continue functioning. Because these early flashlights also used energy-inefficient carbon-filament bulbs, “resting” occurred at short intervals. Consequently, they could be used only in brief flashes, hence the common American name flashlight.
TORCH
Quote:
A torch is either a wooden or metal rod wrapped at one end with a material that has been impregnated with a flammable substance and ignited. It also means, in British English, a battery powered portable light source: compare flashlight. Flaming torches have been used through history and currently for various purposes including use in processions, symbolic or religious events and in juggling entertainment.