once a year I email my favorite flashlight manufacturer to ask if they’ve finally made a flashlight that just turns on and off when you push the button, and every year they’re like, “no, but thanks so much for your feedback!”

be honest, have any of you ever used the flashing feature on your flashlight? did it actually come in handy? handy enough that I have to scroll past it every single time I want to turn my flashlight on or off

  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    You need flashlights with a better UI.

    None of my flashlights strobe without making the effort to make it do that or require me to cycle through modes just to turn them on and off. The worst one I have has 9 modes you select with a detented twist ring(Fenix SRT9), but has an on/off button so you always start on the mode you used last unless you twist the ring.

    Strobe is useful for firearms lights to disorient a target. For emergency use it prolongs the runtime, like if you were in a flash flood, your house was bombed in the middle of the night, or you got lost on a hike and needed to signal for help. Strobe is unlikely to be needed, but can be a life saver.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      You need flashlights with a better UI.

      I mean, yea, I think that’s what OP is saying.

      But it can be hard to find, with a high output/good battery.

      Lights using a 18650 seem to be the rage these days, at crazy cheap prices, but they all use some UI with clicks, holds, etc. I feel like I’m doing a dance to use any of mine, definitely not what you want in a circumstance requiring a flashlight.

      Even the simplest of lights require something most people would find unusual (and certainly never guess). Setting an Anduril light to “simple mode” is still more complex than I want in a light. It would be nice to have a simple click control, and be able to disable the strobe nonsense (never once in my life have I thought “ooh, a strobing light would be great right now!”). Nevermind the arguments for it are debatable (to confuse an attacker? Research has shown it affects you too).

      • Jesus_666@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Anduril is way overengineered. I like this UI that some of my lights have:

        While off:

        • One push: Turn on at the last used brightness.
        • Two pushes: Turn on at maximum brightness.
        • Three pushes: That strobe mode that you don’t need but seems to be obligatory.
        • Hold: Turn on at the lowest brightness (or moonlight mode if the light has one).

        While on:

        • One push to turn off.
        • Two pushes to toggle between maximum brightness and the last used “regular” brightness.
        • Three: That strobe mode that someone has to have some use for.
        • Hold: Alternately increase or decrease the brightness.

        That’s pretty easy to learn and gives you all the functions you’d reasonably need (plus that strobe) without a lot of clutter.

        • Badabinski@kbin.earth
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          2 months ago

          That’s basically all I use from my Anduril flashlights. I don’t bother with the candle modes and all that shit. I’ve only ever used Anduril v2 flashlights, so maybe Anduril v1 was less intuitive?