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
You’re describing a UI that I’ve only seen in cheap hardware store flashlights. Yes it’s infuriating when you can’t just turn a light on or off, and choose the mode you want. I use strobe when crossing streets at night but my lights make it easy to access that feature when I want it.
Who is this “favorite flashlight manufacturer”? I find it odd that you both have a favorite, and buy lights that act like this. There are thousands that don’t.
So like the way they blind enemies with a tactical flashlight?
Here’s a feature I want that doesn’t seem to exist in any modern flashlight:
DON’T DRAIN THE BATTERY WHEN TURNED OFF!!!
Seriously, the constant drain on the battery means that you cannot have an emergency flashlight in the drawer. How FUCKING STUPID is that?
This is just a reality of electrical circuitry that includes batteries.
So have a mechanical circuit.
Like we used to have before a tiny chip became marginally cheaper to produce than a tiny metal and plastic switch.
I can’t remember the last time I had a flashlight that did that. I have one in my bedside drawer that’s been using the same battery for at least 6 years. and the other ones around the house, I just double check anytime a hurricane is supposed to be rolling in and they’ve always been fine
Hey if the batteries are that old you should replace them anyway. Every year or two it needs new ones. They will eventually start leaking battery acid and fuck up a good flashlight
Oh, flAshlight!
As you were…
no, surprisingly, Fleshlight has actually figured out how to make an on/off button.
Be careful updating the firmware on those, friend of mine ended up having to finger his named pipe. You don’t know him, he goes to a different school.
The maglights I have in my emergency kit only have 2 settings: On and off. It’s a switch not a button. If they ever put goofy ass strobe lights or whatever in maglights, I will stop buying them. I just need light; not an epileptic seizure.
Same with bike lights, no I don’t want 16 different strobes, it’s not a vibrator.
Thinking about it, vibrators should have a on/off button too.
My bike lights aren’t bad.
Hold to turn on (to the last mode used), hold to turn off, push to switch between three modes: High, Low, and Flashing.
My wife’s favourite has a button that scrolls through the various modes, but when you hold it for a couple of seconds turns it off. Shit’s a game changer. Even starts back up on the last used setting.
the vibrator? what brand
Pretty sure it’s this one. Enjoy!
If you’ve ever tried to read something off a label in the dark and outshined what you were looking at because the light was too bright, you know why.
Just
- on off switch/button
- rotate the head for bright-dim-wtf
That’s it. That’s what I want.
You should look into Anduril UI flashlights. They are enthusiast grade flashlights but you have so many setting for it. It one click on one click off double click for max brightness and when the lights is on you hold the button to make it brighter and a double click and hold makes it dimmer. Also when it is on and you double click it goes into a turbo brightness which is the brightest setting.
Where can you buy them. Google search seems odd
I’m too lazy to look it up but there’s a flashlight community on Lemmy. It has a bunch of the really active enthusiasts who made the old flashlight community on reddit good. Tons of guides and recommendations.
Start here with what kind of one you like to find some options
I know reddit=evil but, r/hanklights is a good starting place for anduril lights. I’ve been EDCing the D4V2 for seferal years now and love it.
I have a Noctigon KR4 it puts out about 2000 lumens. I haven’t been in the flashlight scene for a while so only flashlight brand I can recommend is Noctigon and Sofirn. You can buy Sofirn flashlights on Amazon for fairly cheap.
Thank you for copying the top comment and contributing nothing.
/syeah but rotating the head is usually focus
all these super bright LED flashlights you buy on amazon, or at the checkout counter of the hardware store, I just now realized they don’t have adjustable focus and I’ve never needed it with them.
I know the feeling. Most of those features are only useful in low probability events.
If you’re looking for simple flashlights, Maglight has always made decent flashlights, though I’ve been buying Ryobi flashlights for the last 15 years as they are relatively affordable and I’ve already a bunch of their 18v batteries. Not sure how weather proof they are but I’ve never had an issue with the “new” (I think it’s a 10 year old design) led flashlights.
The mighty Kingdom of Anduril takes grievance against this sentiment.
i like him better when he was still Narsil.
My go to light for work is a Streamlight Protac 2L-X. It has a few modes to set it up how you prefer. Plain bright. Low, bright. Bright, strobe. Rechargable 18650 but you have to take the battery out to plug a usb into it but it lasts a loong time between charges so I don’t mind
Strobe is great for raves, self defense and epilepsy tests! (jk)
how do you change the mode?
My perfect flashlight:
- On button on side to be placed where the thumb rests
- 4 D batteries.
- Twist-ey head to change focus
- Dedicated switch(NO MORE CYCLE BUTTONS) to change mode from bright, to med, dim, and strobe
- Sturdy metal for emergency use as a hammer
- Textured rubber to feel good in the hand
4D batteries just doesn’t make sense in 2024. That was for incandescent lights, modern LEDs are brighter and use a small fraction of that power. You could still have the form factor if you really wanted a giant flashlight for self defense or something, but a pair of AA’s if you really don’t want rechargeables would be more than enough for a long life flashlight.
But any LiIon battery is going to far outperform alkaline batteries.
Can I sell you on buying a second hammer? I assume the emergency in this situation is that you have lost your first hammer.
I have never had strong opinions about my flashlights. My favourite is a blue one I found that had leds and lasts forever on AA batteries. Never had one with settings all the ones I’ve used are on/off
I like using a lot of my flashlights diffrent functions at diffrent times. Although mine also has the option to turn off from whichever if you hold the power button so I don’t have to cycle through, which is nice.
Yeah, all the complicated flashlights with multiple settings I have used support turning on and off into the last used settings. I don’t think I’ve ever used a flashlight that forced you to cycle through everything. I had a bike light that did, but I got rid of it and replaced it with a flashlight mounted instead.
I picked up some stranded skaters in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night because they flashed SOS with their headlights after I drove past them. They had been there for like 8 hours. I’m sure they would’ve rather had a flashlight to do the work for them.
But I agree that there should be another UI for getting to the emergency flashing. Like hold for 5 seconds or something unlikely to be used during normal operation.
I have a flashlight that has multiple flashy settings, but they are disabled after like 5 or 10 seconds of idle power on time. So the first click turns it on, and if you wait a while, the next click turns it off.
Oh man This post just awoke a REAL old memory for me. Growing up my dad had these two old beat up flashlights. I looked them up and found this https://www.etsy.com/listing/1027765511/eveready-no1359-safety-flashlight.
I always thought they had a cool design.
