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
I have two Fenix lights that both have 2 buttons, one on/off and a second mode selector.
The LD12 is perfect as a daily although the side/mode button is kinda awkward to use, the main button is perfect though.
My PD35R is a bigger one that’s really bright, but also too big for normal carry, so I only use it for work when it’s too dusty to see. It has 2 buttons on the back, one small one for mode selection and a nice big one to turn it on/off.The mighty Kingdom of Anduril takes grievance against this sentiment.
i like him better when he was still Narsil.
I guess I haven’t used a flashlight recently
Buy one that’s made for fire fighters. They must be compliant to norms and from what I see all of them are super easy to handle. On off with a physical button.
Because it’s cheap for them to jam functionality into the circuitry and more expensive to actually add physical buttons. They want to advertise lots of features but deliver them in the cheapest way possible.
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 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
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.
I have 2 Hexbright flashlights. They’re programmable so you can make it work however you want. Really wish the company went beyond the kickstarter because I’d love some different models with the same customization.
I have mine programmed where from off hold=as low as possible. Then standardish 3 brightness, starts at low first click. Hold button while on for turbo. But my favorite part is if you don’t click the button for 5 seconds, the next click is off instead of the next brightness. Saves your night vision not having to cycle through high to turn off.
That’s far more than I want from a flashlight.
On/off. That’s literally all it needs to do. I’d like to be able to plug it in and charge it but quite frankly if I can’t get that without it just going on/off with the single press of a button I’ll replace batteries until the day I fucking die.
I use a pocket flashlight daily. It is an integral part of my job. I use flashlight in a wide variety of light conditions and different levels of reflectivity.
I have never wanted my flashlight to flash on and off, change brightness, or any of the other random crap they force in to what should be the simplest tool in my toolbox.
Press button. Change state of light. That is literally the only thing it needs to do.
I mean for that, my phone works fine. I set the bixby button to turn on\off the flashlight. Single button on off always on me. Of course being programmable, you could program a simple on off as well on the hex.
I used the hexbright camping and stargazing. The hold setting is so dim its useless unless you’re in pitch black and just need to see the star chart. And you don’t want bright as it takes at least 30 minutes to recover your night vision after a bright flash so that’s what my use case was.
I wish there were more things like this (and not just flashlights) - made with some thought put in. And to anyone who’d whine about the price, the fact that you have them 10+ years later says enough.
Oh, flAshlight!
As you were…
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.
no, surprisingly, Fleshlight has actually figured out how to make an on/off button.
Surprised not to see any posts referencing the Arbitrary List of Popular Lights or !flashlight@lemmy.world.
One of the requirements to make it on the list is:
A user interface where a single click turns the light on in a reasonable mode, and another single click turns it off.
you know I was expecting mostly what I got, people commiserating, people giving explanations for why they exist, people talking about how their flashlights don’t do that, but something genuinely useful, that I did not expect.l
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
when I’m checking them once a year, I do occasionally find corrosion before it becomes a problem, but I keep Energizer Lithium in all of my important things
I always had shit lights growing up, so I have many lights all around. and a box of charged AA and AAA batteries if they aren’t USB chargeable
Just wait till your flashlight needs to connect to wifi via an app that you download and log in via Facebook or Google and only works if gps is enabled and it also has to have access to your contacts and it gets your first born child.
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it should just be, big button for power on and off, and another button for mode/cycle.
My Emisar flashlights have a single button that does a hundred different things that you need a fucking map to navigate
But if you click it right, it goes into Muggle Mode… where it acts as a normal flashlight. Click to third on, click to turn off.
“Muggle Mode” is for Anduril 1, Anduril 2 usually comes in “Simple UI” by default, and requires unlocking which is probably better for most users. Anyone familiar will be able to detect it and unlock, other people are less likely to burn themselves.
Aha! My D4v2 has the old firmware, and my DT8 has the new one. I don’t really dig deep—I mainly use turbo and step-up on them both. I love them so much.
Honestly, they should just have an on and off button.
Who even uses all the other modes?When your flashlight has enough power to burn holes in your pockets, you may want to dim it sometimes.
When your flashlight is burning holes in commonly worn fabric, it shouldn’t have passed safety checks nor be on the shelves.
False
It’s really nice when working ambulance and trying to work a patient at night. I’m able to illuminate the scene well enough that everyone can see.
Have also lit up yards while looking for patients/hazards.
I’m talking about normal-people off-the-shelf torches, those shouldn’t burn through your clothes at random that’s far too dangerous!
Medical equipment is a different story.Also, lighting a scene such as an entire yard is done with a big light, rather than a small but powerful light.
Those also don’t burn through fabric.It’s a personally owned light, not medical equipment. And, I also can use it on moonlight mode to check pupils, works better than the lights we are given.
And, why carry a big light if a small light can do the trick? I have a bigger light (noctigon K1) with a 1 mile throw, I can’t lug that around in my pocket.
I mechanically lock out the light in my pocket so it doesnt accidentally get turned on. It’s my choice to carry a light with those capabilities, it’s also not that dangerous…
It’s only dangerous if youd don’t take some precautions. My D4V2 lives in lockout (needs 4 rapid taps of the power button to turn on), clipped to my pocket. Pretty much no way for anything to press the button even once.
Mine does that. It has a big button on the back that just turns on the brightest setting and then turns it off. The button on the handle will let you cycle through 3 brightness settings and then the strobe effect.
It’s just some off brand, probably from Amazon, that my uncle bought for my dad and I took when my dad passed away.
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?
Just
- on off switch/button
- rotate the head for bright-dim-wtf
That’s it. That’s what I want.
yeah 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.
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.
My daily driver uses the Anduril UI, but that can be mind blowing if you get lost in the settings.
Where can you buy them. Google search seems odd
Start here with what kind of one you like to find some options
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.
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.
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.
The old FourSevens Quarks used to rotate the tailcap the switch between modes. I’ve got one of the older QT2L-Xs that’s probably my favorite light ever for that reason. That and it’s the perfect size for pocket carry while still being decently bright. The newer models since they got bought out ditched it which sucks because it was such a simple interface.
I got a couple of Fenix lights recently that I don’t hate. They still do the “cycle through modes with a button” thing, but it’s at least a dedicated button separate from the tailcap switch.
Thank you for copying the top comment and contributing nothing.
/s
They put them in all the flashlights because of a combination of minimum features required and cost savings.
To keep heat at a minimum and improve power usage, LEDs benefit from being run by a driver circuit.
If you’re going to use a driver circuit you might as well allow for dimming if you’re going to allow for dimming you need to have timed button presses.
There’s only a couple of companies out there that make the circuitry that does the LED driver / lithium ion charging, so everybody just uses the same chipset.
If you want to flashlight that just turns on and off and doesn’t have a lot of features try to find one that doesn’t have lithium ion batteries. If you don’t need the lithium ion charger they’re more likely not to use one of them more extensive chipsets.
