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Comment on why does every single flashlight have multiple settings that you have to scroll through?

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).

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BorgDrone@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

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 have an Olight Seeker Pro 4 and it’s pretty simple to use. The on/off button rotates and controls the intensity. You do have to either hold it for a few seconds to turn it on or rotate the button 90º and then click but that’s unavoidable with these kinds of flashlights.

These lights are very small and yet very powerful. That means you can easily pocket them, but because they are so powerful they also get very hot. You don’t want a flashlight like this to accidentally turn on while in your pocket. If you look at these lights, the head is almost always ribbed, it’s basically a heatsink. Even then when you run them at full strength they usually throttle themselves down after a few minutes to prevent overheating.

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Jesus_666@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ 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.
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FireRetardant@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I really like the fenix flashlight I have. Main button on back turns light on and remembers your last setting (except strobe). There is one other button along the side. Pressing once cycles up the brightness until max, holding turns on the strobe. Very easy to use. I often use it on the lowest brightness and just turn it up if needed. The side button also doubles as the charging indicator, glowing red while charging and green when fully charged.

As for strobing lights i use them to signal or mark things at night. Some peope use them while cycling or walking at night to increase how visible they are. I sometimes use a strobe to mark tents or ice huts in the dark but i usually try to use strobing red light as its less distracting and uses less power

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