this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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flashlight

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Portable illumination

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Around $50 depending on options!

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[–] Spicy3d 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Simple UI, flat regulation, 519a? What else could I possibly want??

[–] jerv 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd gladly trade the simple UI for a DWIM UI. If there were a blatant sign that I crossed the line between " thermally unsustainable" and "I can do this until I am about to swan-dive into LVP territory" then sure. As it stands, I think slightly better mode spacing is required.

That said, I think Skilhunt gets it less-wrong that the fanatically-worshipped Zebra UI. At least Skilhunt/ESKTE/Skeet puts their thermally-unsustainable modes in Turbo by default.

[–] solrize 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Idk about current zebtalight ui's but my H50 has simple L-M-H 3 level UI that is fine. I like the DWIM idea, that gradually tapers brightness for very long runtime as the battery depletes.

I'm on mobile rn, will reply to your other post later.

[–] jerv 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For me, DWIM means "bidirectional ramping mode" since I have yet to find a stepped-mode UI that has the spacing to get me the amount of like I need in a wide variety of situations, and few that allow me to dim a light without cycling through the higher modes first or power-cycling the light. Zebra's G5 is actually the furthest from DWIM since it has only 3 steps each with 2 sub-levels, and I never know what combination of presses and holds I need to get something that is closest to what I want/need. And G6/G7 are hard to program to choose up to 6 out of the 12 possible (often no-optimal) levels.

Part of why I fell down the rabbit hole is that I found that flashlights can do so much more than LMH. And it's easier to set Anduril to a 3-level stepped-mode operation than to get most non-Anduril lights to DWIM status.

[–] solrize 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hmm, ok, I tend to follow McGizmo's view that levels should be spaced 10x apart, so LMH=1,10,100 lumens suits me fine. But Anduril is almost a "software-defined flashlight", so if you prefer ramping then you also came to the right place.

I'm unfamiliar with the Zebralight G5 but I get the vibe that Zebralight had made poor decisions lately, so it fits. I try to refuse to buy non-Anduril microprocessor lights except the simplest ones. I'm not always successful at that, but I do try.