Why no up/down toggle switches for brightness?

lumen aeternum

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
890
Its stupid to have to cycle thru 100% to get to Moonlight. Or whatever-- you ruin your vision cycling "up" to go around to "low."

There are toggle switches -- why not on flashlights?
 

Polynikes

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 2, 2017
Messages
56
My Olight M1X Striker has a shortcut to moonlight...
While the light is off, you hold the side switch down while pressing the tail switch...
I'm sure other lights have shortcuts to them too. I'm fairly new to lights though so I can't give any other examples.
 

emarkd

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
1,193
Location
Georgia, USA
Lots of lights have shortcuts like PolyNikes said, but there are other options. There's quite a few lights out there now with the ToyKeeper/BLF firmware options that have short-press for brighter, long-press for dimmer, mode switching. Another option to solve the same problem are the rotary ring controlled lights, like the Nitecore SRT line, Sunwaymans, or (the best) HDS Rotary.

In other words, you don't have to have a light that cycles directly through all modes. There's plenty of options. Shop around and find one you like.
 

Thom2022

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 12, 2016
Messages
224
Some drivers have a long press function to go down the brightness levels and a short press to go up.
 

schuster

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Apr 10, 2001
Messages
151
Location
New Jersey
One of my favorite designs was used in the old Liteflux series.
While the UI was overly complex for a single button interface (remember the cheat sheets?) they did have a feature that's relevant to this discussion.
You were able to simulate "continuously variable" output by having a button press slowly ramp the brightness up or down in microsteps.
AFAIK nobody does that anymore ... why?
 

emarkd

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Messages
1,193
Location
Georgia, USA
You were able to simulate "continuously variable" output by having a button press slowly ramp the brightness up or down in microsteps.
AFAIK nobody does that anymore ... why?

There are still a few ramping lights to be found around, but generally you're right - they've fallen out of style. Maybe it is the complexity? I don't know. There's a great ramping firmware available on blf (search: Narsil), but adding it to your lights is a "DIY" affair.

I will say that rotary rings offer the same function but add a lot of extra, like speed. Rampers tend to be either too fast to "land" on the exact output you want or so slow that they're annoying. Its a hard thing to get right.
 

schuster

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Apr 10, 2001
Messages
151
Location
New Jersey
There are still a few ramping lights to be found around, but generally you're right - they've fallen out of style. Maybe it is the complexity? I don't know. There's a great ramping firmware available on blf (search: Narsil), but adding it to your lights is a "DIY" affair.

I will say that rotary rings offer the same function but add a lot of extra, like speed. Rampers tend to be either too fast to "land" on the exact output you want or so slow that they're annoying. Its a hard thing to get right.

True on that last point; but perhaps not relevant. Since most of us are otherwise content to use predetermined "turbo", "high", "medium" and "low" settings; you have to wonder just how important it really is to get an exact brightness level when using a ramping function.
 

AVService

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
2,163
Its stupid to have to cycle thru 100% to get to Moonlight. Or whatever-- you ruin your vision cycling "up" to go around to "low."

There are toggle switches -- why not on flashlights?


I agree and wonder the same thing but I think you might mean Rocker Switch too.

The idea of dimming up or down from pressing the switch one direction or the other is just so simple to understand that I have to think it is not that easy to make in a simple foolproof electronic implementation or clearly these would be available all over the place?

Kind of like a car window switch but with a rest position in the middle that leaves the light at the level you want when you release it.

Either that or you have actually come up with the new idea that is so simple it seems crazy!
 

Polynikes

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 2, 2017
Messages
56
I agree and wonder the same thing but I think you might mean Rocker Switch too.

The idea of dimming up or down from pressing the switch one direction or the other is just so simple to understand that I have to think it is not that easy to make in a simple foolproof electronic implementation or clearly these would be available all over the place?

I like the idea of having a tail switch for on/off and a dual side switch like a volume control...
 

lumen aeternum

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
890
I agree and wonder the same thing but I think you might mean Rocker Switch too.

The idea of dimming up or down from pressing the switch one direction or the other is just so simple to understand that I have to think it is not that easy to make in a simple foolproof electronic implementation or clearly these would be available all over the place?

Kind of like a car window switch but with a rest position in the middle that leaves the light at the level you want when you release it.

Either that or you have actually come up with the new idea that is so simple it seems crazy!

EXACTLY. Rocker switch. KISS. My wife hates all the flashlighte because they all work differently. I told her to turn the head (Mag) or look for a button on the tail. She ignores those with side switches because who knows how to work it, or even unlock it.
 

Witterings

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
282
Must admit it'd be good to see more torches with a down as well as up especially for cycling where you often want to change depending on where you are and don't want to cycle the whole way through.

I bought an Astrolux S1 because it had this option but the actual torch was faulty and sent it back which was a shame as I did briefly get it to work and thought it was a brilliant option!
 

TKC

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 11, 2004
Messages
1,468
Location
Earth
I very much dislike toggle switches. I LOVE clickies.
 

AVService

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
2,163
I very much dislike toggle switches. I LOVE clickies.


What I meant was an action that toggles not an actual toggle switch.

Like having 2 switches,one that changes levels up and another down toggling through levels.

And the clicky switches we already have toggle through levels right now.
 

photoman12001

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
Messages
16
Location
US
I've got several lights that have a few different methods for directly accessing low modes. They all work pretty well but most have a potential downside.
  • Surefire L1 & Kroma: Press halfway for low, full for high. Downside is if you got overzealous you could push straight through to high. This doesn't really happen to me with the L1 (it's switch is pretty stiff) but it does occasionally with the Kroma.
  • Surefire U2: Has 6-position ring that rotates to select brightness. Downside is that you can't really be sure if it's set to the highest or lowest setting.
  • FirstLight Tomahawk: Has a memory setting for last mode. Downside is you can't know for sure what the last mode was. On the GP version you can hit the brightness cycle switch to momentarily turn on low when the light is off. That is pretty foolproof. The MC and NV will also do this but it activates the colored LEDs instead of white.
  • Olight S2-CU: Press and hold switch to activate moonlight mode. Downside is that the regular mode could be activated if you release the switch too soon.
  • Novatac 120P: You can program this one for how to activate different modes. Mine is currently set to active low via a triple click. The downside is that you must remember how you set it, which could be an issue if you don't use it much.
  • Surefire C2 w/ Malkoff M361N: The low mode will usually activate first under normal use. Downside is you can't really know what the mode will be when you turn on the light. It has a memory and will go the the next mode if it was not turned on for more than one second. If it was turned on for more than one second it will go back to low on the next activation.
  • Malkoff MD2 w/ M61W and High/Low Bezel Switch: If the head is tightened down completely it is on high, anything less than completely tight and it is on low. This is the best method if you need to be sure it's on low. Knowing the mode is completely tactile and foolproof. Just rotate the head back half a turn and it's going to be on low. I don't think there is really a downside with this one as far as getting to the mode you want.
 
Last edited:
Top