Calling Liteflux owners!

[thiswayup]

I would really appreciate feedback, extensions, improvements to the following attempt to produce a replacement for the light's manual. The following is based on my LF5.


BASIC UI HINT NOTES
My camera just died, and this would be hard to photograph anyway because of the angles involved, so please bear with text only:


Changing intensity: P1 and P2
The Liteflux twisty has three positions:

• OFF - The light is off when fully tightened

• P1 - Untighten slightly and you reach P1. The light comes on.

• P2 - Untighten some more and you reach P2. The light stays on, but does something different to what it did when it was in P1. Depending on the mode, it will strobe at different speed, show a different brightness, etc.

The twisty also comes all the way off for battery replacement.


Changing modes (non-strobe, strobe, SOS, etc) - Switches
You change modes by doing a Switch (S) - either a P1-P2-P1 or a P2-P1-P2 twist - i.e. you twist away from where you were and back - in less than a second.


Here are the important things the manual gets wrong or misses out:

• The manual says that P1 is 1/4 turn from OFF and that P2 is 1/4 turn further on. Wrong! The light comes on with a much smaller turn - about 1/8.

• There's a laser engraved white dot on the upper body of the light. When this points at P1, then P1 is selected; when this points at P2, then P2 is selected. See the next item for where P1 and P2 are.

• Following the manual, you'd think that a Switch is 1/4 turn. Wrong! If you do it between the two correct places it is only 1/12 turn and MUCH easier to do: Look at your LF5. Find the flat part of the tube with the manufacturer's name on it. Rotating in the direction that you use to turn the light on, you'll see two slots. Treat the first of these as P1 and the second as P2. Yes, the light will come on much sooner than you reach the first slot, but this doesn't matter. For purposes of doing switches, these slots are P1 and P2.

With these things cleared up, using a Liteflux is made much easier:


Standard mode (non-strobing)
In any mode, do one Switch and the light will go into standard mode. Then:

• P1 = 50% brightness

• P2 = 15%

• Two switches = 100% brightness at P1 and P2, but blinks once when you switch to P2.

Note: The manual refers to the two switch setting as adjustable mode, then says some stuff I can't make sense of. In practice, two switches gives me 100%, and I'm happy with that.

If you're running on 14500's, which seems to be the designer's intention, then you'll rarely want 100%, so making it the hardest setting to get makes sense.


Strobe mode
To get strobe, do three switches. Then:

• P1 = slow strobe

• P2 = fast strobe (15Hz - be careful with this; this frequency is exactly the worst one for photosensitive epileptics and many migraine sufferers)

SOS mode
You guessed it: four switches. Then P1 and P2 transmit an SOS at two different rate/intensities.


Other modes
The light has a demo mode, voltage check mode, and programming, but you're on your own with these.


I'd appreciate help on adjustable mode and those advanced modes, plus knowing whether the slot thing works for other people's lights as well as my LF5.

 

[FlashCrazy]

Two switches = 100% brightness at P1 and P2, but blinks once when you switch to P2.
Note: The manual refers to the two switch setting as adjustable mode, then says some stuff I can't make sense of. In practice, two switches gives me 100%, and I'm happy with that.

I'd appreciate help on adjustable mode and those advanced modes, plus knowing whether the slot thing works for other people's lights as well as my LF5.

Your other revisions look great... that should help a lot of people.

As far as the adjustable mode, the thing to remember is that when you get into that mode, the P2 position starts ramping up or ramping down the output level. You may say "No, mine stays at a constant brightness." But what has happened is that it has reached the end of the ramping up or down process....ie: full bright, or full dim. The light will blink when it reaches the end. To make it ramp the other way, do a switch x 2 from the P2 position (which will put you back at P2). The output level should start changing. It takes a bit of time to change, so you may not notice anything for a few seconds. Once it reaches your desired output, put the light in the P1 position...this will stop the change. Now you can turn the light off, and this position will be remembered as your adjustable mode setting. BUT, if you switch into the adjustable mode later, and are on the P2 position, the level will start changing, unless it's set to full bright or dim. To access your memorized setting without it changing, enter the adjustable mode and go to the P1 position. (Note: for the older LiteFlux models, there's no memory for this selected position... it always starts at 50% brightness).

Hope this helps!

 

[thiswayup]

Your other revisions look great... that should help a lot of people.

As far as the adjustable mode, the thing to remember is that when you get into that mode, the P2 position starts ramping up or ramping down the output level. You may say "No, mine stays at a constant brightness."

That's *exactly* what I said..!

But what has happened is that it has reached the end of the ramping up or down process....ie: full bright, or full dim. The light will blink when it reaches the end.

Ahah!

To make it ramp the other way...

That's excellent.

Once we clear this up as much as possible, I'll offer the end result to LF. They need it - excellent product, terrible manual.

And Liteflux! Yes, you! If you put a engraved slot on the rotating bezel instead of a tiny laser engraved dot your lights would be much better. Because people use their lights in the dark - when you can't see a non luminous dot! Put a slot there so people can feel it - ideally one that can take a tritium, and deepen the P1 and P2 slots so that they can too.

All the same, the LF5 is a fantastic light. I'm more and more taken by mine. The beam quality is outstanding and it's built like a small tank. Perhaps I've just got lucky in the LED lottery, but it does a great job with warm tones, much better than I expected from a LED.

 

[Oddjob]

I'm not dumb but can someone explain to me how to program the different light levels for standard mode e.g. make P2 75% instead of the default 50%?

 

[GregWormald]

I found the instructions to be reasonably OK--at least after a couple of reads and some experimenting--after all it is a complex little light.
What helped was a full-sized version of the instruction book rather than the too-small-to-read version that gets shipped with the lights.
While I can't remember where I got mine, except it was posted here on CPF, if anybody wants one just message me with your email address and I'll send you the .pdf (80kB).
Greg

 

[thiswayup]

I found the instructions to be reasonably OK--at least after a couple of reads and some experimenting--after all it is a complex little light.

Actually, I think it's really simple now that I know how it works. BAD manual. The design is actually simple enough that a user should be to do everything other than program it immediately.

What helped was a full-sized version of the instruction book rather than the too-small-to-read version that gets shipped with the lights.

GOOD point. That was one of main gripes in my review of the LF5.

 

[Kilovolt]

I'm not dumb but can someone explain to me how to program the different light levels for standard mode e.g. make P2 75% instead of the default 50%?

When programming the brightness levels of my LF2 I find very useful this post by LEDCool:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showpost.php?p=1945881&postcount=52


Thiswayup, you are doing a very useful job, please add a couple of examples like the one of the above post. I think that most owners just want to set the two main levels P1 and P2 in accordance with their preference and need a simple explanation on how to.

:thumbsup:

 

[thiswayup]

When programming the brightness levels of my LF2 I find very useful this post by LEDCool:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showpost.php?p=1945881&postcount=52

I'll take a look - thanks.

Thiswayup, you are doing a very useful job, please add a couple of examples like the one of the above post. I think that most owners just want to set the two main levels P1 and P2 in accordance with their preference and need a simple explanation on how to.

:thumbsup:

Glad you like what has been done so far, and thanks for your help. Liteflux make great lights. They are actually VERY easy to use, but the manual is poor. Hopefully we can correct this.

 

[thiswayup]

Also up for comment, other people's use, suggestions, here are my planned DIY improvements to make an LF more usable. You don't need much more than some epoxy.

1. Epoxy a small nut or washer where that laser marked indicator dot is. You now have a light you can whose indicator position you can feel in the dark and the bezel will easy to turn even if it is wet. Plus you have installed an anti-roll device!

2. The big one: Fill the P1 and P2 slots with green ultra-glow GITD epoxy. Fill that nut you placed in 1. also. The light should now be a piece of cake to use in the dark.

3. The slots help make the light easy to grip. To make up for filling them in, you may want to wrap a long o-ring several times around part of the light's body. (A trick I saw in a post of Green LED's, I think.)

 

[thiswayup]

Firstly, I have worked out programming the light now, and if explained correctly, it is quite simple. I'll provide a guide when I have time.

Secondly, now I've checked the specs of GITD powder, it won't really help. The brightness falls incredibly fast with time after recharge, and the GITD on a light kept in pocket as should be expected with an LF will dim - ok for finding the light with night adapted eyes, but not much use for marking controls on a light - because while using a light, your eyes are NOT going to be night adapted. The small nut is still a a good idea. Or I might consider tritiums for the slots on the marker, if I can find small enough ones at a reasonable price - there's a definite point where waiting to see how effective the NightCore will be becomes more attractive than tweaking!