matrixshaman
Flashlight Enthusiast
The great Clicky vs. Twisty debate. I don't know if a particular thread has been dedicated to this before but I've seen hundreds of references to it here on CPF. It's usually something like 'twisty is more reliable than a clicky switch'. Or twisties are reliable but I really want a tactical clicky or momentary on switch. IMO I have NEVER bought the concept that twisties are more reliable. While I like them on some lights just for their uniqueness if I had the choice I'd probably have a clicky on almost everything BUT not like the clickies that are currently in most lights. The HDS EDC line switches and the Eternalight switches are the only two I consider currently as 'good switches' but they are both controlling circuitry and not the light directly. Before I get into what I think should be in use on lights for a clicky I first want to say a few things about WHY I think clickies are better.
1. Think of the switch on you computer mouse that you click all the time or game pad switches. They can easily do a million clicks before wearing out.
2. Twisties wear out the threads on your lights grinding away at the aluminum threads.
3. Then there is always the possible cross threading that can occur with a twisty - example here: http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=153544
4. With some twisty setups they put undue pressure on a PCB which can break it but more often wear it's thin tracing material out long before a switch would wear out.
5. They require more cleaning and maintenance - which if not done can lead to intermittent turn on or flickering and low power getting to the LED.
6. A well designed clicky is not rocket science and I know they can be made super reliable, tiny and easily handle the few watts going through them.
A typical toggle switch you can buy at a hardware store or electrical supply is often rated 250 VAC at 15 amps. That's 3,750 watts! I've seen switches like this with that are no bigger than the tip of my finger. We only need a switch that for most LED lights can handle maybe 50 to 100 watts at the very most. In most cases more like 5 or 10 watts for our tiny twisty lights (which I absolutely have no doubt can be made with a tiny clicky that will not at more than 1/16" to the length of most twisties).
When I lived in California there was a huge surplus electronics store that had hundreds of kinds of switches and I've seen switches in there that I'm sure would have worked but I really think that one could be designed from scratch that would be so good and so small and have a low activation pressure and nice smooth 'feel' (similar to the HDS EDC switches) that everyone would want them in their lights. I challenge someone here to find or design such a switch. I don't think they would be expensive whatsoever either if produced in quantity. Think about your computer keyboard. While I realize these are a different very low volt sort of switch there are an average of 108 switches on a keyboard and you can buy new keyboards for $5.00 in some places and most places have at least some for under $10.00.
Now just to digress a bit to another idea for switches - referring back to ones like HDS and Eternalight use that are super thin. How many here have owned an Eternalight? Or HDS? The three switches on the Eternalight are rubber? covered and very soft activation but with a feedback click. Great! But these would probably not handle the current in some of our LED lights directly. SO!?? Add the control circuit to handle the power. Probably one super cheap IC chip and possibly a couple cents in supporting parts. Yes it's a bit more to design BUT if all this was designed into a thin switch componenet and designed to handle our typical 1.2v to 12v (or make ones for different voltages) and put into a small package that could be easily adapted to many different lights I would guess it would be extremely popular and sell very well.
I actually don't think we need to go with that idea and that a thin small switch can be found or designed that will handle our power requirements without any added control components. But either way I know it can be done. Geeezzz - think about it. The miniturization that has occurred in the last 20 years is astounding. You know the 2 Gigabyte USB flash drive you've got - that one the size of your little finger but thinner? How many of you know that has 2 billion transistors in it? Yes that is 2,000,000,000 - yes Billion! So how hard can it be to make a smaller and reliable switch that can handle a few watts? Ok - stepping down now from my fist pounding drama on the soapbox but I just feel we've been so focused on our lights, batteries and the material that holds them that we have turned our backs on the one little thing that turns them on and have come to accept marginal, cheap and half-baked solutions for getting our lights on. I think a lot of manufacturers choose to design their own switches because they too think it's not rocket science but end up with something that is less than great. I want great!!
Just one more thing - the thread that actually pushed me into finally starting this message thread was one about a momentary switch mentioned above. While reading that I remember that for a long time my most often used light on my bench/computer desk was a lowly $5.95 Walmart Dorcy triple AAA light because it had the easiest working switch to quickly get light on a subject. I find that very sad considering all the much better and high end lights I have.
So twisty fans fire away - manufacturers what do you think? I'd like to hear from anyone who has thoughts on this - good or bad.
1. Think of the switch on you computer mouse that you click all the time or game pad switches. They can easily do a million clicks before wearing out.
2. Twisties wear out the threads on your lights grinding away at the aluminum threads.
3. Then there is always the possible cross threading that can occur with a twisty - example here: http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=153544
4. With some twisty setups they put undue pressure on a PCB which can break it but more often wear it's thin tracing material out long before a switch would wear out.
5. They require more cleaning and maintenance - which if not done can lead to intermittent turn on or flickering and low power getting to the LED.
6. A well designed clicky is not rocket science and I know they can be made super reliable, tiny and easily handle the few watts going through them.
A typical toggle switch you can buy at a hardware store or electrical supply is often rated 250 VAC at 15 amps. That's 3,750 watts! I've seen switches like this with that are no bigger than the tip of my finger. We only need a switch that for most LED lights can handle maybe 50 to 100 watts at the very most. In most cases more like 5 or 10 watts for our tiny twisty lights (which I absolutely have no doubt can be made with a tiny clicky that will not at more than 1/16" to the length of most twisties).
When I lived in California there was a huge surplus electronics store that had hundreds of kinds of switches and I've seen switches in there that I'm sure would have worked but I really think that one could be designed from scratch that would be so good and so small and have a low activation pressure and nice smooth 'feel' (similar to the HDS EDC switches) that everyone would want them in their lights. I challenge someone here to find or design such a switch. I don't think they would be expensive whatsoever either if produced in quantity. Think about your computer keyboard. While I realize these are a different very low volt sort of switch there are an average of 108 switches on a keyboard and you can buy new keyboards for $5.00 in some places and most places have at least some for under $10.00.
Now just to digress a bit to another idea for switches - referring back to ones like HDS and Eternalight use that are super thin. How many here have owned an Eternalight? Or HDS? The three switches on the Eternalight are rubber? covered and very soft activation but with a feedback click. Great! But these would probably not handle the current in some of our LED lights directly. SO!?? Add the control circuit to handle the power. Probably one super cheap IC chip and possibly a couple cents in supporting parts. Yes it's a bit more to design BUT if all this was designed into a thin switch componenet and designed to handle our typical 1.2v to 12v (or make ones for different voltages) and put into a small package that could be easily adapted to many different lights I would guess it would be extremely popular and sell very well.
I actually don't think we need to go with that idea and that a thin small switch can be found or designed that will handle our power requirements without any added control components. But either way I know it can be done. Geeezzz - think about it. The miniturization that has occurred in the last 20 years is astounding. You know the 2 Gigabyte USB flash drive you've got - that one the size of your little finger but thinner? How many of you know that has 2 billion transistors in it? Yes that is 2,000,000,000 - yes Billion! So how hard can it be to make a smaller and reliable switch that can handle a few watts? Ok - stepping down now from my fist pounding drama on the soapbox but I just feel we've been so focused on our lights, batteries and the material that holds them that we have turned our backs on the one little thing that turns them on and have come to accept marginal, cheap and half-baked solutions for getting our lights on. I think a lot of manufacturers choose to design their own switches because they too think it's not rocket science but end up with something that is less than great. I want great!!
Just one more thing - the thread that actually pushed me into finally starting this message thread was one about a momentary switch mentioned above. While reading that I remember that for a long time my most often used light on my bench/computer desk was a lowly $5.95 Walmart Dorcy triple AAA light because it had the easiest working switch to quickly get light on a subject. I find that very sad considering all the much better and high end lights I have.
So twisty fans fire away - manufacturers what do you think? I'd like to hear from anyone who has thoughts on this - good or bad.
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