What new trends are on the horizon?

[Need a Light?]

I hope plastic lights make a comeback. Popular for incandescent which can't hurt itself with heat, less so for sensitive LED.

That leaves me with less plastic lights which don't feel cold, are tooth-friendly, and are less worrisome to drop.

I have a couple HDPE Dynalite's (6D lantern style flashlights), a Surefire G2 (I run 3.7v xenon so I don't destroy an led module), a pelican 3315 (led very decent light), and now a pelican 2340. But only one led, and 160? Lumens at that. Still, I seek quality plastic lights.

 

[Offgridled]

OMG PLEASE STOP. I have no Interest In having a flashlight that looks like this....go make a even more useless smart phone or something

I need bigger pockets on my pants yikes

 

[RedLED]

I have a 20 year old Leatherman Wave, and prior to that a SOG with one hand opening that I passed on to my son. I carry a SAK in my EDC bag with my powerbank, and a flexible USB lamp for it.

Segway are very much in business, and are doing well here in South Africa. You can book a Segway tour of some tourist spots, and shopping mall security patrols use them often.

Your Idea for a phone with a bit of everything can easily be achieved by using a flapover phone cover that has credit card slots, and inserting a Victorinox swisscard.

Zulu,

Yes, South Africa. When it was launched it was to be of use to everyone in the world, it would change how we live. Well it didn't and it is only good for tourists and whatever Cops use them. Both parties should be walking anyway. It was a huge industrial failure, no that is to dignified a word...let's see Flop is more like it.

The build up to this was huge, and when they revealed it we all thought that maybe this was a prank or a joke. They have a huge range of 24 miles. In like 2008, a man came by my studio to have me shoot a part with rulers, so he could sent it to machine shops across the country to have it produced as Segway no longer, I guess had the part. He told me he invested most of his fortune in Segway, and and wanted to hit the designer in the head with a shovel, like the mob, because he lost almost all of his investment, and was going broke as no one wanted a Segway. Infact he could not afford my hourly rate, so, I just said a hundred will do. The digital time with complex lighting would have been over a grand. I just felt sorry for him.

He let me try one that he had with him, and it was fun well thought out engineering and the biggest two minute wonder in the entire history of mankind. After a couple minutes, I heard the office phone ring, and went in to get it. Now, if he had a Ferrari, that call could have gone to voice mail.

 

[zulumoose]

OMG PLEASE STOP. I have no Interest In having a flashlight that looks like this....go make a even more useless smart phone or something

I don't know what that is in the middle, but it looks like a telescopic radio antenna!

Some things are obviously not practical, but someone ends up doing them anyway, which generates a few novelty sales or something else for collectors to add to make their set complete.

With flashlights it is genuinely hard to think of practical extras that might take off and become an option that most manufacturers offer on some models, but the powerbank utility is undeniable, at least for rechargeable flashlights, and I think perhaps an optional screw on watertight compartment (for non-tail switch models) is maybe something that could become popular. Along with the powerbank function USB cable storage could be a good selling point, some powerbanks have built-in cables but amazingly most don't offer even storage for a cable, making that an extra inconvenience left to the user to solve. A flat cable that rolls up tightly could fit within a tail cap on many flashlights, or a slot along the side that accepts a cable. Cables don't have to be long to be useful.

 

[bykfixer]

I think the task is do-able, but discovering which sized light would be the most appealing would probably be the biggest obstacle.

25 years ago ya woulda just done a 2C sized flashlight configuration and the market would either buy it or not.

These days with flashlight sizes varying between the size of a thumbnail to a baseball bat, with a bazillion shapes and sizes between them... to me that would be the biggest challenge.

 

[Tusk]

My hopes for a "trend" in flashlight technology would be for continued improvement of those things that make for a better flashlight rather than bloating up a device with things not light related. I think two good examples of this would be the Sunwayman V11r and the Streamlight Protac 1L-1AA. Both examples are fuel flexible, giving the user the ability to keep producing light from a variety of readily available sources. Each light offers a different feature set catering to different tastes but in each case the options offered enhance the function of the light as a light, not something other than a light.

They both accomplish this while retaining a size and shape that has already proven to be both useful and popular, the single cell light. This is important because it's about the upper limit of what most people, most of the time are willing to carry on their person. Anything much larger than this ends up being carried off-body. If it's not actually on you then it's not going to be there when you need it. If you have to stop what you're doing to go get the light than you might as well go get anything that might be attached to it, like a battery charger, for instance.

I believe the focus should remain on making the light a better light. This can be either technically better or ergonomically better. Examples of the former would be brighter, longer running or both. Examples of the later would be the Sunwayman's control ring, allowing just the right amount of light for a particular task, or the clip on the Protac that allows the light to be used as a headlamp. These are features that actually enhance the light or how we use it. That's real progress and a trend I hope to see more of in the future.

 

[scout24]

Bykfixer- I envision the side by side 18650 platform, or a "12P" sized light with side switch, running one 18650 in regular configuration, or remove tailcap and screw in a 1x18650 extention with the aforementioned items or a spare cell inside. With that platform, no seperate inner tube is needed, and the whole interior space can be utilized.

 

[bykfixer]

^^ Agreed and a "12P" sized platform is very user friendly for handling or carrying.

Side by side could conceivably be about the girth of a 2D Mag, so either would be great in my view

 

[Need a Light?]

Imagine a 2D mag with some crazy 32900 cell or something (not that it exists but if you will, assume it's researched almost as well as other sizes, and there are at least 15Ah) with a zebralight-esque driver pushing an XHP35 along with a dummy cap (which not only has storage for a tiny cable but *also* covers both in and out charge ports!)

That could be sweet. I'd buy that

 

[EseriesModder]

I think it's incredible how many people are against the idea. It's not like the industry would suddenly shift to one newly adopted goal. Just like always they'll continue developing multiple products.

the simple, single cell, everyday carry flashlight won't disappear any time soon.

 

[bykfixer]

I think it's incredible how many people are against the idea. It's not like the industry would suddenly shift to one newly adopted goal. Just like always they'll continue developing multiple products.

the simple, single cell, everyday carry flashlight won't disappear any time soon.

Eh, some people gripe about working in a pie factory.
I thought this thread was a cool idea. "What-if-ing" is cool.

 

[chillinn]

It's not like the industry would suddenly shift to one newly adopted goal.

Actually, that is precisely the danger. Crenellations, anyone? Crenellations are perhaps useful to some tiny minority of users, and among that population, will only actually get used for any purpose very very rarely, if ever. An unused feature is a useless feature. Crenellations were and still are mostly unnecessary, mostly unused, and therefore, useless. Also, they're ugly, and they destroy pockets and ultimately do far more damage to the user than the vanishingly small probability of an attacker, or being able to sucessfully defend against such an attacker with such a feature on a flashlight.

Yet once introduced to the industry, crenelaltions spread rapidly to all corners of the Earth and nearly ubiquitously to almost every flashlight, not unlike the scourge of a virulent and highly contagious plague. There are less than a handful of flashlight manufacturers that somehow are immune to catching the crenellation plague.

Another example of the contagiousness of feature creep is bottle openers. Show me a multitool without a bottle opener. How many multitool users are bartenders?

Whatever OP's original desires are, they already exist, and there is no reason for a campaign to interest manufacturers into providing yet even more of these kinds of features that have absolutely nothing to do with a lighting tool, because an industry-wide scourge is a very real possibility.

A flashlight is a flashlight. Let it be what it is, KISS, and try to resist the irrational desire to turn it into something else.

 

[zulumoose]

Good example that, crenellations. Yes there is always a danger of spoiling a good thing. I think the buzzword "tactical" has a lot to answer for.

The bottle opener thing too, what I don't understand about that is there are perfectly good designs for tiny bottle openers that will also open cans, such as the Leatherman version, making it very useful even at home (how many rotary kitchen can openers have been broken in the average house by people using them carelessly?) yet most are bulkier and less useful, even the keyring versions.

 

[ploink]

I think multitools exist so that my flashlight *doesn't* have to have anything come out of it. [emoji51]

 

[zulumoose]

I think multitools exist so that my flashlight *doesn't* have to have anything come out of it. [emoji51]

Doesn't have to no, but that means you are carrying around a potential power source you cannot use for anything else but light. What a waste if you need a phone function while out on foot somewhere and cannot access it because your battery is too low, yet you have a fully charged 18650 sitting in a rugged compact enclosure in your pocket or on your belt, that you cannot use for anything but light, when the circuitry required to add the powerbank function is so small you could probably fit several in a matchbox.

How does your multitool help you with that?

Doesn't that seem like a function flashlights are ideally suited for?

Your other common pocket EDC items cannot help with that (Wallet, phone, keyring, watch, multi-tool, pen)
The closest I have seen is an effort to make a credit card profile power bank, apparently they don't work well and who wants that in their wallet, we carry too many cards as it is, I have 17 credit card profile items in my wallet right now, and only 2 of them are credit cards.
In fact I would go so far as to say that it is specifically the lack of this function that makes the flashlight an uncommon EDC item compared to the above.
There must be other functions in the same bracket, that the flashlight is uniquely well suited for.

You know, if backup power is adopted as a flashlight function, then there are several other EDC items that need backup power which could benefit, not just your phone:-

Right now I have a USB chargeable Polar M400 running watch on my wrist
The heart-rate sensor uses a lithium 2025 coin cell, which would add almost no size and weight to an 18650 flashlight.
I have 2 gate remotes (work and home) an alarm system remote (work) and a car remote on my keyring, all of which use the same small battery that would fit in an extended tailcap of an 18650 flashlight easily, remember how the maglites carried a spare globe?
I have a small AAA keyring flashlight, that could be replaced by one of the increasingly popular 10180 lights with micro USB charging built in.

It all adds up, a flashlight adapted to be a custom backup power source with modular fittings could become an indispensable carry.

 

[Tusk]

Doesn't have to no, but that means you are carrying around a potential power source you cannot use for anything else but light. What a waste if you need a phone function while out on foot somewhere and cannot access it because your battery is too low, yet you have a fully charged 18650 sitting in a rugged compact enclosure in your pocket or on your belt, that you cannot use for anything but light, when the circuitry required to add the powerbank function is so small you could probably fit several in a matchbox.

Good idea or not I think it's inevitable the ability to tap the battery will be implemented at some point. I just hope whoever ends up doing it does it exactly like the Lumintop EDC25 does on board charging. The port is out of sight, out of mind and completely protected until you need it.

 

[ploink]

Doesn't have to no, but that means you are carrying around a potential power source you cannot use for anything else but light. What a waste if you need a phone function while out on foot somewhere and cannot access it because your battery is too low, yet you have a fully charged 18650 sitting in a rugged compact enclosure in your pocket or on your belt, that you cannot use for anything but light, when the circuitry required to add the powerbank function is so small you could probably fit several in a matchbox.

How does your multitool help you with that?

Doesn't that seem like a function flashlights are ideally suited for?

Your other common pocket EDC items cannot help with that (Wallet, phone, keyring, watch, multi-tool, pen)
The closest I have seen is an effort to make a credit card profile power bank, apparently they don't work well and who wants that in their wallet, we carry too many cards as it is, I have 17 credit card profile items in my wallet right now, and only 2 of them are credit cards.
In fact I would go so far as to say that it is specifically the lack of this function that makes the flashlight an uncommon EDC item compared to the above.
There must be other functions in the same bracket, that the flashlight is uniquely well suited for.

You know, if backup power is adopted as a flashlight function, then there are several other EDC items that need backup power which could benefit, not just your phone:-

Right now I have a USB chargeable Polar M400 running watch on my wrist
The heart-rate sensor uses a lithium 2025 coin cell, which would add almost no size and weight to an 18650 flashlight.
I have 2 gate remotes (work and home) an alarm system remote (work) and a car remote on my keyring, all of which use the same small battery that would fit in an extended tailcap of an 18650 flashlight easily, remember how the maglites carried a spare globe?
I have a small AAA keyring flashlight, that could be replaced by one of the increasingly popular 10180 lights with micro USB charging built in.

It all adds up, a flashlight adapted to be a custom backup power source with modular fittings could become an indispensable carry.

I wasn't referring to power banks. I was referring to the proposal of flashlight plus / knife multi tool / etc.

I think power bank is a fine idea. Just don't think having any sort of a tool attached to my light is something I'd ever want. I have a multi tool so that I have the space and weight to carry select few dedicated tools where it's important to me.

 

[Launch Mini]

The one thing I would like to see in a flashlight is a RED TAIL LiGHT option.
Flashlights work great for seeing & beeing seen from the front, but not so good from the back.
Actually a red dome on the back end of a light would help with side visibility as well.

If I am going to pack a power bank to recharge my batteries, It is easy enough to pack my Cotton Pickers mini charger as well. Actually, I can just leave it plugged in to the power bank.

 

[Timothybil]

While I agree it is always worthwhile to 'blue sky' once in a while, I have a problem with multi-function items where all of the functions don't work together to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. So far in life (at this point 62 years) the only multi-function device that fits my criteria would be the smartphone. I used to use Palm products as my digital Daytimer. When Palm started adding a phone function I couldn't see it. Things have improved enough now that I can see how it would be useful. But there, the two main functions are integrated so that while each could be used separately, they also integrate into a useful tool as well. Most multi-function devices I have seen don't do that. Let's just take as an example a GoFundMe project a saw a while ago to create a flashlight with a plasma lighter at the other end. First, unless one is a smoker, how often does one need a lighter? Second, there is a good possibility that when I do need a lighter, I will also need my flashlight at the same time. And the biggest part to me - If one function fails and is not easily repairable, I now have to replace that function with some other device, while I still carry around what is now a useless piece of junk.
As far as using the cells of my light as a power bank as well, I think that makes as much sense as using the flashlight function on a smartphone rather than carrying a separate light, of any size. I participate in the Flashlight Fanatics group on Facebook, and yesterday one member posted about how power had been off for over ten hours, starting earlier the previous evening. He said that most of his friends and family had used their smartphones as flashlights, and now had dead batteries, and neither a phone nor a light. While he, on the other hand, had his single cell whatever (I don't remember what it was exactly) still going strong, as well as a charged up phone available if he wanted/needed it.

So, yeah, go ahead and 'blue sky'. We've all done the 'wouldn't it be nice if' more than once. Go ahead and make a prototype. If you can get it to work, make a few more and let friends try them out so you can get opinions from different viewpoints than your own. GoFundMe et. al. are there if you think it will work. Just be prepared to find out that there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way I do about multi-function gadgets. And don't stop dreaming. We would be nowhere without our dreamers.

 

[Sambob]

After giving It more thought I would really like to see flash light makers fine tune the lights they make.
1. Better heat dissipation through heat sink and better head design
2. longer run time(I do realize that this Is mostly a battery problem).