What do you think of the PWM in the Fenix L0D-CE?

For L0D-CE owners, what do you think of the pwm on medium and low settings?

Is it noticeable?

Bareable?

edit: Oops, I thought I could have more than 1 poll. I wanted to make another poll for Low Level PWM.

I notice it when I look at it with my periphere vision, but only for a short moment, not the hole time. I really can't SEE it, but I notice it.

This is absolutely not a problem, and I can happily live with it.

Some newer cars have LED backlights, and I also notice them flicker slightly when I drive behind them with some distance

I don't like it. :thumbsdow I will only run mine on high and will never buy another PWM light again. I got my Jetbeam C-LE the other day and was thinking about selling it because of the awful PWM... As it works out my Jetbeam was a piece of junk and the threads seized the head into the body. So now I will never buy anther PWM light and I will never buy another Jetbeam.

My two cents.

p97z said:

I don't like it. :thumbsdow I will only run mine on high and will never buy another PWM light again. I got my Jetbeam C-LE the other day and was thinking about selling it because of the awful PWM... As it works out my Jetbeam was a piece of junk and the threads seized the head into the body. So now I will never buy anther PWM light and I will never buy another Jetbeam.

My two cents.

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I don't mind the PWM that much. Are you going to return your C-LE or sale it? I may be interested in buying it if the price is right.

It doesn't bother me or the use of the flashlight.

To late to return it. I tried to get the head off using vice grips. After the first slip I gave up trying to keep from scratching it. Eventually I got the head of using a Dremel. I will eventually use the CREE and reflector and turn it into a bike light. It's a shame because the quality of the light was nice for the price. I have no idea what happened it was working just fine till I decided to change the battery. It had the usual somewhat gritty feel of a new thread twisty.

Have not found the PWM to be a problem. Have had other lights, like the EternaLight, with PWM and it doesn't bother me.

It doesn't bother me that much as I mainly use it on its default medium setting,
After all its only my key chain light, I normally EDC the L1D CE as my main light

It's noticable if you move the light around or try to illuminate a moving object, but for reading in bed (and not annoying the wife with a more conventional reading light) it's fine.

It makes lovely patterns in the bathroom after a hot shower. Turn off the lights and just point the L0D-CE down on low. All the water vapour makes pretty patterns and seems suspended in the air. The strobing effect makes it look like the droplets are stationary.

:lolsign: That's another nice idea of playing with flashlights!

Mars said:

It's noticable if you move the light around or try to illuminate a moving object, but for reading in bed (and not annoying the wife with a more conventional reading light) it's fine.

It makes lovely patterns in the bathroom after a hot shower. Turn off the lights and just point the L0D-CE down on low. All the water vapour makes pretty patterns and seems suspended in the air. The strobing effect makes it look like the droplets are stationary.

Click to expand...

Funny how it bothers some folks and others hardly notice it. I see it if I try, but in normal use (L0Pse) it's not a problem. I guess my brain doesn't work fast enough to notice.

Geoff

I find that I am sensitive to the pulsing. My HDS B42 operates at a higher frequency and is much less noticeable and annoying.

Alex

You guys were tripping me out so I just went into a dark room and turned on my wife's L0P to see if I could notice any pulsing. I didn't notice anything. Looked the same as all my other lights. I guess I'm just not sensitive to it.

Update: Hmm, since this L0P is just a single mode (high), I don't think it's really PWM. Probably the L0P SE is since it has low and medium modes. Maybe that's why I didn't notice anything.


One thing I did notice though. I hadn't turned it on for awhile but when I did, I could see that I am spoiled by the brightness of the cree since getting the P1D CE and L2D CE, cause it looked dim (put a new battery in it just to make sure).

Guess now I'm going to have to upgrade her to a L0D CE. I just wished the 50 lumens was the first twist instead of the third. Better yet, I wished it was just one setting like the L0P was.

Hey I just found a new way ( well - new to me ) of detecting - possibly gauging pwm:

I have an mp3 player - a Creative Zen Touch with a LCD screen ( not colour ). The screen strobes from top to bottom when you shine low / medium of a pwm light onto it. Perhaps it will work for other similar devices such as older ipods

psyrens said:

:lolsign: That's another nice idea of playing with flashlights!

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Trippy isn't it?

Is PWM that method of light dimming where it rapidly blinks the light?

It's horrible! The PWM makes my teeth itch and my toenails curl upwards and lean towards the South. My kneecaps vibrate excessively too when walking and this causes my feet to sweat profusely. I suspect that PWM may even cause Rickets. God help you if get one of these lights!

Yes. PWM stands for Pulse-Width Modulation. The LED is turned off and on quickly... apparently not quickly enough in some cases!

If each vertical bar represents a time increment, the upper bar means ON, and the lower bar means OFF, then:

0% dimming:
50% dimming:
25% dimming:

If the time between these bars is not short enough, it's noticeable to the human eye, and you get a 'strobing' effect.