Find Me Mode?

As a sort of Tritium alternative, would it be possible to have a mode on a flashlight where a LED illuminated with an extremely low level?

Maybe it could even flash on and off to use half the power.

How long could this run for i.e. months?

It's called a "locator beacon". Some lights have this option...and they will usually run for a LOOOONG time...

The PAL lights have a constant glow function. They use one 9v battery. They can run like this about 1.5 -> 2 years, less obviously if you turn the light 'on' and use as a flashlight. This glow mode makes a great, portable night light.

Jetbeam C-LE has one but it flashes every 4 seconds. If you keep it in that mode, the battery will be depleted in about 4 days as reported.

- Vikas

Some of these find me modes,state upto a year as on a safelite i owned.but alas mine went into the bin as it i could hardly see the light even on high.i had a lemon i guess! .

The MKIIx has this in the general and advanced mode. It's called standby and it blinks very dimly about every 6 sec.

What?! Nobody's mention HDS/Novatac? Powernoodle reports it still going fine after 7 months.

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=132584&page=1&pp=30

PAL makes the Safe-Light which features a constant glow (up to a year) and an SOS feature.

http://www.palights.com/

the princeton tec apex blinks its power indicator for 24 hours after its been turned on / off very handy. Turn it on to check bats dump in rucksack easy to find when its dark.

The HDS find me mode lights up every 3 seconds.

louie said:

What?! Nobody's mention HDS/Novatac? Powernoodle reports it still going fine after 7 months.

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I thought he had given up - IIRC someone worked out it would last nearly 10 years!

The EliteMAX by Technology Associates has a translucent case and an internal blue led that can be set for a slow blink. Fortunately the light allows you to turn off the function, because on my nightstand I found it annoying. In many other situations it would be a good feature.

Cool, thanks for the info.

The NiteIze IQ switch for MiniMags has a very small red led that blinks as a locator beacon too.

Luigi

RonM said:

The EliteMAX by Technology Associates has a translucent case and an internal blue led that can be set for a slow blink. Fortunately the light allows you to turn off the function, because on my nightstand I found it annoying. In many other situations it would be a good feature.

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By the way, they claim greater than 2 years runtime on "blip mode", and I think a year on constant-on for the beacon. Lol, I haven't tested it.

I also turned it off; because I'm a miser. No, actually because I always know where it is. But if I were camping or something it would be a great feature. the EliteMax is all about the options!

The Inova 24/7 has a locator mode as well. Simply position the switch dial anywhere between to active modes, and the light will blink (red) every couple of seconds.

Personally, I've never had the chance to take advantage of such a mode. :shrug:

A few years ago, Energizer came out a 2D cell incadescent with a "find me" flashing red LED light feature (roughly every 5 secs). Virtually unused, mine lasted for several years on the included cells before they were completely drained.

FYI, I've since replaced that bulb with a PR-based SMJLED, and now it too blinks every five seconds (and a lot brighter than the find-me beacon LED). :lolsign:

selfbuilt said:

A few years ago, Energizer came out a 2D cell incadescent with a "find me" flashing red LED light feature (roughly every 5 secs). Virtually unused, mine lasted for several years on the included cells before they were completely drained.

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These lights are actually quite decent. Some years back - over 5 but less than 10 years ago - I got one for my mother.

She had been using 2D plastic supermarket incans for nightstand duty. The supermarket 2D lights were unreliable even when new - contact and switch issues often required whacking the light to get decent output. After they had been knocked off the nightstand and dropped a few times they became even more unreliable.

She still has that same Eveready light I gave her years ago and really likes the blinking locator feature. I've given her a few nice LED lights in the last few years, but she prefers the big blinking Eveready 2D.

.

greenLED said:

The Inova 24/7 has a locator mode as well. Simply position the switch dial anywhere between to active modes, and the light will blink (red) every couple of seconds.
Personally, I've never had the chance to take advantage of such a mode. :shrug:

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I keep mine in the car, and I use de "locator mode" simulating some type of alarm.

mountainpenguin said:

the princeton tec apex blinks its power indicator for 24 hours after its been turned on / off very handy. Turn it on to check bats dump in rucksack easy to find when its dark.

Click to expand...

that would suck... having bats dumping in your rucksack.