Uses for Flashlight's Strobe Function?

Does anyone have a use for it?

I can't find any.. Am i missing out on something?

Yes, you are missing something. A strobe feature usually prevents me from buying that light. Strobe thus saves me money. It is utterly useless IMHO. :green:


bernie

They are good for "Disco Night" at the club. I can smell the polyester from here!!!

Y-M-C-A!!!

Call attention to yourself across large open public spaces. Ever been on the phone with someone, and one of you is saying "Can you see me waving my arm?", when there are no less than about 500 other people waving their arms in a stadium of 80000 people? (just an example). Stadiums, parking lots, arenas, shopping malls, etc. It's a useful feature for grabbing someone else's attention.


SOS on the other hand is useless IMO. Such a small chance of EVER using it.

I've used it to help friends find my apartment - it's one of those complexes with 20 buildings, each 3 stories tall, with 8 units on each floor. About 3 roads shooting each direction off the main entrance. I just tell them which "exit" to take off the main road and look for the strobe in the window.

Also use it sometimes on my dog's collar at night.

Kiessling said:

Yes, you are missing something. A strobe feature usually prevents me from buying that light. Strobe thus saves me money. It is utterly useless IMHO. :green:


bernie

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+1

Great post!

To me, strobe is a huge money-saver as well.

If it happens to be on a light, i like using it on my bike.

Signaling but most importantly, parlor tricks like "stopping" the rotation of a fan blade in a dark room and approximating silent movies with the apparent slow motion movements--again, in a darkened room. Other than that....:shrug:


Karl

A strobe has a couple very good purposes. Since there are a couple kinds of "strobe" I'll discuss each of them.
First as mentioned it is a great way to draw attention. Even in daylight with the LED setups we have now a strobe can be used with good effect.
Second, a blinking function can be a simple marker or beacon, similar to above but with potentially different purposes.
Third, a strobe can be a very effective tool for LEO or Military provided that they have trained in methods of use. A strobe can give more effective blinding than just a bright light making.
Also, a fast strobe in the proper conditions can be very disorienting and thus prevent someone from moving effectively/ quickly and escaping.

I enjoy having a light with blinking/ strobe functions. I do not want to see every light with them, but it is nice to have a couple lights with strobe features provided they are accessed intelligently. I cannot stand the generic Chinese 5-mode driver whee one has to cycle thru strobe and SOS. But a Proton Pro on the other hand has the blink functions out of the way but accessible.

+1 for PhantomPhoton

I like strobe.... I actually used it not too long ago. I was on my way home from a party around 12:30...1 when I got a flat on the highway, pulled the car over placed my p2d on the trunk(had a g2 with led drop in in the glove box) with strobe on to warn on coming drivers. Everyone slowed down as they approached me. So yes.... I like the strobe even in an emergency at night you can hail down cars for help, signal other drivers, or like some other people said just have people locate you. I like that in the event you need it you have it because thats what edcing, and bob's is all about.

blinding friends and laughing as they try to run after you? thats about it for me. the sos is the "in the way" function on most lights. the fenix system is in my opinion very good with keeping the strobe out of reach unless it is truly needed.-lance

Annoying yourself and others!

That's all I got really, I hate strobe.

I thought that someone would have mentioned this, but no one did. I walk my dog every night, and I use the strobe feature of my Fenix lights (P2D, L1D, L2D, P3D all Q5) along with the white diffuser tip to alert oncoming traffic of my position. Something to remember is a light that is doing something is much more noticeable than a light that is doing nothing. I use to shine my lights directly at oncoming traffic effectively blinding the drivers which could cause them to lose control of their vehicles. Now I use the strobe feature with the diffuser tip (white) and have had no problems what so ever. Try it, the oncoming traffic will drive around you every time. Just my 2 cents.

H.D.T. = Happy Dark Trails

Marduke said:

Call attention to yourself across large open public spaces. Ever been on the phone with someone, and one of you is saying "Can you see me waving my arm?", when there are no less than about 500 other people waving their arms in a stadium of 80000 people? (just an example). Stadiums, parking lots, arenas, shopping malls, etc. It's a useful feature for grabbing someone else's attention.


SOS on the other hand is useless IMO. Such a small chance of EVER using it.

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x2

STROBE:twothumbs

S.O.S.:thumbsdow. IMHO a plastic pea-less whistle and a signaling mirror would be more useful than an SOS mode.

karlthev said:

approximating silent movies with the apparent slow motion movements--again, in a darkened room. Other than that....:shrug:
Karl

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:lolsign: Almost makes me re-consider my no-strobe rule of thumb.

Marduke said:

Call attention to yourself across large open public spaces

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I thought that's where throw came in.

"Oops, sorry, I tried to hit the guy beside you. Please throw the light back"

I don't like it on a light if you have to cycle through it and since I always have at least a white and red key chain light would use those to wave at people. A couple summers ago I had white, red, green, yellow and blue so we just had a light show backstage.

I have used the strobe function to help drive pesky skunks away at night with generally good results (From a reasonably safe distance of course). Only had one **** his tail and even he moved along. Have had similar results with my SuperTac and XO3, but the strobe really seems to annoy them.

That being said, it has to be accessable....Or should I say hidden....In a way that does not interfere with normal use. I like where fenix locates their strobe and wish they would put the SOS there as well. I dislike my Huntlight which forces me to scroll through both the strobe and SOS when cycling through normal functions.

CARNAL1 said:

I thought that someone would have mentioned this, but no one did. I walk my dog every night, and I use the strobe feature of my Fenix lights (P2D, L1D, L2D, P3D all Q5) along with the white diffuser tip to alert oncoming traffic of my position. Something to remember is a light that is doing something is much more noticeable than a light that is doing nothing. I use to shine my lights directly at oncoming traffic effectively blinding the drivers which could cause them to lose control of their vehicles. Now I use the strobe feature with the diffuser tip (white) and have had no problems what so ever. Try it, the oncoming traffic will drive around you every time. Just my 2 cents.

H.D.T. = Happy Dark Trails

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+1 When jogging/walking in the city, I like to use the strobe mode to alert innattentive drivers especially when I am about to cross the street in the marked crosswalks. It's surprising how many drivers are either on their cell phones, not paying attention, etc. The strobe really gets their attention and makes them take notice to slow down and pay attention to pedestrians.

I couldn't resist and stuffed my L0D-CE in the eyepiece of my 6" reflecting telescope and point that around, it is by far the most attention grabbing mode ever....

if your going to use on the road though, say as a marker, point it down on the asphalt, or your asking to get highbeam'd / honk'd every time a car wants to pass you.