Has anyone here at CPF ever actually used STROBE MODE?

Have you ever found a legitimate purpose for the strobe mode on one of your flashlights? Me neither. My non flashaholic friends are always impressed when I demonstrate this "feature" though.

I have begun to wonder if anyone has, so I thought I'd put the question out there. For example has anyone here ever really used the strobe mode to disorient an attacker? For all the claims I wonder how well it might even work for that purpose. I imagine using a strobe on some drunk, drug crazed thug might just really **** him off. Ever signal someone to get their attention? Whatever? Has anyone found any good use for the strobe?

I guess some folks might use strobe mode on a bicycle but most people find that it can disorient vehicles coming at you more than alert anyone to your presence out on the road. A casual poll of bikers I know revealed that most people who mount LED lights on their handlebars use them as headlights but they do sometimes use small flashers on the back of the bike.

I did read a post onetime from a guy with a Trustfire Z1 (which has a decent memory function) who uses his strobe function pointing the light at the ground when crossing a busy and poorly lit intersection and finds that cars actually do slow down but this is the only time I have heard of someone coming up with a good use for the feature.

What's your experience?

I wish we could convince manufacturers to leave this off most lights. At least some have the forethought to hide such modes.

I despise stobe/beacon/flash modes.

Strobe + blue filter on the dash of your car makes traffic go faaast!!

EZO said:

Have you ever found a legitimate purpose for the strobe mode on one of your flashlights? Me neither.
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I did laugh when I read that.

:laughing:

RepProdigious said:

Strobe + blue filter on the dash of your car makes traffic go faaast!!

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That sounds pretty legal.

I use strobe to make the electricians at work wet themselves, handy ? No funny , yes

I've read of people using it for signaling, but a 2 to 3hz strobe would actually be just as good, less annoying and use up less batteries for that purpose.

I have seen a Cyclist use it at night but it just pissed me off and I am a cyclist and a flashohilic so I think the avg Joe would react even more poorly. It certainly isn't creating good will. I can't figure out how the cyclist could even maintain a straight line as it was reasonably dark and it was his only source of light. So much for disorienting I guess.

CarpentryHero said:

I use strobe to make the electricians at work wet themselves, handy ? No funny , yes

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CarpentryHero, your post reminded me of a weird story I heard from a guy I know who is a technician for our local phone company around these parts, Fairpoint. It's kinda' off topic but it's "strobe" related so, what the hell. (I'm not sure why, but it jogged this particular memory. I guess it was about using a strobe to evoke a certain reaction.) Anyway, my friend was up in the bucket of his truck working on a line to a house near a pond and wetland. Well, the strobe light on his service truck has pretty big capacitors that make a loud "chirping" sound when they cycle. He happened to look out and noticed thousands of tiny frogs (probably peepers from what he described) descending on his truck from every direction within the wetland. He said it really freaked him out and when he realized they were attracted to his strobe light he finally turned it off and they all went away. At least that's the story he told and I have no reason not to believe him.

EZO said:

I guess some folks might use strobe mode on a bicycle but most people find that it can disorient vehicles coming at you more than alert anyone to your presence out on the road. A casual poll of bikers I know revealed that most people who mount LED lights on their handlebars use them as headlights but they do sometimes use small flashers on the back of the bike.

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Strobe on a bike is not just irritating, it's dangerous: rapid strobe can trigger seizures in people who have epilepsy. (I know all about this because I have epilepsy, although thankfully it's fully controlled with a low-dose med and I'm not strobe-sensitive.) You could argue that strobe-triggered epileptics shouldn't be driving -- but you have no way of knowing you're a strobe-triggered epileptic until you have your first seizure. Strobe lights where cars drive should be illegal, period.

Strobing only effects a small percentage of Epileptics according to experts like Ken Good. Deer will stand and stare transfixed when strobed, which to me is a legitimate use. If vehicle operators would concentrate on their driving strobe lights such as on police vehicles would not be needed. Why not write your local PD and explain to then how you feel about flashing lights. IMO epileptics should be banned from driving, "it's for the children and bunnies"...

Paladin

I use it to wake people up. Not rudely in the middle of the night or anything, but when they're supposed to be, and refuse to. And for impromptu raves. Never anything practical or useful at all.

I do use my strobe legitimately, actually. I work in a plant with a large warehouse and lots of forklift traffic. When I'm walking through the warehouse, I activate my strobe and shine it at the "half moon" mirrors at the corners so the forklift drivers will see me coming and not squish me. It's quite effective, actually. Now I have my co-workers interested in doing the same thing.

Paladin said:

Strobing only effects a small percentage of Epileptics according to experts like Ken Good.

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Really? I gather Ken Good must be a well-regarded neurologist. Never heard of him, let me check it out... google google google... oh, he's the original advocate of strobe lights for law enforcement, and he just happens to sell strobe lights. Sheesh.

I've only used it seriously once. I put my light on strobe and laid it on the shoulder of the freeway after my van spun out and landed in a ditch. It actually helped (I think). People changed lanes to avoid me, but then again it could've been because they saw my vans headlights pointing towards oncoming traffic haha

Other times I turn it on, wave it all around, and watch my baby boy crack up. For some reason it amuses him.

samuraishot said:

I've only used it seriously once. I put my light on strobe and laid it on the shoulder of the freeway after my van spun out and landed in a ditch. It actually helped (I think). People changed lanes to avoid me, but then again it could've been because they saw my vans headlights pointing towards oncoming traffic haha

Other times I turn it on, wave it all around, and watch my baby boy crack up. For some reason it amuses him.

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Thats the use I can see for strobe-but I don't have a single light with it, which is going to change, hopefully.

The problem is for every legitimate use case a simple flash of let's say 1 or 0.5 Hz would be enough and a lot less annoying. I would use my Ra Clicky in beacon mode as a warning light in traffic but I would never use a strobe mode for that. It's just too annoying and irritating. I also consider the point about epileptics a very valid one.

I once used the strobe of the Fenix P2D rb100 at a coyote, roughly 100 feet away.
Was walking the dog at the time, I switched into/out of strobe because he [it] really didn't do anything

Twice. Once on a drunk (he was so hammered he broke into the wrong house and fell asleep on the couch. Homeowner woke up and found him there and called the police.) The second time was on an opossum. It didn't work on either.

I used it to get the attention of the manager at a store when she was lollygagging around, yakking with a co-worker and ignoring everyone's waving. It worked immediately.

I once used a strobe amidst a very crowded sidewalk at night, to signal some other people - somewhere - in a very crowded field, that we were going to there to meet, to watch fireworks together. We called them on our cell phone and told them to come towards the strobe. It worked fine. I would also think that it would be good for signaling emergency responders when you didn't know the exact address (on a rural lane, for example) that you were calling in. I almost never use it, but I actually like having a couple of strobe functions on my edc Fenix P2D.