E1b strobe!

I hadn't fired up my E1B in a long time, so I grabbed it and pointed it down the hall into the bedroom. When I turned it on, it came on high. I turned it off, turned it back on, and it came on low. I turned it off again and back to high, but instead of high, it started strobing! I looked down to make sure it was actually my E1B with Z61 tailcap in my hand! It was! I turned it off and back on. High. Off and back on. Low. Off and back on. Strobe! I'm scratching my head thinking WTF! I took out the battery and tested on on the ZTS and it was at 20%. Check it again, and it showed to be dead. One more test and showed 20%. I changed out the battery and I no longer have strobe (which is a good thing). Anyone ever heard of this?

I've experienced flickering with low cells but never anything that was strobe like.

I get this regularly with the E1B 'spare' that I use around the house to drain out CR123s, flickering but not usually in a dramatic strobe mode, maybe because the output is weak at that point anyway. Someone on the CPF forum reported they raised this question with SF and the answer came back that it should be regarded as a handy sign the battery is almost dead, which is exactly how I'd been treating it. Probably happens with all SFs, I've seen it with most of the ones I own.

My E1L is the same way with the flickering, only on a near dead cell.

And remember, the E1B is the pig of the single cell lights in SFs