Fenix PD20 - Alternatives/Mends?

To get Max is rather ridiculous, and I never like having to twist flashlights often. Is there an alternative with a more simple UI? I like clickies, not twisties. Or is there a way to get it to start and stay on Max?

easy. quark aa2.

Budget alternative?

Ok, it is a budget alternative, but as Chinese as Fenix and 4Sevens by the way. I'm very satissfied with my Ultrafire U-30 with his XP-G R5 emitter.

It has a really good quality construction and accepts primaries CR123 or even long, protected 16340 batteries.

If you leave it as it comes you'll have only high, let's say around 250 lumens. With the central part loosened you can select high, low or strobe pressing the switch with a soft touch.

I got 4 Fenix, E05, LD15, LD20 and E21, but I don't even think on buying a PD20 because the Ultrafire seems very solid and reliable.

This is my first post, hello everybody.

belomeclone said:

To get Max is rather ridiculous, and I never like having to twist flashlights often. Is there an alternative with a more simple UI? I like clickies, not twisties. Or is there a way to get it to start and stay on Max?

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Tight head and you start in max brightness every time, why is that ridiculous?

I find the UI on these Fenix lights to be among the most simple and easy to use.

+1. Besides leaving the head tight, and clicking it "on" or "off", what on earth are you doing with your light that is "ridiculous"?

BTW, the procedure to get max brightness on a Quark is exactly the same.

If you were not to want hundreds of lumens all of the time, you CAN loosen the head and scroll through the lower settings with half presses, but you never NEED to mess with that if you don't want to.

Hondo said:

+1. Besides leaving the head tight, and clicking it "on" or "off", what on earth are you doing with your light that is "ridiculous"?

BTW, the procedure to get max brightness on a Quark is exactly the same.

If you were not to want hundreds of lumens all of the time, you CAN loosen the head and scroll through the lower settings with half presses, but you never NEED to mess with that if you don't want to.

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As I understand it, on the Fenix PD20 you can only set it to the second highest setting, needing to twist the cap to get to Max Brightness, but when you turn it off and on it goes back to the second highest setting, which is 90 Lumens, which is close to what I have now.

OK, just checked the Fenix site, to make sure nothing changed. I am guessing you have never tried any of the PD series lights.

Here is how they work:

When the head is snugged down, i.e. tight, the light will come on in what they call Turbo, 180 Lumens. If you half press the switch for a moment, it will toggle it to the strobe mode, and back to turbo again with another half press. It will always default to Turbo when turned on from off.

When the head is backed off a bit, i.e. loose, the light will come on in low, and half presses will cycle to med, high (90 lumen) and SOS and back to low again. It will always default to low when turned on from off.

You can pre-select which mode you will come on in, either low or turbo by loosening or tightening the head before turning it on. If you never loosen it, and never half-press the switch while on, it will be an on-off, 180 lumen light.

Hope this helps your decision making process! I think we all assumed from your first post that you already owned the light.

Hondo is 100% correct on the operation on the PD20 and when your in turbo when Loosen the head to get to low you Barely have to loosen it. It's a very well built light. The Ui is very simple. It one of my most used lights. It exceeded my expectations by miles. It's actually the light that got me into single cell lights in-stead of multi cell.

So I can get it on Turbo and keep it there, or at least get it back there when I am done.

How do you change modes? It's twisting? I see something about changing modes with no-click presses. Is the PD20 your EDC, or is there a better one out there? Do you use CR123s or rechargables? And, how does it look on a keychain, as that's where mine would go. I've done some measuring and it's thicker than my AAA light, but only by the size of the battery. It seems like it'd be fine.

Think of it as two complete different user interfaces. In each one, the modes are changed by turning the light off and back on within a short time, like two seconds. You don't need to actually click it off, as pressing the reverse clicky part way will momentarily shut it off. You really want a reverse clicky for this sort of interface.

So with the head tight, click it on, you have turbo. Half press the switch and let go (light goes out momentarily), and you are in strobe. Do it again, and you are back to turbo, and so forth.

Loosen the head, it drops to low. Half press and it jumps to medium, again and it is in high, and again and you are in SOS. From any mode, tighten the head, it jumps back to turbo.

It makes sense after about one minute of playing with it, very intuitive.

I actually own the older P2D, and others in that series (L1D, L2D), and the Quarks, which are pretty much the same idea, with the addition of a moon mode below low. Not so much an EDC for me, usually I carry just a AAA light. I use the slightly larger lights when out hiking in the woods and grab them for specific chores around the house. They may get strapped to a bike handlebar or helmet too.

I know for my older lights, and I think this still holds true, if you use a full 3.7 volt Li-Ion rechargeable, you will lose the lower modes, it is just very bright all the time, at least until the battery is almost fully discharged. So the Fenix, unless they have changed the circuit, is best on primaries if you want to use the lower modes. But if you want to use it in turbo all the time, you won't know the difference, and it will work fine. Quark lights retain all of the low modes on a 3.7 volt battery.

Keychain carry is a personal thing, but for me it is a bit too big. But keep in mind I have only put a Photon sized coin cell light on my keychain. Many use 123 size lights on one, but more will go down to a AAA light. My wife's keychain is bigger than mine would be with a PD20 on it, and she has no light on hers! (still trying to fix that)

belomeclone said:

So I can get it on Turbo and keep it there, or at least get it back there when I am done.

How do you change modes? It's twisting? I see something about changing modes with no-click presses. Is the PD20 your EDC, or is there a better one out there? Do you use CR123s or rechargables? And, how does it look on a keychain, as that's where mine would go. I've done some measuring and it's thicker than my AAA light, but only by the size of the battery. It seems like it'd be fine.

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Yup, you can keep it in turbo all the time. When the head bezel is tightened then it will come on in turbo. If you soft press the on/off button when the light is on and in turbo mode (head bezel tightened) the light will go in to strobe if you soft press again it will go back into turbo if you repeat the process it will switch back and forth from turbo to strobe as many times as you want. Then from turbo if you loosen the head it will go to low mode. Then if you soft press it will go to medium soft press again for high soft press again for SOS soft press again to go back to low. Tighten head to go back to turbo. The soft press is when you push the tail clicky in but not enough to make It click. I run It on CR123. I think it would be ok for a keychain light, borderline but ok.

I sent you a pm with a link to video on how the light works. I hope that was ok. If your like me, your a very visual person. You need to see It Before you really grasp it.

Johnbeck180 said:

I sent you a pm with a link to video on how the light works. I hope that was ok. If your like me, your a very visual person. You need to see It Before you really grasp it.

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Thanks man, I appreciate it. I'm just wondering if it's the right light. It seems great, and small, I just hope it's not too big for my keychain! And that I won't be spending a dollar every few weeks on a new battery. Although when I think of the costs for my charger and Li-Ion batteries, I think it'd probably outweigh the cost of dollar CR123's.

Is there a smaller light with similar output? The video I was linked to suggests the Quark Mini 123 for a keychain, but it's a twisty.

Can I ask what you'll be using it for? You mentioned something about keeping it on turbo all the time. The low on the PD20 is 9 lumens and the medium is 38 lumens. On 9 lumens it will run for 66hrs and on 38lumens it will run for 10 hrs. At night even 9 lumens are very usable. Just letting you know so maybe you can get more life out of a battery.

I want it bright. That's all I want. What I use it for is to look around at night, but I want to see things well. I have an AAA light on my keychain right now, and it's fine, but I just want brighter.

belomeclone said:

Is there a smaller light with similar output? The video I was linked to suggests the Quark Mini 123 for a keychain, but it's a twisty.

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It was the video on the PD20 and PD 30, wasn't it?

Johnbeck180 said:

It was the video on the PD20 and PD 30, wasn't it?

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Yeah, he wrote this in the comments: "The PD20 is a bit big for a keychain light. I would go for the 4Sevens Mini 123 instead."

I mean, it may not be too big for a keychain light, I've read reviews where people like it as a keychain light, but I'd still like to look at a few options.

belomeclone said:

Yeah, he wrote this in the comments: "The PD20 is a bit big for a keychain light. I would go for the 4Sevens Mini 123 instead."

I mean, it may not be too big for a keychain light, I've read reviews where people like it as a keychain light, but I'd still like to look at a few options.

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Sure, nothing wrong with having options. Hope we all cleared the air about the UI on the PD. do a search for keychain lights. You might find what your looking for. Also There are very knowledgable folk one here that will be able to answer you questions better than I can.

Johnbeck180 said:

Sure, nothing wrong with having options. Hope we all cleared the air about the UI on the PD. do a search for keychain lights. You might find what your looking for. Also There are very knowledgable folk one here that will be able to answer you questions better than I can.

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Almost every keychain light topic I find is either a twist activated light or an AAA light

Edit: Trying to find a small one... not sure one like that is out there for me.

Edit 2: Well, I've looked a lot, seems every CR123 is as thin as this one. Not sure why this one isn't fit for a pocket though if the others are the same size!