What beam tint do Aircraft Engineers, Car Mechanics and other trades people prefer?

Hi Guys.


I was just wondering what beam tint Aircraft Engineers, Car Mechanics and other trades or professional people prefer when using flashlights in carrying out their tasks at work.

I was always against Neutral tinted beams but I really like the clearer image and better colour rendition that I see when using throwing lights but I still like using Cool Tinted flashlights indoors especially when I am working in ceiling spaces or under floors etc as an Electrician.



CHEERS :thinking:

I have never had any trouble determining what colors things are, no matter what kind of flashlight I have.
There would undoubtedly be some color distortions from virtually any artificial light source, including incandescent. It has never been so severe that I couldn't tell what the colors were.

So, I prefer the light that gives me the maximum output performance that I want, and use the mode switching to set the desired brightness levels for different uses.
For a preference of "tint", I prefer "no tint". I like my lights "white". I don't want purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, or red tinted lights.

Interesting question... I'm an electronics freak and reading resistor colour codes immediately sprang to mind...

Those blue-bodied 1% jobbies are a pain to read without very bright light. Black/brown, red/brown - very difficult to tell the difference without brilliant lighting. Plus, my sight is getting old now and I actually need to use a lens to see them close up in good focus.

I've just tried reading some resistors with an LD41 (cool), EA4W (neutral) and M60W (neutral-warm).

My findings? Almost no difference due to the tint. Going from one to the other, I could not determine if any one was better. The important thing, as mentioned above, was brightness. Not tint. At least not for this task.

I almost wish one had been better - I would have hooked up a desk light in that tint to make reading the little pests easier!

What beam tint do Aircraft Engineers, Car Mechanics and other trades people prefer.

I'm a fork lift truck engineer and I prefer neutral, as uncool as it sounds when working in dark engine bays covered in grease and oil I think an incandescent light is best, especially when slightly under driven (if that's the right word).

Not much experience working on aircraft or cars, but with most mechanical and electrical jobs, there's an inspection light and a work light.
For inspection lights you'll probably want something throwy and relatively small so you can light in those odd angles. I don't think color is all that important with this, but high cri and/or neutral white does show contrast in rusty brown much better. Additionally, a UV light is an absolute must for leak detection.

As for a work light, car mechanics usually use AC-powered incan or work lights, but on location, anything that can hang or clip to the open bonnet and that's floody enough to light the entire inside will be good. For ease on the eyes I'd use a neutral white here as well. Cool white / blue tints just tend to strain the eyes after a while.

If I had to buy 3 lights for engineering/troubleshooting/mechanics work:
- Any neutral white floody light that clips/hangs and has a ~200 lumen mode with proper runtime, maybe a Zebralight H600w or something as well. Angled head is easy here, diffuser option would be even better.
- Zebralight H502d/c/w to light the engine completely, but also great for close-up inspection. Headlamp option is great in the field.
- Streamlight night com UV (cheap with 365nm and 390nm as well as regular led inspection light).

Of course, these exact 3 lights would be highly impractical (for a none-flashaholic) because of 3 different battery types, but something like those anyway.

I'm an AME and prefer to use what I consider to be nuetral lights. Somewhere around the 4500k - 5000k range. Too warm and I find that details like cracks just don't stand out to me. Too cool and the light just irritates me, not sure why. Like you said, nuetral just looks clearer to me.

Anything is better than the small yellow hot spot of the old 3 D cell Maglites that were the norm in the industry until recently. :sick2:

FoxyRick said:

Interesting question... I'm an electronics freak and reading resistor colour codes immediately sprang to mind...

Those blue-bodied 1% jobbies are a pain to read without very bright light. Black/brown, red/brown - very difficult to tell the difference without brilliant lighting. Plus, my sight is getting old now and I actually need to use a lens to see them close up in good focus.

I've just tried reading some resistors with an LD41 (cool), EA4W (neutral) and M60W (neutral-warm).

My findings? Almost no difference due to the tint. Going from one to the other, I could not determine if any one was better. The important thing, as mentioned above, was brightness. Not tint. At least not for this task.

I almost wish one had been better - I would have hooked up a desk light in that tint to make reading the little pests easier!

Click to expand...

Hi Foxyrick.


My eyesight (at 60 years of age nearly) is not what it used to be as a young fellow running around theatre stages and maintaining buildings at the Sydney Opera House where I spent 25 years.

Also having been an Electronics hobbyist, PC enthusiast and then CAD Draughtsman for many years has not helped my eyesight I am sure.

I don't have to read resistor colour codes any more as I did when working on PCB boards and electronics kits as I used to but as an Electrician in my real heavy working days I am a bit like you in that I just want a nice bright light that suits the task at the time.

Unfortunately when using the lower modes most flashlight change their tint to that horrible yellowy/greenish tint that nearly makes me want to vomit!

The closest that I can get to a good little work light now without too much tint change at lower levels is my Thrunite T10 that has MOONLIGHT, LOW and HIGH modes.

If anyone knows of a flashlight that does not change to a "yucky or horrible" colour when using the lower modes I am sure some of us would like to hear about it.



CHEERS

Oztorchfreak said:

Hi Foxyrick.


My eyesight (at 60 years of age nearly) is not what it used to be as a young fellow running around theatre stages and maintaining buildings at the Sydney Opera House where I spent 25 years.

Also having been an Electronics hobbyist, PC enthusiast and then CAD Draughtsman for many years has not helped my eyesight I am sure.

I don't have to read resistor colour codes any more as I did when working on PCB boards and electronics kits as I used to but as an Electrician in my real heavy working days I am a bit like you in that I just want a nice bright light that suits the task at the time.

Unfortunately when using the lower modes most flashlight change their tint to that horrible yellowy/greenish tint that nearly makes me want to vomit!

The closest that I can get to a good little work light now without too much tint change at lower levels is my Thrunite T10 that has MOONLIGHT, LOW and HIGH modes.

If anyone knows of a flashlight that does not change to a "yucky or horrible" colour when using the lower modes I am sure some of us would like to hear about it.



CHEERS

Click to expand...

To avoid the "yucky" tint-shift at the lower brightness modes, use a PWM controlled light instead of a current-controlled light.
PWM doesn't tint-shift in the low modes, but current-controlled does.

However, you must be aware that the PWM pulse frequency must be high enough rate(Hz) to not be detected by your eye. In most cases, 1kHz would be quite sufficient for most people to not detect it. In some very PWM-sensitive people, 2kHz would be plenty to avoid any notice or detection, even when sweeping the light across an oscillating cooling fan.
The situation becomes one of using a method for reducing brightness which doesn't offend your view. Some people prefer current-controlled and live with the tint shift. Others hate the tint shift and select PWM-controlled lights with a high frequency PWM.
You can choose.
But, now you know that PWM doesn't tint shift, and that the PWM frequency rate should preferably be over 1kHz to be undetectable by most people.

Hi TweakMDS.


Good post mate!

I hear you well as I have had plenty of maintenance and dark world experience especially when working backstage during performances at the Sydney Opera House when finding your way around safely in the dark without being noticed by the audience is a must.

I will check your info out when I have time.

Are there any other stage guys that are flashlight enthusiasts on CPF?

All posts are usually helpful on CPF in my experience as long as they are sensible and well related to the thread title.



CHEERS

Hi twl.


I am very aware of the differences between current controlled and PWM flashlights and I don't like some of the older flashlights that I bought many years ago before understanding what the real world differences were.

Low frequency PWM flashlights are sometimes fun to play with when I want to muck around showing people what a house ceiling fan or a vehicle fan looks like when a low frequency PWM flashlight is pointed at it where the "stroboscopic effect" makes the blades look like they are nearly still or rotating backwards.

In reality working near a vehicle fan is just dangerous as the fan sometimes looks deceivingly still or slow in your mind as has happened to me on occasions.

It is really annoying to find a great flashlight and then find out it does not operate at a high enough frequency to avoid the stroboscopic effect.

Do you have any suggestions for an EDC or a small sized flashlight that uses a high frequency PWM with good colour rendition and is sturdy enough to be used in a reasonably tough work situation?



CHEERS

g.p. said:

I'm an AME and prefer to use what I consider to be nuetral lights. Somewhere around the 4500k - 5000k range. Too warm and I find that details like cracks just don't stand out to me. Too cool and the light just irritates me, not sure why. Like you said, nuetral just looks clearer to me.

Anything is better than the small yellow hot spot of the old 3 D cell Maglites that were the norm in the industry until recently. :sick2:

Click to expand...

Hi g.p.


I used many flashlights in my working days including holding Minimags in my mouth to work on live electrical gear which resulted in saliva dribbling from our mouths that created another safety hazard in itself.

Big Maglites like Magchargers were about all that was available for many years to see around big dark spaces to get to awkward areas to maintain building or stage equipment.

I would have terrific fun at work nowadays with the vast and ever-changing range of LED lights that are available to choose from but I don't think that I would get as much work done when playing around with newly released and better flashlights would be more fun.

Back in those days I did not spend a fraction of the money I do nowadays on flashlights as my employer usually provided us with them as part of doing our jobs safely and they were just tools to be used to get the job done and they were just plain and simply boring and uninteresting devices.

A new Minimag or something similar was always well appreciated and remembering to make sure that a spare globe was located in the tail cap was a necessity as being left in the dark at high levels, access tunnels or basement areas was not much fun at all.

The "candle like" yellow incandescent beams that those flashlights produced is a real joke by today's standards but we had to work with whatever was available at that time.

I bought some AAA Aurora LED headlamps for our use when they first came out and they lit things up "much much much" better than the Minimag could except the very blue tint of the LED beam was not liked at all.

We all thought that there was never going to be any improvement in the colour tint of these "new age" fancy LED lights.

Boy we were wrong!



CHEERS

Oztorchfreak said:

Hi twl.


I am very aware of the differences between current controlled and PWM flashlights and I don't like some of the older flashlights that I bought many years ago before understanding what the real world differences were.

Low frequency PWM flashlights are sometimes fun to play with when I want to muck around showing people what a house ceiling fan or a vehicle fan looks like when a low frequency PWM flashlight is pointed at it where the "stroboscopic effect" makes the blades look like they are nearly still or rotating backwards.

In reality working near a vehicle fan is just dangerous as the fan sometimes looks deceivingly still or slow in your mind as has happened to me on occasions.

It is really annoying to find a great flashlight and then find out it does not operate at a high enough frequency to avoid the stroboscopic effect.

Do you have any suggestions for an EDC or a small sized flashlight that uses a high frequency PWM with good colour rendition and is sturdy enough to be used in a reasonably tough work situation?



CHEERS

Click to expand...

I haven't been paying close attention to that for a few years, but it's always listed in Selfbuilt's reviews if the light is PWM and what the frequency is, and an oscilloscop trace of the output.
So, if you do some research of his reviews, you should find some.
And he always shows beam shots and emitter info, so tint and sometimes CRI will be listed. You have to be careful with CRI numbers because they are ONLY relevant against a reference emitter in that same CCT, and not necessarily more "accurate" than another emitter in a different CCT, even which may have a lower CRI rating. CRI is not a "universal CCT" rating.

twl said:

I haven't been paying close attention to that for a few years, but it's always listed in Selfbuilt's reviews if the light is PWM and what the frequency is, and an oscilloscop trace of the output.
So, if you do some research of his reviews, you should find some.
And he always shows beam shots and emitter info, so tint and sometimes CRI will be listed. You have to be careful with CRI numbers because they are ONLY relevant against a reference emitter in that same CCT, and not necessarily more "accurate" than another emitter in a different CCT, even which may have a lower CRI rating. CRI is not a "universal CCT" rating.

Click to expand...

That's another good point to be noted.

I look at every Selfbuilt review and do so with much more importance being placed on things like LED colour temps, PWM/current control and UI etc.

Life was so much easier "BACK THEN" and not much worry was placed on dropping your "candle like" flashlight because in our minds a new flashlight was usually readily available when we returned to our office after doing the job at hand.

We did not think much about backup flashlights in those days as we hoped that one of the other guy's flashlights would get us all out of trouble if your light went on the blink.

Hang on, blinking and strobe modes were not thought of way back then.Hoping someone had a box of matches or a cigarette lighter with them was the other option.

A LIGHT WAS A LIGHT!

"JUST GIVE ME SOME LIGHT SOMEBODY" was often said out loud!!!



CHEERS

My recent observation of aircraft mechanics ('ground engineers' in Oz and UK speak) is that they seem to like cheap UltraFire lights. I've seen these in use from San Antonio to Shanghai in the past year. The tint tends to be a cool white.

As recently as a decade ago many U.S. pilots carried the classic two cell Maglite. The requirement for an airline pilot's flashlight to have two D cells (or equivalent) was removed from the regulations long ago but old habits die hard.

Now, most pilots seem to carry LED lights and will post on the union forum that they left a very expensive flashlight on the plane, has anyone seen it? When asked how much it cost, they say $28! :huh:

Actually, most of the UltraFire's in use seem to be under $20 even if bought in the States. My company provides free CR123A's to the mechanics and some inevitably leak through to the pilots.

A lot of the international pilots seem to get cheap lights at the Australian Watch Company in Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong (I tend to go to Supremeco in Mong Kok myself, those lights aren't cheap).

A few years ago I saw a pilot doing a night walkaround preflight inspection using an Inova X5 with blue LED's. I thought it was a little dim to be using on a B-744 (Boeing 747-400) and I asked her about it. She said she used the blue light to check for hydraulic fluid leaks. Traditionally, aircraft hydraulic fluid has red dye in it.

I've got a couple of blue Surefire L-1's from years ago, I'm told that combat medics and hunters used these lights to easily spot blood.

I see the UV versions of the venerable Inova X5's used by airport security to check the hidden printing in ID cards (take a look at your American Express card under UV light for an example of hidden printing).

jamie.91 said:

I'm a fork lift truck engineer and I prefer neutral, as uncool as it sounds when working in dark engine bays covered in grease and oil I think an incandescent light is best, especially when slightly under driven (if that's the right word).

Click to expand...

Hi jamie.91.


You can have the grease and oil!!! :nana:

I have seen and been amongst quite enough of that stuff in my working life thank you very much!

Is it because you are used to incandescent work lights that are mains or 12V DC powered that you prefer the neutral and warmer colours when working on your stuff?

Maybe you just like the the warmer tinted LED lights better than the neutral tinted ones as you said you like them when they are under-driven and therefore warmer usually.

At least LED flashlights or work lights do not break as easy as the older incandescent globes that used fragile filaments that were mains or 12V DC driven as I know all too well in my trade.

I also did a lot of work inside cars when I was installing car alarms and car radio gear.

I would think that you would be using sturdy multi-LED work lights by now with LEDs replacing every type of light around nowadays.

The big choice of LED based lights that are available now must really make your job a little bit easier when working in dark engine bays etc.

It may just cut down the amount of swearing (cussing) that us trade guys do when we get frustrated because we can't see the area we are working on properly.

The job is hard enough to do at times without having low light issues thrown into the mix.

Things like LED equipped flexible optical fibre lights and cameras are really great and I only wish we could have had them when I was doing maintenance on all kinds of gear.

Plumbers have really good gear available now to help them see blockages and also in working out which direction a pipe runs in under the ground.

I don't think plumbers would be too worried about what colour tint their LED lights were to see with when looking through pipes.

I think they would more be interested in being able to see what they have to see clearly, get the job done and have a break away from what they have seen enough of for the day (the mind boggles).

I did work on sewerage systems including tanks, pumps, level controls in pits and sewerage ejectors etc but I did not like the smell like most people wouldn't.

I don't know how plumbers get used to that stench especially when first starting out in that business.

I am glad that I became an Electrician (sparky) although plumbers charge higher rates than Electricians from my experience.

I think virtually everyone benefits from LED technology and they don't have to be a tradesman to know what the word LED is all about as that word is used so commonly nowadays.

With the vast array of LED house lighting fittings that are available today there is still a choice that has to be made when selecting the colour of the light source to be used in their light fitting that suits their taste keeping in mind the area that each light is to be installed in.

A simple choice between Cool White and Warm White has to be made at the very least when buying any new light fitting including LED based ones.

Daylight or White coloured fluorescent tubes were most often used in office lighting from my experience although some people in their particular area preferred Warm White to carry out their job.

WARM, NEUTRAL, WHITE or DAYLIGHT is all a matter of personal taste and the situation of where the light is to be used in any choice of flashlights or any other type of lights IMHO.

I realise that there is a lot of funny lines that could be used relating to plumbing above but I am not going there!

I just know that someone will be itching to post them to me. :laughing:

"Keep it clean" is all that I can say!

Yeah I know, another pun. :naughty:


CHEERS

Hi Vox Clamitis in Deserto.


Good post. :thumbsup:

I will get back to you soon.
It is 6:35am here in OZ (the land downunder) and well past my bedtime. :sleepy:



CHEERS

Oztorchfreak I think you may be right, I love LEDs for intense light in a specific area, any tint, just as much light as possible but for general purpose or "bay" lighting I do love warm tints.

I have yet to own a warm tint led but I think my next light may be if the option is available!

In response to your comment about multi led lights, I have yet to find a decent one for a decent price, most of the affordable ones are cheap bin LEDs with poor tints, I've yet to see an affordable one with a warm or neutral tint option. That being said I haven't searched extensively for one, usually just eBay lol

At work i need an neutral tinted light as i work as a painter & decorator on all kinds of building sites using lots of different paint colours so obviously i need to have an accurate sense of the colour i'm using at any given time.

As an electrician, also from Oz, I have really only used neutral or warm tinted lights.

For so long my warm white Quark XP-G running on 14500 was the light of choice. We always have spare AA batteries at work so that didn't matter too much - losing output when going from li-ion to alkaline did so when I purchased my Zebralight SC600w it instantly took over.
I now have a SC52 that I want to try out but mainly just to see how I find the tint when working on dark, cold, concrete, construction sites. Runtime wise I need at least 3 hours constant output on a decently bright level.

I mainly do construction work so picture big boards, lots of community wiring (read: sometimes a hundred or so 1.5 - 6mm TPS cables) and the joys of dealing with telecommunications cabling - I especially dislike the underground jelly filled crap!!

I mainly use neutral as the majority of lights I own are neutral or warm.
Since cool tints seem to be much better these days, I am also beginning to look into them again.

I don't care about tint, especially tint not in relation to CRI. Mushy yellow color distortion is the same as blue-white color distortion.

Personally I use a very high Kelvin XM-L because it is the most efficient. I am a ship's engineer.