I would LOVE to see Zebralight do a Tactical flashlight

I would absolutely LOVE to see Zebralight build a tactical flashlight. Now what do I mean by that? I mean a butt switch operated (no side switch at all) light with only 2 or at most 3 modes. Personally I consider strobe totally useless so I would NOT include that feature.

Who would buy this?

A related aside I think it would be awesome if a company like ZL that knows a great deal of programming mojo would team up with a bomb-proof USA maker like Malkoff for something along these lines! Imagine the possibilities of a Malkoff MDC/ZL hybrid!

Throw in Bluetooth as well, for configurability?

I'm generally not a huge fan of Bluetooth in lights, but given the amount of configuration you can do with ZLs these days, it would simplify things.

I'm talking about config *only* btw, to the point that you could even have the chip be electrically disconnected entirely from the rest when not in config mode.

They had plans for a Tactical light a few years ago, but nothing ever came of it. The UI wasn't even revealed, but I agree, an TC600 HI with a simple UI would be nice.

WebHobbit said:

I would absolutely LOVE to see Zebralight build a tactical flashlight. Now what do I mean by that? I mean a butt switch operated (no side switch at all) light with only 2 or at most 3 modes. Personally I consider strobe totally useless so I would NOT include that feature.

Who would buy this?

A related aside I think it would be awesome if a company like ZL that knows a great deal of programming mojo would team up with a bomb-proof USA maker like Malkoff for something along these lines! Imagine the possibilities of a Malkoff MDC/ZL hybrid!

Click to expand...

A Malkoff powered by ZL electronics with one of the newest emitters would be legendary:rock:.

WebHobbit said:

I would absolutely LOVE to see Zebralight build a tactical flashlight. Now what do I mean by that? I mean a butt switch operated (no side switch at all) light with only 2 or at most 3 modes. Personally I consider strobe totally useless so I would NOT include that feature.

Who would buy this?

A related aside I think it would be awesome if a company like ZL that knows a great deal of programming mojo would team up with a bomb-proof USA maker like Malkoff for something along these lines! Imagine the possibilities of a Malkoff MDC/ZL hybrid!

Click to expand...

Strobes can be useful for LEOs and light painters, even better if accessible directly from off (which typically requires a second switch for a forward clicky).

stephenk said:

Strobes can be useful for LEOs and light painters, even better if accessible directly from off (which typically requires a second switch for a forward clicky).

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I usually argue for having at least one or two lights with strobe and/or SOS if hiking in the woods or mountains. It can make a huge difference in how easy you are to spot for rescuers, and especially SOS makes it pretty clear what they're looking at. I do strongly prefer if it's hidden away though, virtually impossible to accidentally activate, neither strobe nor SOS as part of normal mode cycling, and so on. The Zebralight way of doing it is pretty good I think, though I would probably have preferred an even more hidden SOS-mode as well (tripple-click when in the strobe group perhaps?).

WebHobbit said:

I would absolutely LOVE to see Zebralight build a tactical flashlight. Now what do I mean by that? I mean a butt switch operated (no side switch at all) light with only 2 or at most 3 modes. Personally I consider strobe totally useless so I would NOT include that feature.

Who would buy this?

A related aside I think it would be awesome if a company like ZL that knows a great deal of programming mojo would team up with a bomb-proof USA maker like Malkoff for something along these lines! Imagine the possibilities of a Malkoff MDC/ZL hybrid!

Click to expand...

Or even a P60/M60 style drop-in with their emitter/driver/UI would be good

So an HDS flashlight? Program out strobe and you got a bulletproof tail cap three mode light

As long as there's a hardware switch, maybe in the battery cap, there's no reason why a Bluetooth programmable light wouldn't be a superb idea... if it can be hacked or disabled by a radio signal then that's a problem.

eh4 said:

As long as there's a hardware switch, maybe in the battery cap, there's no reason why a Bluetooth programmable light wouldn't be a superb idea... if it can be hacked or disabled by a radio signal then that's a problem.

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FourSevens made a couple models, I didn't get one yet but I hope they take the idea even further as technology progresses

eh4 said:

As long as there's a hardware switch, maybe in the battery cap, there's no reason why a Bluetooth programmable light wouldn't be a superb idea... if it can be hacked or disabled by a radio signal then that's a problem.

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It's pretty easy to disable, and you could make it only activate after some bizarre sequence like click five times and then hold for two seconds, click again.

It can be somewhat tricky to make sure you have zero parasitic drain from it though.

terjee said:

I usually argue for having at least one or two lights with strobe and/or SOS if hiking in the woods or mountains. It can make a huge difference in how easy you are to spot for rescuers, and especially SOS makes it pretty clear what they're looking at. I do strongly prefer if it's hidden away though, virtually impossible to accidentally activate, neither strobe nor SOS as part of normal mode cycling, and so on. The Zebralight way of doing it is pretty good I think, though I would probably have preferred an even more hidden SOS-mode as well (tripple-click when in the strobe group perhaps?).

Click to expand...

I agree. I'm beginning to think that a large portion of forum members use their lights everywhere, except out in nature.

Hugh Johnson said:

I agree. I'm beginning to think that a large portion of forum members use their lights everywhere, except out in nature.

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Haha, that's entirely possible. I know some are outdoorsy people, but the people here are sure to be a diverse group.

I have no problems with city dwellers neither being city dwellers, understand those considering SOS to be a gimmick for their use case, but for hiking and that kind of thing, it's something else. Couple of things to put the usefulness into perspective...

Even if it's not dark when your group needs help or you run into someone needing help, there's a good chance it'll be dark before help gets there.

Even if you know morse code (sos at least), unless your group is huge, you still don't want to be sitting there morsing manually. You'll be busy. Doesn't matter if it's CPR, setting a leg, keeping blood from escaping the patient, or even just keeping moral up. There's simply a lot to do.

Even if all tasks are well covered with people to spare (unlikely), you might still be the best person to walk for help or cell coverage. A light with SOS can be left with the group, marking their position.

And for the not outdoorsy people...

Even if you don't hike up mountains all week long, you probably drive through remote areas from time to time. If you have a bad enough car crash, this kind of situation might find you, it doesn't have to be the other way around.

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I know there are choppers with heat seeking cameras and all, but did you know that it's still pretty hard to spot people?

Spotting body heat under thick foliage for example, can actually be so hard that people with that very job have been suggesting hikers bring reflective vests to make them easier to spot.

Even if whatever happened on the mountain you're trying to get off of is bad enough for air evac with cameras, signaling can still be a life saver.

You could argue for a plain static beam, but how many other light sources would they then have to investigate before getting to your group? Heck, most CPFers would probably be mistaken for headlights or spotlights.

I think i figured out how I'd want SOS to work on a Zebralight tactical:

Hard to activate accidentally, easy to remember; how about actually tapping out morse for SOS to activate SOS?

Then have it morse a pattern of SOS, light for 1-2 seconds, and repeat those two 3-4 times. Then go into wait mode for 15-90 (?) seconds, just giving a short micro burst (100ms?) to keep any viewers attention, before going back to start.

Once activated, run a safe estimate for how much light it could give, yet have enough battery for 24 hours or so. Both light levels and intervals could be tweaked towards that goal.

I don't think it would get in anyones way for tactical use, but would be there if needed, and have a useful default.

Anyway, sorry for going on about SOS, I know some wouldn't appreciate it in their tactical lights, and sorry for derailing.