Arc4 simple mode (pre-production draft)

The proposed default mode for the Arc4:

1. To turn on, click or press the button. It does not matter how long or short you press the button, the light turns on and stays on until you press the button again.

2. The light comes on at the last used brightness level

3. Once on, you can double click to toggle between high and low. This gives you two brightness levels.

4. You can access the third and brightest level (full power) by pressing and holding while the light is on. If you press and hold long enough (>2s), full power latches on until you press again. Otherwise, it returns to the previous brightness when you let go of the button.

This gives you a simple operation with 3 brightness levels. From off to any brightness level does not require more than 3 button presses.

The other usefull features like the ability to work with rechargeable lithium ion cells and protect them from over discharge, the ability to protect the LED from overheating, low battery indication and power regulation are all automatic features and require no user manipulation.

That's it.


All new Arc4s would come with Simple mode installed. If you want to change the operation to use the more complicated Normal mode, there is an activation sequence that is designed to be difficult to accidentally access. If you turn it off and decide you want it back, it can be turned on from the options menu.

Thanks for your input.

Peter

Seems ok. Best part is the more advanced features are unaffected.

This sounds like a good move. I could give one to my 80 year old father. Well, as long as he could remember where the button is. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


Daniel

I'm not sure I understand. This is the mode that the Arc4 will ship with, correct? Do I have the ability to get the Arc4 back to the mode that it currently runs today? For example, when I want/need maximum brightness, I don't want to wait 2-seconds, I want it now. Does this ability get lost in this new setup?

Ray,

1. Normal mode is there, you just have to activate it. It then stays activated (even through resets) unless you turn simple mode back on.

2. Full power is activated right away when you press the button. What is new is that after 2 seconds of pressing the button (while the LED is on the whole time at full power), full power latches. You can then let go of the button and full power will continue. This was a feature you guys asked for. Unless anyone objects, I would like to add it to all modes.

You can still use the full power in momentary and it still comes on right away just as soon you press the button. You now also have the ability to latch it on if you need full power for a longer period of time and you don't want to keep pressing the button. Another way to keep full power on is to make it one of the programmable settings.

I may increase the latch on to 3 seconds if it interferes with the quick boost flashes I typically like to do with my Arc4.

Peter

Are the Arc4 simulators still around? It'd be fun if someone could take your simple mode rough draft and implement it. Might help with some of the "2 vs 3" second decisions. At least for those of us who can't play with a working prototype.

OK, thanks Peter. I think I can live with that.

Sounds good, although why no triple click for lowest power? That would give access to four brightness levels (Highest, 2, 3, Lowest), and would still be simple. Having said that, what you propose here is a good system in simple mode.

Why not just incorporate this into revision 3?

I like it... it seems like it would allow people to have the best of both worlds depending upon what they wanted.

-Mike

Not being an Arc4 user.... I am assuming that the level (setting) of "high" and "low" are defined in the more complex normal mode. I like the simple mode idea as long as I am able to define what "high" and "low" are.

I would suggest the full-power latch time be set higher, like 5 or 10 seconds.

The full-power latch function is only in SimpleMode, or will it be in any mode?

Sounds great to me. Factory shipped default to simple mode. All the normal features still there but somewhat burried. The full power latch is something that I really like in simple mode and normal mode. I've often wished my rev.1 had the latchy thingy.
Maybe the simple/normal modes should be called something like basic/advanced modes, so as not to offend some folks.

cheers
zwf

This would solve one of my biggest problems that has kept me from buying an Arc4, namely the complexity. The simple mode sounds like it would be all I'd need, and I should be able to learn and remember the ways to access the different settings in about 5 minutes. Sounds like a definite step in the right direction Peter.

-Keith

I also would like the triple click level 16 included. On a recent trip I used level 16 about half the time. But, hey, it's still programable so it ain't no big deal. Sounds great!

I like to boost mine alot- I really would find such a low latch point anoying. Everything else I really like though.

Yeah, I agree. The more I think about it the full power latch should be at least 3 or 4 seconds if not longer. The whole point of the latch is if your in a situation where you normally would not be using full power but you find you have to and you need your hands free. Holding the button for a extra second or two is preferrable to occassionally having to press the button again because it latched itself on by accident.

Here's a question: after full power is latched and you and go press the button again to turn it off, should it revert to the previous light level or go dark?

I would think it should go dark because latching full power is assuming you are using the light at full power for a particular task.

And I should add again that I feel the full power function should be used sparingly. Although a super power light is nice, not all applications need full power. I would venture to say that as much as 95% of all flashlight tasks can be comfortably accomplished with about 10-15 lumens. For those times when you need everything you got, the you have full power mode ready and waiting.

Like I say, sometimes the flashlight industry has a similiar mentality to the SUV industry. And not in a good way.

With the Arc4, you have a button on the dash that changes your vehicle from a gas sipping volkswagen for commuting to work to a good size power hungry SUV that hauls a bunch of stuff camping.

Peter

Being able to latch full power on sounds like a great idea! Maybe holding the button down for 7 seconds or so would work for everyone. You might double click from there to get back to the previous light level or single click to go dark and single click again to go back to full power.

[ QUOTE ]
Byron Walter said:
I also would like the triple click level 16 included. On a recent trip I used level 16 about half the time. But, hey, it's still programable so it ain't no big deal. Sounds great!

[/ QUOTE ]

Especially when runtime is really needed. If simple mode had 4 levels evenly spaced out (level 1-hold 5 seconds, level 6--double click, level 11-double click, level 16--triple click) it would still be simple to operate, and yet give the user the option of very high brightness and low runtime all the way down to big runtime/low brightness. Without the lowest level available, it would seem that there was a gap, IMO.

I second the move to add triple click to level 16 for simple mode.. I use that level most frequently at night so as not to wake the baby or blind myself, and can't really see being without it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif