After having gone through a few natural disasters that the AA-worshippers think utterly vindicate their fanaticism to he utter and total superiority of AA-compatibility, I have to say that I am unimpressed by anything that combines the downsides of alkaleaks (low lumens and low wH) with the biggest weakness of Li-ion (needs to be charged instead of replaced).
I appreciate that some, like Acebeam and Skilhunt, go for sustained lumens over startup peak lumens, and am a fan of boost drivers in general, but I think that the backlash to hotrod lights is a bit extreme. I’ve used TS10’s to keep my home nicely lit during prolonged power outages. Yeah, it has a reputation as a hot rod since its a 14500 light that can do 1400 lumens, but at lower levels that do not involve the FET, it can hold enough lumens to do what it needs to do for many hours despite being a 14500 light with a driver that isn’t a boost/buck driver and cannot take the first battery to sell out when TSHTF.
One nice thing about Anduril is that it can do the no-FET-needed levels that prolong battery life when you just need a little light, and despite the fear-mongering, it doesn’t actually operate any differently from many other lights that copy it’s Simple UI mode and merely omit 10H and the (easily ignored) options it unlocks. How do you think I get my TS10’s to hold “don’t walk into wall or trip over the cat” light levels for 8+ hours despite the low mAh of 14500 cells? I have options between M1 and M2 that Skilhunt’s and Zebra’s UI lack.
IMO, all lights need a ramping mode that allows for achieving a a nice balancing point between output and runtime. And I have yet to see a stepped-mode-only UI hit that balance with their mode spacing.
After having gone through a few natural disasters that the AA-worshippers think utterly vindicate their fanaticism to he utter and total superiority of AA-compatibility, I have to say that I am unimpressed by anything that combines the downsides of alkaleaks (low lumens and low wH) with the biggest weakness of Li-ion (needs to be charged instead of replaced).
I appreciate that some, like Acebeam and Skilhunt, go for sustained lumens over startup peak lumens, and am a fan of boost drivers in general, but I think that the backlash to hotrod lights is a bit extreme. I’ve used TS10’s to keep my home nicely lit during prolonged power outages. Yeah, it has a reputation as a hot rod since its a 14500 light that can do 1400 lumens, but at lower levels that do not involve the FET, it can hold enough lumens to do what it needs to do for many hours despite being a 14500 light with a driver that isn’t a boost/buck driver and cannot take the first battery to sell out when TSHTF.
One nice thing about Anduril is that it can do the no-FET-needed levels that prolong battery life when you just need a little light, and despite the fear-mongering, it doesn’t actually operate any differently from many other lights that copy it’s Simple UI mode and merely omit 10H and the (easily ignored) options it unlocks. How do you think I get my TS10’s to hold “don’t walk into wall or trip over the cat” light levels for 8+ hours despite the low mAh of 14500 cells? I have options between M1 and M2 that Skilhunt’s and Zebra’s UI lack.
IMO, all lights need a ramping mode that allows for achieving a a nice balancing point between output and runtime. And I have yet to see a stepped-mode-only UI hit that balance with their mode spacing.
People really underestimate this. It’s very hard to buy AAs when there’s a hurricane warning.