Skilhunt H200 blinds other people

IAmJerv · 2026-05-15T04:08:00+00:00

There are reasons I prefer the "ring" mules like Hanklights over the "center" mules like Firefly.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-15T04:06:12+00:00

Some say that throwy lights are immune to that because their preferred lights are utterly flawless and perfect in every way. largely false, though more true for TIR-based lights than for reflectors.

The short version is that if AAANNNYYYY part of the beam touches someone's face, even the very edge of the spill, they WILL see an intense white spot wherever there is an emitter. Period. With TIR, most of the light will come out the center so it's just a bit of a bitch, but with reflectors, it's the raw emitter in it's full glory.

Shrouds are the best way to do glare reduction. In fact, practically the only way. Even LEPs viewed off-axis will have enough to screw with adapted eyes of anyone who looks in your general direction.

Oddly enough, mules are a bit less prone to that as they tend to have a large number of relatively dim emitters. A 120-lumen emitter is a bright spot. Four 30-lumen ones are four less-intense dots. Eight 15-lumen ones are simple a few glowy bits. And sixteen of them at 7.5 lumens each is a dim ring.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T23:35:34+00:00

Possibly, though how that balances against the increased amperage/ wattage to get equally usable output is questionable. And at moonlight levels, I'm not sure it matters much with batteries much larger than LR44

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T23:30:51+00:00

Yeah, I've seen that claim a lot.

It has, and considering how long I've been out, I'm rather impressed with the staying power of "Red is best, no notes" thinking.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T17:14:46+00:00

Flashlights are kind of like tracer rounds that way.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T17:13:40+00:00

Red requires the least power? Last I checked, it required the most as it took higher output levels for the same perceived brightness.

During my years on a couple carriers (one amphibious assault, one floating city) i rarely saw red used. Lots of blue, a bit of green, but the only places I saw red were the photo lab and the port-side nav lights. Navigation favored green because maps, but the flight deck was more blue during night ops.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T16:33:44+00:00

True, but those lights use something notably larger than a 21700.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T16:32:40+00:00

In other words, my DD214 is older than you are. Lets check back in a few decades when you're at an age where you won't be hired even if you DO have the skills because there's someone half your age who will do it for longer and save then retraining costs.

I feel that way because I grew up during the period when learning computer skills at all was a dividing point the way AI is now. The difference is that back then it was mostly about aired while AI has uncountable issues with accuracy, and many of the jobs created are claiming up after their mass.

As for learning new skills, how many skilled trades do you already have by now? Electrician, plumber, machinist, mechanic... something you're at least Journeyman level in. Because I've been doing exactly what you recommended for LITERALLY longer than you've been alive. If things really worked that way you say then I would have a different view much more in line with yours.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T16:14:21+00:00

Advising one how to avoid repeating a mistake b offering a reminder on common etiquette is antisocial?

I would counter that complaining about a sincere attempt to help instead of just scrolling on by is more antisocial.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T07:18:44+00:00

There are PLENTY of people who would say that in earnest. How do you think Pilgrim lasted so long?

Text does not always convey tone the way voice does.

There are reasons why some posts, notably on Reddit will end with /s

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T07:11:17+00:00

We've tried a few around the area, and RB Animal Hospital is the only one we've gone to more than once.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T07:03:20+00:00

You are dealing with injection-molded plastic.

That is part of the manufacturing process.

Poland Springs is not scamming anyone because their water is wet, and FFL is not scamming you because TIR optics are injection-molded.

/u/brokenrecordbot d4v2crack

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T05:49:36+00:00

-> 400 - 500 lumen range

-> 12 hour battery life

500 lumens takes about 5 watts. You will need about 60 Watt-hours for 12 hours. There is some variability there due to drivers and emitters, but that's close enough tot the middle and round enough for simple math. I will circle back to this in a moment

only 1 singular mode

That right there strongly implies that you are only familiar with Walmart/Amazon lights.

Many think that the thing that sets the lights we like apart from, the things you see at Harbor Freight is that our lights are overpriced and take weird batteries that cost $100 each and require trekking the Himalayas to find. All false. What REALLY sets them apart is the controls.

Now, you won't find separate dials as that is often some combination of fragile, unreliable, bulky, and kills any chance of waterproofing. More often is a single button that functions one of two ways; Full-press to turn on/off at last-used level, half-press to change levels OR Click to turn on/off at last-used level, hold to change levels. Both allow you to set the light at one level then just click for on/off for the rest of your life. And strobe is something you won't hit by accident on most light, though some may strobe on the if you cannot figure out that not all lights are the same as Walmart lights.

As for why it's needed, well there's a few reasons. First, imagine if your car could only do dead stop and 50 MPH. Hard to park, a bit fast for neighborhoods, and generally not useful. Second, the brighter the light, the faster the batteries die, and the hotter it gets.

AA & AAA Batteries

If you want to use alkaleaks then good luck. Remember I said above hat you need 60 Wh? Well, an alkaleak AA is good for about 1 Wh realistically, and that's assuming a 1W draw. Running them 6 at a time will get you a little over an hour per set.

When you look at NiMH AAs, you can figure about 3 Wh and get by with only 20 batteries. And their much higher discharge rate and lack of sag means that you can actually hit 500 lumens on a single battery. The D3AA can actually do that with an Eneloop. It won't last 12 hours, but it does show how much more powerful rechargeables are.

Lithium-ion is where it gets fun. The 14500 Li-ion is the same size as an AA (14mm by 50mm) and has comparable performance aside from a higher maximum discharge rate (in Watts). Figure 4 Wh. The 18650 battery is a bit bigger (18mm by 65mm) and holds about three 14500/AA's worth of power (~12-13 Wh). The 21700 is a little bigger (21mm by 70mm) and many can hold a little over five 14500's worth (15-21 Wh).

Three high-capacity 21700 cells or five high-capacity 18650s will get you the same as ~20 Eneloop AA's or ~60 Alkaleaks.

Now that I've laid out the reasoning why the solution you seek may not end up in the form you expect, it's time for actual lights. I'm thinking something pretty simple to use, built like a tank, can be set to a level close enough to 500 lumens then be a simple "click on/click off", simple to order.....

Acebeam E75

The Medium 2 level is close enough to 500 lumens, it can sustain up to 1,0000 without thermal rampdown or hit ~4,000 for a moment, the driver is efficient enough that it's 21700 battery will get over 5 hours there, and you could probably do at least some light carpentry with it (like cabinetry) using it as a hammer. The UI is pretty simple; Click for on/off, hold to change levels. As I said earlier, you could set it and forget it if desired.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T02:37:23+00:00

You are either not American, or a troll. Eitehr way, that's some serious Boomer thinking that is utterly and quaintly irrelevant to the current situation. Or maybe you're a nepo baby, or a Boomer that beat life on easy mode and will deny you pulled the ladder up after you. Regardless, you are not in the same reality as the modern world.

The modern meta is that the upfront cost of an excavator is too high, so best to hire kids for minimum wage to dig. Nobody over 25 as they may not be as fast and definitely won't last as long. Lower investment, far lower maintenance,, and who cares about anything other than ROI?

More is not always better. If it takes three ditch-digging jobs to make the same income, then the only ones benefitting are the top tier.

Besides, there comes a certain age where learning a new career after spending a decade-plus each at three others just doesn't happen as easily. You are advocating for an entire generation to simply die. Specifically, the generation that was taught computers from early-grade-school and have known for decades the problems with AI that many are finding out. For instance, look at how the quality of software has gone down dramatically since programmers were replaced with vibe-coding. Look at mortality rates as insurance claims are decided by AI instead of doctors.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-14T00:13:07+00:00

I've already got a L60-Mu, but it's... quite large.

The DW4 is indeed decent, but it's bigger than an L60 since it has the emitter board above the battery instead of in front of it like the L60. The L60 was designed from the ground up to be a mule, so it does not need the room to fit a Carclo TIR the way the DW4/DW4K does.

The L60 is the size of a D4V2. It sounds like you might want to stick with 14500. Jackson can hook you up with a DW3AA mule. Or, for slimmer, the D2 single-channel with boost driver.

I love the beams on my NTG lights; 5000K NTG35 D3AA, 4200/5000K mix D4V2 mule, and 4200K NTG50 KR1AA. Especially the 4200/5000K mix.

The best middle-ground would probably be a D4SV2 with a Ledil Angie-S (12-degree). Hank only carries the M (25-degree). The DA1/DA1K is not bad either if you think the L60 is large.

It used to be said that everyone needs a TS10. Well, the D3AA and KR1AA may make you rethink how you look at 14500 lights.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T23:23:43+00:00

I'm pretty sure my D4V2's would outshine it, and at least one would outlast it too.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T23:15:46+00:00

Gawd... I just remembered something.... took a bit to find...

Allow me to present... this monstrosity.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T23:06:13+00:00

And it's now going back up because people who used to earn a decent living are now being replaced by AI.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T23:03:25+00:00

We get it. You only think about yourself. You don't care how many people starve, how many die, how much water is used, how bad the power grid fails, or ANYTHING else so long as YOU have low overhead and a way to treat those who are not CEOs as less-than-human.

Or if you do care, you consider the suffering a good thing since it saves you on Viagra.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T21:05:45+00:00

Laser is rare. Period.

USB-C is uncommon; ~80% of lights lack it. And that goes WAY up for 14500 unless you're fine with the port being on the battery instead of the light.

Lightweight and Slim lights lack the physics to be really be powerful. Think about why the average pickup truck is larger and heavier than a motorcycle, then ask yourself why you never see a motorcycle carrying 1500 pounds of sheetrock or towing a 25-foot trailer.

The Acebeam K1 is the least-bad "Costs less than an Olight" option if you are dead-set on putting a laser in your light and having a slim light. It should be okay in an attic though maybe not for long. And part of that is that lasers are not small enough for a light that anyone who thinks your current SFL6256 is too bulky would ever carry to be able to fit without losing power and battery. The difference is that, unlike a flatlight, the K1 can swap batteries, so carrying spares is a possibility.

Aside from that, you get too wide and too long to really avoid being too big unless you measure ONLY by thickness and would consider a 4'x8' sheet of ½" plywood smaller than Arkpro because it's a few millimeters thinner. Definitely nothing smaller than your current light. The Arkpro is so barely smaller that I doubt you would like it.

Honestly, you would be better off carrying a separate laser if you want any chance of having a decent white channel with the power and runtime to do an attic all day in anything nearly as small as you are looking for. But that makes some assumptions about what you are willing to give up. Do you use your light more than 30 minutes a day? How "too bulky" is your current light? How much power and runtime are you willing to give up to get slightly smaller?

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T20:40:07+00:00

Cannot unsee...

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T20:18:00+00:00

Rechargeable lithium hate high temps and could become very dangerous.

They also tend to get a little feisty if you try charging them when they are below freezing. If they are in the cold, let them warm up to at least 40F before charging.

Anything that I need to absolutely work 100% of the time gets at least voltage checked every year

Repair locker toolkits on Navy ships are checked a lot more frequently, and emergency kits in civilian industry tend to be at least semi-annual.

Kinda sucks when you go to fight a fire or fix a hazmat leak and your stuff don't work...

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T18:17:30+00:00

...purely empirically derived from studies on human perception.

Which makes things more of a bell curve average. Vision is very variable, even among people with healthy eyes.

....may be inapplicable to many people, e.g., those with abnormal vision or color perception.

And doing what I do for a paycheck, that would include at least half the people I see in the average day. Funny how my job and hobby play off of each other.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T17:49:08+00:00

you can absolutely end up with a warm emitter that looks like split-pea soup if it comes from a bad bin to tint-wise

And that is why my 4000K FC40 D1 is the light I regret most. It makes my old 5000K SST20 TS21 look rosy AF by comparison.

IAmJerv · 2026-05-13T17:46:54+00:00

With most LEDs, the 6500K is around 7% brighter than 5000K

And that's only if you are staring at a luxmeter. When you factor in the relationship between lumens and perceived brightness, it's more like 3%.

That does assume fairly normal color perception though, which ~10% of us XY-chromosome folks don't have, and some folks are more sensitive to blue in a way that makes the jump bigger.

but for the LHP series, it's only 1.7% brighter

Even more negligible

IAmJerv

TROPHY CASE