It's a compromise, by moving away from standard batteries it enables different designs and form factors. This isn't to everyone's tastes, but does serve a purpose.
Yeah, I understand that. The options are interesting and useful and breaking away from the normal designs are possibly the only real way to achieve them.I'm just getting old and cranky about the disposable society we live in. I'm old school I guess and still carrying around P60 hosts because I like modularity, dependability and the ability to actually fix them, upgrade them and keep them going.
Anyone know if that Li-Ion pack is a standard item?How gadet-y does a flashlight need to be?
If you used something until it didn't work anymore, and I mean used not abused, then it wasn't 'disposible' in my view.
That's just semantics to me. I use a Sharpie marker (not abused) until it doesn't work anymore. It's a disposable item. You use it until you have no other choice than to dispose of it.I have LED flashlights that are nearly 20 years old and I still use. I can still buy cells for them and they still perform the task they were designed for perfectly fine. Nothing has made them truly obsolete, so I don't have to dispose of them. I can buy replacement parts for them. In many cases, I can buy parts to upgrade them to current technology, with more efficient drivers and emitters.When you get to the point where your battery has degraded until the runtime is no longer useful for the tasks you ask of it and you can't buy a replacement cell to run your otherwise perfectly good flashlight on...well, I guess another way to put it is "engineered obsolescence". Tools should not be designed that way, in my opinion.
The nights are fair drawing in (as they say around here) so it's time to get a bit more punch and runtime in the pocket. This Eagtac D25A Clicky has never let me down.
Clearly we disagree, and I'm going to highlight that by pointing out what you just mentioned is essentially Trigger's broom, or for international members, the ship of Theseus.If you replace the emitter and the driver in a flashlight, then all that remains is the hollow tube. That is not a testament to 'repairability,' that's you building a new flashlight in the corpse of the old one. It's a testament to your desire to recycle and your love for a certain form factor, but if your argument goes down this route, you may as start talking about disassembling lights and replacing cells that were never intended for that, who cares about the intended design when you're just going to use the shell how you see fit, right?
In many cases, I can buy parts to upgrade them to current technology, with more efficient drivers and emitters.
You may want to re-read what I said. I didn't refer to updating the driver or emitter as repair-ability, I referred to it as upgrading. Please don't put words in my mouth. Repairing would be replacing a switch, a lens, or replacing off-the shelf orings.
..."I have LED flashlights that are nearly 20 years old and I still use. I can still buy cells for them and they still perform the task they were designed for perfectly fine. Nothing has made them truly obsolete, so I don't have to dispose of them. I can buy replacement parts for them. In many cases, I can buy parts to upgrade them to current technology, with more efficient drivers and emitters."The first statement in bold and the last statement in bold are what I took issue with. You focused on the word repairability, I'm focused on it not being the same light for 20 years. Note: saying that you do still have some that are 20 years old and still use stock doesn't invalidate this.Like how you could use the same PC case, but replace every internal component. It wouldn't be the same PC, it would be a different PC in the same case.But whatever, you prefer a certain approach, I prefer a mix. c'est la vie.