The few ramping UI lights I've sampled in the past didn't do much for me. I'd be involved in a task and forget if it was going to ramp up or down and, more often than not, I would overshoot the desired level. They were also slower. I can bump a reverse clicky and get the required output much, much faster. To each their own...
Manufacturers still don't get it
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Exactly!!! Not bc of their high quality gourmet food but it's fast easy cheap and consistent. Which is probably why the majority of the market wants multi modes vs infinitely variable. One press one level. Two presses another level. Etc. And that's it. And no doubt that I love variable UIs. I'm looking for a Nitecore D10 right this moment. It's the one that started it all for me. I definitely wish there were more variable options out there but just because I and the OP want it doesn't mean that the manufacturers don't get it. They absolutely get it.
the.Mtn.Man
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I would disagree that multimode flashlights are akin to McDonald's in this analogy. People don't use multimode flashlights because they're "fast, cheap, and easy" (but terrible in all other respects) like a Happy Meal, or Microsoft Windows, but because multimode is, in fact, excellent UI design. If people can double-click a mouse or their laptop trackpad then they can operate a multimode flashlight; it's consistent, predictable, and reliable. Ramping, I think, is too fiddly and imprecise unless the hardware interface was changed to include more than one button, or perhaps a rocker-switch because a single-button ramping light like the venerable Nitecore D10 is not any easier to operate than a multimode light with its double-click to go straight to minimum, double-click+hold to go straight to maximum, click and hold to ramp... oops, wrong way... let me click and hold again to go the other direction...
A ramping UI is fine for people who like them, but to suggest they are inherently superior to a traditional multimode UI? No way.
FWIW you're 2nd person I see mention the inconsistency of ramping direction.. yeah IMO any memory sort of stuff is awful in UIs.. it makes it less predictable. Same issue with mode memory.
But you can do ramping UI without that, eg Andúril (http://budgetlightforum.com/node/56105) is basically re-implementation of D4's UI except it uses press and hold to ramp up, and click then hold to ramp down. Predictable and easy.
Also FWIW my modified D4 UI I linked earlier I also changed it to always start to ramp up, except when you initially switch to high preset it'll default to going down. Always starting ramping up is at least consistent, but that means to go down you always gotta start going up and then reverse.. you can kinda get good at it so you don't visiually see light get brighter before going down, but its still slow having to do that. Entire point of the chagnes though were to make ramping less imporatnt. And momentary turbo, espeically on D4 where you can only use turbo for seconds, I find to be vastly more useful than having a shortcut to start ramping down.
the.Mtn.Man
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Which doesn't really make the operation significantly different from that of a standard multimode flashlight.
What was the point of this thread again? :thinking:
Woods Walker
The Wood is cut, The Bacon is cooked, Now it’s tim
To argue personal preference about how one size fits all which is silly as by definition......:laughing:
easilyled
Flashaholic
I think that my next UI design principal will be to link the electric signal from the user's brain to that in the driver chip thus activating the user's desired level without the need for a physical switch. Any takers?
gurdygurds
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Beat ya to it sir......post #26
easilyled
Flashaholic
^ We can go into a partnership! 
1000cri
Newly Enlightened
I'd love to have a ramping UI on my lights if it they had displays for the power level. I like to know how long my lights will run on each level. But I agree, its really annoying having to learn a new UI for each light, even if you only own a few.
