The only 18650 headlamps that I know of, Hank and Firefly, both require flat tops. Other “enthusiast” headlamps like Skilhunt and Zebralight also require them, though that matters less to me since they’re non-Anduril anyway.

Anyone know what the deal with this is? Is it just lumenitis? It also occurs to me to call that “lumen bloat”, similar to Javascript bloat. I’m an experienced enough user to not care about that any more. I’d rather have fewer lumens and keep the ability to swap 18650’s (including button cells) between my various lights and other devices. For a headlamp I prefer a floody beam since if I want to check out something in the distance, I can pull a handheld thrower from my pocket.

Interchangeable battery tubes (18350/18650) would also be a plus.

Thanks.

  • SammysHP@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    Anyone know what the deal with this is? Is it just lumenitis? It also occurs to me to call that “lumen bloat”, similar to Javascript bloat. I’m an experienced enough user to not care about that any more.

    What do you mean? Button vs flat top has nothing to do with the performance of the light. The button is just an extra piece of metal spot welded on the positive terminal. Some flashlights require buttons for mechanical reverse polarity protection and some flashlights are built as compact as possible and thus require flat top batteries.

    For a headlamp I prefer a floody beam since if I want to check out something in the distance, I can pull a handheld thrower from my pocket.

    Beam shape and battery type are unrelated.

    • solrize@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      1·
      17 hours ago

      Hmm, I saw the requirement of unprotected flat tops as wanting high current batteries for more power = more lumens, but yeah, the button top itself is a separate issue. I had thought maybe flat tops enabled more contact area between the spring and the battery, but looking at some springs it doesn’t seem that way.

      Still, many “enthusiast” lights are chonkers already, so why insist on flat tops? For that matter, all 21700 lights are chonkers by almost by definition (people wanting compact lights use smaller batteries).

      Flood vs throw is because the usual desire for more lumens comes from wanting more reach. Thus the idea of a dedicated thrower, at least for accompanying a floody headlamp.

      The standardization of “standardized” battery sizes tbh seems pretty poor. I’d expect all 18650’s to be 65mm long, and so on. But they vary considerably.

  • Curious_Canid@piefed.ca
    English
    3·
    7 days ago

    It it’s still available, the Lumintop HL3A meets your requirements. It runs Anduril and will accept flat or button-top 18650s.

    The Fireflies PL47 should work too. It’s designed for the 21700, but it will take an 18650 with an adapter and it seems to work with both flat and button tops.