Used to work at a brewery, they had flashlights around a lot of places. I bought my own (which was much better than the ones they had). So many times when the power would go out people would ask me to come with them or borrow my flashlight.
Surprisingly powerful for something the size of one of those old mini M&Ms tubes.
That moment where you pull out the fleshlight and it makes you a hero. People, almost exclusively other guys, will ask you where you got it and you get to talk about it. This. Is. Your. Moment.
Very little friction to speak of. I've seen some communities that just felt like a square peg in a round hole and this one definitely doesn't have that vibe.
I get excited when my solar/battery setup seamlessly deals with short power outages. That $35k I spent years ago really pays off so I don’t need to wait 5 mins before browsing memes.
It's just a bare 100mah battery and inverter. it's a setup half built for camping so it was never intended to work as a ups. I've just got quick at dragging it out of the garage and plugging my server ups into it.
The Ionic GenBox looks good but I don't have one yet so I can't say from personal experience. Basically a portable battery with built-in UPS, DC-to-AC inverter, and MPPT controller for solar charging.
They come in a range of sizes up to 2400W continuous output, which is probably more than you need for a server but it could handle things like an electric kettle or a portable induction stovetop.
The portable power station I have now is a Tenergy but it's only rated up to 500W. It's good for what it is, but can't really handle a coffee maker. Perfect for charging laptops and stuff though, and has a built-in MPPT controller so it is solar-chargeable.
No problem! Definitely check which model you choose to see if it does pure sine wave function on the AC output. I think the 800W model and up do it.
It might not be necessary for every use case, but there are some things that probably require it. If you're running a computer/server off of it directly (i.e., not charging a laptop battery), then I think you need pure sine wave.
Mine unfortunately has a 3s delay before it cuts over to battery when grid synch is lost. Too long for servers to stay up. So I went and bought a lithium power station, and put it online in UPS mode. Now when the grid goes out, the UPS kicks in, the house battery kicks in, and I have 16kwh (plus whatever solar is coming in) before I need to start turning off servers.
My wife thought it was dumb when I picked up a lockpick set to play around with. Didn't think it was so stupid when we accidentally locked our keys inside when house sitting and I actually managed to pick the lock.
Double edged sword.
I was into lock picking as a teen. When my family found ourselves in the same situation, I leapt into action and got the side door open in no time.
My mother freaked out at how easy it was to get into our house without a key, and went on an anxiety fueled journey of kitting the house out with extra security. It wasn’t a bad idea to up our security, but I felt horrible for stressing her out by trying to do a good deed.
I'm a firefighter\emt. I've gotten to pick Sooo many door locks over the years and it's saved a lot of people a lot of money and headache for it.
Anytime someone has "fallen and can't get up" in their locked house, but says they aren't injured, I'll pick my way in, instead of us having to break a door or window just because they need help off the floor.
Lol. That's for the fires or a particularly strong door on a med call that's an actual emergency. Most of the time a smack or two with the shoulder will knock open a locked door.
Congratulations, you're now "the wizard who can open doors" forever. It's really nice to be able to help people with something that isn't that hard (for most locks) but appears as magic to so many people.
I was once at a wedding at a lodge type place in the middle of nowhere with rooms that auto locked like a hotel. Opened the locked closet that held the tables/chairs when the owner had accidentally left it locked and was two hours away.
... Then three rooms for drunk people that locked their keys inside... Then somebody who rented a cabin 30 min away drove me out there to let them back into the cabin they'd locked themselves out of (hopefully I didn't just break into a random cabin for them... But the keys were sitting on the counter just inside the door, and they knew exactly where they were, so probably not)
That's my problem with EDC. I love the idea of being prepared for any eventually, but all my realistic eventualities boil down to how I'm going to pay for something, or how sunny it's going to be.
Having paper currency as part of your EDC for when electronic payment goes down feels great until someone starts calling you unc for having a wallet. Trust me.
That wallet stays at home. 99% of the time all you need is drivers license and Apple pay. Though I can't seem to not take my credit card and bank card.
You wouldn't do well where I live. We do have card readers in almost all places now. But you ain't getting far with apple pay. Very, very few stores have that feature activated.
You either pay cash or swipe. And cash is still much appreciated.
The issues could well be with my bank or their payment provider instead of the store itself. For the same reason I'm trying to have one Visa card and one MasterCard in my wallet.
I love skipping ahead in line when card payments fail, absolutely worth it.
Rarely happens nowadays though, and a lot of people still carry at least some cash in Germany. So it only really happens at grocery stores, when people do their big shopping trip.
I could never be comfortable with a combination wallet and phone case. If my phone is ever lost or stolen, the first thing I'm going to need is my wallet. If I lose my wallet, I'll immediately need my phone. If they're both the same thing I'd be screwed.
Valid point, though i personally really like having just two things to keep track of when outside. Phone and keys.
I am mostly really paranoid about leaving my stuff behind so actually forgetting it is not that much of an issue for me. Though i must concede if i were to be robbed that would be really inconvenient to fix.
Same. I change out my EDC every few months to account for the weather. And obviously if I need to pass a security checkpoint, I'll leave some stuff at home.
One thing I haven't regretted yet is keeping spare medication in my bag. The number of times I've left the house and realized I forgot my antidepressants is frankly embarrassing.
If I leave my house, my edc flashlight is on me, and I literally have a use for it every day. I used it probably 4 different times today. It's kind of astounding how many times you could use a lil extra light real quick, even if you could sort of not need the light. Like when I was checking under my car seat today. I could sort of see under there without a light, but since I had the light right there in my pocket, I used it, and it made it way easier.
It took me way too long of concentrated thinking to figure out that EDC meant every day carry have associating the acronym with Electric Daisy Carnival for so long
A small AAA pocket flashlight with a magnetic base comes in handy surprisingly often and can be clipped into a tiny jeans pocket for carrying. You can even use it from there if it's angled.
You're not going to save the day with it but it's pretty neat to have on hand. (That's pretty much as far as EDC goes for me.)
I carried one for a couple years and found that I never used it. The few times I needed a flashlight, it was easier to reach for my phone than my keychain.
I get it. This summer I bought a battery bank and portable solar panels so I can a) take some load off a circuit that is overtaxed in the summer and b) be able to very slowly charge the car in the event of an emergency.
A month after getting it, we got a notice on our door that they were working on poles and our power would be out for 8 hours. I kept my whole homelab, and refrigerator running the whole time and the entertainment center running most of the time. Any thought that I spent too much, given the probable utility, immediately disappeared. I wouldn't call it pride in my decision, but it came damn close.
I was able to get a good deal on a lightly used 3.6kWh EcoFlow DELTA Pro and this ZOUPW 480W panel. I got 380 - 395W through the July afternoon, but I've since learned I didn't have the panel at a good angle given my latitude and time of year.
Friends of my mom were planning to do RV life for a year or two (while wait-listed for a retirement community) but they decided to rent one for long vacation to be sure. The husband bought the powerbank while it was having a sale, sure they were going to buy an RV as soon as they got back. By the time their vacation was over they vowed to never set foot in an RV again, and he sold the powerbank and AC to me for $400 less than he paid for it. He also hadn't accounted for the Delta Pro being 100lbs, and they had trouble getting it up and down steps.
I was walking at a festival around 2010, maybe 20m behind a group of kids who had flashlights and headlamps. I wanted to have my light going in case they turned and walked a different path or whatnot. I turn it on normal-beam and they all stop and exclaim to each other about how crazy the light behind them was. I felt sooooooo happy! They all wanted to check it out and were astounded it does so many things. I felt like the coolest gurl in the land!
Realistically speaking, if any of the apocalypses they fantasize about come to pass, I hope I die quickly. I'm not fit, I have injuries and require recurring medication, and it's unlikely I'd be any boon to any other survivors.
I'm not in any danger of self harm today, but in a zombie apocalypse, I would be.
Same. I would hang around for a few days just to vibe, but I’m not fighting for my life in the apocalypse. I’ll chill till it’s really inconvenient and then check out
If you're a good hang you could still be a boon. I'd rather be in an apocalypse with someone with a positive outlook and a good sense of humor than an asshole with twenty flash lights. You have to remember that even in the world that we live in now, clowns and comedians get sent to hospitals and war torn countries.
I've recently been reading Semiosis, which is in part about surviving with low resources, as one would presumably be doing in any apocalypse. It's a series of short stories. There's one story specifically about the loss of a member of the community who isn't well liked, but who provides art and a sense of history.
He's the second to be found murdered. (That's not a spoiler, it's literally the premise of the story.)
You do have different sorts of prepping though. Some act like they are preparing a fallout shelter and equipment to continue for years afterwards. If you are buying a freeze dehydrator, you are going too far.
But far more reasonable is stuff like being prepared for a power/gas/water outage or local shops can't get restocked for a few days.
Also being prepared doesn't have to mean having equipment to replace those functions. It could also just be something to keep you going for a few days without it. Tinned food that can be eaten cold for example.
We have enough dry ingredients to last a few weeks if necessary and rainwater collection with water butts. Not ideal but if there was an emergency we could boil and drink it. Camping stove and I keep a tub of sticks as fuel for it and to leave them to dry out.
My "prep" plan is mostly hurricane based. I have a sump pump, generator, a 2-weeks supply of non-perishable food, a camping stove, plus my backyard propane grill, and of course my cordless tools, and now my little power station with solar panels. I sat my ass through Fran, Ivan and Matthew, I'll sit my ass through the next one.
No we aren't. We like being the heroes in little emergencies.
When the big emergencies happen, we're just as likely to die as anybody else. Anybody who says differently is a complete moron.
Prepare for the most likely scenario, and you'll be fine. For the big problems, the best insurance against that is being an active member of your community. Prepping by being there for city council meetings and advocating for responsible city budgeting and city planning is way more likely to save you and your family than kitting your Jeep with a generator.
Ive said it before: do you want to be the grumpy, antisocial prepper that eats beans in his (yes, almost exclusively his) bunker until radiation poisoning finally gets him?
Or do you want to be the hero of the neighbourhood, who has a solar-powered stove to heat up the baby milk for cute single mother next door?
You've hit on my bugbear with most post-apocalyptic fiction: pretty much universally humans have shown that they will tend towards co-operation when placed in situations of hardship. But most writers, game designers and preppers want you to think that when civilization collapses everyone will be like "there's no rules any more! I can murder whoever I want and take their stuff!"
I have been in a flood that turned the land into a lake, horizon to horizon. Densely populated. Utterly devastating. The railway was elevated enough to get between two mid-sized cities, and on the 12km trek I saw an amazing amount of compassion, mutual aid, and casual, natural-feeling grassroots organization to just get on with life.
I have been in a few crises and minor disasters, come to think of it. I think generally, most people like banding together and helping out when shit gets crazy.
There’s a Cory Doctorow short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, that’s exactly this: a bunch of rich, ultra paranoid preppers get together in a bunker after societal collapse. They’re all incredibly selfish and eventually turn on each other. Meanwhile, everyone else cooperates and gets along just fine to survive.
I think this might be one of the reasons zombie a apocalypses are so popular because it gives a plausible reason for why large groups could be just as failure prone as small groups, as well as a plausible reason as to why the survivors don't just immediately restart society considering the infrastructure, power stations, and factories don't just disappear but require the knowledge and logistics to run or maintain them and some essential people might have been turned into zombies, plus the risk of attacks while doing maintenance or going out to run it.
Much as I have always loved Star Trek: TNG and its take on future tech, every time they beamed somewhere dark and pulled out their scifi flashlights all I could think of is how tired their hands would quickly get in the unnatural position needed to use those things.
I built what is basically a smart plug, but it uses 4G connectivity instead of my standard WiFi. The idea is that if my home network screws up and I need to reboot my router and modem, I can still do that remotely. There have been 2 times in my life that I really wished I had this set up because my Plex server was down while I was traveling. The ideal scenario is that I never have to use the thing, but whenever I see this flashlight post, it reminds me that I kinda do want to need it just once.
It's not a fully redundant backup network. It's a microcontroller called a particle boron that has a 4G antenna. I bought it because there's no monthly connectivity charge within a certain usage limit, and I'll never go anywhere near that limit with this use case.
I learned about it from this cool YouTube video where a dude uses one to build a pizza compass.
I bought mine years ago for around $40. I think they still sell it but it costs a bit more now. They have cheaper boards, but I don't know if those have the no monthly fee thing. It's a very cool little dev board, but be warned! Unless they changed it, there's no reverse polarity protection on the battery connector! It uses a regular jst battery connector which can physically only plug in one way. I foolishly assumed this meant that it couldn't be plugged in with reverse polarity, but it turns out there's no established "correct" polarity for that connector and the battery I had fried the first board I bought. If you buy one, make sure you double check the battery polarity!
It looks very useful for it's intendes use case. I found these guys, some of the details are the same. It could be the same back end. I'm looking for a backup connection with something like a gl inet Collie.
I'll honestly say that I thought flashlights were flashlights for the longest time. Like, sure, some are brighter, whatever. I finally picked up one from a recommended thread and when I got it I was floored at the quality difference. I immediately went and bought a 2nd one that day.
The original I saw was back in reddit days about 3 or 4 years ago. But that one you posted is similar. I think the fc11 got an update and is now the fc11c
I like mine but its not legal for general purpose carrying in the UK because of the safety lock on the blade. Yes I know UK knife law is dumb, but that is what I have to live with. They do make ones without it but mine is from before those laws came in.
Its not illegal to own or carry, but you require a good reason to carry it and that is somewhat vague. Swiss army knife has a soft "lock" where you just need a bit more force to start closing it which is fine as its not a locking blade.
IIRC the TLDR of the law is that a knife is illegal to carry. Unless you have a good reason OR it doesn't lock and is under 7.62cm. So Swiss army knife doesn't require convincing a police officer that your reason is acceptable.
I'd break off the blade then. As an knife, Leatherman isn't that great. I have a dedicated folding knife that I use just about every day, and I dunno how I'd convince a pig that I needed it, but here we are.
I like having it as one of the tools though, so I use the Swiss army knife which doesn't require justifying to a police office who is having a bad day.
When the early bright white LEDs came out (not the ultra-packages) I got my father a photon keychain microlight.
He was working dozer/fire duty with a coworker. They were back deep in the woods investigating. Their regular flashlight bulb burned out. It was after midnight, completely overcast, no moon, rural, Dark AF. They stumbled in the dark trying to get back to the truck. It was the early 2000s, they didn't carry cell phones or pagers. Dad remembered he had a keychain light. "We came out of there, about five miles, with that little light, we took turns smashing the button. both our fingers hurt, but we made it out" Yeah, dad, they have a little lock on the front, that holds the button down if you need that :)
I had an assortment of those types of things back in the day, both the genuine article and myriad knockoffs of varying levels of quality. Photon was the big name brand for those at the time. These days it's astonishing to think that LEDs used to be an "exotic" technology at least for the purposes of illumination and not just being indicators on things, and they went through a period of being deemed neat but inferior in performance to their analog counterpart in almost exactly the same way that LCD screens did for a while. Which is an interesting but irrelevant parallel.
Anyway, the best one of those I ever got my hands on is one that I still have, which is an "Inova" branded Photon knockoff which among its admittedly rather short list of features included a sliding switch that would keep the thing powered on for you without having to pinch it the entire time.
Those little jobbers were and still are powered by a pair of CR2016 coin cells which the LED is extremely unkind to. There are no active electronics and also no current limiting resistor. The sum total of the light's components consist of the casing, the batteries, and the LED. They're switched by just mashing one leg of the LED into contact with the batteries, and the current draw of the LED is so immense compared to the couple of milliamps that the coin cells expect to be faced with that they're literally incapable of supplying enough current to damage the LED. As a result of this their battery life is famously awful, and their full brightness runtime is probably less than two minutes. They'll continue to illuminate in at least some capacity off of extremely beat batteries, though. I unearthed my little Inova light the other day and it still turns on, albeit not at a terribly useful brightness, on its original batteries. Which are probably from 2004.
I've got a memory where I was in a small meeting room with no windows and the power went out. One person said "I wish somebody had a flashli..." right as I clicked mine on.
I've had a little single AA Fenix in my pocket for almost two decades now... Comes in handy more often than you'd think.
... But I also always forget phones can do light as well. That said, I'm not shoving my phone down in an engine bay to get a better look at wiring, but that $15, 20 year old flashlight, sure.
They called me an idiot for spending $20 on a tiny Sofirm flashlight but then I clip it on a cap's brim and work in the darkness while the mortals must rest
I got the Olight Ark Pro ultra in limited edition Zombie color as my edc light. I absolutely love that thing. Gets more use than my pocket knife. It's just the best.
My everydaycarry is a Fenix AA, about 10 years old.
Uses today included: checking on the henhouse, and going out back to smoke a joint, and I stuck it in my mouth to hang the hummingbird feeder. Before dark, I used it to help me vacuum in a hurry before guests arrive (lay it on the floor to highlight everything needing a cleanup), to look into a corner of the car trunk, to poke around in the storage room briefly, and at work to better look into the guts of a computer.
My swiss army knife got used a few times today, too. Different blades and tools. I’m semi-rural so dont leave the bedroom without those two items.
The thing about a small knife and a little flashlight is that you don't actually think about how many times it would be nice to have one of those things "right there right now" until you start carrying them. But a cheap little $15 flashlight that can clip onto your pocket and give it a try for a couple weeks, and you'll start to notice how convenient it can be every time you want to check something in a darker area. It's faster, brighter, and smaller than the light on your phone. This "WARSUN T7PRO Pocket Flashlight" is only $10 on amazon. It's not the greatest but you'll get the idea of always having instant light.
Yeah, I got a fancy flashlight (nitecore tini 2) and carried it for a while, and still take it when I go on trips, but I never have a chance of using it "everyday". Everywhere I go is pretty well lit, and for the rare exceptions I use my phone...
I've had an OClip Pro on my backpack for a couple of years (and another stuck to the side of the fridge for checking on chickens in the dark) and it's been great. I've been considering the Ark Pro for a year or two but the only thing that held me back was how long it is and thinking it might be awkward to keep on me... but I suppose I could just slot it into the backpack as well.
Do you find the size awkward or is it generally "fine" for keeping in a pocket or storing in a pack? How long does the battery last for you (and usage pattern)?
I was hesitant to switch to rechargeables because I want something that can sit unused for years and "just work". Having an extra alkaline AA/AAA on hand is no big deal (easier/smaller than a battery pack or small solar charger). That said, the OClip on the fridge has been there for at least a year with short intermittent usage and no recharge - still showing "green" when I flip the selector so it seems to have little to no passive drain.
Though, I could also argue that the OClip is brighter than I ever need (mostly use the red mode) so I probably don't need the brighter Ark but....
I just keep mine clipped inside the outer edge of my back pocket and the only time I ever notice it is when in sitting in a car. The length has never bugged me. I'm not sure how long it will last before dying aside from what they advertise it as. I've never had it run out on me, but I usually always charge it when it gets to like half.
Olight is a Chinese company, but they have real warranty\sales offices in other places. There's one in the US, for instance. Which is nice, because their arklights have a lifetime warranty, and that includes the battery. Obviously, the battery will eventually go bad and need to be replaced.
Not nearly enough lumens compared to actual flash lights. I've got a rechargeable light that's 6000, 3000, and 1500 lumens in the 3 modes. A phone is about 150 at best.
The flashlight/phone debate reminds me of the multi tool/knife debate. Do one thing well, or 20 things okay...
Modern flashlights are bright AF in a decently small form factor. This isn't a 5D-Cell Maglite he's hauling around.
There's always a trade in EDC for practicality, reliability, weight, size, etc.
A decent modern flashlight with an 18650 battery is a nice pocket sized light that's streets ahead of anything a phone could do, and a lot of them can also be used as a USB power bank, so you can get some other use out of it.
There's even little (tiny) lipo rechargeable ones these days that are stupid bright. I've got an OLight OClip on my backpack that's very small and way brighter than I'd ever need for simple "find something in the dark" purposes
I'm having trouble thinking of something to compare it to size wise ... Maybe 5cm x 2cm x 2cm?
I don't carry the 1200 lumen surefire edc2 around anymore because I just don't ever need a mini sun.
The flashlight/phone debate reminds me of the multi tool/knife debate. Do one thing well, or 20 things okay…
I have a tool bag with a nice flashlight in my car for bigger jobs, for random quick stuff my phone and Leatherman cover 95% of what comes up. Best of both worlds. Not that I'm really going to debate anyone about the shit they carry around. If someone present has a better tool for the job I'll applaud their preparedness. I just don't personally find it worthwhile to carry the extra items on me all the time. I'm still more prepared than most with just the Leatherman.
I carry a Gerber Dime, just right for a quick little fix on something, and a Kershaw Brawler because I find the knife on the Dime frustrating for anything besides cutting tape on boxes.
Just having a bottle opener makes you more prepared than most people nowadays.
I carry a skeletool. It's only slightly larger than the folder I replaced with it and it works great for everything I use a knife for while also having the pliers, screwdriver bits, and bottle opener. There's also an extension for the screwdriver that makes it a little more useful but I don't keep that on my person and honestly most times I've used it I haven't even bothered putting it into the tool. I did get a Milwaukee Fastback when I was doing a lot of box opening to preserve the blade on the skeletool, but otherwise I've been using it for everything for over a decade. Probably one of my favorite possessions.
I'm too old to remember that my phone has a light, but I do remember there's a flashlight in my pocket.
Though in another comment I said :
But I also always forget phones can do light as well. That said, I’m not shoving my phone down in an engine bay to get a better look at wiring, but that $15, 20 year old flashlight, sure.
I'm in Tokyo right now, got a limited EDC since no firearms/knives at the moment, but it felt nice to have my ifak and flashlight when the (false) earthquake warning popped up on my phone.
Same with screwdrivers and my trusty pouch of cables and adapters. Always a great feeling to surprise someone with a solution when they didn't even expect one.
I have a whole electric generator and I would prefer not to own it. Where I live, electric service can be iffy at times due to falling trees. And it can sometimes a day or more for the power to come back.
The LAST bloody thing I want is for that generator to come and run. It costs real money when it does come on and that cost sucks. The only thing that costs more is freezing the house up when it's -30 outside.
Close. Northern Minnesota. Though thanks to the upcoming el Nino, we are to expect a warmer winter. I would really like to save some money on my heating bill this year.
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This but Christianity and burning the world down
Used to work at a brewery, they had flashlights around a lot of places. I bought my own (which was much better than the ones they had). So many times when the power would go out people would ask me to come with them or borrow my flashlight.
Surprisingly powerful for something the size of one of those old mini M&Ms tubes.
I wish r/fleshlight was this wholesome.
That moment where you pull out the fleshlight and it makes you a hero. People, almost exclusively other guys, will ask you where you got it and you get to talk about it. This. Is. Your. Moment.
Edit: one too many has. It’s important to accurately quote.
The customers at the sperm bank: 😱
I’ll let them have it. I’ve got three more at home.
From either Hank, Jackson, or Simon, iykyk
Fleshgenerators on max power.
It's plenty holesome.
I mean, looking into it (you can thank me later), it seems like a great support group!
Very little friction to speak of. I've seen some communities that just felt like a square peg in a round hole and this one definitely doesn't have that vibe.
Dunno, seems more like a circlejerk to me.
It can be both
It will not work here:
"Sir, This Is A Wendy’s"
but maybe here:
"Anyway, this is a Walmart"
Me, too!
MFW the roofers came to inspect a leak a couple of weeks ago and the kid turned on his phone's light before climbing into the attic.
Me after lending the kid my 3000 lumens pocket flashlight.
There's an entire horror game about having only your phone flashlight during a power outage.
Actually, it looks like there are a few.
There's an entire horror
gamegenre about having only your phone flashlight during a power outage.I get excited when my solar/battery setup seamlessly deals with short power outages. That $35k I spent years ago really pays off so I don’t need to wait 5 mins before browsing memes.
The memes must flow.
I can get a battery/inverter set up in about 10 minutes that'll last from dusk until bedtime that'll run my entire server and network and TV.
The trouble is that the power usually comes back as soon as I switch the inverter on.
Can you add a UPS switch to your setup so it switches on automatically before the server even knows it lost power?
It's just a bare 100mah battery and inverter. it's a setup half built for camping so it was never intended to work as a ups. I've just got quick at dragging it out of the garage and plugging my server ups into it.
Hardware loadout for a curious prospective battery buyer?
The Ionic GenBox looks good but I don't have one yet so I can't say from personal experience. Basically a portable battery with built-in UPS, DC-to-AC inverter, and MPPT controller for solar charging.
They come in a range of sizes up to 2400W continuous output, which is probably more than you need for a server but it could handle things like an electric kettle or a portable induction stovetop.
The portable power station I have now is a Tenergy but it's only rated up to 500W. It's good for what it is, but can't really handle a coffee maker. Perfect for charging laptops and stuff though, and has a built-in MPPT controller so it is solar-chargeable.
Wow, reasonably priced too -- thanks stranger!
No problem! Definitely check which model you choose to see if it does pure sine wave function on the AC output. I think the 800W model and up do it.
It might not be necessary for every use case, but there are some things that probably require it. If you're running a computer/server off of it directly (i.e., not charging a laptop battery), then I think you need pure sine wave.
Must be a small server. ;-)
![email protected]
Did you see the old "follow the light" post from /r/flashlight? It's a classic
Mine unfortunately has a 3s delay before it cuts over to battery when grid synch is lost. Too long for servers to stay up. So I went and bought a lithium power station, and put it online in UPS mode. Now when the grid goes out, the UPS kicks in, the house battery kicks in, and I have 16kwh (plus whatever solar is coming in) before I need to start turning off servers.
Assuming your ISP and the equipment between you and them didn't got hit by the power outage ...
As a Kyiv resident: no, you don't want power outages. It's less fun after the 10th time in a week.
Yeah but check out my thick beamshots
10 times a week are rookie numbers
My wife thought it was dumb when I picked up a lockpick set to play around with. Didn't think it was so stupid when we accidentally locked our keys inside when house sitting and I actually managed to pick the lock.
Double edged sword. I was into lock picking as a teen. When my family found ourselves in the same situation, I leapt into action and got the side door open in no time.
My mother freaked out at how easy it was to get into our house without a key, and went on an anxiety fueled journey of kitting the house out with extra security. It wasn’t a bad idea to up our security, but I felt horrible for stressing her out by trying to do a good deed.
That is definitely a thing. When I got into it I repinned all our locks with a difficult bitting and added spools/serrated pins.
... All the while knowing that a burglar is just going to smash a window or kick in the door so I really just made it harder on myself ; )
I'm a firefighter\emt. I've gotten to pick Sooo many door locks over the years and it's saved a lot of people a lot of money and headache for it.
Anytime someone has "fallen and can't get up" in their locked house, but says they aren't injured, I'll pick my way in, instead of us having to break a door or window just because they need help off the floor.
You start picking locks like that, what the hell are you using that lovely Halligan tool for?
Lol. That's for the fires or a particularly strong door on a med call that's an actual emergency. Most of the time a smack or two with the shoulder will knock open a locked door.
... And that's how I got your mother to subscribe to the lockpicking lawyer.
Congratulations, you're now "the wizard who can open doors" forever. It's really nice to be able to help people with something that isn't that hard (for most locks) but appears as magic to so many people.
I was once at a wedding at a lodge type place in the middle of nowhere with rooms that auto locked like a hotel. Opened the locked closet that held the tables/chairs when the owner had accidentally left it locked and was two hours away. ... Then three rooms for drunk people that locked their keys inside... Then somebody who rented a cabin 30 min away drove me out there to let them back into the cabin they'd locked themselves out of (hopefully I didn't just break into a random cabin for them... But the keys were sitting on the counter just inside the door, and they knew exactly where they were, so probably not)
Plus, it's just fun.
What picks do you use?
How heroic and badass did that feel? I need to learn to lockpick. And get a wife. And lock her out.
That's my problem with EDC. I love the idea of being prepared for any eventually, but all my realistic eventualities boil down to how I'm going to pay for something, or how sunny it's going to be.
Having paper currency as part of your EDC for when electronic payment goes down feels great until someone starts calling you unc for having a wallet. Trust me.
Heavy is the ass that carries the wallet. 😞
The man who sleeps with a Machete is a fool every night but one.
The youth are against wallets now?? What am I going to do, shove every card I could conceivably one day need into my pockets like I’m deranged?
Kids just put their cards on the NFC function on their phone.
I'm in the middle with a ridge wallet
That wallet stays at home. 99% of the time all you need is drivers license and Apple pay. Though I can't seem to not take my credit card and bank card.
You wouldn't do well where I live. We do have card readers in almost all places now. But you ain't getting far with apple pay. Very, very few stores have that feature activated.
You either pay cash or swipe. And cash is still much appreciated.
Sigh. You still don't need a wallet to carry a whopping two cards.
Those don't always work well all the time either. My cards can have problems about a third of the time. So I'm always carrying cash just in case.
It must be nice when you can assume it all works all the time every time.
Ever try it? At any normal store the clerk is going to say they cant do anything without the register connected to the network
The issues could well be with my bank or their payment provider instead of the store itself. For the same reason I'm trying to have one Visa card and one MasterCard in my wallet.
The blind reliance on technology is staggering
I love skipping ahead in line when card payments fail, absolutely worth it.
Rarely happens nowadays though, and a lot of people still carry at least some cash in Germany. So it only really happens at grocery stores, when people do their big shopping trip.
Why would I not have a wallet? I would never trust tap pay on my phone, I don't even have full access to my email on it
Anybody worth the trouble is at least a little weird.
P
I keep my cash between the pages of my pocket notebook.
I got a black titanium Ridge wallet and it fits in my coin pocket. I love it.
Look at this, and be enlightened:
At least some version of this, mine is a lot more compact, 3 cards and space for some bills or papers/tickets and the like.
E: I guess this photo doesnt show the fact its a phone case very well after all. Be moderately illuminated then instead🫠
To really throw you for a loop, that's what my dad uses.
I've tried them, but they're not for me. I have something similar to a ridge, and am learning to live being unc to the younger guys.
I swear I was a young guy just the other day. Time flies
I could never be comfortable with a combination wallet and phone case. If my phone is ever lost or stolen, the first thing I'm going to need is my wallet. If I lose my wallet, I'll immediately need my phone. If they're both the same thing I'd be screwed.
Valid point, though i personally really like having just two things to keep track of when outside. Phone and keys.
I am mostly really paranoid about leaving my stuff behind so actually forgetting it is not that much of an issue for me. Though i must concede if i were to be robbed that would be really inconvenient to fix.
Same. I change out my EDC every few months to account for the weather. And obviously if I need to pass a security checkpoint, I'll leave some stuff at home.
One thing I haven't regretted yet is keeping spare medication in my bag. The number of times I've left the house and realized I forgot my antidepressants is frankly embarrassing.
If I leave my house, my edc flashlight is on me, and I literally have a use for it every day. I used it probably 4 different times today. It's kind of astounding how many times you could use a lil extra light real quick, even if you could sort of not need the light. Like when I was checking under my car seat today. I could sort of see under there without a light, but since I had the light right there in my pocket, I used it, and it made it way easier.
It took me way too long of concentrated thinking to figure out that EDC meant every day carry have associating the acronym with Electric Daisy Carnival for so long
I feel naked without my Spyderco Delica 4 and AAA light clipped in my pockets.
A small AAA pocket flashlight with a magnetic base comes in handy surprisingly often and can be clipped into a tiny jeans pocket for carrying. You can even use it from there if it's angled.
You're not going to save the day with it but it's pretty neat to have on hand. (That's pretty much as far as EDC goes for me.)
I carried one for a couple years and found that I never used it. The few times I needed a flashlight, it was easier to reach for my phone than my keychain.
I get it. This summer I bought a battery bank and portable solar panels so I can a) take some load off a circuit that is overtaxed in the summer and b) be able to very slowly charge the car in the event of an emergency.
A month after getting it, we got a notice on our door that they were working on poles and our power would be out for 8 hours. I kept my whole homelab, and refrigerator running the whole time and the entertainment center running most of the time. Any thought that I spent too much, given the probable utility, immediately disappeared. I wouldn't call it pride in my decision, but it came damn close.
People will ask you where you got it and then you get to talk about it!!
That happened in other responses!
You have my exact use case energy wise (homelab + fridge). Can I ask what battery and panels you got?
I was able to get a good deal on a lightly used 3.6kWh EcoFlow DELTA Pro and this ZOUPW 480W panel. I got 380 - 395W through the July afternoon, but I've since learned I didn't have the panel at a good angle given my latitude and time of year.
How do you run into a battery like that lightly used if there isn't anything wrong with it? Seems weird that someone would get rid of it to me?
Friends of my mom were planning to do RV life for a year or two (while wait-listed for a retirement community) but they decided to rent one for long vacation to be sure. The husband bought the powerbank while it was having a sale, sure they were going to buy an RV as soon as they got back. By the time their vacation was over they vowed to never set foot in an RV again, and he sold the powerbank and AC to me for $400 less than he paid for it. He also hadn't accounted for the Delta Pro being 100lbs, and they had trouble getting it up and down steps.
You can charge your car with a powerbank?
Yes. you need a grounding adaptor, though.
I was walking at a festival around 2010, maybe 20m behind a group of kids who had flashlights and headlamps. I wanted to have my light going in case they turned and walked a different path or whatnot. I turn it on normal-beam and they all stop and exclaim to each other about how crazy the light behind them was. I felt sooooooo happy! They all wanted to check it out and were astounded it does so many things. I felt like the coolest gurl in the land!
These guys are going to love the apocalypse.
... For a while.
Realistically speaking, I give the typical armchair preppers a couple weeks, at best.
Realistically speaking, if any of the apocalypses they fantasize about come to pass, I hope I die quickly. I'm not fit, I have injuries and require recurring medication, and it's unlikely I'd be any boon to any other survivors.
I'm not in any danger of self harm today, but in a zombie apocalypse, I would be.
Same. I would hang around for a few days just to vibe, but I’m not fighting for my life in the apocalypse. I’ll chill till it’s really inconvenient and then check out
If you're a good hang you could still be a boon. I'd rather be in an apocalypse with someone with a positive outlook and a good sense of humor than an asshole with twenty flash lights. You have to remember that even in the world that we live in now, clowns and comedians get sent to hospitals and war torn countries.
I've recently been reading Semiosis, which is in part about surviving with low resources, as one would presumably be doing in any apocalypse. It's a series of short stories. There's one story specifically about the loss of a member of the community who isn't well liked, but who provides art and a sense of history.
He's the second to be found murdered. (That's not a spoiler, it's literally the premise of the story.)
You do have different sorts of prepping though. Some act like they are preparing a fallout shelter and equipment to continue for years afterwards. If you are buying a freeze dehydrator, you are going too far.
But far more reasonable is stuff like being prepared for a power/gas/water outage or local shops can't get restocked for a few days.
Also being prepared doesn't have to mean having equipment to replace those functions. It could also just be something to keep you going for a few days without it. Tinned food that can be eaten cold for example.
We have enough dry ingredients to last a few weeks if necessary and rainwater collection with water butts. Not ideal but if there was an emergency we could boil and drink it. Camping stove and I keep a tub of sticks as fuel for it and to leave them to dry out.
My "prep" plan is mostly hurricane based. I have a sump pump, generator, a 2-weeks supply of non-perishable food, a camping stove, plus my backyard propane grill, and of course my cordless tools, and now my little power station with solar panels. I sat my ass through Fran, Ivan and Matthew, I'll sit my ass through the next one.
It’s nice when people think of their pets during challenging times. How old is your donkey?
I am not opposed to preparing for a disaster; in fact, I think it's wise.
No we aren't. We like being the heroes in little emergencies.
When the big emergencies happen, we're just as likely to die as anybody else. Anybody who says differently is a complete moron.
Prepare for the most likely scenario, and you'll be fine. For the big problems, the best insurance against that is being an active member of your community. Prepping by being there for city council meetings and advocating for responsible city budgeting and city planning is way more likely to save you and your family than kitting your Jeep with a generator.
Nah fam, my Kershaw knife and my Fenix flashlight will make me a god in the apocalypse
Ive said it before: do you want to be the grumpy, antisocial prepper that eats beans in his (yes, almost exclusively his) bunker until radiation poisoning finally gets him?
Or do you want to be the hero of the neighbourhood, who has a solar-powered stove to heat up the baby milk for cute single mother next door?
Grumpy antisocial prepper here.
I have rice as well. 🖕🏻
Don't use my love of beans against me
You've hit on my bugbear with most post-apocalyptic fiction: pretty much universally humans have shown that they will tend towards co-operation when placed in situations of hardship. But most writers, game designers and preppers want you to think that when civilization collapses everyone will be like "there's no rules any more! I can murder whoever I want and take their stuff!"
I have been in a flood that turned the land into a lake, horizon to horizon. Densely populated. Utterly devastating. The railway was elevated enough to get between two mid-sized cities, and on the 12km trek I saw an amazing amount of compassion, mutual aid, and casual, natural-feeling grassroots organization to just get on with life.
I have been in a few crises and minor disasters, come to think of it. I think generally, most people like banding together and helping out when shit gets crazy.
There’s a Cory Doctorow short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, that’s exactly this: a bunch of rich, ultra paranoid preppers get together in a bunker after societal collapse. They’re all incredibly selfish and eventually turn on each other. Meanwhile, everyone else cooperates and gets along just fine to survive.
Is that a modernization of the Poe story by the same name or am I confusing titles?
I think technically it’s a parody of Poe’s story?
Just looked it up, it seems to be a direct hommage to poes story
I think this might be one of the reasons zombie a apocalypses are so popular because it gives a plausible reason for why large groups could be just as failure prone as small groups, as well as a plausible reason as to why the survivors don't just immediately restart society considering the infrastructure, power stations, and factories don't just disappear but require the knowledge and logistics to run or maintain them and some essential people might have been turned into zombies, plus the risk of attacks while doing maintenance or going out to run it.
"A paradise built in hell" by rebecca solnit is a great book about spontaneous co-operation during disasters
Beans beans beans! I will always choose beans!
Being able to smugly utilize the thing that people always ask why you carry around is one of the best feelings there is.
Beamogging the darkness-cels
Can we bring this kind of energy to Lemmy? Pretty please?
🔦
one of the major beefs I have with sci-fi is just how crappy the torches are both in what's meant to be the modern day and the future
Much as I have always loved Star Trek: TNG and its take on future tech, every time they beamed somewhere dark and pulled out their scifi flashlights all I could think of is how tired their hands would quickly get in the unnatural position needed to use those things.
The second I got a flip phone I turned the flashlight on and held it by my shoulder like these stupid squares
I put mine in front of my eye and pretended to be a Borg 😆
"It's your time to shine."
"Other people will look up to you and will be able to tell the time."
"An enlightening experience."
"A bright idea, if I may say so myself."
"With great brightness comes great visibility."
"Your ability to illuminate a situation is truly outstanding."
"You are the light at the end of my tunnel."
"Don't take this lightly when I say you're brilliant."
I built what is basically a smart plug, but it uses 4G connectivity instead of my standard WiFi. The idea is that if my home network screws up and I need to reboot my router and modem, I can still do that remotely. There have been 2 times in my life that I really wished I had this set up because my Plex server was down while I was traveling. The ideal scenario is that I never have to use the thing, but whenever I see this flashlight post, it reminds me that I kinda do want to need it just once.
I've always wanted a backup network connection, no matter how slow. But i cant find anything cheap enough to be worth it. What service do you use?
It's not a fully redundant backup network. It's a microcontroller called a particle boron that has a 4G antenna. I bought it because there's no monthly connectivity charge within a certain usage limit, and I'll never go anywhere near that limit with this use case.
I learned about it from this cool YouTube video where a dude uses one to build a pizza compass.
Dude, this is sooo cool! As a Ninja Turtle, I LOVE this!
Really intrigued about the particle boron with no monthly fee.
I bought mine years ago for around $40. I think they still sell it but it costs a bit more now. They have cheaper boards, but I don't know if those have the no monthly fee thing. It's a very cool little dev board, but be warned! Unless they changed it, there's no reverse polarity protection on the battery connector! It uses a regular jst battery connector which can physically only plug in one way. I foolishly assumed this meant that it couldn't be plugged in with reverse polarity, but it turns out there's no established "correct" polarity for that connector and the battery I had fried the first board I bought. If you buy one, make sure you double check the battery polarity!
It looks very useful for it's intendes use case. I found these guys, some of the details are the same. It could be the same back end. I'm looking for a backup connection with something like a gl inet Collie.
https://www.thingsmobile.com/business/thingsmobile/overview
https://www.gl-inet.com/en-us/products/gl-x300b?country=US
Excellent find, thank you
Only works in North America :(
I'll honestly say that I thought flashlights were flashlights for the longest time. Like, sure, some are brighter, whatever. I finally picked up one from a recommended thread and when I got it I was floored at the quality difference. I immediately went and bought a 2nd one that day.
Where did you get it? I want to talk about it
Wurkkos fc11. Nothing super crazy by flashlight enthusiast standards, but it has the Nichia led variant which came highly recommended.
I’ve heard rumors that the next Hubbolt qrs7 will finally have the Tormonious LED variant. /s
I love mine. They are so handy.
That depends. Are you a guy?
Almost exclusively
Where's this recommended thread?
Edit: Found it https://lemmy.world/post/52339818
The original I saw was back in reddit days about 3 or 4 years ago. But that one you posted is similar. I think the fc11 got an update and is now the fc11c
I got to make use of my Swiss army knife at work. With the fucking awl! I and I alone knew what it was capable of.
I have a Leatherman and I fucking love the awl.
I like mine but its not legal for general purpose carrying in the UK because of the safety lock on the blade. Yes I know UK knife law is dumb, but that is what I have to live with. They do make ones without it but mine is from before those laws came in.
Its not illegal to own or carry, but you require a good reason to carry it and that is somewhat vague. Swiss army knife has a soft "lock" where you just need a bit more force to start closing it which is fine as its not a locking blade.
IIRC the TLDR of the law is that a knife is illegal to carry. Unless you have a good reason OR it doesn't lock and is under 7.62cm. So Swiss army knife doesn't require convincing a police officer that your reason is acceptable.
I'd break off the blade then. As an knife, Leatherman isn't that great. I have a dedicated folding knife that I use just about every day, and I dunno how I'd convince a pig that I needed it, but here we are.
I like having it as one of the tools though, so I use the Swiss army knife which doesn't require justifying to a police office who is having a bad day.
When the early bright white LEDs came out (not the ultra-packages) I got my father a photon keychain microlight.
He was working dozer/fire duty with a coworker. They were back deep in the woods investigating. Their regular flashlight bulb burned out. It was after midnight, completely overcast, no moon, rural, Dark AF. They stumbled in the dark trying to get back to the truck. It was the early 2000s, they didn't carry cell phones or pagers. Dad remembered he had a keychain light. "We came out of there, about five miles, with that little light, we took turns smashing the button. both our fingers hurt, but we made it out" Yeah, dad, they have a little lock on the front, that holds the button down if you need that :)
I had an assortment of those types of things back in the day, both the genuine article and myriad knockoffs of varying levels of quality. Photon was the big name brand for those at the time. These days it's astonishing to think that LEDs used to be an "exotic" technology at least for the purposes of illumination and not just being indicators on things, and they went through a period of being deemed neat but inferior in performance to their analog counterpart in almost exactly the same way that LCD screens did for a while. Which is an interesting but irrelevant parallel.
Anyway, the best one of those I ever got my hands on is one that I still have, which is an "Inova" branded Photon knockoff which among its admittedly rather short list of features included a sliding switch that would keep the thing powered on for you without having to pinch it the entire time.
Those little jobbers were and still are powered by a pair of CR2016 coin cells which the LED is extremely unkind to. There are no active electronics and also no current limiting resistor. The sum total of the light's components consist of the casing, the batteries, and the LED. They're switched by just mashing one leg of the LED into contact with the batteries, and the current draw of the LED is so immense compared to the couple of milliamps that the coin cells expect to be faced with that they're literally incapable of supplying enough current to damage the LED. As a result of this their battery life is famously awful, and their full brightness runtime is probably less than two minutes. They'll continue to illuminate in at least some capacity off of extremely beat batteries, though. I unearthed my little Inova light the other day and it still turns on, albeit not at a terribly useful brightness, on its original batteries. Which are probably from 2004.
Great reminder to not just carry gear but be familiar with it before we need it.
https://giphy.com/gifs/buzzer-push-it-the-button-5FgcarU9IGVvCOgZgR)
I was honestly expecting that story to be a romance
This evening on /r/fleshlight, a night of romance
Two dads, one Fleshlight
Edit: oh my
Hmm... This is one of the first posts I see the day I get my internets back after getting blown away in the hurricane last week.
Provide a means for people to charge their phones = Instant Hero.
I guess I can't compete. :(
...oh, wait, what's this in my pocket? A brand new pack of gum!?
How the tables have turned. ANYBODY WANT A PIECE OF GUM?
I've got a memory where I was in a small meeting room with no windows and the power went out. One person said "I wish somebody had a flashli..." right as I clicked mine on.
I've had a little single AA Fenix in my pocket for almost two decades now... Comes in handy more often than you'd think.
... But I also always forget phones can do light as well. That said, I'm not shoving my phone down in an engine bay to get a better look at wiring, but that $15, 20 year old flashlight, sure.
I guess sign me up for flashlight crew.
I came in my pants a little just imagining the perfectly-timed ego stroke. In my mind, the click of the flashlight is immediately followed by a moan.
: D
I didn't realize it was a core memory for me until this post pulled it up immediately.
It was... very satisfying.
People with hobbies are cool
They called me an idiot for spending $20 on a tiny Sofirm flashlight but then I clip it on a cap's brim and work in the darkness while the mortals must rest
Hat clips are great! I got a small Olight just a few months ago, and I'm still amazed at how much I use it. So handy.
That's not a store, it's a screenshot of the latest indie horror game /s
Ahh yes, Dark Quiet Death.
Ah, the classic good guy with a flashlight story.
Good guy with a flashlight will save you from bad guy with a flashdarkness.
I got the Olight Ark Pro ultra in limited edition Zombie color as my edc light. I absolutely love that thing. Gets more use than my pocket knife. It's just the best.
Honest question: how? When?
I use my phone for light, some times the screen alone, since it's enough.
Same with the knife, I almost never find myself needing a knife...
My everydaycarry is a Fenix AA, about 10 years old.
Uses today included: checking on the henhouse, and going out back to smoke a joint, and I stuck it in my mouth to hang the hummingbird feeder. Before dark, I used it to help me vacuum in a hurry before guests arrive (lay it on the floor to highlight everything needing a cleanup), to look into a corner of the car trunk, to poke around in the storage room briefly, and at work to better look into the guts of a computer.
My swiss army knife got used a few times today, too. Different blades and tools. I’m semi-rural so dont leave the bedroom without those two items.
Fenix AA / E11 crew 🙌
https://lemmy.world/post/53212824/26380191
They're very small, adjustable brightness, tough, last years on a single AA, and "just work"... forever.
EDIT : Also - Chicken crew 🙌
The thing about a small knife and a little flashlight is that you don't actually think about how many times it would be nice to have one of those things "right there right now" until you start carrying them. But a cheap little $15 flashlight that can clip onto your pocket and give it a try for a couple weeks, and you'll start to notice how convenient it can be every time you want to check something in a darker area. It's faster, brighter, and smaller than the light on your phone. This "WARSUN T7PRO Pocket Flashlight" is only $10 on amazon. It's not the greatest but you'll get the idea of always having instant light.
Yeah, I got a fancy flashlight (nitecore tini 2) and carried it for a while, and still take it when I go on trips, but I never have a chance of using it "everyday". Everywhere I go is pretty well lit, and for the rare exceptions I use my phone...
I've had an OClip Pro on my backpack for a couple of years (and another stuck to the side of the fridge for checking on chickens in the dark) and it's been great. I've been considering the Ark Pro for a year or two but the only thing that held me back was how long it is and thinking it might be awkward to keep on me... but I suppose I could just slot it into the backpack as well.
Do you find the size awkward or is it generally "fine" for keeping in a pocket or storing in a pack? How long does the battery last for you (and usage pattern)?
I was hesitant to switch to rechargeables because I want something that can sit unused for years and "just work". Having an extra alkaline AA/AAA on hand is no big deal (easier/smaller than a battery pack or small solar charger). That said, the OClip on the fridge has been there for at least a year with short intermittent usage and no recharge - still showing "green" when I flip the selector so it seems to have little to no passive drain.
Though, I could also argue that the OClip is brighter than I ever need (mostly use the red mode) so I probably don't need the brighter Ark but....
I just keep mine clipped inside the outer edge of my back pocket and the only time I ever notice it is when in sitting in a car. The length has never bugged me. I'm not sure how long it will last before dying aside from what they advertise it as. I've never had it run out on me, but I usually always charge it when it gets to like half.
Olight is a Chinese company, but they have real warranty\sales offices in other places. There's one in the US, for instance. Which is nice, because their arklights have a lifetime warranty, and that includes the battery. Obviously, the battery will eventually go bad and need to be replaced.
Doesn't every modern phone have a built in flashlight?
Not nearly enough lumens compared to actual flash lights. I've got a rechargeable light that's 6000, 3000, and 1500 lumens in the 3 modes. A phone is about 150 at best.
My bike light is about 800, I don't really know what I would need 6000 for... But I kinda want it.
6000? Damn
I'm happy to lend a flashlight to somebody. I'm not giving them my phone.
Pffft. Those suck so hard compared to my edc flashlight.
Werid that guy is carrying around an actual flashlight. Modern people just use their phones.
But the flashlight of your phone doesn't have the ability to take down a fighter jet when pointing at it.
The flashlight/phone debate reminds me of the multi tool/knife debate. Do one thing well, or 20 things okay...
Modern flashlights are bright AF in a decently small form factor. This isn't a 5D-Cell Maglite he's hauling around.
There's always a trade in EDC for practicality, reliability, weight, size, etc.
A decent modern flashlight with an 18650 battery is a nice pocket sized light that's streets ahead of anything a phone could do, and a lot of them can also be used as a USB power bank, so you can get some other use out of it.
There's even little (tiny) lipo rechargeable ones these days that are stupid bright. I've got an OLight OClip on my backpack that's very small and way brighter than I'd ever need for simple "find something in the dark" purposes
I'm having trouble thinking of something to compare it to size wise ... Maybe 5cm x 2cm x 2cm?
I don't carry the 1200 lumen surefire edc2 around anymore because I just don't ever need a mini sun.
... Shit, am I a "flashlight guy"?
I have a tool bag with a nice flashlight in my car for bigger jobs, for random quick stuff my phone and Leatherman cover 95% of what comes up. Best of both worlds. Not that I'm really going to debate anyone about the shit they carry around. If someone present has a better tool for the job I'll applaud their preparedness. I just don't personally find it worthwhile to carry the extra items on me all the time. I'm still more prepared than most with just the Leatherman.
I carry a Gerber Dime, just right for a quick little fix on something, and a Kershaw Brawler because I find the knife on the Dime frustrating for anything besides cutting tape on boxes.
Just having a bottle opener makes you more prepared than most people nowadays.
I carry a skeletool. It's only slightly larger than the folder I replaced with it and it works great for everything I use a knife for while also having the pliers, screwdriver bits, and bottle opener. There's also an extension for the screwdriver that makes it a little more useful but I don't keep that on my person and honestly most times I've used it I haven't even bothered putting it into the tool. I did get a Milwaukee Fastback when I was doing a lot of box opening to preserve the blade on the skeletool, but otherwise I've been using it for everything for over a decade. Probably one of my favorite possessions.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0C54ZH8WW?psc=1
I'm too old to remember that my phone has a light, but I do remember there's a flashlight in my pocket.
Though in another comment I said :
Alright, who here has a hanklight and/or has the Anduril 2 firmware button press combinations memorized?
I only have a stevelight; does that count?
I'm in Tokyo right now, got a limited EDC since no firearms/knives at the moment, but it felt nice to have my ifak and flashlight when the (false) earthquake warning popped up on my phone.
It has been banned for years. Because Reddit.
Same with screwdrivers and my trusty pouch of cables and adapters. Always a great feeling to surprise someone with a solution when they didn't even expect one.
I humble brag about my backpack being a bag of holding for everything I may need for any situation and, yes, yes it is a good feeling.
I have a whole electric generator and I would prefer not to own it. Where I live, electric service can be iffy at times due to falling trees. And it can sometimes a day or more for the power to come back.
The LAST bloody thing I want is for that generator to come and run. It costs real money when it does come on and that cost sucks. The only thing that costs more is freezing the house up when it's -30 outside.
You have an electric generator? Is it self sustaining? Where can I get one?
It self sustains as long as I keep the LP tank full.
MF living in Siberia
Close. Northern Minnesota. Though thanks to the upcoming el Nino, we are to expect a warmer winter. I would really like to save some money on my heating bill this year.