Finally got some of Dougs little freedom lights and they are great! I'm literally dazzled from trying them and that is in broad daylight.
Good thinking on the tube to focus the light. They'd be painful to operate for long at full power. I notice Photon offer the tube themselves now.
But; I'm struggling to get them into anything but one press of the button turns them off and on. No signalling modes.
And I can't find the instructions to operate it in half power on the Photon web site. Anyone know how to do this?

qjs

If the light is on, hold the button down and it will dim, if it's off, hold the button and it will slowly brighten. I don't use the signaling modes.

Thanks I've no use for the signalling mode either so not that bothered. The only way I could see it being of use is if I wanted to leave a beacon somewhere so could get back to it and don't see that as being very likely.
BUT in the blurb about it one gets if they click on the picture on this web sites home page it refers to an 'undocumented feature' to run it at half power in all modes. I can't find the instructions to do this on the Photon web site which it links to.
qjs

As Russ suggests, you could just squeeze and hold the button until you get to about half power. The undocumented feature to do so is simple. Hold the button until the light is just barely visible and release. Then squeeze again until it ramps up in brightness and blinks, which is its way of telling you it thinks it's at max power. Then you're at 50% duty cycle, aka half power. You can tell by flicking the light in an arc, and noticing that it's only lit for half its travel.

As for the blinking modes, you have to squeeze that button for a long time until it ramps up to full brightness, then progresses to slow, fast, rave, then SOS flashing.

To change to intermittent mode, turn the light on and off rapidly 4 or 5 times. To get back to normal on/off mode, squeeze and hold until it turns itself off.

Oh, and by the way, if you don't want to pay the extra dollars for the covert model (longer nose tube), you can slide the insulating collar from a 14-16 ga electrical connector (ring terminal, spade lug, etc.) over the LED. It's a fairly tight friction fit. The color you want is the blue connectors. Red is for 18-22 ga, blue is 14-16 ga, and yellow is 10-12 ga.

I used two long nose pliers, one on the insulating collar, one on the metal part of the connector, and wiggled/unscrewed it off. Then I sanded it to the length I wanted. I cheated and used my cheap 1" x 30" HF belt sander.

So now my Photon Freedom doesn't have that annoying side glare, and people ask me where I got the cool blue tip. :-)

Thats the mode for the sales display. You need to hold the burton down for,IIRC, about 20 seconds to get it into the regular modes. Also, I've found that a single 2032 will run for an extended time in the two 2016 lights. Albeit, at a lower output.

I think, marantz has nailed it down right for this particular flashlight. To get out of the display mode you need to repeatedly and quickly turn it on and off for like 10 times in a row. The 20 sec hold works for some other models.

Thanks Folks I got all them working now.
But having tried the lights hammocking in the woods last night I realised it would have to be an odd occasion I needed to use it at half power. On the normal lowest setting, I can only read my watch with the light a few inches away.
This really is a terrific light though! from the feeblest illuminaton to more powerful than a mini maglite, so good for all occassions. The gimmicky looking clip works very well. Grips like an alligator on anything (you don't need a cap with a visor -I wear a watch cap, but shirt, jacket, anything works.) and can adjust to any angle. All my other lights just got relegated to cupboard ware.
One definitely needs the 'bulb' tube; without it, using it as a headlamp would be like working with a light shining in your eyes from a few inches.
With friends like me pointing out Photon now sell them and marantz telling you how to make your own; Doug doesn't need enemies :-). But Dougs is still better. Try finding a black light on the forest floor at night if it falls nose down in the dirt.
By the way; just got the DD Hammock and will never camp on the ground anywhere with trees again. Luxury! tip; I put my ridgerest mat (gave up on the inflatables; they always leak on me) inside the sleeping bag so can be sure I'm lying on it. Otherwise I keep finding half of it is out of the hammock.
qjs

When your eyes get darkness adapted (ideally, after about 2 hours in total darkness) even that minimal brightness will be blinding - trust me.

I'm also a recent hammock convert, by the way. My preferred hammock light is Petzzl e+Lite, though. I can even sleep with it over my forehead. The Ridgerest works great, no doubt, even outside of the SB, especially if you cut it narrower at the legs, but I have found my 2" thick Thermarest significantly much warmer to sleep. Just deflate it to about 70%. To solve the mat shifting issue I plan to glue on 4-6 Velcro attach points. Should be enough, but need to be placed precisely.

What DD model you've got?

Alex wrote
> To get out of the display mode you need to repeatedly and
> quickly turn it on and off for like 10 times in a row. The 20 >sec hold works for some other models.

Thanks for that advice. This morning I got up when it was still dark and dropped the clip and light before I'd turned it on!! aaggghh! So turn it on as soon as you find it folks!

BUT '2 is one 1 is none' I had my other doug ritter light so turned that on and it went off after 8 seconds! Double Aggghhh!
however my rule for lights is '1 is none, 2 is not enough, 3 is the minimum' so was ok
Later I kept trying the light that turned itself off and eventually it stayed on. It must still have been in demonstration mode which seems to be now 'turn yourself off after 8 seconds' the leaflet doesn't tell you this. (I thought photon had forgot to put them into demo mode).

I have the DD frontier hammock, got it cos the insects drove me out of the woods last month and it has the built in bug net. Think I should have got the jungle cos it's net is removable. I'm using the hammock upside down to keep the net out of the way so worry about ripping the net If I ground it (which keep doing; I'm not that familiar with it yet). And of course it negates the camouflage I got the frontier instead of the travel one for. Not sure I should be in these woods! :-)
Thanks for the mat tips. I was thinking of making insoles from it (it's the ridgerest solite) so might narrow the feet. And will try the velcro. Would prefer to have it outside my bag as it'll defeat the down if I put in in the bag wet. I also got a few of the other DD goodies. The 'paracord isn't real paracord though still tough stuff, but the carabiners, guylines, amsteel and elastic are all very good quality. I'm getting the rucsack if it ever comes out and will update you.
qjs