I prefer the hand cranked ones - and have had 2 for many years. Carry one
of the shake type in my purse - just in case.

JonquilJan

Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying
Neon John wrote in message
news
On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:02:00 -0500, "JonquilJan"
wrote:

Flashlights and batteries - and also
non battery type flashlights.


I assume you meant lights such as shake or crank lights that don't
require battery replacement. Let me expand a little on that.

Shake lights (the ones you shake back and forth to charge either a
small battery or a super capacitor) are the rage now but once you try
to use one for any length of time you grow to loathe them. Shake til
yer arm goes numb for a few minutes of light.

The crank lights - lights that have a hand-cranked generator - are
much more practical. Wal-mart stocks a nice little LED crank light
that sells for under $10. It is similar to this one:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5026270

but is rounder and longer and is un-branded ChiCom product.

I'm somewhat of a flashahaulic so I bought one just to see how it
worked. I'm impressed. Three 7mm white LEDs in the front with an
alternating switch that turns on either 1 or all three LEDs. A
minute's worth of casual cranking produces 10 minutes worth of light.
Probably closer to 20 minutes but I got bored timing it :-)

I've put one of these in each of my vehicles, by each door and in my
bedside table. This is in addition to my other more sophisticated
lights.

For my regular lights I've converted over to either HID (expensive) or
rechargeable lithium powered LED lights. This is my favorite and the
one that stays on my hip at all times.


http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/1x1...ded-p-466.html

This light uses selected Luxeon 5 watt LEDs driven to 8 watts and
powered by the 18650 lithium ion battery. This is the same battery
that is contained in most laptop batteries. It's robust, reliable and
lasts forever. For emergency use, the approx 10 year shelf life is a
major benefit, unlike NiMH batteries that quickly self-discharge.

Here are the batteries:


http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/ult...protected-p-52
4.html

This flashlight only uses one battery so the pair provides one in the
light and one in the charger. Speaking of which:


http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/dsd...er-16340186501
7670-p-265.html

is the one I use. Under $10 and comes with both 120 and 12vdc cords.
Plus it'll charge the rechargeable version of the CR123 lithium
battery.

One note of caution - This store is in Hong Kong and stuff is shipped
directly from there. They have no warranty service that I can tell,
as they quit answering email when I tried to get a bad cell replaced.
OTOH, products are so cheap from here compared to US prices that for
me it's worth the risk. There are several other Hong Kong companies
on the net selling the identical product but I don't have experience
with them.

The light that probably gets the most use is a 3 watt Luxeon LED
headlight from Amandotech.

http://www.amondotech.com/index.asp?...ROD&ProdID=872

This isn't exactly like mine, as mine is waterproof but this is what
they stock now. It uses two LIR123 rechargeable lithium ion
batteries. That charger I mentioned above will charge them.

This is a superb light. Pure white light with a very well defined
spot. It beats the socks off my miner's light with the huge belt
mounted battery in brightness and with an extra set of batteries, in
battery life.

If you need to light up the whole end of the state, look at this:

http://www.amondotech.com/index.asp?...ROD&ProdID=872

This is one of the brightest handheld lights on the market. I love
mine. It uses the same miniature High Intensity Discharge arc lamp as
is used on high end cars such as Benz and Lexus. Despite the
brightness, the battery life is very good at about 2 hours.

It comes set up to throw a long narrow beam of light. For general
close in use over a larger area, a trick is to adhere some Saran wrap
to the lens. This diffuses the beam nicely.

What all of these lights have in common for emergency situations is
that the batteries have very long shelf lives. The lithiums will hold
most of their charge for 10 years, so it's claimed. I know that I
can't tell the difference in a just-charged battery and one that's
been in the light for a year. The SLA type battery in the HID light
is known for its long charge retention - several years at minimum.
Plus the light can be plugged into its charger and left that way
indefinitely.

John
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
Don't let your schooling interfere with your education-Mark Twain