As a flashlight junkie, I decided to pick up a new LED penlight from
TruValue. It cost $9.95, comes with 8 super-bright LEDs, has a sturdy
swivel pen-clip with an embedded magnet. It looks fairly water-tight, but I
haven't dunked it. I haven't run longevity tests yet, but I will shortly.
Runs on 3 AAA alkaline cells (included) and it's almost as bright as my 100
LED "showerhead" style light. The UP code is 645397203735 and it's got the
word "Larry" written on it (not sure if it's brand name, a style name, or a
used personalize flashlight). g

I am going to get one for each car and for the plumbing and CATV toolboxes.
Very nice, bright and well-diffused illumination. It doesn't throw a
tightly focused beam, so it doesn't have the distance capability that a
single LED flashlight with a reflector does, but for those applications I
use the big rechargeable units that have polished reflectors and 1 to 2MCP
outputs from tungten-halogen bulbs

So far, very impressive. We'll see how well it does with a battery
drain/constant use test. I am going to run the tests using Tenergy AAA low
self discharge NiMH cells instead of alkalines. I've had problems doing
that before because NiMH cells seem to allow higher current to pass through
the LEDs than alkalines. These Tenergy units are new and allege to be
800mAh and are charging as I write this. I am switching *everything*
batteried powered to NiMH now that low discharge cells have arrived. I've
never had an NiMH battery leak in a device. Wish I could say the same for
alkalines . . .

We'll see how long they run. I'll use my Nikon SLR to read an initial light
level and sample intermittently. The test begins now at 4:45AM 3/22/12 . .
..

--
Bobby G.
..