Re: Faraday Flashlight...

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:41:50 GMT, Ryan <quakeserver149@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>Xtrchessreal wrote:
>> You have seen the commercials on TV about the new flash light that
>> never dies and needs no batteries?
>>
>> Anyone here have one?
>
>I think I know the commercial you are talking about. I don't have the
>same light officially, but basically, the one I have is the same. I
>have the smaller version of a shake flashlight, translucent clear
>plastic.
>
>Stock, mine came with two CR2032 coin batteries. Cheating, right? I
>took those out to see how long it really lasts. Usually these lights
>come with some form of high capacitance capacitor, either 0.47 farad
>or 1.0 farad.
>
>After several seconds of pretty hard shaking, mine charges fully. The
>LED (only one) is full bright for about 6 seconds and then I would say
>it is half bright for about 2 minutes. It gets dimmer and dimmer more
>and more slowly after that.
>
>I can use it around the house to dodge toys and stuff during those few
>minutes. It wouldn't be of much use outside, for example.
>
>You have to shake it just a little bit hard than you prefer in order
>to make enough voltage to charge.
>
>I paid $4.00 for it (non retail) so I don't mind for having learned
>about it.
>
>I also have a 3 LED crank-up light. This one is much more useful.
>Inside this one is not a capacitor, but a lithium (ion?) battery.
>About a minute of pretty good cranking (at least two revolutions per
>second) yields maybe 5 minutes of pretty good light. The first two
>minutes or so are pretty good and then it is noticably dimmer but
>still useful. You can read a book with it for maybe 10-15 minutes,
>depending on who you are.
>
>This one uses 3 gears of speed increase from the handle and powers a
>small DC motor. Actually, I think it is a stepper motor? There is a
>bridge rectifier inside and you can crank either way.
>
>-Ryan

I've got one of the origional Russian "forever flashlight" like
below. Switching to LEDs would probably make it a little more
functional. Would be interesting to test the new pumper light
(bottom) against the shaker lights.

http://members.aol.com/townslight/pumper.htm
http://theepicenter.com/hand_powered_items.html


.

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