Inretech 2AA - Great for the NON Flasholic! (Story attached to prove point!)

[INRETECH]

The (na) stands for "Not Available", the wavelength is so short - that most lightmeters will not be able to "see it" or give a false reading

Mike
www.inretech.com

 

[MDM]

Kirkland AA's are manufactured by Duracell, according to the leading consumer review magazine. I don't believe it's a battery quality issue, but probably a "sitting on the shelf for a long time" issue. I've yet to see any quote a price that beats Kirkland AA's (currently $10.79 for 48).

 

[INRETECH]

I agree with that point, Costco has been known to carry things for a long time; I am sure that they sort out food/perishables - but not batteries/etc

Mike
www.inretech.com

 

[Empath]

Originally posted by MDM:
I don't believe it's a battery quality issue, but probably a "sitting on the shelf for a long time" issue

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">

Originally posted by INRETECH:
I agree with that point, Costco has been known to carry things for a long time

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">It definitely wasn't a shelf life issue at Costco.
After discontinuing the Kirkland AA for an extended period of time and depleting their stock, Costco didn't reintroduce the Kirkland AA until April of this year.

See this announcement from Fivebeans.

If the batteries were old it was because the customer had them sitting around for years.

 

[ikendu]

I don't see any posts of what the AA adapter look's like... I only see pictures of the flashlights themselves.

Any one able to post a picture?

Thanks!

 

[shipinretech]

ikendu,

The InReTech AA adapter looks like a emitter on a circuit board covered with marine grade fiberglass resin for protection. Anything else done to prepare the product would have to be considered a trade secret. It may seem strange, but it took a lot of skull sweat to get this thing to work practially, and we tried a lot to things in the development process. We didn't ship it unti it was ready to be used. Giving our competition the information they need to leapfrog us is something we're trying to avoid.

In other news, the prototype InReTech TRILIGHT is available for sale to support Craig Johnson.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=001076#000000
www.inretech.com

 

[ikendu]

So...pictures would give away the technology?

If so, what's to prevent a competitor from simply buying one and looking at it all they want?

 

[shipinretech]

1. No, pictures of the unpowered adapter aren't very exciting. Without power, it has the aesthetic appeal of a potato with wires. It is an interesting and useful technology designed for long life. It has not been streamlined or spray-painted or had glitter added to make is pretty. The big selling point is that this is a good white light that will last, not that the adapter itself is very attractive.

2. Marine Grade Fiberglass Epoxy Resin. Dismantling this adapter will destroy it, pretty much. This it the installed unit, not the effect on the flashlight. InReTech adapters are completly reversible. Dismantling the adapter completely voids any concept of warranty, implicit, explicit, or imagined.

www.inretech.com

 

[ikendu]

I just want some idea of how this thing fits in the flashlight (like the many pictures of the Opalec that you can find showing how it goes in).

 

[INRETECH]

The Adapter simply replaces the Incandescent "Grain of Wheat Bulb" that is in the flashlight, you don't have to pull out the "Do not remove" part of the flashlight as with some adapters

The Blue/Silver reflector is also replaced with a Lens designed for the LED

Mike
www.inretech.com

 

[vcal]

Originally posted by INRETECH:
The Adapter simply replaces the Incandescent "Grain of Wheat Bulb" that is in the flashlight, you don't have to pull out the "Do not remove" part of the flashlight as with some adapters

The Blue/Silver reflector is also replaced with a Lens designed for the LED

Mike
www.inretech.com

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Hi Mike;
Can you give us any assurance that we wouldn't wind up with a "pea-green" tinted Luxeon if your Adapter was ordered?

 

[shipinretech]

Doug,

We have a workaround for this problem. Buy five (5) adapters and compare to find the whitest one.

Use that one yourself and give the rest as gifts or keep them in your car, tool box, or backpack. Our problem is that if we begin to sort, we have to do something with the less perfectly white emitters. We could sell them as seconds, but that is a losing game because that would indicate that there was something defective in our product.

Our adapters produce good light, and we test them for functionality. With a single source of product, however, we have to ship what we get in. One of the benefits of being on the bleeding edge of technology is that we have something the giants can't produce. The downside is that what we have is what you get. The best way we have to protect all our customers interests is to not sort. When the price on these drops to half the current price and when we can order them in unlimited quantities, we might reconsider this. For now, we will ship a very good product and leave perfection for a better day to come.

 

[franken2]

out of the 2 that i ordered, one is very white, the other is slightly green. overall i'm very pleased. did i get lucky?

 

[vcal]

Originally posted by shipinretech:
Doug,
We have a workaround for this problem. Buy five (5) adapters and compare to find the whitest one.

[/
That's an interesting approach, (especially if I really only need ONE unit), and don't have much of a gift list this year...so it'll only cost me $99.75 to be practically guaranteed to get a good white Luxeon.

The possible drawback to that method is that I also wouldn't able to be getting a KL1 or some other lights/parts for awhile either.

Maybe the white Luxeon's true value is yet to come...............

 

[shipinretech]

I suspect the culprit here is that as a single source, Lumileds doesn't have to be as particular with light quality in its general sales. If...when...the nice people at Nichea get around to matching or improving on the Luxeon, things will be different. When the Lumileds people get higher yields out of their process, things will be different. If Intel decides that this is something that will advance the entire country, things will be different. (I deeply regret to say that Intel appears to have lost its ability to act with such courage. I live in Oregon and Intel's courage to act brilliantly has huge impacts on the economy here.) In the meantime, we are all early adopters, and we are suffering the penalty for enthusiasm, disappointment. Of course, this does mean that in future years you will have bragging rights about the old days...

 

[INRETECH]

There was a question about the MEGA6 and it will also apply to the HELIOS:

---
Saint Tanic:

6D mag is going to be big and definately not that friendly on the belt if one intends to carry it around
---
I own a 6D flashlight, and it is not something that I want to carry around all the time

There is no reason that you can not use higher voltage batteries for the SUPER6/HELIOS to shorten the flashlight length from the 6D to the 3D

The design voltage of the SUPER6/HELIOS is 7.5v-8v

Nicads work better because of their lower ESR, and Lithium/NmiH should work even better; just make sure that you do not mix battery types - as in my other posting about mixing battery types causing unintentional charging on Lithuim batteries

Make sure you keep the current under 4.5a on the MEGA6 and 2.25A on the HELIOS

We are trying to work out the groundwork to become a dealer for some new technology batteries

Mike
www.inretech.com

 

[lemlux]

Patrick:

The new technology wouldn't happen to be 3.6V 4500 mAh Lithium Ion D cell batteries, would it? If so would you tweak the circuitry of the Super6/Helios to work well with the overvoltage (edit of 3 d cells)? Or does Lithium Ion voltage drop get you just where you want to be?

 

[INRETECH]

We have not had a chance to experiment with these batteries, although they state they are 4500mAh, again I wonder about their ESR

When you have a relatively small plate surface area, you are bound to have a high ESR

Mike (Not Patrick)
www.inretech.com

 

[lemlux]

Mike:

Thanks. Now I'm totally baffled by Patrick's "new technology batteries."

Not to mention even more curious.

 

[INRETECH]

Actually, I thought I was the person that posted the new technology batteries - not Patrick

Stay tuned

Mike
www.inretech.com