Solar LED flashlight

Haven't seen these discussed in a while, but I just noticed this NY Times article on the BoGo Light solar LED flashlight, engineered for extended use in areas without electricity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/world/africa/20lights.html

www.bogolight.com

Is this a quality flashlicght or just another piece of crap?

Most of crank, shake and solar powered flashlights that I have seen so far are of a very poor quality.

Does any of you know more about this light? I could be interested in buying one, just if it is a quality light.

The NY times article claims 7 hours of light while the manufacturers page says 4 -5 hours. I'm glad to see the time is working on it's credability. geez.

The light looks better than most of the solar ones i've seen. I would be interested in seeing if they are any good.

gorn said:

The NY times article claims 7 hours of light while the manufacturers page says 4 -5 hours. I'm glad to see the time is working on it's credability. geez.

Click to expand...

I see nothing contradictory here. Obviously the runtime depends on the capacity of the batteries and the depth of the charge. The web site says an 8 hour charge delivers 4-5 hours of light (but doesn't say what, if any, batteries are included in the lights shipped to consumers). 8 hours of direct sunlight is probably about the maximum in a typical North American residential use; perhaps the African village environments about which the article was written have more direct sunlight available in a day (and may be shipped batteries that can store that much of a charge).

I just ordered one to play with and to support what sounds like a worthwile project. I'll report back.

H. Caul

The LED Museum has done a review of this light. The LED Museum

Sadly, it succumbed quickly to the dreaded Toliet Test. It is not waterproof like advertised.

Again, this concept is awesome, I'm a fan of the idea of such lights. Now imagine it executed without such severe cost constraints and for 1st world consumers:

• Really high efficiency quality expensive solar cell in epoxy etc.,
• Machined aluminum body with HA III. OR Streamlight Pro Pollymer / Princeton Tec like construction.
• Double O ring battery cap with 2 AA size user replaceable cells that can be NiMh Sanyo Eneloops...
• Cree emitter with several simple modes such as Low (2lumen) Medium (15lumen) High (40lumen).
• A high sticker price to cover the costs of such quality $100+

Of course, the demand for such an item would be too low to justify its creation. And so all we get are these hollow plastic sub $20 crank/shake/solar lights that don't work very well, or don't work at all
And yet, I think it could work today - if marketed aggressively for emergency preparedness in the face of looming "Global Warming Catastrophes, Superstorms, Sea Level Rise etc.," Fear could be used to sell such an item.
(ooops, cat's out the bag. My new flashlight company will be making such a light and using such techniques to sell it - just kidding :laughing: :nana