UK 2AAA Pocket E Led

This came yesterday with my TT 3C.

It looks like a mini UK4AA... barely a bigger body than two side by side AAAs, with the head a bit over 1/2" longer than the body. It fits in my jeans watch pocket just super.

It has a very interesting beam. There is a well defined circle of white light that is roughly 12" at roughly 4', surrounded by a blue fading to nothing corona.

It is suprisingly bright.

It is nearly superb as a hand held light. BUT....

The lanyard attachment is up right next to the head. I had considered this light as a wade fishing light for my Dad (Peli 2AAA just don't cut it...) but with it hanging from a neck, it won't point anywhere near where you need light.

Also I figured it might replace my Attitude Module in a Blast as a reading light (a superb reading light clipped to the bill of a ball cap!) But alas, no clip save for one that slides on in the wrong orientatin for what I want, instead being set up to clip on a hard hat or fire helmet on the side of the hat.

But again, as a hand held LED light the eLED is an awesome little critter! I'm going to carry it instead of my ARC AAA for a while, and get it some notice by the uninformed! (The ARC AAA would be good for that, but looks too much like a Solit@ire - the eLED does NOT!)

Get one or more from Brightguy for $9.80 (but hurry, I don't know how long the special lasts!)

Update...

Showed it to my Dad (who wasn't very impressed with my 3C TT /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif ) and he tested it by looking at it as he turned it on LOL.

He says most of the time he actually holds the light in his mouth, and so the hanging orientation of the eLed doesn't matter. So now he has a new fishing light!

The lanyard hole is up near the head so that if you have it on your keychain, it's easy to point it at the keyhole while you're putting a key into the lock. The cheap disposable Everready Squeeze Light is set up the same way. Unlocking a door in the dark is actually a problem with lights whose lanyard point is at the other end. Mag "solves" it by including a 3" lanyard with the Solitaire, a clumsy arrangement since that lanyard gets tangled up in your pocket. With the Arc, I end up pointing the light at my chest and using the light reflected off my shirt to see the keyhole.

Joe, the sideways clip is supposed to work with a baseball hat if you clip it to the side of the brim instead of the front.

But it still didn't point like my Blast/Attitude so Dad gets to enjoy it.

It would still make an awesome pocket (or watch pocket) carry light without the clip.

Joe, could this light possibly be a "poor man's" Arc AAA? How does the beam brghtness and quality compare? It sounds like it might be focused through a magnifying lens.

The bezel does contain a lens to focus the beam.



Brightness is about equivalent to an Arc AAA (30 vs. 31 lux at beam center)

It isn't a wide diffused beam like the ARC AAA, but is going through a magnifying lense as pointed out above.

It fits equally as well as my ARC AAA in my watch pocket along with a SAK Classic, and I would certainly carry it as such if I hadn't given it to Dad.

I would say that it could be considered as a poormans AAA, or as a VERY compact and WAY more useful M*g 2AAA.

I think I prefer the wider beam. Maybe that lens could be sanded down flat and then polished.

As for a poor man's Arc AAA, I think the answer is a cheap coin cell light.

paulr, that bezel looks the same as the incandescent version of the light (2AAA Mini Pocket Light), except there is no magnification in that light. Brightguy sells that bezel for $2.95 as well as the eLED for about $10, so you could get both items and see which beam you liked better.

One of the criticisms of the incandescent version is the amount of spill light that comes back to the user's eyes due to the clear bezel. How bad is that with the eLED?

Lurker, I just happened to be looking at this old review since I got an eLed recently (and posted my own review). The $2.95 bezel is just the plastic bezel/lens piece and doesn't include the lamp/reflector assembly which is another $6. Since TTS sells the whole Mini Pocket Light for $8.50, I'll probably just buy one next time I order from TTS.

The spill light coming back from the clear bezel can be slightly annoying but isn't a big deal. You can always shade it with your hand. The incandescent is the same way I guess. I have the 2aaa incandescent penlight and the 2L and never thought of the backspill as a real problem til someone mentioned it here. Then I started noticing it more.

I wouldn't exactly call this light a poor man's Arc AAA since it's considerably larger and heavier than the Arc AAA. It's more like a poor man's Arc AA in terms of its size and weight and runtime. I guess it fulfills that mission pretty well.

The batteries can be a pain in the toliet muscle to change, and you need to be sure that top battery contact doesn't fly away when you're getting the second cell out. If that happens, you'll be SOL and be left with a light that has no chance of ever working again. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I have an almost finished review right here if you're interested.

Ehhh, changing the batteries is a slight nuisance, but shake the light once or twice and the old ones should come out easily. The runtime is so long that changing batteries should be very infrequent.

How did the top battery contact (you mean the one on the bezel?) come loose? Mine is on solidly and isn't going anywhere.

Also I see in your review that you had several broken ones. Can you say how they broke? It's a bit disturbing to hear this because it seems like a rugged little light that I would have thought of as very dependable.

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
How did the top battery contact (you mean the one on the bezel?) come loose? Mine is on solidly and isn't going anywhere.

[/ QUOTE ]
The upper battery contact came out with that second cell, and went whizzing away when the second battery came out.


[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
Also I see in your review that you had several broken ones. Can you say how they broke? It's a bit disturbing to hear this because it seems like a rugged little light that I would have thought of as very dependable.

[/ QUOTE ]
When you're removing the batteries, the first cell just slides right out; if the second cell does not fall out and you bang or tap the light against a table or the palm of your hand or something, the battery could pull that upper contact off and it'll fly away somewhere - in my case, never to be seen again. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
The solution is to hold your finger over the barrel opening when tapping that second cell out. You'll feel the cell on the end of your finger when it's freed up. Then you can remove your finger and dump the dead cell out.

Both broken ones lack this upper battery contact, so I assume the very first one I received also fell victim to this type of breakage.

But assuming both batteries are installed properly and the clear bezel is screwed on, the flashlight appears to be quite durable, and shouldn't give you any guff even if you give it some.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/santa.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

(Edit, a few minutes later)
Just for {vulgar term for multiple feces} and giggles, I ran over it a couple of times with a 400lb motorized wheelchair, and did not break or crack it.

I bought one of these, too. I loved the beam, but didn't get to enjoy it long. The swich contact became intermittent, so I dived in to try to diagnose the problem. The upper battery contact is made of a thin strip of copper that apparently just hooks over the edge of the battery opening. Screwing down the bezel makes contact with the strip (in theory, anyway). Well, I decided it needed to be clamped more securely since it seemed very loose. When I attempted to tighten the top hook with a pair of needlnose pliers, it broke. Now, no light. Everything about this seemed to be well designed except that one contact.

Oh, well...

Mark

I examined my eLED more closely to see what you guys are talking about. Yeah, the little contact up there pops off if you hook it with your fingernail. I put it back on, but I'd have to consider this a design bug. If I were a reviewer I'd downgrade the light about a quarter to a half a star because of it. The downgrade would be larger except that it only matters when you're changing the batteries. It may be a worse problem in the incandescent version since you change the batteries that much more often. Anyway that contact is easy to replace if you have another one. I'd ask UKE for another one of the contact pieces.