Gransee does it again...

July 27, 2001

Seattle WA. (TDC): Telephony, known worldwide for his literary & scientific contributions to the flashlight world, today announced that the Arc Flashlight, manufactured by Arc Flashlight, LLC; has undergone a revision change to go along with a double-barrel shotgun full of improvements.

The new Revision 2.1 Arc Flashlight now uses a standard "O" ring instead of the wide elastic band that kept breaking & becoming frayed on earlier units. The flashlight head has a longer threaded section to reduce the chance of loss, and a compressed foam ring that all but eliminates the annoying rattle of a loose battery when the unit is in an inactive state.

The textured grip on the barrel & head were given a finer pitch; giving the Arc a slightly more "grippy" feel.

A number of other improvements were also made; please visit this page to read about them, and post your thoughts about the new improvements in this forum.

Thanks Peter. Ya done did good (as usual).

Telephony is correct! Nice improvements. I didn't think it would make too much of a difference, but it does. No more rattling, and a tighter, more solid feeling all around with the same great brightness. The newer style "O" ring has a much nicer fit.

Peter this one is pulling about 180mA on a new battery the other 2 I have both pull that 240mA I feel the need to run this battery in to the ground and see what happens, I bet it will run longer then the other two do. I will start it at 6pm here (Chicago time) or in 15 minuets.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Brock:

I will start it at 6pm here (Chicago time) or in 15 minuets.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey... don't leave me out of the game.
I'll start mine in 15 minutes (5pm Seattle time).


EDIT:
It's 5pm. Do you know where your Arc Flashlight is?

Starting current using Duracell: 157mA
Starting solar cell current: 3.49mA

5:00 3.49mA
5:30 3.24mA
6:00 3.04mA
6:30 2.80mA
7:00 2.63mA
7:30 2.51mA
8:00 2.41mA
8:30 2.33mA
9:00 2.28mA
9:30 2.21mA
10:00 2.18mA
10:30 2.12mA (it's not even circling the drain yet)
11:00 2.06mA
11:30 1.85mA
12:00 0.25mA (it just dumped into 'moon' mode within the last few minutes)
12:15 0.06mA (I can see all those flushed baby alligators now)

I pooped out before the light did.
When I checked it at 9:00am, it was still barely glowing (though not really usefully - maybe enough as a marker light).

I pulled the battery and it metered at 0.52 volt. After resting it for only a few minutes, the Arc restarts in Sun mode, and stays that way for nearly a full minute before going back to Moon mode.


The incredibly costly & sophisticated test set.
One silicon solar cell, one Arc Flashlight (rev. 2.1), one pack of matches, and two bags of JKL 'LED Condoms' holding everything together. :O

Burn time tests, eh? Well, you know I`d love to....but I spent the afternoon trying to get a badly behaved fire alarm to do what it was supposed to, and I`m worn out. Should have been asleep over 2 hours ago as well.

Plus I`m saving for a Light Cannon so can`t go blowing lots of cash on costly batteries (well they all are over here), not right now. Maybe another time...

...looking forward to seeing your results in the morning though. Maybe I`ll do a graph of them or something, compared to the 2old" AAA Arc.....

oh yeah- and I almost forgot. I totally agree about the great improvement the Generation 2 Arcs are over the prototype. The best bit to me has got to be the foam battery ring- such a simple idea, yet it does so much to improve the light. I think, Craig, you spotted one or 2 nips and tucks I didn`t notice too. I never got to see a genuine Gen 1 production model (got one here that`s half and half, sort of muddled up with Gen 2 parts) but the proto is quite close from what I gather. The gen 2s don`t seem brighter but I have yet to meter the power consumptions and compare them.

Sorry my review page`s updates havn`t appeared yet but I spent last week renovating the bathroom and we`re still not finished so I`m kind of tied up right now.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chris M.:

Plus I`m saving for a Light Cannon so can`t go blowing lots of cash on costly batteries
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'd love to see one of those things someday. October is a definite possibility - and the earliest one.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chris M.:

compared to the 2old" AAA Arc.....
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Let me guess... you got your start on a Commodore 64 or maybe a Vic 20?

I am still testing, but I did mine with the light meter instead of the mA meter, I know I should have ran them at the same time DOH Anyway here is what I have so far. It is running a regular Duracell "MAR 05"

7:00 - 17
7:15 - 16
7:30 - 15
7:45 - 15
8:00 - 15
8:15 - 15
8:30 - 15
8:45 - 14
9:00 - 14
9:15 - 13
9:30 - 12
9:45 - 12
10:00-12
10:15-12
10:30-11
10:45-11
11:00-11
11:15-11
11:30-11
11:45-11
12:00-11
12:15-11
12:30-11
12:45-11
1:00 - 11
1:15 - 11
1:30 - 11
1:45 - 10
2:00 - 9
2:15 - 7
2:30 - 4 death is near
2:45 - maybe 2

Amazingly better the my origional proto-types. Over 6 hours of good useable light After 6 hours it is still brighter then my infinity (8) with a lithium.

I am impressed. I have to swap this one for the one on my keychain Looks like Craig got about the same result I did.

Great results, very interesting. Looks like you both got longer burn times- but didn`t you also both get prototypes that drew a little too much current? Still, both near 7 hours until it made the switch to Moon mode- that is very impressive indeed.


Let me guess... you got your start on a Commodore 64 or maybe a Vic 20?


Not sure what you mean . I`m afraid I havn`t the faintest idea how to program "real" computers- HTML is about my limit. The "compared to the 2old" AAA Arc....." bit was just a typo- the " shares the same key as the 2 on UK keyboards (not sure about worldwide variations) and my shift key is a bit screwed.

Actually my first computer was a Commodore Amiga (but I was about 10-11 back then and just used it to play games)- still got it right here on the left under a pile of cables, various flashlight packagings and dead batteries.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chris M.:

Let me guess... you got your start on a Commodore 64 or maybe a Vic 20?

Not sure what you mean

The "compared to the 2old" AAA Arc....." bit was just a typo- the " shares the same key as the 2 on UK keyboards (not sure about worldwide
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That was exactly what I meant.
On the Commodore, the " is above the 2.
At least here in the US, there are very few computers where this is the case, and no modern (1985 or newer) computer/keyboard is like that. So I assumed you had used a C=64 sometime in the past based solely on the kind of typo you made.

Anyway, I finished with the Arc testing.
The light actually outlasted me - I fell asleep shortly before I was to take the 12:15am reading. It was still going at 9:00am, though not very bright at that point.
Removing the battery and metering it showed it had an *open circuit* voltage of 0.52V.
Resting it for a few minutes and popping it back in gave me about another minute of "sun" mode, before dropping back to "moon" mode.

I remember as a kid lusting after the C-64. But, we was "po" so my dad got me a Trash-80 instead. I often have wondered if I would have had a promising career as a programmer if I had owned a computer with a disk drive instead of a tape drive.

Geez. I would work all day on a program and then the tape drive would loose it for me.

TMI?

Peter Gransee