turbodog
Flashaholic
Holy Crap!
That's what I said after checking out my new toy UPS delivered.
I have spoken with the company that makes the unit. They are just getting this product off the ground, but I was able to talk them into sending me one. Respecting this, I will not say who they are right now. If you know them, please refrain from coming forth with a name/address/URL/etc (this also, means don't go searching for them and then post "I FOUND EM!"). They are more of a mfg, not a point of sale for the unit. As of now, I do not think ANYONE carries this thing. It might very well be a good item for the sandwich shoppe though. Like I said, I don't think they are set up for really selling these right now, and I don't want to contribute to people pestering them. I have emailed them though and told them I am putting a review up on CPF. I told them I'd keep their name out of this for a while till they gave me the go-ahead.
All this said... here we go.
It is a drop-in for a 2d light. Take out the 2 D cells, put 4 or 8 aa cells (just the the princeton surge) in this unit and put it back in the light. They include a 3.6v .5A AND .9A bulb with the device. It is voltage regulated to 3.6v and it has a soft start for the bulb.
The quality of design and assembly on this is REALLY nice. The documentation is well laid out and informative. Docs include runtime graphs for both bulbs with relative brightness measurements.
Docs say:
Standard 2d light with .7A bulb hits 50% brighness in 90 minutes.
Drop-in is 50% BRIGHTER than 2d at start, and stays this way for over 12 hours with regular alkalines. (no info is given for rechargeable cells though) This is with .5A bulb
Drop-in is about 270% brighter than 2d with .9A bulb and will stay in regulation for 5 hours give or take.
Only problem so far is that the included bulbs do not have filaments that are perfectly centered.
After looking at the design, something struck me as odd. It had what appeared to be an in-line or series voltage regulator, something pretty hard to do well. After looking more I found the the positive terminals are connected to the brass rods, which feed back down to the regulator. The positive nipple is fed solely through the center rod, which has these really nice rubber insulators and shock absorbers on it. Very trick.
9-24-2004 edit:
see: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=697723&page=0&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1#Post697723
For more talk about specs and possible group buy.
That's what I said after checking out my new toy UPS delivered.
I have spoken with the company that makes the unit. They are just getting this product off the ground, but I was able to talk them into sending me one. Respecting this, I will not say who they are right now. If you know them, please refrain from coming forth with a name/address/URL/etc (this also, means don't go searching for them and then post "I FOUND EM!"). They are more of a mfg, not a point of sale for the unit. As of now, I do not think ANYONE carries this thing. It might very well be a good item for the sandwich shoppe though. Like I said, I don't think they are set up for really selling these right now, and I don't want to contribute to people pestering them. I have emailed them though and told them I am putting a review up on CPF. I told them I'd keep their name out of this for a while till they gave me the go-ahead.
All this said... here we go.
It is a drop-in for a 2d light. Take out the 2 D cells, put 4 or 8 aa cells (just the the princeton surge) in this unit and put it back in the light. They include a 3.6v .5A AND .9A bulb with the device. It is voltage regulated to 3.6v and it has a soft start for the bulb.
The quality of design and assembly on this is REALLY nice. The documentation is well laid out and informative. Docs include runtime graphs for both bulbs with relative brightness measurements.
Docs say:
Standard 2d light with .7A bulb hits 50% brighness in 90 minutes.
Drop-in is 50% BRIGHTER than 2d at start, and stays this way for over 12 hours with regular alkalines. (no info is given for rechargeable cells though) This is with .5A bulb
Drop-in is about 270% brighter than 2d with .9A bulb and will stay in regulation for 5 hours give or take.
Only problem so far is that the included bulbs do not have filaments that are perfectly centered.
After looking at the design, something struck me as odd. It had what appeared to be an in-line or series voltage regulator, something pretty hard to do well. After looking more I found the the positive terminals are connected to the brass rods, which feed back down to the regulator. The positive nipple is fed solely through the center rod, which has these really nice rubber insulators and shock absorbers on it. Very trick.
9-24-2004 edit:
see: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=697723&page=0&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1#Post697723
For more talk about specs and possible group buy.