Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight? ** Review **

[Saaby]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Arab, I personally had no intension of removing his review even after he authorized me to. I was going to suggest (Before I read that he deleted it) that instead of deleting it he add a note that pointed to this thread or something.

DC-DC technology is not new but there's more than one way to do it. Just look at Wayne's boards--you've got Badboys and MadMacs and Wizards and...if Peter said they copied their design I for one am going to believe him.


Anyway...if this AAA pocket torch is manufactured by the same company that makes this then lets just sic LRI on them /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

dirobesh--I shortened your link to preserve page width, it still goes to the same place though.

 

[dirobesh]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

The decision to remove the review was entirely my own - there was no pressure from any quarter.

I agree about the QC issues of the AAA LE, but this doesn't alter the fact that if it has been manufactured in breach of copyright, I don't feel I should be actively promoting it. This is just my personal opinion and I accept that other people's views on this subject may be different.

 

[Xenon]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
dirobesh said:
The decision to remove the review was entirely my own - there was no pressure from any quarter.

I agree about the QC issues of the AAA LE, but this doesn't alter the fact that if it has been manufactured in breach of copyright, I don't feel I should be actively promoting it. This is just my personal opinion and I accept that other people's views on this subject may be different.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was a nice review anyway. Whether there is a breach of copyright is best to leave it to Peter and Arc LLC to pursue the matter with the manufacturer of RocketLight. But correct me if I am wrong Peter, I don't see any sun/moon mode in the rocketlight, the runtime is defintely shorter than my Arc AAAs. And I don't see any flickering problem. Anything else that I may leave out above that have been copied?

 

[arab]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Ok Saaby and dirobesh,

I fully accept - and am delighted to hear - that there was no "enforcement" involved. Mind you dirobesh, I don't think the withdrawal of the review was wise. Am I the only one who is now intrigued as to it's contents?

I still stand by my earlier comments, and think the best way of discrediting the light would be to expose it in all it's gory details. Peter said above "they copied an early version of our Arc-AAA PCB- mistakes and all", so one way of doing this would be for Peter to privately email those who own the "rocket light" - Xenon and dirobesh - and ask them to validate that the bugs exist. We have all heard the stories of product advertisments being withdrawn in response to complaints - and in all such cases, the product sales then marching forward in response to the publicity. Let's not let this happen here: Let's expose the Rocket light for what it is and discredit it in an objective manner.

 

[dirobesh]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Ok, I've received a PM asking me to repost the review - putting forward a strong case in favour - and in light of the above posts also, I'm willing to reconsider unless I receive a PM/email/post from anyone, asking me to refrain, in the next couple of hours or so. I should also add that any such communication will be treated with confidence and their details will not be made public.

 

[arab]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Thanks dirobesh!

Over to you Peter - reveal the bugs (privately) to Xenon and dirobesh and ask them to verify their existance.

When we have the evidence we need, I for one would be more than happy to email the "iwantoneofthose" web site and tell them what I know and suggest they remove the illegal clone from their product offerings. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one ...

 

[dirobesh]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

I've slightly re-written my original review and updated it as I've not so far, received any requests not to post it - but I forgot to take into account the international time zone differences when I stated I'd wait for a couple of hours /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif so I'll leave it for a few more hours until most people are home from work and can check this thread before I post it.

 

[Gransee]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

I haven't read this thread in awhile.

I still feel that they copied our converter design. Not because they used a variation on a common circuit or chip. It is that they used a variation that I designed. This variation is identified by the choice of components, values, brands, etc. They picked a particular part, value and brand that is identical to what I choose. The funny thing is, I realized later that I actually had not made the best choice with that part.

Their design lacks a certain elegance and I feel that instead of flattery is more of a perversion. They substituted cheaper components causing their light to be dimmer and less efficient.

I am not interested in the tail switch because it does not seem reliable in my opinion.

As far as what to do with this all... I can tell you that I am not as litigation happy as some of my contemporaries. I have done diligence and notified our attorney. Not because I want blood or anything. Just being diligent.

I understand that it just part of doing business that people will cash in on parts of your work. Some of this is expected and normal. Some of it is a little bit sad.

Normally, my policy is to keep improving our product so often that the knock offs are always obsolete. The problem is that the knock offs come so quickly. I am worried that they may come so quickly that they get inside our development cycle and cannibalize our research funding.

It won't hurt my feelings if you buy the light. It does hurt though that our problems with the Arc-AAA have persisted and as expected, have permitted some to put these two lights on the same level.

I do appreciate those who are loyal to us. I hope we do not disappoint you. Hopefully, your investment in ingenuity and price (as compared to just price) will directly profit you.

Peter

 

[dirobesh]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Thanks for the post Peter, although you have not asked me to refrain from reposting the review, in light of your comments I feel that this is the only honourable step to take, and have deleted it from my computer.

 

[paulr]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

I think it's ok to post the review, just make sure to mention these issues. The review helps people know what the "bad guys" are up to.

 

[Empath]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Dirobesh, your link isn't working.

 

[Empath]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

You can find somewhat of a review here from Graham.

 

[paulr]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Geez, those things are slickly packaged and it looks like they're selling them for $2.30 wholesale. Well, I don't think Arc needs to be afraid. There are a heck of a lot of Photon knockoffs around, as low as $1.00 each, but the real Photon seems to be doing fine.

 

[dirobesh]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
Dirobesh, your link isn't working.

[/ QUOTE ]

My apologies - I'd forgotten to edit my original post to indicate that the review was no longer available. I've now updated it to reflect this.

 

[arab]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

I've read Graham's review and his thought's on the clickie switch are different to those of Peter's - "The clickie switch (click on, click off) works rather well, making one-handed use very easy". On the downside, the LUX output of the ARC was 40% more. The Rocket is also longer - a disadvantage of the above switch design no doubt - and for me this alone would eliminate it.

Dirobesh: it's obviously your call, but I think this on/off/on/off review of yours should be published. What are you afraid of? Peter has already said he wouldn't mind if anybody buys a rocket so I don't know how he would mind if anyone were to read about one? As I said above in an earlier posting, I think this self-censorship is counter productive.

And Peter, I purchased my ARC products for "ingenuity and price" reasons. I feel however that what was taken as ingenuity some years ago will be taken for granted today. So, to recall many previous posts on the same subject from myself: how about a multi-led, variable output AA (or even AAA?) powered, smallest-possible form factor light? You make it, we'll buy it!

And another thought, if you don't have the time/money/whatever to develop this yourself - what about outsourcing? Look at what a bunch of entusiasts have done with the McLux. Look at what LRI did with the P3 and Fusion lights - they don't make all the bits themselves. Of course outsourcing brings it's own challenges (remember all those early P3s eating up their expensive batteries?), but - properly managed - it would allow ARC to minimise the time to market for new developments. You could even consider the "@aglight" people (although that could be interesting in view of recent developments): they obviously have an excellent manufacturing ability.

Anyway, sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to teach a granny to suck eggs ...

 

[Graham]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

I probably should mention that my comment on the switch shouldn't be considered conclusive by any standard - its just an opinion based on a few minutes of clicking it.

I still have the two of these Rocket lights which I bought at the time, mainly out of curiosity, but they have been relegated to the bottom of a box somewhere - they are no where near the Arc AAA in terms of build or quality. I was interested in it for 2 reasons: it runs off a single AAA, and it had a clickie switch...
The switch itself, is, well, a switch. I'd liken the feel of it to the push down on a cheap metal pen. Nothing to shout about.

But the LED output was very unimpressive - just not in the same league as an Arc AAA, I thought. Blueish and blotchy, to put it simply.

Don't see what the big deal is - this light is already out there in the marketplace, and posting a single review or not won't make much difference to anyone. After I heard about Peter's suspicions about the light I didn't even consider removing my post about it..

Graham

 

[arab]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Graham said "Don't see what the big deal is - this light is already out there in the marketplace, and posting a single review or not won't make much difference to anyone. After I heard about Peter's suspicions about the light I didn't even consider removing my post about it.."

Go on dirobesh. We're all intrigued!

 

[dirobesh]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

I genuinely don't have the review anymore, but having read Graham's review, and disagreeing with some of it, I'll rewrite it and post it later on tonight.

 

[Graham]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Now you've got me curious - what did you disagree with? I wouldn't really call my post a 'review' compared with what a review usually entails here. It was mostly just a heads-up and gave my first impressions of the light - ie, it has a switch, and appears to use an R-rank LED (and not a particularly good one at that..)

Graham

 

[dirobesh]

Re: Anyone tried this AAA LED Flashlight?

Not really a disagreement, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I bought the rocket torch and an ARC LE within a few days of each other and have found that the rocket torch is in fact slightly the brighter of the two. It is also centered more accurately than the ARC LE - Whether this means I got a particularly bad ARC LE or a better than average rocket torch I'm not sure. I have to agree that the beam colour is very blue however. I should also point out that mine came in a cheap plain cardboard box with no packaging! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif