Eastern power outages (8/14 - the ONLY thread)

[Double_A]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

I haven't seen anyone mention them, maybe they don't make them anymore...but....they used to sell these twin D-cell yellow LED electric candles in Popular Science for around 8 bucks.

My dad loved them because he ran them all night long for 4-6 weeks on a set of D-cells.

Anyway I made him up about a dozen from parts at Radio Shack, they are real simple (three parts) and easy to make. All you need is one of those jumbo 10mm Yellow LEDS, a plastic twin D-cell battery holder, and the appropriate resistor.

I'd drill two tiny holes about an eight of an inch apart on the top side of a plastic battery holder. The LED's wire leads drop in to those holes. Bend the wires towards the battery holder's connections and briefly touch them to the contacts to verify you have the positive and negative going to the correct sides. The LED should light, if not pull it out and flip the LED around.

After you verify, solder one wire from the LED to the battery holders flat contact. The other wire from the LED gets soldered to the resistor and the resistor's other wire gets soldered to the spring connection on the inside of the battery pack. The resistor gets tucked up underneath the spring. The extra clearance needed for the spring gives you enough clearance for the resistor. It's also best to make the solder connections with a couple of dead batteries in the holder. The battery connections on the top of the plastic holder get hot and may start to melt the plastic. The batteries act as a heat sink and prevent the plastic from melting.

LED is held in place by bending the wires to the side, no need to glue it to the top of the battery pack or anything.

That's it your done!

Three parts (plastic battery holder, LED, Resistor) cost maybe $5-$6 Drill or melt with needle two holes and make three solder joints.

Runs for days. Oh yea, the on/off switch is a thin piece of plastic from a soda bottle, you just slide it between one of the batteries it's contact on the battery holder.

GregR

 

[Tombeis]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Interesting few days.

Our power went out a little after 4:00 P.M. on Thursday afternoon.

I had just left the house to go to Sam's Club to pick up a few things including a prescription at their pharmacy.

On I-480 the traffic was heavy but moving. I got off at the exit for Sam's and all the traffic signals were out. Then the radio started to tell me what was happening. Sam's was already closed when I pulled in the lot so I took the back streets to my house. Good thing, as the freeway was now like a parking lot with people having a hard time exiting without traffic signals to control things.

I got home and got the generator out to operate the refrig, TV and some lights, and a fan.
Naturally, the grandkids had used up the extra fuel for their trail bikes. I ended up going to a section of Akron where they had power, to fill up some five gallon cans. I wanted to be sure we had enough fuel to operate the generator for a couple of eight hour periods in case the situation lasted.

Our power was off all night until 10:30 A.M. Friday morning. Good chance to use the flashlights. I found the Surefire E2e with the KL-1 to be very good with long runtime and cool operation over long periods.

On friday morning I tried the generator and found it would not start. Checked everything and found the low oil pressure switch was bad. I had an extra switch, and changed it.

Friday morning also brought a new problem. No water.

Cleveland draws water from Lake Erie. through four pumping stations and filtration plants located along the shore. When they lost power, there was no backup power to run the pumps. Of course, all the bright people who live in the downtown area had to open up the fire hydrants to cool themselves off. This drained the system and affected us first since we live on the high ground South of the city.

We got water back by Friday afternoon, but you could not drink it until late Sunday afternoon because, when the system is not charged with pressurized water, it tends to suck pollutants into the lines, and it takes about two days to be sure the water is clean enough to drink.

So, I get water containers and drive to my Nephew's house in Akron for drinking water.

FRIDAY NIGHT
Friday night at six O:clock we had a thunderstorm. There was a close lightning strike and guess what? The power went down.

I started the generator and ran it until 2:00 A.M Saturday. At least we were again able to operate the fridge, TV, Fan and some lights. We watched the Brown's-Packers game, and a movie, so it wasn't too bad.

The bad part was when I shut down the generator and the fan, and you realized that it was too hot and sticky to sleep.

Despite several calls to First Energy, our power company, and several calls by the police to a private line to the power company, they did not make repairs until 8:30 Saturday morning.

First Energy is the power company they are now trying to blame for the big problem, and I would not be surprised that they caused it. I sent them an E-mail Saturday morning and told them the company was grossly mismanaged. I received a return E-mail saying they would call me for more details. I Bet!

Anyway, it was a good chance to use the flashlights two nights in a row.

I forgot to tell you that when I went back to Sam's Club on Friday afternoon they were restocking the Maglite and Energizer displays. A lot of people were buying the twin pack of a Mini-Mag and a 3D that they sell. The Mags are better then the drugstore plastic flashlights that most people own.

Things are back to normal tonight. I changed the oil and filter on the generator to get it ready for the next big one. I think I am going to look around for a larger generator that will run my air conditioning. I do enjoy that comfort, especially when trying to sleep. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Tom

 

[lightnix]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Have to say that the whole thing worried me, even though it was on the other side of the Atlantic. Now we hear that there may be power shortages in the UK next Jan / Feb, which led me to wonder what would have happened if this had occured during the winter.

What impressed me the most was the way that people stuck together through it, without the breakdown in law and order that some had feared. I may have my criticisms of the US from time to time, but I've always felt there was a higher level of community spirit than there is here in the UK.

So, what now ? The talk seems to be of improving "the system", maybe that will include solar/wind charged emergency LED lighting in buildings ?

Over to you Darell...

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Every disaster gives a windfall in flashlight and battery sales, moving inventory that normally doesn't move all that well. When they get home and it is over, they throw yet another junky light in a drawer, box, or trash. Sheeple rarely think beyond the moment, and promptly forget as soon as it is over.

 

[Brock]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Here is an interesting minute by minute blow of exactly what happened that day.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/953366.asp?0cb=-31f173867

 

[webley445]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

[ QUOTE ]
Double_A said:
I haven't seen anyone mention them, maybe they don't make them anymore...but....they used to sell these twin D-cell yellow LED electric candles in Popular Science ......

Runs for days.

GregR

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd seen others making lights like these so I gave it a try. From all the accounts it sounds like having a bunch of these around would be useful.

http://www.geocities.com/webley445/6.html

Since I first started learning about leds in CPF I started out collecting long run time lights "just in case". And these are so cheap to make, gave a few away. My wife uses one of the two led setups at bedside. She said she liked it because it was so bright for such a little package and was easy to use. It is just attached to a 9volt by one terminal, you can swivel it for use like an on/off switch.

 

[brightnorm]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

This is small and long burning:

PAKLITE


Brightnorm

 

[paulr]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Oh man, the Pak-lite has gotten reviewed here before, it's a pretty poor value and needs an exotic battery (9 volt ultralife lithium, not a normal 9v alkaline) to get that full 200 hours of operation. And it's going to be awfully dim during that runtime. And a 9v battery is as big and heavy as two AA's.

You're probably a lot better off with a CMG Infinity and an L91, and indigenous AA's once the L91 runs out.

Or there's always the solar powered Swiss light. In a multi-day outage you should be able to charge it full every day, and it will give you about 1 hour of light at night, more in the dimmer modes.

BTW Norm, did you notice my question in the Firefly thread about a 3x123 battery tail? That was in your honor. (A 3x123 Firefly with an R2H and a Downboy 200 converter would give you 12 hours of pretty good Luxeon light in a compact 2aa-sized package).

 

[webley445]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

[ QUOTE ]
brightnorm said:
This is small and long burning:

PAKLITE


Brightnorm

[/ QUOTE ]

Seen those before.
Though crude and perhaps ugly, I would prefer mine being that any 9v will suffice and it is way cheaper, plus fun to make. [not that I'm biased in any fashion /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif]

 

[paulr]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

I think you're better off with two AA's in a holder with a yellow LED. It would be smaller than a Paklite and cost just a couple of bucks and run about as long given a suitable limiting resistor. For really long runtime or more brightness, you could use C or D cells.

 

[webley445]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Well I thought of that, but [for me] the white light is more useable and the 9v gives way better runtime is smaller , so more easily stored and possibly you don't run into the availability problem as mentioned earlier about stores running out of D cells. I know in the past it would have been a problem as there were so many transistor radios that ran on 9v. Seems that most small electronics run on AA and AAA nowdays.
Either way, the way I look at it is as long as you are prepared, thats what counts, regardless of the power source or color you use.
To be honest though I probably will try building one or two of your suggested candles if anything for the fun of it, maybe kep one if they turn out ok [depending on my abilities], and I usually give a light or two to friens/family when I experiment.
I gave one of my 9v's to a friend who is a security guard and he was really grateful. He uses it to read by when he has to sit in his vehicle for long periods. He says it beats using a mini-m*g [duh!]. And he likes that it lasts longer. I had pilfered a name tag clip and he just attaches it to the visor when he uses it.
I can see myself making up a bunch of these little babies in the very near future.

 

[paulr]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

If you put a 9V battery next to two AA's, you'll see the 9V really isn't any smaller. And to get that huge runtime from the Paklite, you need an exotic lithium 9v, not a normal one.

If you need a small long-running white light, I think you and your security guard friend would be much better off with a CMG Infinity. It's smaller and costs a lot less than the Pak-lite, though it probably weighs a little more (metal body). It's a heck of a lot more durable--practicall indestructable even, and it runs on one ordinary easy-to-find AA. Runtime isn't as extreme as the Paklite with the 9V lithium, but it's plenty long enough for any realistic purpose. If you need something longer (e.g. for a multi-month hiking trip) you may be better off with a Swiss solar light.

 

[Double_A]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Nicely done Webley!

I made one light using the same 9V battery clip you show on your site. But what I did was pry the clip apart, mount a single white LED and a resistor in the top part, cram the the leads down into the contact's holes snap the two halves together and solder the leads in the contacts.

The whole light consists of the LED mounted on top of a 9v battery clip.

I snapped this onto a 4AA cell battery pack from radio shack. I used the 4-AA pack for a longer runtime.

The D-cell one is not as cool looking, but cheap and lasts forever.

GregR


P.S. Badge clips are great, attach a Photon II light to them using velcro dots and clip them anywhere.

 

[paulr]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Webley, whoops! I got this thread confused with one about the Paklite, an overpriced ($30!) commercial version of your home-made light. Sorry!

 

[Wits' End]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

I finally got around to reading this whole thread before I came to work. Guess what? when I got to work one of the "legs" of our three phase power was out so there was a 1/3 power failure here. I handed the person I was taking over from my Arc LS to take care of a couple things in a dark room, she was impressed. Not as great a story but there is a wide spread power failure connected to it must have several hundred w/o power. Thunder storms!!

 

[webley445]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:


If you need a small long-running white light, I think you and your security guard friend would be much better off with a CMG Infinity.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ahem] Well I am a CPF member, I already have two Ultras and Two Arc AAA's [among many others]. The whole idea with the 9v is way longer run time and something that was fun to make and cheap, but has a useful purpose. It is mainly meant as a set-n-forget for use in a pinch.

As for the size issue of 2 AA's vs. a 9v, yes, its all relative. For myself though, I find it more convenient dealing with a single 9v that has terminals built in to attach to as opposed to 2 separate batteries that require use of a holder. Lets not loose sight of what the light was meant for. Wasn't meant to be a final replacement for all lights, just simple, cheap backups for mundane use. If I'm up and about its the Arc or Ultra or Attitude or E1 or....

An Ultra with a lith in it is always with me at work [among others, but don't want to get into an EDC thread here].

I have more leds that I am ordering on the way so more mini mods will be born soon. Now I can give them to friends and tell them to check it safe in case of a blackout and watch them roll their eyes again.

Need a name for them though.......
either B.O.B.'s [Black Out Backups] or the
Webley-9 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

 

[Double_A]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Webley-

Call them BOB-LED's /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif


GregR

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

Good to see some ideas come out of this.

 

[snakebite]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

the 9v light can be made for less tha $.50
the trick is to save your dead 9v batts to get the clip from it.
and chiwing white leds are cheap by the hundred.

 

[Beretta1526]

Re: Eastern power outages (Aug 14)

OK, I've only just now gotten around to posting anything of meaning in this thread.

After having no power in my office for an extended period of time, our electrical department (who now no longer make jokes about the flashlights, woo hoo!) and a few other people have determined that my McLux with McFlood is the best overall light for a power outage, second is the Arc LSL, and third is the Arc LSH. We also found that a headlamp is great, but when working with other people, you tend to turn your head where YOU want to look, and that can blow someone else's night vision and take the focus off what you are trying to see.

I had an E2e-CJ, McLux / McFlood, Arc LSL, Arc LSH, 2 Arc AAA's, SF L4, SF M6, and several random loose LED's taped or connected to whatever batteries we could scrounge up. Something else that came in VERY handy was my FreePlay Radio. It has AM/FM and Short Wave bands, a solar panel and a CRANK for power generation, and a 3-LED light that has a reeled cord and a magnet on the back to stick it to stuff.

The M6 was great to light the stairwell temporarily when the emergency lights ran out of juice. It lit up 4 flights and all the landings quite well.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the squidlight is really handy at my desk since the 3 LED's aim in different directions and are completely positionable.