Yes, without checking back to the HDS site, Brock sounds right to me. That's why HDS doesn't recommend alkaline cells. But the lithiums they do recommend are $20 each...You know what, I'm going to turn on the HDS and leave it on, just to see how long it burns with the single (slightly depleted) alkaline D cell...the sacrifices made for science..any suggestions on whether I should burn it on medium or high? (The default setting shall be medium.. :>)
11-11-2000, Follow-up: at 7 Am it was still putting out light..around 8 or 9 am the bulbs were
still lit, but dim. just glowing really - which would be useful in a pitch-black situation - I should have taken the light here with me to see how much longer they would glow for.. Well if they are still lit when I get home, I'll let you know. So thats about 36 hours of light at least, and AFTER, remember, the D alkaline wouldn't light the HDS on the 'low' setting. Interesting point; I turned the light off a couple of times during the test, and then it would not switch back on immediately, evidently it took a few seconds for the battery voltage to rise high enough above a certain threshold voltage before the light would take the 'order' to turn on, then it would blink back on - by itself if left in the on position in 'med' or 'hi' setting...sounds a little confusing, I'm going to read the HDS literature again now...hope this helped... something...
11-12-2000 I had turned the lamp off all day. It lit brightly when turned it on again around 3pm yesterday afternoon, it shined fairly brightly all night again, was still going at 10 AM - another 18 hours of life.. interesting how the alkalines life can be stretched many times by intermittant use.....
11-14-2000 still going! all day and all night, at a steady, bright glow, lights the room...
11-15-2000 still glowing as of 10:30 this AM, but dimmer. so I turned it off..will see if days rest lets it glow brightly all night again...interestingly,when I turned it off, it didn't go back on again, but I think it will after a rest!
11-16-2000 turned on 4pm apx. burned all night, dim this morning, switched off. Bet it's good for at least another night..
11-17-2000 ....sound taps, it was out in the morning.. I turned it to the off position..I'll bet it will shine all night again tonight, though..so I will end this impromptu test here - I didn't think the HDS would get so much light out the single alkaline D.. ]
11-19-2000 still shines brightly after a days rest, but not all night (only the shadow knows when it blinks out at night!)-- here is some info from the HDS site
http://www.hdssystems.com that may help explain about the slow-die and forever circuitry - one works on high setting, the other on low:
SlowDieTM Circuitry High power settings dim slowly as battery dies.
FOREVER ModeTM Hours of light from nearly dead batteries on Low setting
Beam Pattern Optimized for best night vision
Beam Angle 1,Ê3ÊandÊ6Êf-stops 20¡/40¡/80¡
Color Temperature 6500¡K
Color Rendering Index 85 - superior color rendering
Waterproof 100m (328ft)
<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Ted on 11-19-2000 at 11:57 AM</font>