Darell
Flashaholic
During the holiday, I finally had a chance to USE my new Arc AAA lights for real (vs. just playing with them every night like I've been doing). I chose one from my collection at random (a standard white) and gave it the full torture test. We were gone for three days, several hundred miles and five family visits. My torture testers included myself, my 15-month-old daughter, my dog Zeke and six nieces and nephews. Interested now?
I started off by simply putting my sacrificial Arc on a CMG lanyard around my neck like everybody else seems to do. Do you guys NOT have chest hair? Dang, this hurts sometimes! After all the hair was removed in the described arc (pun almost intended) all was fine. I couldn't believe how much I started using the light. Finding stuff in the Rocket Box on top of the car, finding the right PJ's in the diaper bag, you name it. So when my daughter saw me using it so much, she had to have it - so I gave it to her. She shoved it up her nose, buried it in the house plants, dragged it along the floor and concrete outside, dropped it in the dog's water bowl, and just carried it with her everywhere she toddled. She owned that thing for about four hours that first day. She couldn't turn it on or off, but each time she came near enough, I'd switch it for her. Next we went outside to shoot some hoops on the new backboard that my nephews received for Christmas. Since it was totally dark by then, I thought it would be fun to dangle the Arc (on) from the bottom of the net. Each time the ball went through, it would wack the Arc and send the thing flying around in cool circles. Sometimes it would smack the metal rim, other times it would hit the backboard, but usually it would just wiggle violently and create quite the light show. So, done with basket ball, we moved on to walking the dog. I clipped the light onto Zeke's collar and let him have his way with it. He chased raccoons (my dog is not slouch - he tore up a foot pad, and cracked a nail down to the quick - but the ARC was OK), chased the new RC cars in the street, dunked it again in his water dish as he drank, scratched at it with his back feet like there was no tomorrow. Then my daughter saw that Zeke had the thing, and spent the next few minutes hunting him down and being dragged around by the light once she got her hands on it.
Then it was time for bed. My wife read with the thing each night for I don't know how long. I'm still on that same battery. When she was done reading, I put it back around my neck, and was very thankful each time I had to struggle to the john in a strange house in the middle of the night. But no, I did not perform the official Craig test (purposefully or accidentally). The next two days were pretty much more of the same thing. Except that by now my daughter had learned how to be Rudolf by shoving it up her nose while it was ON, so that was a bit more exciting. She also managed to get the entire thing into her mouth while it was on too. It was all I could do to keep from hanging her on a tree - she lit up like a bright red globe light. Seriously, she could light up most of her face with the thing in her mouth. Yes, we did clean the Arc every now and again.
All the kids in the family had to go get their "cool" mini mags to show me what bright really was. Since they typically had half-dead batteries in all their lights, they were quite disappointed in every contest we had (except the "I can see my faint yellow glimmer of light on the garage across the street" test). I only managed to convince one little sucker to compete with me in the "let's drop our lights from chest level onto the hardwood floor." Since I have so many minimags around collecting dust, I was guilted into replacing both of his broken bulbs (yup, even the spare in the tail cap broke). I found the Arc so handy to hang from the lid of my Rocket Box that I'm currently building an LED system (with a mercury switch) to put in there permanently. When we finally returned home at midnight, three days after we'd left, the Arc did one more tour of duty to find all the toys that had worked their way under the seats. Even found a sippy cut that we'd been missing for a month. I just now turned the tortured light on to compare it to an almost unused one with a new battery. There is little discernable difference in brightness. And looking at the cases (after a thorough exterior cleaning with a toothbrush) you can't tell which light was the tortured one (save for one major dent in the lip of the reflector)
So, maybe it would have been easier if I just said "Hey, I like these Arc AAA lights." But how fun would that have been?
Thanks again for a great product Peter.
I started off by simply putting my sacrificial Arc on a CMG lanyard around my neck like everybody else seems to do. Do you guys NOT have chest hair? Dang, this hurts sometimes! After all the hair was removed in the described arc (pun almost intended) all was fine. I couldn't believe how much I started using the light. Finding stuff in the Rocket Box on top of the car, finding the right PJ's in the diaper bag, you name it. So when my daughter saw me using it so much, she had to have it - so I gave it to her. She shoved it up her nose, buried it in the house plants, dragged it along the floor and concrete outside, dropped it in the dog's water bowl, and just carried it with her everywhere she toddled. She owned that thing for about four hours that first day. She couldn't turn it on or off, but each time she came near enough, I'd switch it for her. Next we went outside to shoot some hoops on the new backboard that my nephews received for Christmas. Since it was totally dark by then, I thought it would be fun to dangle the Arc (on) from the bottom of the net. Each time the ball went through, it would wack the Arc and send the thing flying around in cool circles. Sometimes it would smack the metal rim, other times it would hit the backboard, but usually it would just wiggle violently and create quite the light show. So, done with basket ball, we moved on to walking the dog. I clipped the light onto Zeke's collar and let him have his way with it. He chased raccoons (my dog is not slouch - he tore up a foot pad, and cracked a nail down to the quick - but the ARC was OK), chased the new RC cars in the street, dunked it again in his water dish as he drank, scratched at it with his back feet like there was no tomorrow. Then my daughter saw that Zeke had the thing, and spent the next few minutes hunting him down and being dragged around by the light once she got her hands on it.
Then it was time for bed. My wife read with the thing each night for I don't know how long. I'm still on that same battery. When she was done reading, I put it back around my neck, and was very thankful each time I had to struggle to the john in a strange house in the middle of the night. But no, I did not perform the official Craig test (purposefully or accidentally). The next two days were pretty much more of the same thing. Except that by now my daughter had learned how to be Rudolf by shoving it up her nose while it was ON, so that was a bit more exciting. She also managed to get the entire thing into her mouth while it was on too. It was all I could do to keep from hanging her on a tree - she lit up like a bright red globe light. Seriously, she could light up most of her face with the thing in her mouth. Yes, we did clean the Arc every now and again.
All the kids in the family had to go get their "cool" mini mags to show me what bright really was. Since they typically had half-dead batteries in all their lights, they were quite disappointed in every contest we had (except the "I can see my faint yellow glimmer of light on the garage across the street" test). I only managed to convince one little sucker to compete with me in the "let's drop our lights from chest level onto the hardwood floor." Since I have so many minimags around collecting dust, I was guilted into replacing both of his broken bulbs (yup, even the spare in the tail cap broke). I found the Arc so handy to hang from the lid of my Rocket Box that I'm currently building an LED system (with a mercury switch) to put in there permanently. When we finally returned home at midnight, three days after we'd left, the Arc did one more tour of duty to find all the toys that had worked their way under the seats. Even found a sippy cut that we'd been missing for a month. I just now turned the tortured light on to compare it to an almost unused one with a new battery. There is little discernable difference in brightness. And looking at the cases (after a thorough exterior cleaning with a toothbrush) you can't tell which light was the tortured one (save for one major dent in the lip of the reflector)
So, maybe it would have been easier if I just said "Hey, I like these Arc AAA lights." But how fun would that have been?
Thanks again for a great product Peter.
