glockboy
Flashlight Enthusiast
Take a look at the milwaukee led work light m12.
3 amp battery last about 6 hrs.
3 amp battery last about 6 hrs.
I own one of those that I used to use for electrical work. It matched the batteries I was using for my Milwaukee battery drill. I hadn't considered it because of it's size and weight. I'm still looking to identify a light that can produce an even level of near field light. that will run for ~8 hours at an effective brightness, and is as light and small as practicable while meeting those 2 requirements.Take a look at the Milwaukee led work light m12.
3 amp battery last about 6 hrs.
That looks very promising. What type of battery do they run on? Is there any kind of primary battery that would power that light so that extended use need not require recharging? Do you know of anything with that kind of pattern that can be run on AA batteries even if the batteries would need to be Lithium Ion to run for the eight hours.An Acebeam E70 with 2 spare batteries would weight about 1lbs, has a broad even pattern (almost mule like) & could run at a 3rd party tested 150L for over 50hrs on those 3 batteries. At a tested 500L 3 batteries gets you about 15hrs. I doubt any one would be in the dark or the field to use up 3 batteries & at around 3oz ea just carry 4 spares for about 24oz of total weight. It's IP68 rated + drop tested to 1m, so it's tough.
If that's to heavy of a load get the E70 mini. The light w/4 spare 18650s would be less than 1lbs. It has the same beam pattern & is tested at 150L for over 6hrs & 300L for over 3hrs + it meets the same IP/drop testing. Plus both use batteries that lose much less performance in colder temps. The 21700 light is under $100 w/battery & the 18650 Mini < $80 w/battery
Gentlemen, may I make a suggestion? Many of us have lights that would be useful for Mr. Horne's purposes, lights which have been quietly resting in our respective gear closets, unused for God knows how long. Collectively we have D-cell Mag lights, various brands of 600 lumen 18650 lights, and probably a few 4xAA torches just gathering dust; all of which might be put to noble use in the hands of others."You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need." Keith Richards, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.
So what comes closest with the emphasis on ≥8 hours run time and a wide even near field light. If we cannot keep the weight and size down to something a counselor could carry for 5 days then it could become the camp response team lights. If it cannot run on multiple AA batteries running in parallel in D cell holders or some similar way to get it to last 8 hours the same thing might apply. The camp response team would bring them instead of the counselors on the trip having them immediately. An ≥8 hour zoom with lower light intensity is much better for this purpose than a high intensity light that will not run for that long. An evenly distributed wide angle pattern is essential. Anything other than an even near field pattern would not meet the need for a search in dense deciduous woodland! Long range IS NOT the objective! Super bright IS NOT the objective! An even, floody, near field light is what is needed for this very specific purpose.
Tom Horne
It doesn’t appear that the Acebeam E70-AL and the E70 Mini have options to use primary cells (2 123A). Would instead recommend Klarus G15 v.2 or Nitecore E4K. Both of those lights can also use primaries. They also have onboard charging for solar charging in the field (Klarus has USB-C charger and powerbank function built into the light, Nitecore has USB-C rechargeable battery). The Acebeam E70-AL requires a charger.That looks very promising. What type of battery do they run on? Is there any kind of primary battery that would power that light so that extended use need not require recharging? Do you know of anything with that kind of pattern that can be run on AA batteries even if the batteries would need to be Lithium Ion to run for the eight hours.
Please do not send money to me directly. That would cause me tax headaches you would find hard to believe. I made the mistake of selling 2 ~$1000 dollar items on my eBay account for the Auxiliary Communications Service radio team I'm on and we may never get our tax return back. It's held up because PayPal was obliged in law to report that as income. Now the IRS wants money that we do not have. Live and learn. Send any money in any form to:I'd also be willing to kick in a few bucks towards whatever lights he settles on for the search lights.
Tom...I am humbled by this generous thought. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for this idea.
My home address is
Thomas Horne
711 Ludlow Street
Takoma Park, MD 20912-7309
For the sake of transparency let me say that the lights which we cannot use will be offered to camp parents and supporters in return for a donation. I'm using my home address because I don't want to burden the church office staff with dealing with this particular issue. I will check with our General Secretary, which is the title we have for our Staff Director, and the camp program director to check whether they would want them sent to the office instead. I will not be able to do that until tomorrow morning.
Tom Horne
"Friend I would not harm thee for all the world but thee is standing were I plan to shoot." Eli Coffin's reply to slave catchers threatening to break down his if he didn't let them in to search for runaway slaves.
WillCo; = Will Comply, that old son. I'll try everyone of them at the next Young Friends Conference in April. The conferences are bimonthly mutual support gatherings for High School aged young people in caring for and helping each other through the challenges of High School life. I will just take as many lights as I receive to that conference that is at a rural high school campus. It is a perfect place to compare the pattern and brightness to what we hope to send out with trip counselors and provide for the use of Night Counselors in making their rounds as well as the in camp staff who don't need light weight but may need a strong light.Tom...
If you can exchange non-flood lights for cash donations from the camp's supporters, then I can offer you an even greater selection of "regular" non-flood lights for the cause (some of them still in their original box). I'll have my donations packed up and mailed within the week, addressed to whatever address you confirm with the General Secretary. I'll also include any special operating instructions, so that non-flashaholicks can operate the lights safely.
Please keep in mind when offering donated lights to others, that many of the forum members' lights are powered by lithium-ion cells. Li-ion cells are not commonly available from brick & mortar retailers, and the best sources of such batteries are reputable online merchants. Recommendations to reputable merchants can be found in other sections of this forum. The community has also, in many other posts, stressed the importance of using only reputable battery brands.
[One additional suggestion: if you receive donated lights that use 18650-sized cells, or 21700-sized cells, try them out at night before concluding they won't work for your purposes. Twenty-five feet is an awfully short search distance, and many lights with illumination patterns balanced with both a modest hotspot and a bit of floody spill-beam can be enormously useful as handheld searchlights over such short distances. These kinds of torches are relatively lightweight, and spare lithium-ion batteries are also lightweight; and also, cheap compared with buying new torches. Just charge up the cells before your teams' excursions. Just give them a try before "recycling" them.]
I’m thinking this sounds like a bike light repurposed for handheld use.One thing I always wondered is why we don't see multi-LED lights with the LEDs fanned out horizontally but not vertically. Search and rescue is the obvious application but I always end up torn between a floody light that illuminates the tree tops and close-to-me ground (waste of lumens) and a spot light that needs to be flicked sideways to cover the search area.
Something like a Streamlight LiteBox with the LEDs pointing in different directions horizontally but not vertically would be ideal. Does anyone make something like this ?
And yes I'm kinda thinking about a duckbill shotgun choke, but with light instead of lead.
Now that you say that I'm thinking that there may be something to pursue there, I have seen a couple of those in use on bicycles and they might work out as special purpose head lights. By buying a replacement hard hat harness or something similar it shouldn't be too hard to fit them comfortably on the top of your head. I'll check at some local bicycle repair shops since they're more likely to have the high quality ones. That would leave one hand for a narrow beam hand light to check out anything they picked up on the horrizontal flood light and the other to manage such things as their radio.I’m thinking this sounds like a bike light repurposed for handheld use.