MrAl
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hi there,
I picked up a new flashlight today at Walmart called the
'Dorcy solid state'. It's got what looks like a standard
Nichia LED mounted in a PR2 base. The light has four AA cells'
in it mounted side by side in a 2x2 pattern, which makes the
body of the flashlight about 1.75 inches in diameter. The
diameter is a little maladroit and that's what i dont like
about it. The light is pretty bright though, but the beam is
very very narrow; the narrowest beam i ever saw so far. This is
clearly a flashlight for those looking for a long range beam
rather then having an up close evenly lit pattern. There is
a slight amount of side lighting also. The beam diameter is
only about 9 inches at a distance of 10 feet. Compared to the
Brinkmann Long Life LED light, this one is about 1/2 the diameter
and about 3 times brighter. It is brighter, but a much tighter
beam. It appears almost as bright as a regular two AA incandescent
flashlight, but with a slightly tighter beam.
On the plus side, the light has really heavy rubber cushions
on both ends, meaning it's pretty drop proof. The body is
heavy yellow plastic. It's got a nice heavy duty switch on it
too. It would make a very easy LS conversion candidate, as there
is pleny of room inside for mounting and already four AA batteries
for the power source, so a circuit wouldnt be required, just a
resistor. Wouldnt want to have to carry this thing around much though
Cost: $8.00 US.
While i was there i grabbed a Garrity two AA flashlight to check out.
This is a very nicely designed incandescent light which makes an
excellent candidate for an LS conversion flashlight. It's got
a light gauge stainless steel body with a push on push off tail
switch. The side of the SS body is etched with nice designs.
The name itself is painted on though, not too good. I think it
should have been etched also. The paint will eventually wear
or scratch off whereas the etched design wont. It also comes
with a nice woven lanyard which is very strong, almost impossible
to break, but it's attached to the tail piece which i think pushes
the strength ranking back to medium -- something that would have to
be watched to see how it holds up over time. The tail switch is
push on/off, but it also has a 'locking' mechanism so it doesnt
turn on accidentally, but the drawback to this is that you have
to be careful in that you have to make sure the last time you
pushed the switch in the light went 'off', because since the light
turns on only after you release the switch after pushing, it is
possible to push it in and lock it and then have the switch turn
by accident in which case it would 'pop out' and turn back on
again. It's not that bad i guess, but you have to be aware of this.
If you keep that in mind, it's probably not possible to turn
on by accident.
I think having the reasources to design ANY tail switch of any
kind of constuction, this is not the best possible design.
It's not bad though, and it feels like a heavy duty switch that
wont wear out too soon.
The bulb it uses is called a "T1" bulb,
whatever that is, and looks like the same as the two AA minimag bulb.
The light is surprisingly bright though, beating the minimag.
The light output pattern is just a little strange though, because they
use a reflector that is a sort of semi paraboloid instead of the
typical paraboloid usually used in many flashlights. The reflector
looks like a paraboloid approximated with many tiny flat mirrors, where
each mirror is tilted to match the same set of angles as the tangents
of a paraboloid in 3d space. Again, why they chose to do this when they
obviously had the means to use a standard paraboloid is way beyond
comprehension as it produces a strange, somewhat speckled light output
pattern instead of a reasonably even one. Once modified with an
LS though, this wouldnt matter even a little bit as the LS/o would
use it's own optics. Cost: $8.00 US.
While i was there i noticed that they had more Brinkmann Long Life
LED flashlights. People must be buying these up. They must have
sold at least 30-50 or so over the past month in that one store alone.
"And God said, Let there be LED light: and there was LED light."
Take care,
Al
I picked up a new flashlight today at Walmart called the
'Dorcy solid state'. It's got what looks like a standard
Nichia LED mounted in a PR2 base. The light has four AA cells'
in it mounted side by side in a 2x2 pattern, which makes the
body of the flashlight about 1.75 inches in diameter. The
diameter is a little maladroit and that's what i dont like
about it. The light is pretty bright though, but the beam is
very very narrow; the narrowest beam i ever saw so far. This is
clearly a flashlight for those looking for a long range beam
rather then having an up close evenly lit pattern. There is
a slight amount of side lighting also. The beam diameter is
only about 9 inches at a distance of 10 feet. Compared to the
Brinkmann Long Life LED light, this one is about 1/2 the diameter
and about 3 times brighter. It is brighter, but a much tighter
beam. It appears almost as bright as a regular two AA incandescent
flashlight, but with a slightly tighter beam.
On the plus side, the light has really heavy rubber cushions
on both ends, meaning it's pretty drop proof. The body is
heavy yellow plastic. It's got a nice heavy duty switch on it
too. It would make a very easy LS conversion candidate, as there
is pleny of room inside for mounting and already four AA batteries
for the power source, so a circuit wouldnt be required, just a
resistor. Wouldnt want to have to carry this thing around much though
Cost: $8.00 US.
While i was there i grabbed a Garrity two AA flashlight to check out.
This is a very nicely designed incandescent light which makes an
excellent candidate for an LS conversion flashlight. It's got
a light gauge stainless steel body with a push on push off tail
switch. The side of the SS body is etched with nice designs.
The name itself is painted on though, not too good. I think it
should have been etched also. The paint will eventually wear
or scratch off whereas the etched design wont. It also comes
with a nice woven lanyard which is very strong, almost impossible
to break, but it's attached to the tail piece which i think pushes
the strength ranking back to medium -- something that would have to
be watched to see how it holds up over time. The tail switch is
push on/off, but it also has a 'locking' mechanism so it doesnt
turn on accidentally, but the drawback to this is that you have
to be careful in that you have to make sure the last time you
pushed the switch in the light went 'off', because since the light
turns on only after you release the switch after pushing, it is
possible to push it in and lock it and then have the switch turn
by accident in which case it would 'pop out' and turn back on
again. It's not that bad i guess, but you have to be aware of this.
If you keep that in mind, it's probably not possible to turn
on by accident.
I think having the reasources to design ANY tail switch of any
kind of constuction, this is not the best possible design.
It's not bad though, and it feels like a heavy duty switch that
wont wear out too soon.
The bulb it uses is called a "T1" bulb,
whatever that is, and looks like the same as the two AA minimag bulb.
The light is surprisingly bright though, beating the minimag.
The light output pattern is just a little strange though, because they
use a reflector that is a sort of semi paraboloid instead of the
typical paraboloid usually used in many flashlights. The reflector
looks like a paraboloid approximated with many tiny flat mirrors, where
each mirror is tilted to match the same set of angles as the tangents
of a paraboloid in 3d space. Again, why they chose to do this when they
obviously had the means to use a standard paraboloid is way beyond
comprehension as it produces a strange, somewhat speckled light output
pattern instead of a reasonably even one. Once modified with an
LS though, this wouldnt matter even a little bit as the LS/o would
use it's own optics. Cost: $8.00 US.
While i was there i noticed that they had more Brinkmann Long Life
LED flashlights. People must be buying these up. They must have
sold at least 30-50 or so over the past month in that one store alone.
"And God said, Let there be LED light: and there was LED light."
Take care,
Al
