Somebody beat me to the Brinkmann light.
I saw it and had to look it over. Asked the clerk if it was a white LED or a colored LED. She KNEW NUH-THINK! Figured w/ two AAs, it was probably a yaller or red light, but -- who knows. So, busted for the $11.56 not expecting ANYTHING (but willing to take it apart and return it if it turned out dismally). Got to the car, had to CUT the pack open (dangerous at best, while driving). Clunky. Opened it, figured out the battery config, saw the seal and ASSuME that it is maybe water RESISTANT (haven't gotten the courage to dunk it yet) and hit the button.
Button is an "easy contact" and a stiff switch. "Positive feedback" is what they'd call it. Pain-in-the... sloppy switch is what I'd call it. I like the light. I am absolutely thrilled w/ it for several reasons, and disappointed w/ it for several others.
Thrilled<ul>
[*]Bright! It compares very well to my PAL Gold (although the battery in the PAL is NOT new -- as soon as I can find my 9v battery pack in one of the drawers, I'll test 'em against each other)
[*]Uses COMMONLY available batteries -- AA's a muy easy to come by, and can be found for about 42 cents each in bulk.
[*]Uses only TWO of those easy-to-come-by AA's. Somebody's been playing w/ the circuitry. Damn, MY design isn't done yet!
[*]APPEARS to be H2O proof, although it's probably H2O resistant. Sigh. Not that I scuba dive any more... ;-)
[*]PRICE! This is the CHEAPEST flash I have, aside from some DISPOSABLE photon-like knock-offs I bought.[/list]
Disappointed<ul>
[*]Switch placement... It's a pain in the... thumb. Awkward. I feel like a cop on a bad movie, reverse hold on my flash just under the gun. And, as stiff as the switch is (a good thing) it's hard to work w/ my thumb in that position... result? A two-handed flash?
[*] Switch type... nice solid CLICK, stiff enough, but... pack that in w/ a ton of other stuff and the "soft" setting for the button could bleed yer AAs down. "Silent Signal feature"... ha! What, with my THUMB?
[*]Size. A good inch is taken up with the switch, in it's lousy position. Another inch is taken up by the lens system and shroud, but I guess I can't complain about that. Largely round, when an oval cross-section might be in order to reduce size and affect tendency to roll off of any non-flat surface.
[*] Darn it, I can't take the bulb assembly apart any further w/out risking a busted flash... I may have to "sacrifice" one just to see how the light gets inside. [/list]
Druthers<ul>
[*] Switch in the neck, built along side lens shroud.
[*] Oval or flattened cross-section... no more rolling. At least flatten the back end, so it can be held in the teeth when you need both hands free.
[*] A "slightly" focusable lens system. Doesn't need a large range, just enough to narrow the beam very slightly and to expand it very slightly from it's current beam width.
[*] Better lens/ reflector system... My son told me it looked like a target. I hadn't noticed until I shined it on a whole wall... There it was. "X-ring", 10-ring, 8-ring, etc. Alternating bands of light/ dark.[/list]
Notes and Observations:
I wrote to Tech Support at Brinkmann to ask them quex about their design and said I had some recommendations if it wouldn't insult them... I haven't heard back. ;-)
I pulled the switch off and bridged the contacts w/ a DC ammeter. I read a FLUCTUATING 90 - 100 mA ( 0.09 to 0.10 for you boys w/ the big ammeters). That's 285 mW from this stack of AAs. My recollection is that typical AAs are 2850 mAH, so, that computes to about 30 hours from 84 cents worth of batteries. ;-D
There's some form of voltage conversion going on, as the LED is much brighter than just the 3v glow one gets when they're under-biased. I have no idea about the bias (which is why I'm gonna have to sacrifice one) and I can't tell what the efficiency of the converter is... (I get obsessed easily). I can make guesses... minimum bias is about 30 mA at 3.6v or 108 mW, w/ a max guestimate at 4.0 v at 50 mA for 200 mW (although some I've seen are driven at 90 mA+)
The theoretical upper limit for AAs in this config would be 79 hours at minimum bais and 43 hours at the higher bias. (Obsession is a bad thing, right?).
Anyway, until I buy a second and it accidently cracks the lens assembly, then I'll just have to guess and figure.
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If you know what's good for YOU, vote Libertarian.
