PhotonLight
Newly Enlightened
Looks like yesterday's thread was lost with the database restore (google still has it cached for the time being). Anyway, I just wanted to answer a couple of the questions that were brought up there about the newer vs. older Photon ReX.
There have been at least 2 major revisions for the ReX so far. Probably a number of other minor tweaks as well, knowing LRI, but as far as major, noticeable changes, I'll just stick with these two.
#1: The first was a tweak to the charging circuit. Early ReXes would sometimes manage to discharge their batteries below threshold where the charger would refuse to charge the battery. Basically the light would appear dead and not accept a charge. A simple work-around to resurrect a ReX from this state was to connect two AA (or similar) batteries in series and charge the battery for a bit with the higher voltage to get it over this "hump". Sort of a jump-start, if you will to get it back to normal operation. My memory is a bit vague, and I don't recall the exact date of this fix, but I believe it was sometime around mid/late 2009, give or take.
#2: The second, recent change was to upgrade the battery itself. After fix #1, some customers have still been reporting occasional issues with some lights like shorter-than-normal battery life, lights not holding their charge as long as they should, or just the occasional sudden failure, all of which apparently were eventually traced back to poor quality control on the part of the battery manufacturer. LRI ended up finding another battery manufacturer to custom build the battery to their specs. As far as changes between the new & old battery, actual battery life should be about the same, but the new battery provides a bit more power at full charge resulting in a slight boost in brightness. Additionally, performance is much more more consistent from one ReX to the next. This change was fairly recent, and the first ReXes to include the new battery began shipping on 6/28/10.
Both of these are definitely warranty issues, so if you have a ReX that is exhibiting any of the issues described above you may send it in to LRI for free replacement. Warranty instructions, return address, etc. may be found here.
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Regarding the new USB chargers that were announced last week, yes the only way to get them for the time being is to get the entire package including both solar & USB chargers plus the clip. I checked with LRI, and (at least this time around) all of the chargers were manufactured as pairs, so they can't start splitting them up without ending up with a whole bunch of solar chargers with no USB charger to put with them. Of course it's possible this situation might change in the future, but for now you're stuck with the package deal.
There have been at least 2 major revisions for the ReX so far. Probably a number of other minor tweaks as well, knowing LRI, but as far as major, noticeable changes, I'll just stick with these two.
#1: The first was a tweak to the charging circuit. Early ReXes would sometimes manage to discharge their batteries below threshold where the charger would refuse to charge the battery. Basically the light would appear dead and not accept a charge. A simple work-around to resurrect a ReX from this state was to connect two AA (or similar) batteries in series and charge the battery for a bit with the higher voltage to get it over this "hump". Sort of a jump-start, if you will to get it back to normal operation. My memory is a bit vague, and I don't recall the exact date of this fix, but I believe it was sometime around mid/late 2009, give or take.
#2: The second, recent change was to upgrade the battery itself. After fix #1, some customers have still been reporting occasional issues with some lights like shorter-than-normal battery life, lights not holding their charge as long as they should, or just the occasional sudden failure, all of which apparently were eventually traced back to poor quality control on the part of the battery manufacturer. LRI ended up finding another battery manufacturer to custom build the battery to their specs. As far as changes between the new & old battery, actual battery life should be about the same, but the new battery provides a bit more power at full charge resulting in a slight boost in brightness. Additionally, performance is much more more consistent from one ReX to the next. This change was fairly recent, and the first ReXes to include the new battery began shipping on 6/28/10.
Both of these are definitely warranty issues, so if you have a ReX that is exhibiting any of the issues described above you may send it in to LRI for free replacement. Warranty instructions, return address, etc. may be found here.
---
Regarding the new USB chargers that were announced last week, yes the only way to get them for the time being is to get the entire package including both solar & USB chargers plus the clip. I checked with LRI, and (at least this time around) all of the chargers were manufactured as pairs, so they can't start splitting them up without ending up with a whole bunch of solar chargers with no USB charger to put with them. Of course it's possible this situation might change in the future, but for now you're stuck with the package deal.
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