Nightstar II birghtness? worth buying?

[MrMimizu]

Just saw something called the Nightstar II.
Says you don't need batteries and you just have to shake it
for 30s to get usuable light for 20min.
I'm not expecting anythign blinding from this but does anyone know how bright it is? Not that I've ever run out of batteries but figure this might be an interesting toy if it's bright enough.

 

[MrMimizu]

Actually found a site called the LED Museum that has a review on it. Seems it's not really as fun to play with as I was hoping.

 

[PocketBeam]

I haven't seen the Nightstar II, but I have played with a shake an bake light. (Maybe it was a nightstar II? Can't remember)

It had a optic instead of reflector. In my very informal tests (I just looked at it), it seemed about the same brightness as my Photon light. (Actually over all less, as its beam was focused more.)

I was disapointed in it. There betetr emergency lights. In fact this one and others are talked about in another thread. Do a search for "emergency" and you shoudl find it.

 

[Haesslich]

If it's ANYTHING like my Forever Flashlight from Excalibur, it's bright enough to see by, but it's your average 5mm Nichia - less than a Photon II in brightness, and after the first 30 seconds it'll fade quite a lot. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[The_LED_Museum]

I have a page about it right here if you're interested.
I shook mine for 60 seconds, and got approximately 30 seconds of "useful" light out of it.

 

[Haesslich]

[ QUOTE ]
The_LED_Museum said:
I have a page about it right here if you're interested.
I shook mine for 60 seconds, and got approximately 30 seconds of "useful" light out of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Eh, I shook mine for 30 seconds, and got 30 seconds of 'bright enough' light reminiscent of a Photon I. After that, it began to fade, and after a minute would've only been useful if the area was a) totally dark and b) my eyes were night-adapted. The only advantage is that you can keep 'charging' it by giving it a 10-15 second shake as it begins to fade, and it'll stay at the same level for another 20-30 seconds or so.

 

[MrMimizu]

Yah, I guess that it's not really worth the effort..
I would prefer not to have to shake it that often.
It does sound interesting and the ebay seller sure made
it look better than what I'm seeing from you guys.
I guess I'll stick with my arc aaa and lionheart when it
arrives.

 

[Haesslich]

Don't get me wrong - it's still usable light you get, and it's a good emergency light for the reasons Craig's review described.... but it's not as good as even a keychain light for everyday use.

In that case, I'd get a squeeze-powered light like this would be better, due to needing less effort for similar results. You'll still get like a first-gen Photon in terms of brightness. Basically, try not to pay too much for one of these. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[paulr]

The Nightstar is a very cool "science gadget". A friend of mine has one and I've enjoyed playing with it. However, it's not that practical as a lighting tool, even as an emergency light. Better to just store a battery powered light and a few spare cells, and rotate the batteries for fresh ones every year or two.

 

[Haesslich]

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
The Nightstar is a very cool "science gadget". A friend of mine has one and I've enjoyed playing with it. However, it's not that practical as a lighting tool, even as an emergency light. Better to just store a battery powered light and a few spare cells, and rotate the batteries for fresh ones every year or two.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unlike most battery-powered lights, it floats and is fairly waterproof due to having no electronics and stored electricity to short, so it's useful for that. As someone else pointed out, it's the light you use to find your other lights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[idleprocess]

The Forever Flashlight I had (can't find it anymore) must have had the cheapest white LED available at the time because it was debatable whether the light was white or blue.

I doubt it was able to run anything close to spec current through the LED. I would say that the volume of light was only really useful in near-total darkness, or if you need some light for close-up detail work. Color rendering sucked, since it was a pale blue tint.

The LED got really bright when you shook it while on... maybe not so great for the LED or electronics.

 

[paulr]

The Forever Flashlight is a cheap knock-off of the Nightstar. The Nightstar is actually pretty well made.

Someone here took apart another one of those lights a few months ago, and found it actually had batteries inside! So you'd get nice bright light for a while after you took it home, but once the batteries were dead, you'd get pathetically dim light from the internal generator.

Re emergencies: if the Nightstar is a "light you find other lights with", how do you find the Nightstar? It comes down to using your EDC (of course you do have your EDC with you) and the Nightstar is really too big to be an EDC.

You're better off with a marker light on your regular flashlight. Tritium markers are real nice for that if you can get them. Otherwise, there are some nice lights with "find-me" flashers that can run for years nonstop. Eveready (Energizer) makes a 2D plastic incandescent one that's under $10 at my local drugstore and that's frankly what I'd recommend despite its low flashaholic quotient. It has a blinking red LED near the switch that should run for years. If you want something higher-end, the Inova 24/7 and the Arc4+ also have find-me modes, and the PALight has that continuous-glow mode that serves a similar purpose.

 

[TORCH_BOY]

I have a nightstar it is good for an emergency situation only.
The emmited light is not very bright and my arm gets tired
after a while.

 

[Alpine]

I have one of the original Nightstars, bought more for the "science experiment" quotient than anything else. It's fun to play with, and I guess would be handy on a desert island, but for light generation I could think of better alternatives.

One thing to be aware of is the field generated by the magnets. You probably don't want to leave one on top of your computer. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif YMMV...

Alpine