Quality LED Booklight

[WaltH]

I'm looking for an inexpensive (30 bucks or less), quality LED booklight. I would prefer it ran off 2 AA's. My 2 daughters have some cheap incandescent's now and they're eating me out of AAA's and Mini-mag bulbs.
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
WaltH

 

[Darell]

I hear you. I've had to build or modify reading lights for my own use. It seems like a natural, and I can't believe the market isn't flooded with them. Such is life on the bleeding edge - takes a while for the mfg'ing world to catch up.

The first thing to do is get some NiMh rechargeables for those things!

 

[WaltH]

Holy cow Darell! 4003 posts! You became a member after me. All I can say is...blah blah blah...

Just kidding. Thanks for the reply. Please post if you find something and I'll do the same.

What do you think of the clip light by streamlight. Maybe clip it to a baseball cap brim for them? Just a thought. I saw those for 14 bucks.

 

[Darell]

I don't have a clip light, but I know many people really like them. Not sure how good the beam would be for reading - but it would probably work great.

I'm almost positive that CC Crane sold an LED booklight at one time, but now I can't find it. It was pretty pricey if I recall correctly. The simplest mod is to buy one of the replacement LED bulbs and just retrofit an existing book light. Another good use of batteries is to buy an Opalec Newbeam and retrofit a Minimag. You'll get at least 10 hours out of a pair AA's.

I'll bet that eventually somebody will stumble upon this thread who has found a source for LED reading lights.

 

[hank]

The 4-AA Everready light -- two white LEDs on a flat panel that flips out from the battery case, with plastic tubes to spread the light and a white reflector -- is by far the best book light I have ever found.

It produces a completely flat, evenly distributed light because the LEDs are not aimed out; their light spreads out over several square inches of reflector. You can put it in a shirt pocket and read with it, or hang it in any convenient position or bungee/rubber-band it to anything nearby, including the cover of a hardback book.

You can also buy replacement LED bulbs for the screw-thread incandescent lights; haven't tried those.

 

[Saaby]

If I was retrofitting a Itty Bitty or other booklight I'd try and get a white SM LED. Why? Just seems better for this applicaton...

If you can go for something permanent Berkeleypoint sells those tri-star modules--which make the perfect in-bed book light. Don was also selling some of the stuff to make those yourself awhile back--do a search in B/S/T for "CPF Only" or something and I think you'll find it.

 

[Darell]

Oooh! Found it.

http://www.windandweather.com/cgi-bin/wind/For_The_Home___Books___GiftsPS_3212?SessionID=3X8npRhq&Args=&Pos=31

This place doesn't have the cheapest prices, but all of their stuff is high quality. This looks like a nice light, but I'm sure it is unregulated, and the "100 hours" of light is an ever-diminishing amount I'll betcha.

Still a nice design that is free-standing or clip on, and uses two AAA's. I should get one.

 

[rlhess]

I really like the Streamlight Septor as a reading light. Most of the time I only use 1 LED so the battery life is quite good. I have a PT Aurora and it blinks on th elower setting so it's quite annoying.

Cheers,

Richard

 

[EMPOWERTORCH]

I have now equipped one of my 2AA torches with a Nite-Ise headband and a superbright 8000mcd Toshiba PR Based converter bulb. The single orange LED is calibrated to draw about 50mA from the 2AA supply. Normal filament bulbs draw 12- times that amount. The torch was part of a bargain-basement 3-psck. I often read in bed with this torch strapped to my head; its beam is far more prefferable than a bedside light as the light beam comes from behind the line of sight so you don't get any glare... just illumination of the book. It has a milion other uses and keeps both hands free to do many tasks.
The Nite-Ise headband is American made but is available here in ther UK from branches of Halford's. With the Nite-Ise and the LED bulb, the cheap torch becomes a practical and useful item of equipment. All for less than a fraction of the price of a Petzl or similar headtorch.
I might upgrade to a 2LED bulb later on, although one is good for reading and most close-up tasks.
You can of course revert back to filament operation by resubstituting the original filament bulb, but for book reading, the filament bulb's harsh yellowish white glow can cause the pages to glare back at you somewhat.

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

The Eveready 2 LED Folding Lantern is wht hank is referring to. I have one and it is nice. Even has a hanger thing on the end.

C. Crane does have a single LED booklight Item #LRL Lumatec LED Reading Light. Uses 4AAA though.

 

[Darell]

Ah yes. I have one of those too. A bit awkward to hold and read with sometimes, but you can make it work. And they're pretty efficient and certainly offer a very smooth "beam" if you can call it that.

 

[EMPOWERTORCH]

My Nite-Ise headband equipped torch became very useful to me today, iluminating the way hilst I was sprawled on the floor doing an oil change. Just strapped the torch on, switched it on and I had a pool of light wherever I looked.
Why didn't someone think of these things earlier?
(I wish I did... I would be a very wealthy torchaholic by now!)...
Matt

 

[Chas]

Before I forget it - Sam's Club in Jacksonville, Florida has (had) an LED booklight for only $14.95 plus tax. I would think some of the other Sam's Clubs in US should have them too. Runs on 2 - 2016 batteries and has nice plastic carrying case too (separate from light) with a clock and alarm built in the case.

Best Regards,

 

[Darell]

Wish the thing ran on standard batteries! That would be excellent.

Empower - yes the headbands are nice, aren't they? Very Borg too...

 

[Sigman]

Found this one (looks good) at: www.eknifeworks.com
(couldn't find a link specific to the light, so do a search for item number: FM00010)

The following is quoted from their site:

Light Voyager™ Book Light (Batteries Not included) $19.99

brand: Fulcurm Marketing Group
The first booklight to incorporate Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp technology used in laptop computers. A single CCFL unit provides up to 10,000 hours of life--enough to read an hour a night for 27 years! The Light Voyager provides an even wash of white light on the page that is cool and energy efficent.

·Sturdy lightweight plastic construction
·Stainless steel clip
·Folds to a compact 3-1/2" x 5-1/2" x 1"
·Can also be used as portable desk lamp
·Uses 4 "AA" batteries (not included)
·Built-in 5vdc jack (adaptor not included).

 

[Wits' End]

How about

Looks a bit big.
Couldn't figure how to link to page either

I have seen a booklight at Menards (a regional Home Depot type store) and I think it is LED but I haven't really looked at it as I use my Ultra or ArcAAA to read by. Next time I'm there I'll check it out. Or maybe someone else from north central USA has seen it. It is a little clamshell sort of I Mac blue.

 

[B@rt]

BookLig ht

 

[Sigman]

As long as I've been dabbling with computers...I've got to say I'm another who hasn't figured out this inserting a picture into my message...I know there's a thread here on it somewhere...I'll have to get off my "dead batteries" and figure it out. I don't think I'll be posting huge ones that need a server to store them (though I think Imagestation.com is holding pics for CPFrs?).

Thanks witsend & Bart (how did you get that page to link?)

 

[B@rt]

It's not so hard...
Copy the page's url and insert it using the "Instant UBB Code" tags...

 

[Sigman]

Ok, thanks...I'm ready to try that...as soon as I get a picture that relates to something...maybe I'll wander over to the practice posting area...don't know if that's still there.