Saw a LED light at WalMart

[webley445]

Was at Wally World and saw a Brinkman flashlight.
packaging said it was a single LED. It was a bulky tube looking thing witha tailswith. I'm sure it's been seen by someone here, has anyone tried/tested it?

 

[Doug Meister]

I saw it but didnt buy it. It looked like it would be so dark that instead of light it would put out shadow.

--Ðøug

 

[jbechto]

Hi,

I have one. It has a very nicely focused beam. Puts a very defined spot on the opposite wall. It is also very reasonably priced, especially for a light with a built in voltage doubler/regulation circuit. However, it is not very bright and it is much bulkier than it needs to be!

 

[Saaby]

I don't like it, I mean it's ok but there are better things out there, here's why. The focusing system focuses the already blue cornia into a very blue spot! It's like they put a blue LED in there almost!

 

[Daniel Ramsey]

I bought one of those new Rayovac sportsman headlamps from Walmart that has a 3 position switch for a single white LED, 2 red LEDs and a xenon bi-pin bulb. It uses 3 AAA batteries and appears waterproof, all for $14. Took it home and mounted a Luxeon in place of the bi-pin bulb and now it makes a neat hands free worklight! I drove the luxeon directly without resistor dropping from the 4.5v. Drilled out the reflector and shaved it down a bit so the collimator will fit under the original lense, all told about an hour to trim and solder everything.

 

[Empath]

Webley, it looks like you're describing the Brinkmann Long-Life light. It was introduced several months ago and was a history maker in the short but rapidly moving LED story. Some, including members here, were introduced to the fascination of LED lights through that light. At it's introduction it along with the PalLights, and shortly after the PT Impact, there were no other LED lights projecting such a well defined circular beam over a reasonable distance. It was significant too in being one the first, following CMG's innovations, to use a step up converter to get the voltage needed to power it on fewer than three cells.

Whether you'd be interested in having the light really depends on your wish to have a piece of history. For a rigid plastic light it's constructed reasonably well and sturdy. It does lack some of the refinement that has come along since. It's the only small LED light my wife insists on having on her side of the bed. I stuck a couple of Lithium AA in hers, and I'll probably not feel a need to replace or worry with them for several years.

You should be able to find several reviews and mentions on CPF

There's also a review at Craig's LED Museum.

 

[Slick]

Originally posted by Daniel Ramsey:
I bought one of those new Rayovac sportsman headlamps from Walmart that has a 3 position switch for a single white LED, 2 red LEDs and a xenon bi-pin bulb. It uses 3 AAA batteries and appears waterproof, all for $14. Took it home and mounted a Luxeon in place of the bi-pin bulb and now it makes a neat hands free worklight! I drove the luxeon directly without resistor dropping from the 4.5v. Drilled out the reflector and shaved it down a bit so the collimator will fit under the original lense, all told about an hour to trim and solder everything.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I have the same light, but do not wish to attempt this mod until I know the run-time off three AAA's...Care to share?

Will it run as long as it took to build it? Tried NiMh's yet?

 

[Daniel Ramsey]

Who cares? AAA's are cheap, the light is very well constructed for the price so its just a minor detail for me, if I wanted something fancier I would take it off my mod shelf, a light like this can be resold at a good markup as the Tikkas and Petzels are selling at over $50 apiece.

 

[Catseye]

Posted by Slick
I have the same light, but do not wish to attempt this mod until I know the run-time off three AAA's...Care to share?

Slick,

I have the shoplifestyle LS collimater 3 AAA direct drive light. Run time should be similar. It produces bright light almost identical to my SLS for about 2-3 hours and then gradually diminishing thereafter until about 36 hours it becomes very dim.

Daniel,

How does the little plastic light handle the heat? My LS 3 AAA is all aluminum properly heatsinked and gets a little warm for the first hour.
Catseye

 

[Orion]

For experimental sake, I took a hack saw to my Brinkman Long Life about an inch from the lense. After that section was removed, it is easy to see that the LED is of earlier design. Without the lense, it does produce an even flood beam, but the corona is bluish and splotchy. The lense does a great job of hiding this. At any rate, I bought this light more than a year ago, and it still is using the same batteries with my intermittent(sp?) use, so 'Long Life', I believe it lives up to that.

By the way, the light wasn't destroyed. The part I took off nicely, and snuggly slides back on, so I can use it with the spot, or take the lense of for flood.

 

[I_rv_too]

I purchased the single-led brinkman light at walmart a while back. It came with three snap-on lens ... blue, red, and I forget the other color.

You're not going to illuminate the world, but it puts out enough light to move around at night, particularly indoors.

 

[Slick]

Originally posted by Catseye:
I have the shoplifestyle LS collimater 3 AAA direct drive light. Run time should be similar. It produces bright light almost identical to my SLS for about 2-3 hours and then gradually diminishing thereafter until about 36 hours it becomes very dim.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Thanks for the useful reply, Catseye.

Typically, I tend to use handheld flashlights more on an "intermittant" basis. Headlights however, I tend to use for longer durations, sometimes even several hours at a time. It would be impractical for me to have to change batteries every couple of hours or so. Plus, I have not found as cheap of source for AAA's. With Kirkland AA's going for 25 cents a pop, it's hard for me to get real interested in the AAA's.

i_rv_too - the light you have is the Brinkmann "Rebel" - same internals as the longlife. I have both of these lights and find them to be quite useful.

 

[I_rv_too]

>>Rebel

That's right. It's the Rebel I'm talking about. I find it useful too ... sorry if I gave the impression otherwise.

I understand the red cap, but have found no use for the blue cap.

Why do they include a blue cap?

 

[I_rv_too]

Also bought the Rayovac headlamp a month or so ago, but am hiding it in my Suburban so my wife doesn't find it.

She thinks I have a flashlight "problem."

 

[The_LED_Museum]

That's like smokers hiding individual cigarettes inside the closet rod, on top of window frames, and inside hollow chair legs just so their spouse won't easily find them.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Originally posted by Daniel Ramsey:
I bought one of those new Rayovac sportsman headlamps from Walmart that has a 3 position switch for a single white LED, 2 red LEDs and a xenon bi-pin bulb.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I've got one of those, too... my biggest gripe is that the red LEDs are on the 2nd detent, not the first, which means you have to have white light before you get red... kinda seemed to betray the purpose. Also, the spot from the incandescent bulb is pretty lame. I'm not sure WriteRite could fix it. There's a competing LED/Xenon headlamp at Wal-Mart wherein the Xenon bulb is surrounded by a faceted reflector (but I can't remember the brand)... I imagine that would produce a much better beam. Maybe I'll buy that one next and see about cobbling them together somehow...

Originally posted by I_rv_too:
>>Rebel

I understand the red cap, but have found no use for the blue cap.

Why do they include a blue cap?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The blue cap is supposed to be better for seeing through glass with (reduced reflections?)

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I got a headlamp from Walmart that sounds really similar. It has a button to press that has three different settings. It's got the Xenon? bulb, reflector, and three leds in line above it. First button click turns on two of the leds, second click turns on all three leds (all three are white BTW) and the third click turns on the incand. Seems to be well made, and is fairly easy to disassemble. I'd love to replace the incand. with a Luxeon, but I wouldn't know where to begin.

 

[I_rv_too]

led museum>>inside the closet rod

Hmm, great idea! Ok, will post a question on another thread:

"What's the most expensive flashlight that will fit inside the closet rod in my front hall?"

 

[I_rv_too]

And has anybody ever modified their closet rod to accomodate such a flashlight.

Wait, that should be posted in the "Modification" section.

 

[Lux Luthor]

Originally posted by Daniel Ramsey:
I bought one of those new Rayovac sportsman headlamps from Walmart that has a 3 position switch for a single white LED, 2 red LEDs and a xenon bi-pin bulb. It uses 3 AAA batteries and appears waterproof, all for $14. Took it home and mounted a Luxeon in place of the bi-pin bulb and now it makes a neat hands free worklight! I drove the luxeon directly without resistor dropping from the 4.5v. Drilled out the reflector and shaved it down a bit so the collimator will fit under the original lense, all told about an hour to trim and solder everything.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I looked into this a while back, but decided the LS wouldn't fit with the optics.

But, my question is how does the reflector in there compare with an LS/o? Specifically, how about throw and spill light?