Sentinel Self Powered flashlight on sale!

[Quickbeam]

Normally $40, now $25 - last year's color - no other changes per the rep I called! I just ordered one to review. Uses the "Freeplay" mechanism to charge the internal batteries.

• Product color has been discontinued
• Wind-up power for dependability
• Rechargeable batteries for high performance mode
• Rugged, weather-resistant construction goes where you go
• A wind of 30 seconds will provide approx. 5-8 minutes of light (normal beam)
• Dual density Xenon bulb that operates at two intensities
• Engineered and designed in U.K. Made in China
• Regular Retail Price: $40.00
• Close-Out Price: $24.99

http://www .coleman.com/coleman/ColemanCom/prod_Detail.asp?Product_id=5322-711&CategoryID=31004&SourcePage=PROD_CATEGORY_MAIN.ASP&SubmittingPage=Prod_subcategory.asp

 

[JollyRoger]

Hi, Quickbeam.
I bought one of these a put a 5mm nichia in it instead of the incandescent one....bright enough for emergencies and will last a long time....

btw, it's Sentinel, not Sentinal. Sorry, I'm feeling rather anal today.

I should also be correcting people when they write "definately" instead of "definitely," and a host of other words, but then I would have to change my name to "Spelling Cop" or something like that.

 

[Quickbeam]

In that case, I think you should definately buy a Sentinal flashlight...

What voltage does it put out? I'm interested in modifying it with Nichias as well.

Nevermind - found this info on the web - 3.6V - perfect for nichia mods!

Coleman Sentinel Specifications
Power Source:
Wind up AC alternator driven by the crank via a transmission.

Charging Adapter 6V 100mA AC/DC adapter (2.1mm centre pin positive jack).
Rechargeable Battery Non-removable rechargeable Ni-MH battery pack, 3.6V, 1000mAh.

Light Source:
3.3 V 1565 mA and 140 mA dual filament high-pressure xenon filled ultrabright bulb.
Shine Time:
Fully recharged battery - 5 hours (normal beam)
Fully recharged battery - 30 minutes (high beam)
30-second wind - 8 minutes (normal beam)
Adapter Charge Rate:
24 hours - 100% capacity
Accessories:
Cigarette lighter adapter.
Wall mounted cradle.
Dimensions:
Height
Length
Width
Weight
US-Imperial
2.1"
6.3"
2.4"
13oz.
Metric
55mm
160mm
60mm
370g

 

[Orion]

That link isn't working.

 

[Quickbeam]

James S (or JollyRoger)- Please let me know what type of bulb base it takes - I'm hoping it will take a standard PR base bulb. I have several already made with 3 nichias in them and am hoping to substitute them for the included bulb.

PS - it's not the link - the whole site seems to be down right now.

 

[radellaf]

The ***** with those Freeplay lights is that generally wind-up lights are for emergencies, so the light might be unused for years, and yet this one is dependent on a NiMH battery pack that will no doubt be useless if left unused for a few years.

At least with the spring driven lights something would work if the batt. was kaput. Still, the thing should use a supercap and be LED based.

 

[Orion]

It's back up now. I went ahead and ordered one.

 

[James S]

I also couldn't resist one at that price and placed an order. UPS says mine will come tomorrow

I'll let people know what I think about it.

The case doesn't look like there will be a lot of room in there for extra mods and such, but might be able to find the space for a Bad Boy. Oh, what fun!

PS, my spelling is checked automatically as I type in this browser. So you'll never know how horrible I normally spell...

 

[Quickbeam]

Hmmmm.... Last thing I knew, NiMH batteries didn't just go bad sitting around for a few years unless they were constantly being charged...

I primarily want the thing to mod for LED use. Since it runs on 3.6V it would be perfect for LED mods. As it is switchable between the 2 filaments (high/low), I think a dual circuit 3 LED (low) / 7 LED (high) setup would be pretty effective and would run a lot longer on a 30 second charge than the incandescent bulb.

 

[James S]

I"m with quickbeam. Also going to do an LED mod. The delivery date on mine still says today, but the UPS site hasn't been updated to say "out for delivery" so I might not get it I suppose.

I don't see any more information on the high/low beam effect of the thing. Are there flashlight bulbs with 2 filaments in them like a brake light or something? Would that be a tri-pin bulb

And I don't think the NiMH batts will go bad, but they will slowly loose their charge. So if i need to use it for the first time in a year I will have to crank it. And while the instructions suggest that the batteries are not changeable by the user. Nobody here would hesitate to take it apart to change the batteries!

 

[Vikas Sontakke]

What's the shipping charge on this?

- Vikas

 

[Quickbeam]

Shipping was (ouch!) $8.25...

 

[James S]

They must be so proud of their shipping that they didn't even include that little detail in the receipt email that they sent me... I didn't pay that much though, I must be closer to them than you are.

 

[B@rt]

So, how does the light feel? Sturdy? Cheap?

How does the winding mechanism perform?
TIA,

 

[LoneRebel]

James, since it says the batteries are not changable they probbly mean that you have to tear apart the case in order to get to them

Let me know if you can get into this guy. If you can I'll probably pick one up myself.

 

[JollyRoger]

The Sentinel does not the use a standard pr-base bulb. In fact, since the light in its original form has high and low modes, the bulb is designed for this.

No worries. If you stick a 5mm nichia in there (fits in the prongs almost perfectly), the voltage is pretty reasonable (since it uses 3 AA nimh) at 3.6V. Sure, fully charged you are probably driving the nichia too hard...but whatever.

The winding mechanism feels rather solid. Even though supercapacitors might be more ideal for storage-type flashlights that might need use all of a sudden, I kind of like the fact that this light uses nimh....

-it's better for everyday use, and you can charge it with the included plug-in charger, which is kind of nice.

-If the batteries *are* dead and you need light, it just takes 30 seconds or so to get some light. Then you can keep cranking if you need longer light. Especially with an led in there, a minute of cranking will go a long ways (in terms of light).

 

[James S]

It's here

It's a little bigger than I imagined, but not bad. It also has some heft to it.

Interesting feature is a little green light that lights up when you're turning the crank hard enough. It does take a bit of work to light it up, but definitely works well.

The bulb is nice and the reflector has a pretty good beam.

It's going to take a little more work to get it apart than I imagined to examine the rest of the internals. It's held together with screws with a triangular notch in them, never seen any quite like that and I don't think I have a driver that shape but I'll look.

It says to give it a 24 hour charge before using it the first time, so it's plugged in at the moment. It came with a wall wort, but did not come with the snap on carrior thing that is shown in the manual.

Post any other questions and I'll try to answer them, as soon as I've got it apart I'll post pictures.

 

[James S]

turns out that you can use a #6 torx driver to open those odd screws, if you're careful it wont even damage the driver.

With those out it comes apart very easily, here is the circuitry side of things:

Lots more circuitry in there than I expected to see. There is even a charge controller chip on there, which I guess is necessary since it can be charged from a wall wort as well. I don't know if the generator current goes through it as well, but I suspect that it does. 6 very beefy diodes too.

Here is a little closeup of that part. The power from the generator comes in those 3 varnished but otherwise non-insulated wires that run in a circle at the bottom and connect to the diodes. Could it be a 3 phase generator?

On the other side of that board is the generator:

The last one at the bottom is where the coils are hiding and I think that the wires coming out must be directly connected to the coils.

The reflector deserves special notice as well, I like the dimpling and makes for a beam with a large hotspot and a lot of flood power while still throwing a little ways.

The bulb is indeed a 3 pin bulb, I know it will burn out just when I need it, so an LED mod is absolutely necessary!

The manual says that the low beam pulls 140ma and will run 5 hours on a full charge. The high beam pulls 1.1 amps and runs for 30 minutes. 30 seconds of winding will give you 5-8 minutes of low beam. So this should have no trouble running a BB500, indeed you could get the same performance with 2 of them installed for high! And there is room inside the head to hold them too. For low beam a couple of regular high brightness LED's would last a good deal longer.

Part of me wants to preserve that interesting reflector, but I'm not sure it's going to be possible. It is glued in, and I'll try to remove it but I'm not sure I can get it out in one piece. And if I don't remove it I'm not sure that there is room for all the other parts necessary.

we'll see. I'm looking forward to this project!

EDIT: a more careful reading of the manual reveals more interesting info. Charging via wall wort takes 24 hours to reach 100%. 40 minutes of cranking till the green "You're really charging now" light comes on will give you a full charge. So, if I'm not forgetting something 1440 minutes vs 40 minutes would be 36 times as much power, so the ac adaptor puts out 100ma at 6v, so the generator must me putting out as much as 3.6 amps, or almost 22 watts at 6 volts. Not bad huh?

 

[X-CalBR8]

James: Thanks for the pics. They are quite clear and I can make out a lot of detail.

Shoot. Just as I suspected, cheap plastic gears. It's not surprising though because even some generators that I've seen that cost close to $100.00 have them. To me, that makes this a fun light to experiment on and play around with, but not something that I would want to depend on in an emergency kit. I suppose there are different "grades" of plastic and some is better than others, but I've never had good luck with anything that I've ever owned that had plastic gears. For the price though, I suppose that one could hardly complain. It's just that I would not want to have to depend on it.

I wonder if there is a military equivalent to this sort of light. That would probably be made of something more substantial (such as metal) that would be more dependable in an emergency. Does anyone happen to know of such a light?

 

[James S]

While I can't tell for sure, I think they are a nylon type plastic and should be pretty strong. I think they have to be, you really have to crank this thing HARD to light the green light when the batteries are low. I've really been hard on it over the last few hours, changing direction quickly and such, and it's never stripped a gear or skipped a notch or anything. Given it's only a cople of hours old, but that part of it feels very solid.