sed6
Enlightened
Well, these rock! I've had a few of the $10 incan power failure light you see in stores, even modded them with drop-in led bulbs, but was never happy with the results or price. A simple Google search turned up these lights which I now adore.
Up top is a single led which serves as a photo sensor controlled night light when plugged in. Below that we see the photo sensor, a charge/power status led, then the power slide switch. On the bottomside are 3 leds in a small reflector with a slightly covex plastic lens.
Operation is simple, just slide the switch between Auto, Off and On. On means the flashlight is on, night light is off, plugged into the wall or not. Off means everything is off. Auto means the flashlight will come on when power is lost and the night light is turned on via the photo sensor. A simple but well thought control.
The nightlight is bright. I'd say as bright or brighter than you typical 4W night light bulb. If you find it too bright you could pop off the protective clear 'dome' and put a single wrap of wax paper around the inside to calm it down. Or you could do like I did and replace the white led with a red led. I prefer a red night light in my bathroom as it's easier on the eyes in the middle of the night.
The flashlight works well too. It puts out the same amount of light as my solitaire with a Super MJLED, more than enough to navigate around your dark house. No it won't blind an intruder, nor will will impress your friends, but it met my expectations for output. As far as runtime, well I got bored after about 3 hours and plugged it back in.
This is a well built light. First time you pick one up you notice it's heft. My 250lbs could not damage it by standing on it, not even close. Taking the light apart to mod is a bear. I had to use two 18" sections of PVC from my local hardware store as 'breaker bars' to pop the clear dome off. I inserted the dome in one tube and slid the other tube around the body and pushed and pushed. Finally 1/4 of the dome came loose. So I rotated it 90-degrees and did it again. Finally I got it off with only very minor cosmetic damage. The bezel on the flashlight end comes next. For that I used a strap wrench to rotate the bezel about 45-degrees. This caused some internal notches to become mis-aligned thereby leaving a tiny gap between the bezel and body. Use the gap, and pry the bezel off. Yeah, lots of work and the hard part is still to come, seperating the body halves. Each seam has three of your regular everyday tabs which lock into the opposite half and form a tight bond. Probably the tightest bond I've ever encountered from such a fastening method. None the less, some judicious prying will eventually seperate the two body halves.
Inside you'll find three shrink wrapped button cells making a battery of 3.6v. I didn't determine the milliamps, but it's surely low. After I changed the night light led to a red one I reassembled the light. I used a small drop of hot glue on the tip of the switch to stop the rattle between it and the body slider.
The lights are available online for between $10-$13 each depending on where you look. However I picked up a 3-pack at Sams Club on 1/5 for just $19.95! I loved the lights so much I bought a 3-pack for my fiancee and my brother. Hope you liked!
Up top is a single led which serves as a photo sensor controlled night light when plugged in. Below that we see the photo sensor, a charge/power status led, then the power slide switch. On the bottomside are 3 leds in a small reflector with a slightly covex plastic lens.
Operation is simple, just slide the switch between Auto, Off and On. On means the flashlight is on, night light is off, plugged into the wall or not. Off means everything is off. Auto means the flashlight will come on when power is lost and the night light is turned on via the photo sensor. A simple but well thought control.
The nightlight is bright. I'd say as bright or brighter than you typical 4W night light bulb. If you find it too bright you could pop off the protective clear 'dome' and put a single wrap of wax paper around the inside to calm it down. Or you could do like I did and replace the white led with a red led. I prefer a red night light in my bathroom as it's easier on the eyes in the middle of the night.
The flashlight works well too. It puts out the same amount of light as my solitaire with a Super MJLED, more than enough to navigate around your dark house. No it won't blind an intruder, nor will will impress your friends, but it met my expectations for output. As far as runtime, well I got bored after about 3 hours and plugged it back in.
This is a well built light. First time you pick one up you notice it's heft. My 250lbs could not damage it by standing on it, not even close. Taking the light apart to mod is a bear. I had to use two 18" sections of PVC from my local hardware store as 'breaker bars' to pop the clear dome off. I inserted the dome in one tube and slid the other tube around the body and pushed and pushed. Finally 1/4 of the dome came loose. So I rotated it 90-degrees and did it again. Finally I got it off with only very minor cosmetic damage. The bezel on the flashlight end comes next. For that I used a strap wrench to rotate the bezel about 45-degrees. This caused some internal notches to become mis-aligned thereby leaving a tiny gap between the bezel and body. Use the gap, and pry the bezel off. Yeah, lots of work and the hard part is still to come, seperating the body halves. Each seam has three of your regular everyday tabs which lock into the opposite half and form a tight bond. Probably the tightest bond I've ever encountered from such a fastening method. None the less, some judicious prying will eventually seperate the two body halves.
Inside you'll find three shrink wrapped button cells making a battery of 3.6v. I didn't determine the milliamps, but it's surely low. After I changed the night light led to a red one I reassembled the light. I used a small drop of hot glue on the tip of the switch to stop the rattle between it and the body slider.
The lights are available online for between $10-$13 each depending on where you look. However I picked up a 3-pack at Sams Club on 1/5 for just $19.95! I loved the lights so much I bought a 3-pack for my fiancee and my brother. Hope you liked!
