What happened to good 9 volt flashlights?

[The Hawk]

This thread reminds me of the time one of my buddies told me that you could test 9 volt batteries by touching the end of them to your tongue. Turns out that will give you a mild shock. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[defloyd77]

This thread reminds me of the time one of my buddies told me that you could test 9 volt batteries by touching the end of them to your tongue. Turns out that will give you a mild shock. Don't ask me how I know.

Yep, that's how we used to test them all the time as kids. Did it a lot, a lot of the devices that used 9 volts batteries were poorly made and not working. It was kind of like Russian Roulette, but with less tragic consequences.

 

[idleprocess]

This thread reminds me of the time one of my buddies told me that you could test 9 volt batteries by touching the end of them to your tongue. Turns out that will give you a mild shock. Don't ask me how I know.

Do not try this with 12V lead-acid batteries lest you wish to learn a difficult lesson about internal resistance.

 

[Dave_H]

Depends on what is considered a "good" 9v flashlight. I have a couple of cap-type push on cheapo lights, one with a single LED and another with 2/6 LEDs switchable. Both have low output which is fine for casual inside use, one being used as nightlight running the battery down to around 3v (sure gets dim). Neither are particularly efficient, just use dropping resistor. Efficient switching step-down circuit would not be hard these days; even step-up with constant-current output to power a small series string, such as used in backlight LED circuits.

I have an endless supply of "free" (recovered from recycle) 9v batteries including ones measuring 9.6v so were never even used. Primary other uses are smoke alarms and DMMs.

Dave