Whatever Became of the Much-Ballyhooed Capacitor-Powered Flashlight?

[funkychateau]

I seem to remember such a product discussed here several years ago - a "police" flashlight powered by a supercapacitor, supposedly able to rapid-recharge and yet still provide decent output and runtime.

Did this turn out to be vaporware, like the compressed-air-powered car of several years back? The car was impractical because of the lack of sufficient energy storage in the chosen power source. But I expect it did manage to fleece quite a few investors.

 

[Illum]

5.11 flashlight, still around.

Reviews are so so http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002OAS4DO/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Rolled my own at one point, one 5V to 2.5V converter, two paralleled 2.7V 100F caps, one joule thief circuit. Charged in 15 minutes, 5mm LED ran for 2 hours in a very linear manner. It was fun, but not practical [too fat].

 

[wedlpine]

I have had one of these lights since they came out. It still works like a charm. I love that it charges in only 90 seconds. Could be brighter though.

I have actually been trying to find another one, without having to pay a fortune for it.

 

[idleprocess]

Did this turn out to be vaporware, like the compressed-air-powered car of several years back? The car was impractical because of the lack of sufficient energy storage in the chosen power source. But I expect it did manage to fleece quite a few investors.

OT, but the mass excitement over this one always escaped me. If you'll hark back to your high school physics days, you'll recall that in addition to pressure and volume, there's also a heat component to the energy in a compressed gas. Not usually mentioned, but apparent to most observers is the fact that a cylinder of compressed gas allowed to rest cools off in a relatively short period of time, resulting in the loss of a sizable percentage of the energy put into compressing that gas. The concept starts to make some sense in environments where you have high-pressure compressed air outlets everywhere, miraculously have compressor capacity to spare, and a need to move short distances - such as large factories where they need a fleet of runabouts - but not as the vehicle of tomorrow for the masses.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

I had acquired one of these as well. Very cool device concept. I think the niche application that it served just wasn't enough,or wasn't convenient enough. However, it serves great as a light-duty house light. I.e. the light you hang in the laundry room on a charger for use whenever a random need arises.

wedlpine - You might consider contacting the manufacturer to see if they have any old stock? I had asked about purchasing a charger at a discount, since I had only acquired the light with no charger, and they sent me one FOC, IIRC.

 

[Mike 208]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that 5.11 was updating the lights, and would be introducing new models "soon." That was well over a year ago (maybe closer to two).

 

[Kean]

The 5.11 Ultra-capacitor flashlight had a limited run due to poor sales and manufacturing problems (problems with switches and capacitors). Mine lives in my car and works fine (It's been 15 years since I bought it). 300 lumens if you press and hold the on/off switch (which was quite bright back when I first got it) otherwise 100 lumens down to 30 lumens after 45 minutes. 90 SECONDS to recharge and if you leave it on charge it will trickle charge for a couple days and then stay fully charged after that (as the capacitors reform). I've left it off the charger for years at a time (not plugged in at all) and it would turn on to the 100 lumen level and drop to 30. Just no turbo. 90 seconds later, you'll have turbo again. I've yet to see it completely discharged (no light) so the technology back then was and still is, amazing. I also have NiMH (D) and Lithium Ion flashlights in the car that I have to constantly swap out to use. Sure they're brighter (1K-12K lumen) but no where near reliable and maintenance free. I'm sure with today's higher capacity ultra-capacitors and brighter LEDs there could be some major improvements to this technology but AFAIK nothing has been done. Unfortunately it was too far ahead of it's time.