Solar cell flashlights????

Has anyone tried solar cells flashlights? I did a search on ebay and found about 100, have any of you tried one out? How good are they? they are all 2 cell lights. this one is aparently waterproof.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8790767663&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1


I was thinking in getting one with a PR base bulb, put 2x2500mah nimh batteries and the lambda SMJLED and have a forever free light for emergencies.

What do you think?

AlexGT

I've seen nicer than that. Go to google and click on froogle. You can search for "solar powered flashlight" and find a number of nice ones.

Hmmm, I never thought I'd see the day. Solar powered flashlights! To me they have always been on the top ten list of the world's worst inventions:

1. Screen doors for a submarine
2. Nuclear hand grenades
3. Solar powered flashlights
4. Fireproof matches
5. Water repellant towels
6. Non toxic bug spray
7. reusable kleenex
8. Non absorbent sponges
9. fill in the blank__________
10. fill in the blank___________


Sorry. I was just being facitious. I have never owned a solar powered flashlight, but I'm thinking "How long would you have to leave this thing out in bright sunlight to charge up a couple of 2500mah AA's to full capacity?" Probably several days. And what if its cloudy? Also, being NiMh, they would self discharge at the rate of 30 percent a month. That would require regular monthly or bi-monthly charging even if you don't use it.

Maybe a better thing for emergencies would be a good quality "shake light". I don't have one of these either, but IMHO it makes more sense than a solar powered light.

Or.......a minimag with the Terralux TLE-5 LED drop-in mod. Pick up a pack of 24 AA Duracells at Home Depot for around 12 bucks. They have a shelf life of 7 years. And the TLE-5 will give you about 6 hours of really good light on one set of batteries. So you would be set for an unexpected power outage for the next 7 years. Actually, I have used batteries that were 10 years old, and they still had plenty of juice left. Don't store the bats in the flashlight tho, they could leak and ruin all of your fun.

Anyway, thats what I think.

On Flashlight -- Wikipedia someone added something called the "Earth light"... it's a solar cell flashlight. There's also the series of keychain lights called the "skylight" and I believe Sigman was selling his a few days ago. Check Flashlightreviews.com for reviews of the Skylights.

There are several posts on CPF about shake lights, crank lights, solar lights, etc. vs. battery powered lights. I bought 2 shake lights before coming to CPF. After reading more about the various options, I've decided to depend on lithium powered lights to get me through emergencies...

I don't know much about batteries, but I would be concerned about the batteries being ruined by accidentally letting them self discharge completely (by not using them).

Thanks for the replies, I guess solar cells are not ready for prime time yet!

Oh well!

AlexGT

I remember a joke advertisment that made the rounds in an old electronics magazine years ago (I think Electronics Today International) about a solar torch....during the day it would glow nicely, dark at night.

However I think the comments on them not being useful today aren't fair these days. I had a solar powered incandescent torch about 8 years ago which I would take camping. Leaving it on the tent during the day, or even near the entrance it would charge nicely for enough light to see your way around making dinner, rummaging around the tent and for midnight wees.
I now have a solar powered key chain LED light, much brighter than a standard button cell keychain light, though not waterproof. I have yet to drain it down to an unusable level.....very handy, but a little too big for my pocket. I'd need to do a full discharge/charge test to give an objective assesment.

I've seen the torch mentioned in the post around the traps....I think it is a reasonably good one, maybe a little old design (it's about 2-3 years old).
Solar torches are quite a reasonable option for fiddle lights, I wouldn't use them for blinding attackers, spotting roos or all night walks.

Given that intermittent usage caveat, if you were going for one, I'd pick a recent design, with a large cell capacity to carry you over dim days....I haven't seen one with a SMPS cct yet....that one mentioned above I was thinking of modding with a power management cct.

Phil
PS: I often use the screen door on my submarine to keep out mozzies, Bozzlite was right about those non toxic insect repellants....THEY don't work at all.

AlexGT said:

[...] I guess solar cells are not ready for prime time yet!

Click to expand...

Like with all the other lights: It depends on the intended use of the light .
I agree that for a limited emergency situation there are better solutions. But if you are travelling for 6 month in Africa or then you rather get something with minimal demand on supplies (especially if you have to carry that stuff on your back....).
Many construction site warning lights are powered with solar panels and they really work well. Don't write off a very useful technology just because it does not fit your particulare profile....

Ive seen quite a few of these on the quality chineese website.

I have one for a bike like I use. I bought it from some science store a few years ago online to get free shipping. It was like ten bucks. Its house in these case with screw on lid. It has a regular light in the head, 3 blinking red leds in the tail and two switches. It has an internal battery and uses either alkline or recharagables.

I use to use it when I did not have any emergency lights and would leave the red blinkers on at night. Put it in the window to recharge during the day.

I think solar works best for yard lighting, street, etc. If you keep the light in a bag or wher eit can not recharge, it maybe dead when you use it.

I have an older version of this light. I bought it over 6 yrs. ago. The one I have doesn't have the compartments for extra light bulbs or batteries, and the beam is not adjustable. It has an internal battery pack thats made of 3 Nicad AA batteries. The bulb it has is the screw type base not PR. And is rated for a 3 cell light. It also runs on 2 AA batteries. The only problem with mine is I think it has a weak cell in the battery pack and I never got around to replacing it. Also the beam has rings in it. The so called tough waterproof shell makes a good waterproof cell phone carrier that will also float. I bought it for backpacking so that during the day I can leave it in the sun. Hanging it on the outside of my rucksack if necessary. Of course it won't charge on cloudy days, but you can still use regular AA batteries for backup. When mine was new I got over an hour of light from the charged batteries.