VESSEL GUARDIAN NIGHTLIGHT: SUPER DEAL! 75% OFF!

One of the more unusual stories - my wife bought some halloween things online last week. Showed up yesterday.

Me: What's this?

Her: Ghost Night light. I got one each for the girls. I wasn't sure if I should get it since I figured you could probably make something like it.

Me: These were how much?

Her: I'm not sure - they were less than $15.

Me: What? You're kidding, right?

Her: I think it was $13 or something.

Me: Wow.

What I had in my hands was a "Guardian" nightlight by Vessel. It is identical in every way to the Guardian light, with all the appropriate markings, except that it was packaged as a "Ghost Face Nightlight" Apparently someone thought to add static stick on "ghost faces" to sell them as Halloween items. The problem is, that makes it "perishible" so who knows, they might be even cheaper if you're willing to play "chicken"

The Guardian lightlight was in a bunch of design mags last year - do a google on "Vessel Guardian Nightlight" It's a EL nightlight that inductively charges a "satellite" nightlight / lantern which automatically comes on when it is removed from the charger or when the power goes out. The "Satellite" has a five hour runtime. and it's own on off switch. Very neat and very cool. Cheapest place online is $33-$35

The price is now $9.99 plus 15% off. I bought another SEVEN!!!! We'll have four for our house, two for her brother and his kids, one for each of our parents, a few more for gifts and a couple for me to mod. I plan to put some LED's in it and some 2700 mAh AA's in it so it'll have some obscene runtime and or brightness. Since it has 4 AA's inside I should easily be able to run a LuxI or even a Lux3

The back removes easily with 2 screws.


http://www.redenvelope.com/re/gifts...efedfgfdfmh.0&refPg=endeca&oid=15612194&nc2=1

Shipping sux @ $8, but coupon code for 15% off at RedEnvelope: ALC609

I don't need any but in the true spirit of CPF, I bought both of them!

I bought a couple also! Thanks!

Cute I got a couple also. Thanks

I went cruising over and the mod ideas started to flow...Until i saw it was $9 shipping. Not unreasonable, but double the price. Meh, i can pass on that. Thanks for the find though.

Great find. I don't know if its me but all the same.

Time will tell.

I found this about these lights. Apparently the manufacturers have a new version with double the runtime (exactly the same form factor, but less $!) coming out in January. Looks like the "rebadging" is an end of line deal.

Nice find.

Hopefully, as TwentySixTwo said, we'll be able to put some of our 2600 or 2700 NIMH cells in to give us the new, longer run time.

Interesting. I imagine they just upgraded the batteries in it. I'll post some pix when I get a chance. It's got 4 AA's shrink wrapped. Perhaps I'll even tear one open and test the batteries. Not a very bright incandescent, if it's running 1.2W = 6V @ 200 ma, the batteries are probably only 1000 mah It's a dim bulb though, so possibly even lower capacity

Thanks for finding the deal. I picked up a pair.

The battery pack actually says it's 1000 mAh. Circuit board is very small, though it has to 1) detect the presence of the inductive charger 2) Detect low voltage on the battery pack and shut off 3) detect removal of the inductive charger and turn the light on 4) turn on or off based on the switch on the bottom.


Here are some pictures of the guts:

I got mine yesterday; they're pretty cool. Nice find, twentysixtwo's wife.

TWENTYSIXTWO, or anyone else, have you swapped out the incandescent to an LED yet? I've not done any LED mods before and am hoping you might be able to give me some tips on what to buy. I'm good at soldering etc, but don't know too much about bare LEDs/LED's on stars, using, not using resistors, etc.

I ended up getting 14 of these, 9 to give as gifts and would like to get more lumens out of them. They're pretty dim.

I am going to buy a set or 4, someone start moding a bunch and let me know what you did! Let's see ideas. I don't think a surefire fits inside, but what the hell! Lets see your mods! Oh oh! If we start modding they might move the thread!
<grin>

Any one know what electronics are in the Gardian?

Does it overcharge the batteries?

What voltage do the batteries get charged to?
How fast is it charging the batteries?
Is there any limiter to protect the batteries from over draining by the light?

I was thinking of just changing out the bulb to use LEDs. I could put 5 white LEDS and consume 25ma each for a total of 125ma. Using a 68 -88 ohm resistor. This should be 8 hours run time on the included batteries. Yes, it is not regulated. Yes, it is not flashlight bright, but this might do the job...

14! Outrageous!

I plan to simply do direct drive off the 6V with the LED's in parallel. Lots of reasons why this isn't the best way to do it but it sure is the easiest. I have a few "scrap" luxeons from mods (all bad bins) but if I direct drive it at very low current (~200 ma) I'm sure it will be brighter than the original hotwire.

Another simple mod is to line one half of the inside with aluminum foil (after making sure it won't short out with some duct tape, etc)

There's no reflector for that light right now. I already tested this out and it definitely puts out more light - kinda artifacty though now.

Too bad the candeloos were not on sale, too.
I did not buy 14. I only purchased 6. Wow, if I had purchased 14, MY wife would be ready to kill me! <grin>:goodjob:

Thanks for the heads up by the way. Give the wife a kiss from me saying thanks.

No idea on overdischarge but the literature and my experience says the light shuts itself off when it's charge is low, so there clearly is some sort of low voltage shutoff.

The white LED idea is probably something I'll try too. Do one for same runtime max bright (might cut out a window for optics) while another might be for max runtime.....

Looks like they won't be getting cheaper - just checked the website and they're gone.

Lining the inside with aluminum foil is definitely easy and increases output. Double sided tape helps. Watch out for the two contacts at the bottom of the circuit board next to the batteries.

And here i was gonna beat you with 18 under my belt, but you ended up topping me by 2.

So here it is the weekend and who has modified the Gardian?
How did it work out?
Who has pictures and stories?