There have been threads on this Forum asking about the ideal disaster Light.

Well we may already them right here in the Arc area.

We all are eventually going to have 10 or so Arc-LS's in the Future, Aren't we?

When the disaster Hits, the lights go out, and your rechargables come out, you have some temporary relife.

The rechargables start to fade and there is no place to charge them up again.

Out come the Arc-LS's, and you decide how many you need to turn on in the upright candle mode position. Three will do for now but when there is work to be done, we may need to bump that up to 6 or more.

We have enough power to meet todays needs but this is a week long emergency.
You check your stash of batteries, your running a bit low on your supply of new batteries and the stores have all been looted by now.

You dig through the house and find loose batteries, you also pull them for non-essential items. We find 4 123's, very good, we can use em. 6 single AA's, we can use em. You elect to knock eight of your lights down to single cell. Arc that you and your partner are carrying on thier person are loaded with two AA's for when brighter is needed.

Now what are you going to do with those 5 loose D cells and 3 loose C cells you found. Nothing.

Ha...bet you didn't know that this was going to be a sell job on single D and C cell power packs, did ya.

Solar powered battery recharger

Heck, solar-powered HOUSE.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JonSidneyB:
Ha...bet you didn't know that this was going to be a sell job on single D and C cell power packs, did ya.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Good job! Yes - I want to use a single D or C cell LS pack - mainly because a rechargable battery would last a LONG time.

Drop a Night Pearl led in the ole 2D Mag and it should be good for about a week! Plus I'd go out to the car and get the Light Wave 4000 and use it when I really needed a lot of light (50+ hours)! Heck, if you're really worried about log term outage, get one of those solar powered rechargable LED Lanterns. My ARC's are great but I have other lights to complement them.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by darell:
Heck, solar-powered HOUSE.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
same here.
btw those 123s that are dim in yous sf and such could be wrung out fully in the ls.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Roy:
Plus I'd go out to the car and get the Light Wave 4000 and use it when I really needed a lot of light (50+ hours)!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I live in the tropics and keeping a flashlight running on alkaline cells in the car is not the best idea. I had a LW4000 with brand new Duracells and these guys went to about 1/4 power in less than a month without even clocking up more than 15 minutes of use! I read somewhere that thermal cycling severely reduces the shelf-life of alkaline batteries.

My ideal disaster light would have to be without complex electronics - isn't it possible that a strong enough blast/or some sort of EMF weapon (not necessarily nuclear) can generate electronics-busting power? Heh- maybe simple filament lights may have the last laugh after all...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hotfoot:
I live in the tropics and keeping a flashlight running on alkaline cells in the car is not the best idea. I had a LW4000 with brand new Duracells and these guys went to about 1/4 power in less than a month without even clocking up more than 15 minutes of use! I read somewhere that thermal cycling severely reduces the shelf-life of alkaline batteries.

My ideal disaster light would have to be without complex electronics - isn't it possible that a strong enough blast/or some sort of EMF weapon (not necessarily nuclear) can generate electronics-busting power? Heh- maybe simple filament lights may have the last laugh after all...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Btw, did you see my experiment with the Arc-AAA and the microwave oven on this forum last year?

If it can survive that much microwave power, it can survive a good amount of EMP.

Peter Gransee

P.s. The Arc-AAA resisted the radiation because of it's thick aluminum "faraday cage" (grounded housing). The weak link is the LED port on the front of the flashlight. That survived this test because the LED reflector was facing away from the radiation source. A photon II nearby (without a metal housing to protect it) in the same test and with its LED facing the same direction, failed in the first second of the test whileas the Arc-AAA survived the entire 10 second exposure at full power.

To be fair to the Photon II, most people will never have to worry about EMP, etc.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gransee:
Btw, did you see my experiment with the Arc-AAA and the microwave oven on this forum last year?

If it can survive that much microwave power, it can survive a good amount of EMP.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Whoa, between Tom Hoops and yourself, Peter, you guys must have the most brutal testing methodologies for your products on the planet! I missed that thread (I wasn't even a member yet then probably) but I'll go dig it up - this I *have* to read up on!

You've given us all an extra reason to own and keep our Arc-AAAs (and LSs as well?) handy (and yet another excellent salient point for me to keep promoting 'em )

Point is, if the Photon2 failed, so could other less shielded lights, so if one were unsure or unwilling to subject their light to the microwave test, it might be a safer choice to go with something "simpler" and more failsafe for a true disaster light.

Personally, I'd still want a LED light to win in this area

Would an Arc-LS have a similar Faraday effect to ward off damaging EF pulse in the same way as an Arc-AAA? I just remembered that any flashlight that uses alkalines/nimhs is a subject to thermal cycling(?), battery leakage, self-discharge and shelf-expiry. Until Energizer AAA lithiums are out, that means I'll have to hope for something like the Arc-LS, which'll take lithium AAs or 123s.