For the diehards: Mystery keychain on eBay

Howdy all, and thanks for providing the resource.

I'm not much of a diodehead myself, beyond patiently waiting for the day 110V drop-ins, solar modules, OLED/LEP/similar displays and other killer-apps hit the cheap spot (looks like we're almost there, now)...

...but, my mother's dropped a few hints in favor of a keychain light, so lo, I tread here, to the bright and seedy underbelly of the LED fetishist community, whence even the most sticker-encrusted case modder fears to tread. Or something like that.

Anyhow, following the law of maximum convenience, I picked up the first random one on eBay that was less than a disposable Energizer, specified a shipping fee, and let me 'Buy it now.'

That happened to be http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3017499572, and I've seen nothing quite like it on the review sites, so I thought I'd mention it here. It was dutch at $4, and I think there were at least 3 left after I put my order in at the two hour mark.

Looks a little chunky, with a high risk of breakage on the ring-attachment molding, but the true on/off and apparent lack of a gimmick chipset might keep it more understandable to the 'mature' /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif mind.

I'll try to remember to post some details when it arrives.

I want to say welcome, Floid. I'm new here, too. It's a great place to be. I wish I were knowledgable enough to be of help with your question. I'm sure others will chime in. But this has been my first opportunity to be the first to say welcome. Glad you're here.

Floid...Welcome to CPF (Hang on to your wallet...it's gonna be a bumpy ride!). I don't have any experience with the light from ebay that you ordered, but for 4 bucks with shipping included, ya can't really go wrong. Let me say, before the other 4500 members beat me to it, get an ArcAAA! As far as keychain lights go, it's what all the others aspire to be! Read through the forum and have a good time. You'll be glad you found us!

PJD

Incidentally, www.countycomm.com has the ArcAAA on sale this weekend only for $17.00...that's the best price I've ever seen it for. And Frank is great to deal with!

Mystery keychain on eBay - Arrived!

Just got here today; props to the eBay seller for whatever voodoo kept the package spotless as it journeyed CA-to-CT.

The light itself turns out to be an LED Club model, a little thinner than it looks in the photograph. The switch is a simple white plastic slide (also hard to tell from the photo), and the keychain-holder-widget does swivel, though, obviously, nothing but the size and chunkiness would make you think "sturdy."

No idea whose LED is in this, nor if it's being overdriven, but "scientific" testing indoors on an overcast day, with the 2 CR2016s it came with, says I can see a somewhat faint very blue-violet spot on the wall from across a 15' room. At about 6', it coalesces into a white ring with a central blue-violet spot, and at 3", it's the usual warm white one'd expect from a flashlight bulb.

Should be bright enough for Mother's purposes; the switch is a bit fiddly to operate without keys attached (needs that extra bit of palm-leverage, or a fingernail)... It'd have more value to it if the switch glowed in the dark, which it doesn't seem to. (Only tried 'charging' it for a few seconds, but it looks like they used white just to create the illusion.) The curve of the LED dome barely projects, which is probably limiting the angle a bit, while offering some scuff-protection.

So hey, perfectly generic keychain light, like it says.

(Edit: Oh, 4 fairly large - as in, hmm.. 4mm diameter? - Phillips-head screws to change the batteries, with a surprisingly ergonomic depression for your finger where you'd expect a battery door to be. Not going to be opening it up to see if it's regulated, as it's a gift and all.. I'll report back if the batteries ever need changing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif)

Re: Mystery keychain on eBay - Arrived!

I've seen those before - someone on my links page was advertising them. Can't find it now...

Re: Mystery keychain on eBay - Arrived!

Speaking of Countycomm and keychain lights, they have some for just $1.00 each. Their web site mentions a minimum order of 20 pieces but any true flashaholic should want at least that many /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif. A friend and I split 20 of the white ones and I've been giving them out to other friends. They are a great deal. They have no click on/off button or switch (i.e. just squeeze only) but they're about the same brightness as the Arc AAA. Oh yes, there's no obvious way to change the batteries (ultrasonic weld, probably) but the lights including batteries are cheaper than replacement batteries would be by themselves. In fact I may pry a few apart sometime just as a source of CR2016 batteries for my old Photons.

[ QUOTE ]
PJD said:
Incidentally, www.countycomm.com has the ArcAAA on sale this weekend only for $17.00...that's the best price I've ever seen it for. And Frank is great to deal with!

[/ QUOTE ]

No offense to arc fans and I know this forum compare them (aa != aaa and so on..) too many times already, imho the CMG ultra-G is a better deal at $15.00.