new brinkmann clip light at Walmart

I just bought a new Brinkmann "Tuffmax" LED Clip Light at Walmart after church. It is a 2AAA side by side form that has a clip on the battery end to change cells. It also features a 90 degree rotating head and a high power LED I think a luxeon. It lists it as 45 lumens and uses an optic? (maybe it is a short reflector) so the beam is similar to my streamlight lux jr. The tint isn't perfect either whitish but shifts to yellow/green as the batteries drain down. The light is plastic and has an interesting foward clicky switch on a panel on the side where it looks more like a brinkmann label than a switch. It must be driven fairly hard as it does heat up and looks like it may have thermal protection as it dims as it gets hotter. Cost is $10.88 plux tax..

Pros....
nice clip better than cheaper lights using 3AAAs
90 degree rotating head and tail stands ok too
bright enough to be useful for most things
looks are good.... not cheap.
switch is weird but nice when you get used to if, forward clicky a plus
price is very good for what you get
small size 3.25" L x 1.5" W x 1" D
like has very useful spill even though the beam is weird
Cons....
seems to get hot and light output drops
weird beam pattern that can be ugly to some
tint isn't great but at the cost acceptable
battery latch may be a problem down the line, don't like it very well
head rotates 90 degrees upward from the side of the switch so you cannot rotate it down using it with your thumb on the switch but may be good for a clip on pocket light.
not sure about it but runtime may be short due to output and 2AAA
would love to see a 2AA version only for that reason.

I don't have a picture or runtime I will leave that to someone with a good camera and equipment but my guess is about 1- 1 1/2 hours to 50% on nimh 800 mah batteries. If nobody else posts it I will try to get a current reading off the batteries.

They also had another 1AA brinkmann LED light on the same peg I think at the same price too.... I didn't buy it though. The peg seems to have alternating lights on it but other stores may put the different lights on seperate pegs.

just quickly measured current draw.. cold using 2AAA energizer alkalines that came with it.... about 1.0 amps and hot off the charger 900mah kodak nimh AAAs 0.85A
I suspect the light may have heated up a little as it seems to dim a little as it gets hotter. I find myself playing with this light for the forward clicky switch makes it really easy to give a quick burst of light without clicking it on.

This post is worthless without pictures!

Ha! I finally got to say that!

cool little light, especially for the money

the combination of clip and tilting head is nice

I bought one of these littlelights last week; for the $$ it's not a bad little light, but it does have a couple pretty serious issues.

I took the head apart to look at the emitter, and it is definitely a Cree (stamped on the front of the "star" it says "Cree XLamp 7090"). The output is very good for a 2XAAA cell light, although the tint is DEFINITELY on the yellowish side. Beam is a very useful WIDE, floody type.

Now the issues: there is absolutely no heat-sinking or venting what-so-ever for the enmtter. It's simply a star held in place in the head by a little plastic bracket. That I can see, there is no "thermal protection circuitry" built in. After the light has been on for approximately 3-5 minutes, the output drops by what appears to be more than 50%, and the plastic head of the light is noticeably warm. We all know that heat build-up makes all LED's FAR less efficient, and drops output considerably. This little light is a PERFECT example of that. From what I can see (judging by size/room of the body only; I only took the head apart), there are no boost electronics at all in the light. It appears that low vf binned Crees were used in the light, and it "seems" to be running direct-drive. There is a circuit board that sits between the AAA cells in the body, but that appears to be nothing more than the board for the switch (mine is reverse clicky), and I don't have the proper equipment to verify this.

For around $11.00, it's not a BAD light (...I've seen worse). But I'd recommend it as "short duration" light only, since the output diminishes so much after only a few minutes of "on" time. Sorry...can't post pics; no gottum digicam!

PJD

the circuit board between the AAA batteries is a boost circuit with a switch in the middle of it it takes from 0.8A-1.0A at about 2.5-3v and boosts it up to run the cree I am guessing about 0.4A or so There is another thread that has pictures in it
HERE

It's model 809-5000-0.

I have bought two of these in the last few weeks. The first has an orange peel reflector and runs pretty cool for about 50 minutes on 800mah Rayovac IC3 NiMh or alkaline - nowhere near the 2 hours listed on the package. I just got the second light last weekend it has a smooth reflector and it's brighter and gets much hotter and the run time is only about 20 minutes, so I'll be returning it and getting another with orange peel reflector. The lights drop out of regulation suddenly to a much dimmer level for a short while and go off when using the I-C3 rechargeables or alkalines. Please note that these are new I-C3 cells that have been on my shelf for a couple years and I just charged them today for the first time, so that may be a factor in the relatively short runtime. I'm not going to waste a pair of lithium batteries for a runtime test on those.

The light with the smooth reflector has and ugly beam. The one with the OP reflector has a beam similar to my Fenix L1P, but with about 50% wider spill beam.

This format is very handy for around the house use clipped to my shirt pocket. It's also adequate clipped to the hat brim, but the weight is a little more forward than I'd like, because the head and about 1/4" of the body are in front of the brim.

It is brigher than my Fenix L1P and has about 50% wider spill beam. I think that the power consumption may be to much for two AAA batteries to have very long run time.

I really like the wide spill beam for household activities.

If you have weak batteries this light will test them as it can draw up to an amp till it steps down to lower levels. I find myself using this light often as I have a lot of stuff around here stored under tables and in an unlighted closet I can grab it for a quick bright blast that is better than fumbling for a lamp. I haven't seen these at walmart since I got mine. I cracked mine open and had a look at all but the head. What I like is the forward momentary action on the switch. grab press for light look around and let go. No clicking on/off basically you cannot get quicker than that.

I returned the light with the smooth reflector that overheated and only ran 20 minutes on the Rayovac I-C3 rechargeables and got another light with the textured reflector and tested it on the same two I-C3 cells. The new light ran bright for 75 minutes before going dim. My other unit with the textured reflector only ran bright for 55 minutes with two other I-C3 cells, so I'm very pleased with the new light.

The new light was the last one on the peg at my local Wal-Mart. From what I read in other threads, this light is no longer in production. I also couldn't find it on the Brinkmann web site.

An interesting note regarding the switch operation on the two textured reflectord lights that I now have - one is a forward clicky with momentary operation and the new light is a reverse clicky - how strange.

The light with the reverse clicky will probably be clipped onto the visor in my car, since the interior lights in my car don't work and it would be handy there.

I might even get another one or two of these lights if I find them in other Wal-Marts that I visit. This form factor is very handy for me. It's too bad that no other manufacturers make a similar light - at least I haven't been able to find any.

I keep it clipped in my back pocket when I'm not inside so it can be easily accessed to get it and clip it on my hat brim.

I keep it on my shirt pocket when inside so I can click it on for hands-free usage when looking for something.

Satin Scotch Tape works well on the lens to smooth out the beam to make it more friendly for reading and up close work by softening the spot, but beware that this tape doesn't come off of the plastic lens very easily - maybe not at all. I couldn't get it off of the unit that I returned today.

The light is a good idea just they didn't quite get it right IMO. I don't mind the funky beam it works well and when I use it I am not hunting white walls with it but I with they had made a 2AA version with a slightly larger reflector using the same electronics and switch and provide better heatsinking I think then they would have sold a bunch of them.

The two units with the textured reflector that I have have a nice beam - bright spot with a lot of spill, similar to my Fenix L1P, but with wider spill. They just barely get warm during an hour burn.

The one with the smooth reflector was much brighter and got very hot within a few minutes. Even the batteries got hot. The hot spot was probably four times larger and had an abrupt transition to the spill and had a dark ring near the perimeter.

I like the concept, but I agree that it could be executed better. For some reason, nobody else has tried this design.

I like the compact size of the 2AAA format, but would also give strong consideration to a 2AA or 1AA format.

I want 2AAA side/side with a swivel myself that will tailstand. You can use it then to light stuff up when working on it as sometimes I don't want to wear a headlamp. I have seen swivel lights with incans or dim LEDs but nothing that would run for 3-4 hours and was constructed well.