I bought the garrity single led light at walmart tonight.
The package says Nichia led. The plastic case the light is
in could use some serious improvement. It is not very intuitive how to install batteries. The instructions do
not help, and actually make things worse.
I nearly broke the thing attempting to open the light
up and install batteries. (nighttime in the cab of my pickup in the walmart parkinglot by the light of an arc aaa) The price was approximatly $15 (I left the receipt in the truck and am too lazy to fetch it)
To install the batteries you unscrew the bezel 1/4 turn and remove it. Ite not really threaded, just notched. There is
a o-ring between the bezel and the light. I doubt it does
much. The back of the package says "water resistant" but
this statement has been covered up with a small strip of
yellow tape. (3 times in 3 languages) Once the bezel is removed, you squeeze two small plastic tabs and pull the
guts of the light out of the front.
The light requires 3 aaa batteries. Two below the circuit
board, and one behind. Sort of a strange arrangemnt required to fit the tapered body. The circuit board
measures 0.625x1.60 inches. The power switch is mounted
close to the center of the board. On the front end of the
board the white led extends from the bottom with the leads
bent 90 degrees to point the led forward. Near the front of
the board are three small leds pointing upward about 3/4 of an inch in front of the switch. From right to left green, yellow, and red.
The power switch apears to be momentary. The circuit is interesting. The first press of the switch brings the light
on at full brightness. The green led also comes on steady
to indicate full battery strength. The package claims 162
hours in this mode.
Pressing the switch a second time reduces the light output
to 50%. The package claims 324 hours in this mode.
A third press of the switch dims the light to 25% of full
power with a claimed life of 700 hours.
A forth press of the switch starts the light blinking at a rate of 1/2 hertz.
A fifth press increases the flash rate to about 2 hertz.
A sixth press shuts the light off.
There is a delay factor built into the switch. To activate
the functions in sequence, the button presses much be no
further than about 2 seconds apart. If you leave the light
in any mode for more than 2 seconds, pressing the switch
shuts the light off. The next press turns it on full.
Actually a very usable set up. You select the light level when first activating the light. When you are through, you
do not have to cycle through the other modes to turn the
light off.
When the light is turned off, the battery status light
blinks at about 1/2 hertz.
The bezel contains both a facited(sp?) reflector and an
optic to focus the light. The beam quality is poor. Lots of
rings. The led is not centered very well, you can bend it easily, so even if you do center it, it will likely move.
The optic apears to not be at the best spacing to focus the light. The hot spot has two oval holes that I think are caused by the lead attaching to the die. Hard to describe
what this looks like. Shined on the wall at 3 feet, the
hot spot looks like the face of a grey with its chin cut
off. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif The beam is much better without the bezel on.
Without the bezel it looks similar to the arc aaa.
In fact, I prefer the light without the bezel and body. Just throw that poop away, and you have an interesting light. This light begs for a better host. This will
probably be my first flashlight mod. suggestions for host?
Lux readings at 1 meter.
44, 21, 13 for the three settings with the bezel.
28, 15, 8 without the bezel and body.
