ChargeLight - Kickstarter

Hey Guys,
What are your thoughts on the ChargeLight, an LED flashlight that also acts as a portable battery. You can check it out at the link below. I think I'll be backing it... just wanted the community's thoughts!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chargelight/chargelight-dock-light-power?ref=category

It looks really cool, quite a sexy piece. I'm likely going to put in for a one of the backing spots since that kind of light is right up my alley. 250lm isn't bad at all for all the rest that thing can do. I asked them what the battery format was and if it is replaceable.

Definitely a good idea to ask, there was a hoax on kick starter a little while back that got flushed out by our members.

I'm no investigator, but none of the pictures appear stolen. And it looks like a lot of real data to me. I hope it's legit, it looks worthwhile and handy

I would guess it's a 2600 mAh 18650 lithium-ion cell. Just makes sense to use an easily available battery. It would be great if it was replaceable.

This actually isn't a bad idea. It's basically a backup power source for all your other devices that also includes a 3 level LED flashlight, something that most folks wouldn't mind carrying anyway.

I've got a feeling the projected 250 lumens is not an ANSI FL1 rating, however, those are still 3 very useable levels. Nice.

Hey guys,

I am one of the designers of ChargeLight (and a huge fan of flashlights in general ) You are correct, the battery is a 2600 mAh 18650 lithium-ion cell. The really important thing to note is we are using a Samsung battery. In our research we found TONS of other power packs available that are just using cheap, generic Chinese batteries, that are often times recycled from other applications. (Potentially very dangerous) In addition to using a high-quality battery, we have a microprocessor that controls the battery, inputs, output and light and we've spent a ton of time designing the circuitry to protect the light and user.

The battery is not user replaceable because of how densely we engineered all of the components. We are planning on offering a battery replacement program though, where you can send in your light and have a new battery installed for a significantly reduced price compared to buying a new ChargeLight. However, with the high quality name-brand battery and over 1,000+ cycles, the battery should last a minimum of 3-4 years with no problem. In most cases longer.

Another thing you guys might like is our LED. We are using the top-of-the line CREE® XT-E. Technically, the XT-E is rated up to 456 lumens, but at that output, ChargeLight gets way too hot since it is so small. We actually chose the XT-E because of its thermal and energy efficiencies. One of our biggest challenges has been maximizing light output while maintaining a reasonable temperature. Other lights on the market put out an intense ~200-250 lumens, and start to get really hot after about 10-15 minutes... luckily that is about the time the alkaline batteries start to noticeably drop in voltage so the lumens decrease drastically and so does the temperature. With all of that in mind we have a microprocessor monitoring the temperature and have designed the light to autocorrect if it starts getting too hot.

I figured you guys might appreciate some of the technical details a little more than the average consumer, so I thought this was a good place to share. Please let me know if you have any other questions. We could really use your help spreading the word about ChargeLight and getting our project to fund on Kickstarter. Please share and let me know if you have any other suggestions of how to spread the word. Thanks!

-Derek

Hello and nice to meet you dhill. Looks like a wonderfully designed light. However, I do wonder about choice of the Cree XT-E as opposed to an XP-G2 which is a tad more efficient or perhaps an XM-L2 which is quite a bit more efficient (300 vs 247 lumens when driven at 700ma @85C from Cree's datasheets) Of course the XM-L2 may have too large of an apparent hotspot for the aspheric lens you appear to be using though it may not matter since you are leaving it unfocused.

I personally, wouldn't buy a light I couldn't replace the battery at home, returning it to the US isn't an attractive option for non US buyers.

Norm

Sir Lightalot said:

Hello and nice to meet you dhill. Looks like a wonderfully designed light. However, I do wonder about choice of the Cree XT-E as opposed to an XP-G2 which is a tad more efficient or perhaps an XM-L2 which is quite a bit more efficient (300 vs 247 lumens when driven at 700ma @85C from Cree's datasheets) Of course the XM-L2 may have too large of an apparent hotspot for the aspheric lens you appear to be using though it may not matter since you are leaving it unfocused.

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Nice to meet you as well. We tested several LEDs when selecting the LED, and worked directly with CREE® to select the right model for our application. The slight efficiency gain (~5%) did not justify the extra cost, especially when we could not drive them to their full potential due to thermal constraints. The main reason we chose the XT-E was because it was the model recommended by CREE® for our specific application.

Thanks for the detailed feedback though! We will continue to evaluate and test new and different LED's and batteries to improve the performance of future models. We hope to introduce larger, more powerful models soon. Having used our prototypes around the house for the past few months, I can tell you first hand that a flashlight with an easy to use dock is awesome. There is something really nice about knowing your flashlight it fully charged and ready to go all of the time. I have a UV light I use to looks for scorpions in my yard at night and I literally have to change the batteries on it once every ~3 days. It has really made me appreciate a docking flashlight with a solid lithium battery. Its one of those things you don't realize how much you need it until you have it, then there is no going back

-Derek

Howdy Derek, and welcome to CPF!
Hey, thanks for filling us in on your new project. It really does sound like you've done your home work and designed this to be a very safe and useful light/charger for the general public. I can certainly appreciate why your design incorporates a non user replaceable battery. Most folks don't really understand what's involved in using a high power lithium-ion cell safely, and this simply removes their needing to know from the equation. Completely understandable and reasonable.

I'll be following this with interest.

Dislike. There are many 18650 chargers just like this that you charge via USB and have a light on them on ebay (small light) . I own 2 different ones, they're kinda cool, one of them is 4x 18650 that i put 3400mah batteries in so it just runs forever with multiple phone charges . I wouldn't want anything else eating away at my light battery and when I go to use it there is nothing left.

jay_rush said:

Dislike. There are many 18650 chargers just like this that you charge via USB and have a light on them on ebay (small light) . I own 2 different ones, they're kinda cool, one of them is 4x 18650 that i put 3400mah batteries in so it just runs forever with multiple phone charges . I wouldn't want anything else eating away at my light battery and when I go to use it there is nothing left.

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Guess you're not in the target market...

I can see the appeal for this. I have a cheap 5000mAH external battery for my phone that might deliver about half of its useful wattage, self-discharges quite rapidly, and I suspect is good for perhaps 100 full 0-100-0 cycles before the cells go kaput. Thankfully, I call upon it quite rarely and if I truly needed it, one fractional charge to the phone would likely save my bacon.

While I would like a higher-quality unit, it's hard to justify the price premium for stuff that claims to be a cut above the no-name wares on fleabay and the 'zon - especially for something that I will used rarely for its intended purpose. Something that also happens to be a decent flashlight, on the other hand, could well justify a nice price premium in my mind since the capacity in my current backup battery routinely self-depletes uselessly.

I'm having a serious look at this, too. My go-to battery backup is currently a 1500mAh Varta unit. It's good, but this is better

It's true, there are several similar products available for cheaper. If this one ends up being significantly higher quality than the rest, that would easily justify the cost difference. Really is a shame you can't change out the battery yourself though, you could get an extra phone charge from it with a 3400mAh cell.

jay_rush said:

Dislike. There are many 18650 chargers just like this that you charge via USB and have a light on them on ebay (small light) . I own 2 different ones, they're kinda cool, one of them is 4x 18650 that i put 3400mah batteries in so it just runs forever with multiple phone charges . I wouldn't want anything else eating away at my light battery and when I go to use it there is nothing left.

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Well I don't dislike but agree that there are many of these types available already.

It would have been nice with a replaceable battery. Because 1. Not enough capacity 2. You can control the quality of battery going in. 3. Backup recharger for a flashlight enthusiast.

Norm said:

I personally, wouldn't buy a light I couldn't replace the battery at home, returning it to the US isn't an attractive option for non US buyers.

Norm

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+1

It would also mean that i'd have to carry the dock around when at work and that i wouldn't be able to use the torch while it was charging once i'd drained it.

If they did one with 600 lumens and a removable 18650 cell i'd order one tomorrow

It seems pretty nice to be sure, but like some others, I really hate the non user-replaceable battery - and that goes for any device. That's why, among other reasons, I hate apple too. Speaking of which, I don't like the apple-look this thing is trying for as well. All too common these days, and I'm tired of that.

kwak said:

+1

It would also mean that i'd have to carry the dock around when at work and that i wouldn't be able to use the torch while it was charging once i'd drained it.

If they did one with 600 lumens and a removable 18650 cell i'd order one tomorrow

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Website states it can recharge via any powered USB connection - the dock is just a convenience.

I think what a lot of commenters really want is a conventional flashlight, not a combo device...

dhill, you might want to consider lowering the shipping price for international buyers, as it puts such buyers off when the shipping is 1/2 price of the base light. If shipping is free, i would commit 2 such lights immediately!

In addition, it might be good to start off L/M/H, with the low at moonlight lums, as it aids the eye to adjust faster and easier instead of an initial glaring 250lums reflecting into the eye.

That's all off my puny brain for now!

SoulCraves said:

dhill, you might want to consider lowering the shipping price for international buyers, as it puts such buyers off when the shipping is 1/2 price of the base light. If shipping is free, i would commit 2 such lights immediately!

In addition, it might be good to start off L/M/H, with the low at moonlight lums, as it aids the eye to adjust faster and easier instead of an initial glaring 250lums reflecting into the eye.

That's all off my puny brain for now!

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I am sorry we have to charge for international shipping, but shipping is ridiculously expensive. For instance, to ship a ChargeLight via FedEx to Argentina, costs $126. To ship via USPS with tracking, it costs $48. Even with the cheapest shipping methods available, it costs us more than $15 extra to ship internationally. There is just no way we can absorb the cost. In most cases, we are already having to absorb a chunk of the extra cost, even with the added $15 charge. I hope you will still consider it, especially since the Kickstarter special reduces the price from normal retail more than enough to make up the shipping difference. Thanks again for all of the comments and suggestions, we are definitely reading them and keeping them in mind.

I consider it to primarily be a USB backup battery that can also serve as a backup to my EDC light. I currently use an APC backup USB battery, but this will give me a backup light as well.

Looks slightly thick for pocket carry, I'll be looking into custom belt sheath options.