Is this a decent flashlight???

Okay--noticed that at the local malls around town,
"Forever Flashlights" kiosks have popped up. Being a flashaholic, I went over to check them out. They are about the same length and size as a 3D mag, but have a see-through body. The sign stated that there were no batteries, no bulbs to replace, and it would run "forever"
As I was inquiring about the light to the worker...(a high school kid who didn't know squat) i started sniffing rip-off. The sign also had a $39.99 crossed off and was replaced by a $20.00 So who knows anything about these? It appeared to be just a single 5mm LED, and it recieved power by shaking the light, which bounced what appeared to be a battery of some type from end to end. Are these lights legit or are they a scam???? BTW, i promised my wife I wouldn't get one unless the it reviewed favorably by you guys.

Our local newsw channel has a segment that is called "Does it work", where they reviewed this item. It does work, if you get the original, and not a knock off. I believe shaking the generator for about a half a minute will give you about twenty minutes of light. Mind you this is not a mind blowing super spot, but it is a good emergency light, as you don't ever half to worry about batteries, and the led is pretty reliable. It seems to me that the originals were priced about $29.00, or $39.00, unfortunately I don't recall the manufacturer. I do think the original was called the "Forever Light".

its a sturdy peice of crap

If it's like these
http://www.survivalschool.com/products/lighting/Forever_Light.htm

http://www.pockettools.com/forligkinen.html

they do work, but they won't blind you or anything. Again, they're great for power outages, or where there is little ambient light. I don't think they'd be much help when changing a flat tire in the rain, or anything like that.

They don't use a battery, they use a generator powered by the reciprocation of the magnet. Energy is stored in a capacitor.

They're "neat", but in my opinion, not "$20.00 neat".

Use the "Forever Light" in your storm shelter as the first thing inside the door. Use it to find everythig else....batteries and energency lights.

I guess Tom Hanks could have used one in the movie "Castaway".

I had a smaller version of one of these lights and gave it away. I agree that it's good for finding flashlights.

Brightnorm

For the price, just order yourself an arc AA and go to wal mart and get some cheap batteries and bam... you have a much, much brighter light for about the same price and it lasts hours and hours... or order the CMG ultra G "government" from here:

http://www.countycomm.com/cpflight9.htm

get yourself some batteries from wal mart and save some money, or get yourself a tritium glowring from the BST forum attach it to your ULTRA G so you can find it when the power goes out and you'll still break even. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks all for the info---I just went out and bought a streamlight pro polymer 4 AA LED on sale for 19.95 at my local Streamlight dealer--so I'll take that over the forever flashlight.

The forever light is an overseas ripoff of this light:

http://flashlightreviews1.home.att.net/reviews/ait_nightstar2.htm

I also have a Nightstar II right here if you want to see it.
This is a model with a green LED, not a white one as usually found.
Some observers can interpret the shake-charging as a "spanking the monkey" motion, so you'll want to do it with doors and curtains closed. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Found this in an email that Amazon.com sent to me...



The URL for it is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008W7FM if you're interested.

My wife got me a Nightstar shake-it kind of light. Knowing what we know now, she would not get one. However, it works fine if your in a pinch. I would not call it a piece of crap like other posters have. It's pricey for what you get. Even though we have and use other flashlights more, it will always work without batteries which is the point of having it. It does put out useable light for up close work for 20 minutes ...... I timed it. Dan over at Dan's Data reviewed it here.
Even though he slams it a little bit, at the very end in the "Overall" section he admits it's not soo bad, just a bit pricey for what you get.

Mike

I have the original shakelight, and another similar light which was modified from a handcrank generator flashlight. The local KMart has also started selling a version of the shakelight. The original was the NightStar, followed by the NightStar II and heaps of knockoffs.

The basic principle of the shakelight consists of a powerful magnet being shaken up and down in a tube. It passes through a huge coil of wires. This is your generator section.

In the original NightStar, both ends of the tube had another very strong but opposing magnet. This was to cushion and repel the main magnet, so that the main magnet moves easily from end to end without crashing. Most knockoffs I know of don't use magnets in the end. They just use rubber stoppers. I don't like this because the impact is quite hard compared to using repelling magnets, and after some years of storage, especially in warm conditions, the rubber will detiorate. Definitely not a good thing, knowing what this light was designed for.

The generated power is stored in a memory capacitor. In the original NightStar, this was a 1F 5.5V supercap. The LED (5600mcd in the original, should be a brighter one in later models) is connected via a sealed switch. Again, another point in which copies and knockoffs lack. The switch used in the NightStar glows in the dark to help you locate it. IIRC, it was sealed and of a magnetic reed type. This was to ensure that it wouldn't corrode after years of storage and would work even after lots of activations. Most knockoffs use a rubber shielded clickie. Not my first choice, but should still work unless exposed to wet storage.

The rest is quite similar with a focusing lens at the business end, and sealing using O-rings.

The original NightStar would be my first choice as a truly emergency light. It can be put away for years without worry and be sure to work when you take it out. It certainly isn't bright enough to compare with even a button-cell keychain light, but that wasn't its primary design. I believe the later NightStar models have the coil design optimised for faster charging of the memory capacitor, something which knockoffs would not have bothered to design for, and may have an even larger capacitor. I'm not sure about this but believe it to be so because of the shorter charge time and longer runtime advertise on later models.

The knockoffs, of course, have some slight advantage on price, but it will be up to you to decide if you want to support the original designers so that they have the money to R&D newer better models, or the knockoffs who have merely copied the original, and not very well at that.

But before you buy, just make sure you test it out. Charge it up and run it down to see if it really works as advertised, since there can be huge variations in design which will affect the charge and runtimes.

I can't speak for the original NightStar, but I did buy a knockoff version.

Out of the package, the knockoff flashlight I had purchased for $14US was very dim, I would not consider it to be useful light. I wound up dropping in the boost circuit from a Dorcy 1AAA LED light to improve the performance. The light is actually usable now, but the runtime between rechargings is significantly shorter than before.

Yeah, I think I'm going to pass and for the 20 bucks they want for it, probably go with the PT Attitude.

My opinion is that these "batteryless" flashlights are almost useless unless you absolutely need something that can work without batteries. It's basically a long-lasting survival light (though I wouldn't want my survival light to be a cheap rip-off).

Got the attitude based on the good review it got on flashlight reviews.

I'm happy with it.