Anybody seen/played with one of these?
I was in Target this w/e and was looking for some replacement "blinkies" for our dogs. In the pet section, I found the cheap, yet over-priced, poorly designed watch-battery plastic dongle shaped like a little bone. Thrilling. My dogs live in shame.
Back in the "camping/ outdoor" section, I found the Life Gear LED Safety Clip Light. OK, I can be tempted. My logic to justify it to my YF was... "well, it's a triple-A battery, and I have some rechargeables." Sometimes you just have to splurge.
http://www.lifegear.com/packs-accessories/accessories/led-safety-clip-light
There's not much to it.
It has a tough black silicon housing that the white cover/lens presses into. You pop that out of the rubber housing and the battery is inserted into a hollow in the white plastic shell, held in place by a rigid wire/spring. Cram that back into the housing and it's loaded. The switch lies underneath the battery, and the light is turned on/off by mashing the white cover against the housing.
There is a "clip" - a piece of rigid plastic screwed into the back of the rubber housing. A weak link.
It has a carabineer attached to it that's almost as big as the light is.
It has three modes: White, Red, slow red flash. A fourth mode, OFF, if you count that.
I clipped it to our little dog's collar, and let him wander into the yard after dark. The light wound up almost facing down, and the amount of light it turned out was enough to light the ground for a couple feet around him. It would have been more, but he's short.
I am actually pretty surprised at the amount of light the little bugger puts out.
I pried the board out to look at the circuit. I should have taken a snap while I had it apart, but I didn't want to get caught pulling it apart within an hour of getting it home.
It has a fairly simple circuit. I remember three or so 3-pin SMDs (transistors), and a 6-pin SM IC that I assume is a PWM. A 220 uH coil, a diode, and a couple resistors/capacitors. A square yellow-die SMD white LED, and a weird oblong gold die for the red LED. Everything surface mount and flat except the inductor.
The good:
Surprisingly bright. Light. Runs off of a AAA NiMH (1.2v) w/out complaint.
The Not-so-great:
OK, this is a 39 cent circuit board in a 50 cent container. I guess I'm insulted that I had to pay $8 for it.
The bad:
The case is shaped so that the useful illumination covers maybe 100 degrees. There's a lot more illumination left in the pocket, but the black cover makes sure it doesn't get out.
It really has to use the clip to control illumination.
The clip is waiting to snap off. Using the carabiner will make it less useful, and without any way to control the light, it's a hit-or-miss as a swinging dongle. If you were going to use this for walking at night, you definitely would want the clip.
The switch: It's a cheap pressure clicky switch buried under the battery. Within a couple of days it has already gotten hard to cycle the light on/off. Turning it on and off is hit or miss. It's press-press-press-press-hope-click maybe the light turns on. If not, then it's press-press-press-press-oh crap I passed it and turned it to red-press-press-press-press-crap back off-press-press-press-white.
But on a dog collar, at 8" above the ground, it's bright. I wonder if the dog is annoyed at how bright it is? I'm sure he's happier than having me stand over him w/ my BLF bright-stick glaring down on him.
I was in Target this w/e and was looking for some replacement "blinkies" for our dogs. In the pet section, I found the cheap, yet over-priced, poorly designed watch-battery plastic dongle shaped like a little bone. Thrilling. My dogs live in shame.
Back in the "camping/ outdoor" section, I found the Life Gear LED Safety Clip Light. OK, I can be tempted. My logic to justify it to my YF was... "well, it's a triple-A battery, and I have some rechargeables." Sometimes you just have to splurge.
http://www.lifegear.com/packs-accessories/accessories/led-safety-clip-light
There's not much to it.
It has a tough black silicon housing that the white cover/lens presses into. You pop that out of the rubber housing and the battery is inserted into a hollow in the white plastic shell, held in place by a rigid wire/spring. Cram that back into the housing and it's loaded. The switch lies underneath the battery, and the light is turned on/off by mashing the white cover against the housing.
There is a "clip" - a piece of rigid plastic screwed into the back of the rubber housing. A weak link.
It has a carabineer attached to it that's almost as big as the light is.
It has three modes: White, Red, slow red flash. A fourth mode, OFF, if you count that.
I clipped it to our little dog's collar, and let him wander into the yard after dark. The light wound up almost facing down, and the amount of light it turned out was enough to light the ground for a couple feet around him. It would have been more, but he's short.
I am actually pretty surprised at the amount of light the little bugger puts out.
I pried the board out to look at the circuit. I should have taken a snap while I had it apart, but I didn't want to get caught pulling it apart within an hour of getting it home.
It has a fairly simple circuit. I remember three or so 3-pin SMDs (transistors), and a 6-pin SM IC that I assume is a PWM. A 220 uH coil, a diode, and a couple resistors/capacitors. A square yellow-die SMD white LED, and a weird oblong gold die for the red LED. Everything surface mount and flat except the inductor.
The good:
Surprisingly bright. Light. Runs off of a AAA NiMH (1.2v) w/out complaint.
The Not-so-great:
OK, this is a 39 cent circuit board in a 50 cent container. I guess I'm insulted that I had to pay $8 for it.
The bad:
The case is shaped so that the useful illumination covers maybe 100 degrees. There's a lot more illumination left in the pocket, but the black cover makes sure it doesn't get out.
It really has to use the clip to control illumination.
The clip is waiting to snap off. Using the carabiner will make it less useful, and without any way to control the light, it's a hit-or-miss as a swinging dongle. If you were going to use this for walking at night, you definitely would want the clip.
The switch: It's a cheap pressure clicky switch buried under the battery. Within a couple of days it has already gotten hard to cycle the light on/off. Turning it on and off is hit or miss. It's press-press-press-press-hope-click maybe the light turns on. If not, then it's press-press-press-press-oh crap I passed it and turned it to red-press-press-press-press-crap back off-press-press-press-white.
But on a dog collar, at 8" above the ground, it's bright. I wonder if the dog is annoyed at how bright it is? I'm sure he's happier than having me stand over him w/ my BLF bright-stick glaring down on him.
