Sanyo Cadnica Lights

Any interest in a Sanyo Cadnica light? It is a small pocket light that was rechargeable via 110V from a small adapter that was part of the light. There were two bulbs, one surrounded by a red lens, one surrounded by a white lense. The bulbs were standard filament bulbs with the focusing lense in the end of the bulb. The flashlight has a white plastic case rectangular in shape.

I remember these well -- they were the hot ticket for pilots back in the '80's. Nifty little lights -- I still have one. I also remember that the memory effect of the nicad batteries rendered them pretty useless after a year or two. If yours holds a charge, someone should want it. eBay? Or consider donating it to the Flashlight Museum.

Dave

I got my lights in 1971 when I was in the Air Force. One still works and will hold a charge, but not as long as when they were new.

It is also possible to replace the cells in the lights with some soldering. Biggest problem is the disassembly of the case as you have to remove the metal strap around the light.

I never did fully understand the pilots fascination with the light except perhaps for the red lens around one bulb. You still had a white (well yellowish) light when it shone on an object. Most military cockpits had night light capability (I had one, but it was difficult to locate a source of 48 volts if I remember correctly) without the use of external lights.

I do not want to sell the light as they were unique for their time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

i rebuilt a bunch of those for pilots and astronomers over the years.
they never suffered from memory but folks that left them plugged in 24/7 soon had reduced capacity and corrosion due to the batts leaking.the last ones i did got 1600 sanyos so overcharging is much less critical now.

and i also put some superbright red led bulbs in the red side for the folks who wanted a true red on the red side.

Found this forum by doing a search on the internet for these lights. I just had a small fire in my house from one of these - could have been much more serious. My wife found one of these flashlights in a drawer at her deceased Mother's house. She plugged it in at our house to see if it would hold a charge. In the middle of the night, the smoke alarm sounded and we found the device on fire. Fortunately it ignited while we were home, the smoke alarm functioned as designed, and we were able to douse the flames.

The small flame started the drywall on fire due to the heat. Your posts clarified why Mother-in-Law had this flashlight, her son was in the Air Force. Just wanted you to be informed of the possibility.

Thanks,
Gene

That's why you shouldn't charge ANY light or batteries at night or when you're out.

[ QUOTE ]
Gene_in_NE said:The small flame started the drywall on fire due to the heat. Your posts clarified why Mother-in-Law had this flashlight, her son was in the Air Force. Just wanted you to be informed of the possibility.

[/ QUOTE ]
There is no overcharge protection in those lights, just a small resistor and a diode connected directly to the cells. If the battery was shorted or had other problems you could suck a lot of current through the charging circuit. Overheating would result and you have your fire.

It is good that there was no serious damage or especially loss of life.

hello, i'm new to the forum

i have one of these (NL-5100) that i used when flying -- unfortunately, it will no longer hold a charge

does anyone know of a repair service?

thanks alot

Someone should maybe post a picture of the darn thing, since this is the Collector forum.

ok, here it is...

fyrstormer said:

Someone should maybe post a picture of the darn thing, since this is the Collector forum.

Click to expand...

Interesting design. Looks very 80's. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. I myself was made in the 80's.

This was one of the first "cool" lights I owned.

These lights are the ones that brought me to this Forum. My Dad was a USAF Navigator so I have a setimental attachment to them. I recently bought two (2) deastock from Japan. They will need the batteries replaced, but beyond that they are in pretty good shape.

There are quite a few variations to these lights, though all following the two (2) bulbs side by side (red and white), side switch, layout.
Details I have observed:

-They are usually white, but I've also seen some which are black.
- Some you can open up via a screw, others with care and a bit of luck.
- Some are made in Japan, some in Indonesia.
- Some the wall plug is removed and flipped around for charging, others it is on a finger slide
- There are variations in dimensions
- Some retail packages are cardboard, others are plastic clamshell type
- Some retail packages have barcodes
- Internally, I've only ever seen a step-down transformer, a few diodes, two batteries, but insides may have been updated (or at least somebody out there did a custom job - see 4th picture below)

I presume there were also variations to accommodate varying wall power standards throughout the markets in which they were available. I have found no common factor between the aforementioned observations and the following model numbers:
NL-221
NL-421
NL-5100
NL-K1D(K)BP

I've culled my info mainly from the internet.

Respectfully,
Flyhalf

​

Wow. Funny this thread is here. I almost snagged one of these was looking to find more info.

RayT said:

I got my lights in 1971 when I was in the Air Force. One still works and will hold a charge, but not as long as when they were new.

It is also possible to replace the cells in the lights with some soldering. Biggest problem is the disassembly of the case as you have to remove the metal strap around the light.

I never did fully understand the pilots fascination with the light except perhaps for the red lens around one bulb. You still had a white (well yellowish) light when it shone on an object. Most military cockpits had night light capability (I had one, but it was difficult to locate a source of 48 volts if I remember correctly) without the use of external lights.

I do not want to sell the light as they were unique for their time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Click to expand...

My dad brought them home to all four of us kids, I believe from Thailand, although he could have purchased them in Okinawa. Pretty amazing in 1970-71 when he brought them home- rechargeable flashlights like that were not common.
My brother bought one for me for Christmas 2021. He replaced the battery and the bulbs and it works like new! I was about 7 when we got them from our Dad, and I used to pretend it was a car and drive it around on my bedspread at night with headlights on. My dad was a B-52 Navigator at the time. He retired as a Colonel, last base was Barksdale, AFB, my favorite base - beautiful house. Our house was just inside the North Gate, right in front of the tennis courts with the Officer's Club next to that/across the street. The house next to us was reserved for Exchange Officers from the RAF. I miss that house and that base, but at least I got a replacement for my Sanyo Cadnica flashlight! Cheers!

I'm cleaning out my household storage goods, after a 35 year USAF career…i retired in 2014. I came across two of these Sanyo lights and laughed at the efforts we took to buy them on a turn or crewrest at Kadena or Yokota. I flew C-141s at the time. I searched the internet and this site comes up. The posts brought back many memories, with most circling around the USAF. I do remember the lights were a fire hazard years ago.
So many other options these days in the cockpit. I'm in my last 3 years with the airlines…my FOs would roll over if they saw me using one of these.
Thanks for the stories.

Lifter

I never owned a Cadnica lite.. Though, after a quick search, it doesn't surprise me new Sanyo NiCad batteries can still be found eBay.

Welcome to CPF, there's a few pilots flying around here 🇺🇲

Good bump. Welcome to CPF