LED flashlight report for home repair

CY: Wow, that's a rough review. I like one inside my van, I magnet it to the top, and put it over the work bench.

CY: Yes, mine takes phillips screw driver. Mine works OK with #2 phillips. I'd prefer AA cells, they last a lot longer.

CY: Good that works for you. I like the two AA headlamps from HF, with a mini mag LED conversion instead of the provided filament bulb.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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Not wanting to feel like a fool for buying it, I've kept it on the side of the refrigerator, by the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. That way it will be handy if I ever find a use for it.

It alternates between the end light and the side light. To me, that makes it a novelty light. It has no regulator, it's not very bright, and the color rendition is poor. My Fuel headlamp had the same four drawbacks. Buying it was a worse blunder because it cost more.

When I bought the light in question, my favorite light was a 26-LED work light that stands about 15" tall. It's not magnetic but can be stood, propped, laid down, or hand held. Crummy LED lights use bluish LEDs. Better ones have LEDs with yellow phosphor added, for a whiter light. The work light has even better color rendition.

The problem with the work light is that the AA NiMH cells are soldered in. They've held up better than I predicted, but after 10 years or longer, self-discharge is becoming a problem. One more to-do for my hassle calendar.

Maybe I shouldn't bother replacing the batteries. The handiness of a good headlight has put that work light into retirement.

Reply to
J Burns

CY: I have a couple on my fridge, also. The 27 might be useful for working on some thing at night. Might.

CY: I figure it has either three to get me down the hall, or 27 for when I'm working.

It has no regulator, it's not very bright,

CY: The cheap LED, and what I call "blue fog" light.

My Fuel headlamp had the same four

CY: Ouch.

CY: Glad you foudn some thing that worked.

CY: A friend of mine gave me an under the hood work light, probably much like yours. I took out the charging circuit, and ran it off three AA cell battery pack. Put in alkalines, and gave the light back. He was very pleased.

CY: Nice to have a spare. Though I do like my strap on head lamps. One friend who I greatly respect had a headlamp that slid around all the time. He went back to D or C cell "stick" lights.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Will you fix mine? :) When it was new, I took it apart and tried to figure out a way to fix it to use standard AAs. Swapping batteries would mean I could use it indefinitely without a charging break. If a NiMH cell goes bad, throw it away.

Also, it seems to charge them by supplying a certain current to all three, and you guess when they're charged. An automatic charger with a circuit for each cell would be faster and kinder to the batteries.

Reply to
J Burns

The switch on my HL-21 controls solid-state switching circuity. My light draws 33 microamps when off. That would drain a fully charged 750 mah cell in 30 months. Your light may draw more than 33 microamps, and self-discharge would shorten the time.

Most automatic chargers won't charge a fully discharged NiMH cell. I believe the trick is to start by feeding it a little current from a manual charger for an hour or so. Then, to bring the cell back to full capacity, you keep charging and draining. My charger has a setting where it will keep cycling a cell as long as the capacity increases.

I don't keep a light in my glove box. If I'm going to be out after dark, I put my headlamp in my pocket. I'll probably carry a spare cell.

Reply to
J Burns

Sure, we can discuss it. I suspect the shipping from you, to me, and back again will kill the adventure. Having loose cells in a snap in battery holder does have a LOT of advantages.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I remember now... if a NiMH cell is so discharged that the voltage is below a certain point, you feed it a trickle charge for a few minutes to bring the voltage up, before putting it on an automatic charger. I don't remember if that point is 1.1 V, 1.0 V, or 0.9 V.

If your cell ran the light for a minute, that's probably not the problem. Your charger may have shut off because it sensed a voltage dip. If you take the cell off the charger and put it back on an hour later, it may resume charging.

I don't know if it's true of eneloops, but NiMH cells left sitting for months used to have trouble because the electrolyte was no longer distributed. Exercising the cell by charging and discharging would improve the performance.

On the data sheet, I see a discharged eneloop can be stored indefinitely at up to 50 degrees C. Charged, it can be stored 3 months at up to 40 C and up to a year at 30 C. That's why I don't store eneloops in the car.

Reply to
J Burns

Will email accept an attachment the size of a work light? It would save shipping charges! :)

Reply to
J Burns

Mine should have no draw when off, as it is a simple on-off twisty, but I t hink that maybe it was getting turned on when the car when over bumps etc. I actually have been carrying it with a lithium AAA for the past few days and noticed that it turned itself on when I pulled on my pants to go downst airs for a midnight (OK, 3 AM) snack. I'll loosen the head more when I put it back in the glovebox, and carry a spare cell loose as well.

I tend to carry a light on my person at all times, but you know what they s ay, you'll need it when you don't have it. and sure enough, somehow I mana ged to *lose* my EDC pocket light, had to take a friend to the hospital in the middle of the night, and while there got a low tire pressure warning... so I was glad to have it, at least for long enough to find the valve stem in the dark.

nate

Reply to
N8N

It's ideal to carry a spare set of batteries when going out. The one time this really was inconvenient, I was helping at a volunteer job. Wasn't sure how long batteries in my FRS walkie talkie lasted. Sure enough, I was on the

3rd floor of a very tall building (tall stories) and my batteries went dead as I was pulling wire, and talking to the other worker in the cellar. The replacement set of batteries was down, then back up, about equivilant of four flight of stairs.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Worth trying to scan and email it. Or, Scotty can beam it down.

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. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I found this 23-minute YouTube video on the Fenix HL-21:

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I am still looking for places to buy them along with right type of batteries and battery charger.

Reply to
TomR

I took the work light apart again. The battery is a plastic-wrapped bundle of 3 double A's by Unitech, kind of like a cellphone battery. It would be hard to get a different arrangement jammed into the space.

Taking it apart is miserable. It takes a lot of force to move the two rubber bumpers of place, and they hold everything together. There's a little screw in a well. I got it out but not back in. I thought it was a tiny crosshead screw. Then I saw it has 3 slots! Why would they do something like that!

I used to leave it charging until it felt a little warm. Last night I left it charging while open so I could feel the cells directly. They never got warm. The heat was coming from a sink. Maybe the light is designed to protect the cells from overcharging.

Much as I love the color rendition of that light, maybe I'll throw it away if the battery fails. A headlamp with great color rendition would fill the bill. It makes things pretty and can help me spot what I'm looking for. Cree publishes CRI data for their bulbs, but headlamp manufacturers may not specify color. Before I bought my HL-21, I emailed Fenix asking the bulb color. They didn't know. I think it has a CRI of 80. If Fenix had been willing to sacrifice a few lumens, they could have used a bulb with a CRI of 90. I would have preferred that.

Reply to
J Burns

Sounds a lot like the one I did. I drilled a hole in the case, and put the three cell holder external, held on with electric tape.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Three places I look are amazon, fenixtactical, and batteryjunction. It looks as if the HL21 is no longer available. If I had a choice, I'd try the HL22 (the replacement), anyway. It doesn't have as much range, but it has a wider beam. It's not designed for submersion, but I've never submerged my HL21.

When I had switch trouble, I was annoyed that the tail piece wouldn't come off my HL21 so I could clean the switch easily. The HL22 comes with a spare tail piece. Removing it would probably help me get the light dry if I were to drop it in a tub of water.

Because of my good experience with Fenix, I might skip the HL22 and jump up to the HL50.

Amazon prices can change substantially from week to week, kind of like the stock market.

I like a charger that charges each cell independently. I got the LaCrosse BC-700 charger. Amazon's asking price jumps around. I was frustrated at first because inserting a cell was likely to undo the programming of the one I'd just programmed. The trick is to wait perhaps 10 seconds, until the display of the last cell programmed gives one blink.

I have to get my spectacles and turn on a light to read the fine print on the display. The most reliable way to tell if a cell is charged is the rate of temperature rise. Most chargers, including this one, use the rate of voltage drop, instead. Occasionally, this charger can shut off too soon or stay on too long. An infrared thermometer lets me second guess it. If the temperature of a cell keeps going up, it's charged. If it has stayed cool, it's not charged. This charger is supposed to shut off a battery that reaches a critical temperature.

Candlepower forums has discussions on flashlights and chargers. There seemed to be a consensus that the LaCrosse was a good value but Maha had one with a better display, and it was less likely to shut off too soon or too late. I don't see it on sale at Amazon anymore.

Reply to
J Burns

I'm tempted!

Reply to
J Burns

Worked, ok, here. I gave it back to the original owner, with instructions to put in alkaline batts when the light gets dim. I think they are about thirty bucks at the store. The batt holder and a couple cells might be worth the investment.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Fenixlighting.com has the specs of current and discontinued lights. With my HL21, the light in an 8-degree cone was 6 times more intense than the light in the surrounding 23-degree cone. The HL22 has similar intensity (range) but a better spread. That would make it better for tasks, indoor use, and finding an item dropped in the grass. It also has a higher color rendition index: 75 instead of 70.

The HL50 has more lumens but much less intensity. It must have a much better spread, like a floodlight. Sounds like a great work light, and the CRI is 75.

I remember the big complaint abut the LaCrosse charger. Eneloop recommended a charge rate of C/2. LaCrosse recommended 200ma. That was the default. For a AA Eneloop, that was C/10. That was often too low for the charger to sense when the cell was charged. If you switched it to 500 or 700ma, you'd probably be okay. The charger keeps track of the time and milliamp hours for each cell, so you can see if a cell has been on too long.

Reply to
J Burns

I've got stuff from deals extreme, china. The free shipping has been a problem sometimes requiring signature, and takes a week or two.

I always look for a location on web sites. Some don't give that out. It should be under contact info, but often not, or listed in about company.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

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If you like CRI, look for a light with a Nichia 219 emitter.

I actually just received two days ago a new light that I had modified with a 219 because I wanted something awesome. It's in my pocket now. (Sunwaym an V11R modified by a guy who advertises on CPF if you care. the reason fo r that particular light is I love the magnetic control ring UI combined wit h the tailcap on/off switch...)

I'd found myself using my old EDC pocket light enough that I figured I coul d justify a little "extravagance" and getting exactly what I wanted. If th is lasts me, say, as long as a car, it'll have been worth it.

nate

Reply to
N8N

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