Good portable emergency light?

Yes, and adjustable. I should think they all are so they grip the bonce.

Bill

You must be very unhappy outdoors. ;-)

Yes, I did mean the batteries lasting 30 days :-)

Changing 6x3, 18 AAA's every year seems an expensive way to have emergency lighting.

But power cuts don't last long, as you said, and even if they do you can eventually herald the dawn, and of course the thing would be charged up. I notice that when the thing is charged it changes from a red flashing light to a green steady one, so I'm sort of assuming it then only accepts a safe trickle charge, if anything. It seems to take about three hours to charge from flat. I normally leave it on all night and in the morning the charger is cold, not that that proves anything.

Bill

Thing is, if your trilby falls off half way across the field, don't go back and grope for it. And even if you think you've found it don't put it on until you've actually examined it in the light.

Bill

I'll trade your 'of course' for 'hopefully. I've got a battery on my exerciser now that *said* it was fully charged but gave the drill it was powering a 10 second runtime? ;-(

I dug out a multi-LED Ni-Mh powered car inspection lamp yesterday and charged it up for several hours. I turned it on, it came on nice and bright but turned it off again, planning to leave it on when I was here to monitor how long it lasted. I did so earlier, '30 seconds' was the answer. ;-(

Most do ... or monitor for the voltage to drop a bit then start the charge again.

No, but is 'a good sign' in a way. [1]

Question though, the one you linked to seems to suggest it takes '4 x AAA' alkaline batteries and no mention of any charging? Did you buy a different one or is their description incorrect?

Cheers, T i m

If the underlying electronics is like the older ones I have (no reason to think they aren't) then the PIR is only picked up when it's dark. Which gives a life of at least 6 months for our triggered 10 times a night bathroom one.

(They were initially sold as cupboard/wardrobe lights.)

LED is a harsh light.

I find them bad on the roads. I don't know what it is about some cars, but they seem to be aimed awful high and it's hard to see with them shining at you from the opposite direction.

The flood lights I'm referring to are so bad, I would rate them as "eye unsafe". I was outdoors in the winter, using them for exterior light. I turned around for a moment and the lights where shining in the area I was working, and they burned spots on the retina. Took a while for it to disappear.

I would want to find a way to safely deploy those, so they don't do anyone else an injury.

I have an older LED flood, which isn't nearly as bad. The light is usable on that one. I'll be using the old flood for bounce lighting during a video call in a while. The webcam needs quite a bit of light to keep the framerate up. The regular room lighting doesn't look as good for usage with the webcam.

Paul

i fitted some on our Village hall a few years ago. A friend made muttering noises, so I fitted some lighting gel behind the front 'glass'. It just took the edge off the light.

Not as bad as 18 x AAA's every month! TBH I think 6 is a bit overkill. The ones I have can be removed from the base so can be used a torch to find the main backup kit.

I've just (mostly) repaired one of the first plug in / wireless automatic PIR / power-cut torch lamps we got and eventually failed.

The fault was a burned out resistor in the charging base bit but all the charging and other intelligence is in the actual torch.

I replaced the resistor for a slightly higher power one and although it put a bit of power to the torch (so the inductive coupling was working again) the lithium cell (14430) was very low voltage and I've ordered a replacement (really for the S&G's).

If that works I'll look at doing some of the other bases we have kicking about. ;-)

Some vinegar got rid of all the battery leakage from one of Mums old torches so that was another one rescued. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

I just had a look. It's a grey monolith; rectangular, looks like the studs are there to use four rechargable AAAs as an option. I'd guess it's about 900mAh. It's charged by USB which I think would only just have the voltage unless there's a DC-DC converter, but it seems to work OK.

And I said the red light didn't flash. It does, but I wish it was a bit brighter.

Bill

It's because the light source is small and concentrated. It wouldn't be a bad thing if manufacturers mounted a little mirror in front of it so only light from the reflector came out.

Bill

FTAOD I've never used 18 AAAs a month. Not even in a year.

This is the pack on the back Bill?

Yeah, even if they were Nicads, 4.8 - 5V is cutting it a bit fine if used directly so it's probably a 1S Lithium cell / pack (~3.7V).

Did you buy yours in this rechargeable format or did you make it rechargeable after?

I think the one you linked to on Amazon was this:

So it's actually the price of 3 Petzl Zipka's. ;-)

OOI, I wouldn't even want the Petzl Tikka:

eg, For me it's (a head torch solution) initially about the clever recoiling mounting, then about the light (which in the case of the Zipka is perfectly adequate, especially when with others wearing them so you don't want to be blinding each other or having a lighthouse on your head). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

It's funny as that's exactly what the big hand torch of Mums I cleaned up and fixed yesterday has. ;-)

The resultant beam pattern looks like an eye, you get a very bright spot in the middle (pupil) with a weaker ring around the outside (iris). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Yes

Seems more likely.

Bought it as rechargable, but the battery was packed separately.

Yes I think you're right. I was going on the price. I paid fifty something.

I think the instructions said you could use AAAs.

I would have balked at £70 I think.

Yes, well you see I have many pockets! Eight in fact in my thick coat. I always put things in the same pockets. Dog lead, poop bags in case we venture into occupied territory, keys zipped in, phone zipped in, Times in case we stop at a pub, letters to post, eggs for the woman down the road, dog treats to assist in negotiations with strange dogs, etc.

That looks like a right good idea.

Bill

Well I think I've seen some old headlights like that.

Bill