On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 03:57:32PM -0500, Philip wrote: > While we are talking about LED's I'd like to share this. > > If you have an LED flashlight that uses three batteries, be aware that > when the light goes out, only one of the batteries is flat. Check them > with a volt meter and just replace the bad one.
Just FYI: checking the newer "high-capacity" batteries with a volmeter isn't all that useful: they maintain their voltage up until the very end. The thing that I've found works best, if you don't have a dedicated battery tester, is an ammeter set on high amperage and just *touched* to the contacts (you're shorting the battery when you do this, so don't _keep_ the probes on it!) The amount of juice in batteries is actually quite amazing: fresh alkaline AAs will spike up to *7 amps*, while AAAs will go up to about half that. > In the future, I will check the battery requirements for the flash > light. It it's three (not in series) I'll let it be. You can't have 3 cells in parallel powering an LED flashlight: LEDs have a "breakover" voltage that's somewhere just over 3v for the high-intensity ones. Sorry to be sounding so disagreeable. :) Speaking of flashlights: I recently bought one (two of them, actually) that I'm finally - after more than 20 years of looking - satisfied with, brightness-wise. This LED gadget beats even the biggest Maglites and most spotlights (!), punches through the rain better than anything else, and is about 7"L x 1"D. I wish it was rubberized, but otherwise, it's _fantastic_ - I can easily spotlight a stop sign three blocks away at night. I've been using it for more than two months now, including the "OOH, NEW GADGET!!!" break-in period, and haven't managed to run the AAA batteries down yet. Oh, and it costs about $30. http://www.dorcydirect.com/p-93-41-4269-160-lumens-6-watt-led-6-aaa.aspx They've got much brighter ones, too, but not for anything like that price. Ben -- OKOPNIK CONSULTING Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming 443-250-7895 http://okopnik.com http://twitter.com/okopnik _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
