What flashlight are all the cool guys using?

[Matt Pascoe]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

You're off the hook Matt, the Fenix L2D is great so far. My wife demanded I hand it over to go under the Christmas tree but I snuck some batteries into it first and gave it a quick going over. It's aluminum, looks to be very nicely made/high quality, BRIGHT as heck, and even has a cool strobe effect for emergencies plus it comes with a black nylon case and wrist lanyard. It has the ability to vary its brightness somehow but I wasn't able to figure that part of it out yet. You know those Chinese and their English language Instructions writing ability.

Glad to hear it

I'm hoping one of them might show up under my tree...

[chef]

Here's a good list

http://www.oobject.com/category/flash-flashlights/

[chef]

Wish I'd have found this earlier today so I could have gotten the resistor. I think I'll build this next week

http://www.grynx.com/projects/tictac-flashlight/

[TObject]

Just in case any of you out there are building a LED flashlight with variable power. Don’t bother to try regulating luminosity output with voltage. What you need is the method commonly referred to as Pulse Width Modulation, which can be easily achieved with one of them cheap microcontrollers plentifully available these days.

Those bright LEDs though… It will probably be cheaper to buy a full made Chinese flashlight, than if you were to go to RadioShack and buy one of the LEDs. But, I won’t stand in the way of tinkering; it’s fun to make things. I was thinking about buying a $99 Wal-Mart special HD-DVD player the other day, just so I could pluck the precious laser out of it.

[NAILER341]

Originally Posted by TObject

Just in case any of you out there are building a LED flashlight with variable power. Don?t bother to try regulating luminosity output with voltage. What you need is the method commonly referred to as Pulse Width Modulation, which can be easily achieved with one of them cheap microcontrollers plentifully available these days.

Those bright LEDs though? It will probably be cheaper to buy a full made Chinese flashlight, than if you were to go to RadioShack and buy one of the LEDs. But, I won?t stand in the way of tinkering; it?s fun to make things. I was thinking about buying a $99 Wal-Mart special HD-DVD player the other day, just so I could pluck the precious laser out of it.

are you saying they still have the HD dvd for 99 bucks?

[Britain]

Be sure that HD DVD is Blue ray. With Sony owning lots of studios........

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by Britain

Be sure that HD DVD is Blue ray. With Sony owning lots of studios........

Blue Ray has lost major ground against HD DVD this past year, some previous Blue Ray supporters have switched over to HD DVD. I went with HD DVD and I'm glad I did. Blue Ray's pricing is way more costly than HD DVD yet it really doesn't have any signifcant advantages remaining.

[chef]

WB is suspected to sign over to Blu-Ray at CES. I really don't care, I don't have a fancy enough television at home to reep the benefits, and most of the conversions I've watched at work don't look all that hot anyways

Back to Flashlights. I just purchased a bunch of materials to try the tic tac light with. Headed back out after doing some calculations for required resistor's after picking up some "brighter" led's then I had planned on. If it works, it'll be cool

[TObject]

You misunderstood me. I wanted to buy an HD-DVD player, since they are sold below the cost, to rip the laser out of it for my experiments.

I agree, Blu-ray is better as a player.

[chef]

The tictac flashlight works! I've got way more resistor's then I'll probably ever need, I bought a whole slew for a few different battery combinations. My next project is one of the slimmer altoids boxes with a 9v and a white Coast LED on one end, and a red Coast LED on the other. They're supposed to be high output and all that jazz, but we'll see. The one I've got working right now is 3.8 Candela, I've got another that's 8, I'm interested to see how those compare. The 3.8 puts out a decent enough light to be useful digging through a bag or just keeping around as an emergency light. It shines across my blacked out garage and lights up the wall enough that you can make things out. It's a pain in the ass trying to solder all the little tabs and really thin guage wire, but I managed to get it together. Don't try Krazy Glue to hold the switch to the plastic lid of a tictac box, that doesn't work

I looked for some Sal Ammonia Blaine, all I found at Radio Shack was a small tin of grey granules. You dip the hot tip and it coats the tip of the iron. I'm assuming it's similar to, if not is, Sal Ammonia? If I remember correctly, this is supposed to be a barrier between the iron and the actual solder, right?

[zman]

Originally Posted by chef

I looked for some Sal Ammonia Blaine, all I found at Radio Shack was a small tin of grey granules. You dip the hot tip and it coats the tip of the iron. I'm assuming it's similar to, if not is, Sal Ammonia? If I remember correctly, this is supposed to be a barrier between the iron and the actual solder, right?

Just melt some flux core solder to your iron tip and wipe off with a wet sponge. May need to repeat a few times if the tip is real bad. Should shine up real nice.

zman

[chef]

It certainly shines up nice when I dip it in this stuff. Never come across this step when being "taught" to solder or reading how-to's before, so I guess I'm doing it right now....

[TObject]

Check this deal out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B000YYXQ2G

$19.99 for a '20 Million Rechargeable Spotlight'

[Art Welch]

I'd get one of these if I could:

http://www.wetgoatracing.com/Videos/Flashlight.wmv

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by Art Welch

I'd get one of these if I could:

http://www.wetgoatracing.com/Videos/Flashlight.wmv

Wow, that's innovative! I wonder what their intended market is.

[TObject]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

Wow, that's innovative! I wonder what their intended market is.

High school students.

[Tim]

i still like my hands free led light that straps to my head...

well i got two. a black one and a camo one. i can be ninja or commando. guess i could go commando while wearing ninja.....

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by T.Dome

well i got two. a black one and a camo one. i can be ninja or commando. guess i could go commando while wearing ninja.....

Go commando? You mean you just want an excuse to run around without your underwear on under your jeans?