The Battery Thread.

[alfsauve]

I use a USB battery charger for AAA through 18650.  I kinda like this one.  Picture of it, then of the solar charging "center" and for those who hadn't seen it, my solar charging system.  Batteries under the shelf.

[Rastus]

The automatic current selection, and automatically detecting non-rechargeable batteries and notifying you about it are features I never heard of in a battery charger before. That thing is really smart.

They now make them to plug into a USB.  That limits the charging speed especially when more than 1 battery is being charged at a time.  I have mixed 2-3 battery types simultaneously and it worked well.

[Big Frank]

I bought 11 flashlights, 2 weapon mounted lights, and a MultiColor Obulb from Olight, plus a Streamlite ClipMate. The ClipMate has a White LED: High: 70 lumens; runs 3.5 hours; 500 candela. Low: 10 lumens; runs 24 hours; 50 candela. And a 620-630 nm red LED to preserve night vision: High: 0.5 lumens; runs 16 hours; 9 candela. Low: 0.2 lumens; runs 65 hours; 3 candela. The Obulb and Baton 3 Pro came with magnetic chargers that stick on the bottom, and the Baton came with a self-adhesive L bracket to hang it from. If the light wasn't in my belt holster, I'd stick the L bracket on the top of the bedpost near the top. I have a few accessories for the Obulb to hang it different ways, including a silicone(?) Osling.

My new EDC is a desert tan Olight Baton 3 Pro 1500 Lumens Rechargeable Flashlight. It's only 4" long and under an inch in diameter. About the same size as my previous EDC flashlight that uses a single AA battery. This uses an 18650 and isn't a whole lot bigger than the battery itself. I got the 5700~6700K Cool White, rather than the 4000~5200K Natural White. It will run for 120 days straight on the 1/2 lumen moonbeam setting. It has a Beam Distance of 574 ft (175 m) on Turbo, which drains the battery bad in 2 minutes before it gets too hot and switches to high. But that's still 600 lumens. It switches to Turbo when you double-tap the switch, and also strobes when you triple-tap it. If you hold the button down for 5 seconds you can lock it out so the light doesn't turn on accidentally. If it's in an enclosed space it can get hot enough to melt the lens.

The little iTHX Pumpkin Orange Keychain EDC Flashlight is 5 and 180 lumens, selectable with a twist that turns it on, with a runtime of 23 minutes - 12 hours. The AAA key ring flashlights are 90 lumens. The push-button AAA flashlights are 5 and 180 lumens with a runtime of 21 minutes - 16 hours for the carbon fiber model. And the black one has a max of 200 lumens output with a AAA, but I put a 10440 rechargeable li-ion battery in and boosted the max output to 300 lumens. It also has a low 5 lumen setting with a runtime of 21 hours, maybe more withe the 3.7 volt battery in it.

My AA flashlights are an HCRI, high color rendering index, that shows more accurate colors than you typically see with a flashlight, close to natural sunlight. It has a customized 14500 lithium-ion battery with a Type-C charging interface instead of a AA battery. That gives it a a max output of 285 lumens and a max throw of 58 meters, 190 feet. My other AAA size has the same battery with a max output of 350 lumens and a max throw of 64 meters, 210 feet. Not bad for a flashlight that weighs 2 1/8 ounces. They both have a 15 lumen low setting too.

https://www.streamlight.com/products/detail/clipmate-usb#

https://www.olightstore.com/baton-3-pro-small-rechargeable-flashlight


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGw-iXenHNE&t=1s

[Big Frank]

I figured out something to do with one of those little AAA flashlights I got from Olight. I bought a Grunt Style Beer Season Beer Sock Insulator for my friend's birthday in late summer, a few months before deer season. That's beer season for him. So is the rest of the year for that matter.   When he gets this beer sock with a flashlight on it, he'll be able to see his way to the fridge. He had one beer koozie he kept misplacing and never knew where it was. Someone pinned a ball compass on it so he wouldn't get lost if it didn't, but it didn't seem to help. It got lost without him.

My friend is left-handed (sinister, like his wife) so I oriented the light left-handed. I cut 2 slits in the beer sock with an X-Acto knife, slid the clip in, and hot glued the tip in place with black hot glue. After a couple of minutes I snapped the Antique Bronze light into the pocket clip. I thought it went best with the black beer sock of the 3 lights I have. I stuck an empty can in it and held it left handed with the front facing me. The light indexes on my index finger when I extend it, so I think it's lined up about as good as it can be. This doesn't compare to the Dale call I got him last year, but I think he'll like it. The beer sock is in a Ziploc bag right now, and I'm thinking about sealing it completely with Gorilla Tape to make him work for it. 

https://www.gruntstyle.com/products/grunt-style-beer-season-beer-sock-insulator

It's funny how the air cleaner on the Dale Call vibrates and bounces around when the engine revs.

The infamous "Dale Jr. Call" made famous by the "Dale Call" Mountain Dew commercials is relaunching with a new look. Redesigned with TrueTimber DRT Camo, it now sports black and chrome accents and features the TrueTimber TTC logo along with Mountain Dew and 88 Logos. Engine sounds and header pipe lights are activated by blowing into the call and continue for 5 seconds after activation. A perfect gift for every race fan, and countless fun around the house or office.

Features: 

    Redesigned with TrueTimber DRT Camo
    Engine sounds and lights activated by blowing into call
    Mountain Dew, 88 and TTC Logos on side
    Batteries included

https://store.truetimber.com/products/tt0088-truetimber-dale-call-drt

[Big Frank]

Last month I bought a Pinwheel Orange i1R 2 Pro Keychain Flashlight, and a Pinwheel Blue i3T EOS Small Flashlight from Olight. The i1R 2 Pro is UBB-C rechargeable just like my iTHX Pumpkin Orange Keychain EDC Flashlight shown previously, but with a more normal shape. They're the same max output of 180 lumens, but they're only 5 lumens if you twist them on and don't keep twisting. The i3T EOS is click-adjustable 5 and 180 lumens with a AAA battery, but if you put a non-recommended 3.7 volt 10440 rechargeable li-ion battery in, it can boost the light's max output to about 270 - 300 lumens. I put them in all my i3T2 EOS (recommended) and i3T EOS (non-recommended) flashlights. I took the 10 lumen Ultimate Survival Technologies Pico Light off my key ring and used the clip to attach the iTHX Pumpkin Orange flashlight in it's place. It's 5 lumens look as bright as the Pico's 10, and when I need more than that I can just twist it farther to get the full 180 lumens.

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

The 10 lumen UST - Ultimate Survival Technologies Pico Light uses 4 LR41 button batteries in a plastic cartridge. The Streamlight Nano Light is also 10 lumens, and also uses 4 LR41 Alkaline Button Cells. UST discontinued the Pico Light, but Streamlight still makes the Nano Light for anyone who doesn't mind buying bunches of button cells to run a smaller, but less capable flashlight. It's 1.47 in (3.73 cm) long x 0.51 in (1.30 cm) wide. Weight: 0.36 oz (10.21 g). It has up to 8 hrs of run time before you have to replace all 4 batteries. If you shop around, you can get one for a couple bucks more than the cost of replacement batteries. So, even though it has a 100,000-hour life LED, you could almost consider it disposable after "up to" 8 hours of use.   It looks like Energizer also had a Micro flashlight similar to these but discontinued it.

https://www.ustgear.com/lighting/

https://www.streamlight.com/products/detail/nano-light

[Big Frank]

Around 1 pm I sent a message to Olight asking how long the package my Zirconium flashlight had to be missing before it was officially considered lost. After a couple emails between us, I got one about an hour and a half after the initial contact with my order number for the replacement. They'll send me a tracking number when it's on its way.

[alfsauve]

OLight works hard at it.  Trying to overcome any negative image about being Chinese I think.

[Big Frank]

One person on YouTube says Olight's flashlights are junk, but they give free stuff to all these YouTube personalities who give them good reviews and keep getting free stuff. I'll see for myself how things turn out, but I won't be buying their $600 25,000 lumen flashlight, or anything like that. My wallet can't take that kind of hot in he first place, and if it breaks, I can't afford to buy a second one to replace it. I was hesitant about shelling out the bucks for the zirconium flashlight, but I wanted to own a limited edition made of an unusual material.

X9R Marauder Brightest Flashlight - max output of 25,000 lumens. 4.9 stars in 35 reviews. $600.00 That's too rich for me. There's also a max 14,000 lumen Marauder 2 Powerful Flashlight for $329.95, and 7,000-lumen max output Marauder Mini Powerful LED Flashlight With RGB for $199.99. They're all rated 4.9 stars and the price of that last one approaches sanity. Four color options and a max throw of .37 miles makes it quite useful. It's still a lot of money for a flashlight, but a fraction of the cost of a Surefire WML that some people wouldn't hesitate to  buy.

https://www.olightstore.com/x9r-marauder

https://www.olightstore.com/marauder-2-bk

https://www.olightstore.com/marauder-mini-powerful-led-flashlight

[alfsauve]

We are in a place with accepting “junk” from China, that our grand parents were in the 50s with “junk” from Japan. 

Interesting, even though they are mortal enemies, a lot of Japanese stuff is outsourced to China these days.