LED Lights

Just picked up a few Inova 2Ts. 40 lumen, 2 CR123 lithium batteries and a 5 hour run time. I'm quite pleased with them

 

Yeah they are great, Good thing CRC doesnt see this thread.........

 

Uh-oh ---

 

bump for CRC

 

LED Flashlights for Specific Uses:


Part I: Car Emergency Lights
Contributed Writer: Andrew

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Previous articles have discussed the overall advantages of LED technology when it comes to flashlights, and given some general criteria to use in choosing from among the many LED flashlight models now available. I would like to get a little more specific, and give some suggestions for picking the right flashlight for a particular purpose. I’ll first discuss choosing the right “car emergency” light.

This is the light you stash in your glove box or console, and probably use only occasionally. Of course, the most important use will be when you have a flat tire at night on a lonely road, and you are hoping that the flashlight and batteries you stowed away a year ago are going to come through when you really need them!

Here are my criteria for a good car emergency light:

1) Uses CR123 lithium cells. I want the long shelf life (up to 10
yrs.), non-leaking character, and overall reliability of these cells. I have had excellent results with the Titanium CR123As that Amondotech sells, and at $1/each, they are a bargain. (If you buy CR123s at your local drugstore, you can easily pay around $5 each!).

2) A one-cell light. There are flashlights that use 1, 2, or 3 CR123s, but here I’m sticking to a 1-cell light. A car light where I live (Texas) invariably will spend some time shut in a car parked in the sun on an August day. I want to minimize the possibilities, albeit remote, of explosions or other baddies happening as a result of 2 or more lithium cells in tandem.

3) Good runtime. For an emergency car light, I want at least a few hours of dependable light. Preferably, the light will be “regulated”, that is, have an electronic circuit that maintains the brightness level at a fairly constant level throughout the life of the battery.

4) LED based. A car light is subject to some pretty good jolts--why worry about damaging a bulb? Plus, a bulb is always capable of giving out at an inconvenient time, while LEDs last practically forever.

5) I am a huge fan of rechargeable-capable lights, but with a car light, stick with “primary” cells like the aforementioned Titanium CR123As. Rechargeable cells all have some amount of “self-discharge” (discharge even while lying idle), and you do not want to deal with that in a light that might not be used for a year or more.


6) Beam should be a flood, or a floody spot. An intense hotspot, designed for long-distance illumination, is not what you want when lighting up a fairly close area for tire changes, etc.

7) Smaller is better. While most cars have plenty of room for almost any size light, I prefer small so it will fit unobtrusively in my center console.

8) Inexpensive. Things stored in cars can get lost, stolen, misplaced, etc., so I don’t want to fret about an expensive light doing car duty.

9) A case or sheath would be nice. Lots of hard objects reside in my console, so I'd just as soon not have my light getting banged up on them.


My personal choice for meeting all these criteria well is the Nuwai ALX- 2611X. It is a one cell light, uses CR123 primary cells, and, according to an independent review, gets about 3 hours of very well-regulated runtime on one cell. (I also carry an extra CR123 cell in a small plastic 35mm film container, so that should give me a total of about 6 hrs. of good illumination). The 2611X uses a Luxeon I LED and its beam is a nice “floody spot”---it will project a reasonable distance, but its large, diffuse hotspot is very well suited for closer range lighting, which you need for changing a flat, etc. To top it off, this light is quite small, comes with a nice little case, and is a first rate bargain at $21.50 (even better with the package that includes 8 CR123s for $26.50).

Amondotech sells many other LED flashlights that might be a good choice for a car emergency light, and might suit you even better if your criteria differ from mine, but I have the ALX-2611Xin both my wife’s car and my own, and am very happy with it.



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