nyquill-junkie
November 18th, 2006, 03:40 PM
I notice you guys dont have much recent input... so I will toss my 3 cents in.
everyone has seen these Faraday shake charged flashlights for sale on ebay. some are cheap some are really pricey. I am a curious monkey and I have bought a few different ones, from locals and from ebay.... dissected them... tested them.
first off if you want a really really good effective super long lasting nice bright compact LED flashlight, your local autozone sells an everyredy all aluminum one with 3 led bulbs, runs @ 50 hrs on 2 cheapo AA batteries. its $12, dont be a cheapskate, its unbelievably bright and Ive left mine on with a timer running..... honestly they do run from 30-50 hrs before they go dim. I am truly amazed and impressed.
now back to the shake lite. they say in ALL the auctions.... no batteries.
OK thats a lie. I have yet to dissect one that doesnt have a battery. the really cheap ones have a fake shaking thing in it... it looks like a coil and a magnet. the coil is bare coper wire, not connected to anything. the "magnet" is a steel slug and not magnetic. its run off 2 little lithium batteries. they DO run bright for about 15 hr. but its a fake fraud scam shake light.
another type says "it has a large green capacitor! 75% larger than before!"
ok. this is also a lie. the green thing is a 2.6v NiMH battery. the shake mechanism DOES however charge the NiMH battery, it is a reasonably useful light for an emergency. 60 seconds of shake DOES give you about 10 min of light. My beef? its always advertised as NO BATTERIES and a CAPACITOR. :nono: the green thing is a battery....not a capacitor. oh, and shaking the light will in time break the solder joints loose and it will stop working. I re soldered them and it works again fine. Most people are not this handy or observant.
then you have the ones sold as "shake ot charge the capacitor, but the lithium batteries run the light... when it dies, you always have the skake-charge ability left!" :nono: no o no grasshoppper, this isnt true. those types cant generate enough power to keep them lit on shake energy for more than 2 minutes... but since its sold to people with a short attention span by the time the lithium batteries die, they have lost the light or broken it or the kids have lost it.
again... its all a lie, or a misrepresentation of the truth.
there 100's of people selling these lights, and quite honestly, i doubt the sellers really understand that they are nnot real, or that they do not function as they were told when the bought a gross of them from hong kong.
A company sells one called a "nighthawk" and it IS actually a functional shake flashlight. its very expensive.
the only cheap ones that work, by shake charging the 'capacitor' which is really a NiMH battery, (that is, to be honest, better than a capacitor) you can hardly tell from the super fakes.... unless you take one apart. even then, the 5 I got to play with, I fixed better and gave to the kids... they shake them and have play lights all night.
but they are junk.... and a rare ecception, I found only one guy on ebay selling these types. all the rest are total fakes with no charge mechanism... just batteries and a fake coil/slug slider you can shake and enjoy the energy you are not making. lol
save your money, go buy a real flashlight, cheap AA batteries are aboout $1.50 for a 4 pack, thats nearly 100 hrs of nice bright light and no shaking required.
yes... yu will have to spend $12 instead of $5 on ebay.
the UPSIDE is, that 12 buck 3 LED light you buy retail you can hock on ebay for $24 and people buy them like they are made of gold.
:shake:
I'd list the sellers of the fake ones... but there are 100's of them... better to just to educate the masses. (as if, that will really work! ;) )
everyone has seen these Faraday shake charged flashlights for sale on ebay. some are cheap some are really pricey. I am a curious monkey and I have bought a few different ones, from locals and from ebay.... dissected them... tested them.
first off if you want a really really good effective super long lasting nice bright compact LED flashlight, your local autozone sells an everyredy all aluminum one with 3 led bulbs, runs @ 50 hrs on 2 cheapo AA batteries. its $12, dont be a cheapskate, its unbelievably bright and Ive left mine on with a timer running..... honestly they do run from 30-50 hrs before they go dim. I am truly amazed and impressed.
now back to the shake lite. they say in ALL the auctions.... no batteries.
OK thats a lie. I have yet to dissect one that doesnt have a battery. the really cheap ones have a fake shaking thing in it... it looks like a coil and a magnet. the coil is bare coper wire, not connected to anything. the "magnet" is a steel slug and not magnetic. its run off 2 little lithium batteries. they DO run bright for about 15 hr. but its a fake fraud scam shake light.
another type says "it has a large green capacitor! 75% larger than before!"
ok. this is also a lie. the green thing is a 2.6v NiMH battery. the shake mechanism DOES however charge the NiMH battery, it is a reasonably useful light for an emergency. 60 seconds of shake DOES give you about 10 min of light. My beef? its always advertised as NO BATTERIES and a CAPACITOR. :nono: the green thing is a battery....not a capacitor. oh, and shaking the light will in time break the solder joints loose and it will stop working. I re soldered them and it works again fine. Most people are not this handy or observant.
then you have the ones sold as "shake ot charge the capacitor, but the lithium batteries run the light... when it dies, you always have the skake-charge ability left!" :nono: no o no grasshoppper, this isnt true. those types cant generate enough power to keep them lit on shake energy for more than 2 minutes... but since its sold to people with a short attention span by the time the lithium batteries die, they have lost the light or broken it or the kids have lost it.
again... its all a lie, or a misrepresentation of the truth.
there 100's of people selling these lights, and quite honestly, i doubt the sellers really understand that they are nnot real, or that they do not function as they were told when the bought a gross of them from hong kong.
A company sells one called a "nighthawk" and it IS actually a functional shake flashlight. its very expensive.
the only cheap ones that work, by shake charging the 'capacitor' which is really a NiMH battery, (that is, to be honest, better than a capacitor) you can hardly tell from the super fakes.... unless you take one apart. even then, the 5 I got to play with, I fixed better and gave to the kids... they shake them and have play lights all night.
but they are junk.... and a rare ecception, I found only one guy on ebay selling these types. all the rest are total fakes with no charge mechanism... just batteries and a fake coil/slug slider you can shake and enjoy the energy you are not making. lol
save your money, go buy a real flashlight, cheap AA batteries are aboout $1.50 for a 4 pack, thats nearly 100 hrs of nice bright light and no shaking required.
yes... yu will have to spend $12 instead of $5 on ebay.
the UPSIDE is, that 12 buck 3 LED light you buy retail you can hock on ebay for $24 and people buy them like they are made of gold.
:shake:
I'd list the sellers of the fake ones... but there are 100's of them... better to just to educate the masses. (as if, that will really work! ;) )