(I originally posted this at the "original" TB200 forum-- it was suggested there that I post this here....)

I have a few questions about some different types of gear I have seen out on the web but have had no first hand experience with. I am looking for people who have knowledge of these products to respond.

Baygen products - the wind up flashlight / wind up radio/ solar adaptor and battery charger. Has anyone used these? Has the performance been satisfactory? Problems encounered?

"Hand powered" flashlight - works with hand-pumping action-- Do they really work? Experiences?

"White LED Flashlight" - any experiences? Overall product impression? Do they really last as long as they say (batterwise and no bulbs needing replacement-wise?

Katadyne pocket filter for water - user satisfaction? How do you know when it's no longer filtering (claims to filter 13,000 gallons-- how to keep track or how to know when it's no longer filtering adequately)? Is there a way to make sure all the water is drained out of the filter so as to avoid problems with it freezing up?

Somewhat related, but different, I have a few questions about lamp oil: Does anyone know the average rate at which oil in an oil lamp burns (how much per hour, avg. flame height-- or how many hours per ounce)? What about the freezing point (temp) of lamp oil?

Thanks much, Winter Wondering

-- winter wondering (don'temailme@posthere.com), July 07, 1999

Answers

Winter Wondering (repeat),

 Baygen works great.

 Have a different wind-up flashlight/radio which is okay.

 Dont have the White LED Flashlight, but considering it.

(Love the battery-operated Maglights tho. Especially the purse/ pocket size with the little carrying case--in the event of earthquake and other sudden lights out situations).

 Havent tested the Katadyne pocket filter yet, but others Ive used seen fine.

Diane

Winter Wonderings post in TBY2K...

questions for those who have used certain gear (listed in post)

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 0013Kf

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), July 07, 1999.

"Baygen products - the wind up flashlight / wind up radio/ solar adaptor and battery charger. Has anyone used these? Has the performance been satisfactory? Problems encounered?"

I have the wind up lantern. Very happy with it. No problems.

Ditto the am/fm/sw radio. I've used it virtually every day since last August. I love it! I purchased the solar battery charger which also runs the radio. Hot Stuff!

"Hand powered" flashlight - works with hand-pumping action-- Do they really work? Experiences?"

I purchased a dynamo flashlight at the Preparedness Expo in Philly last month for $5. It works well. Takes less effort than I thought it would.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), July 07, 1999.

Thanks Diane and Bingo--

By the way, Bingo, I noticed you mention the solar battery charger / adapter too-- have you used it at all? From the pics I can tell you would just plug it in as an adapter for the radio-- but it's hard to tell how you use it to charge batteries. Am thinking it might be a good thing to have though. Thanks again.

-- winter wondering (don'te-mailme@posthere.com), July 07, 1999.

I've yet to use the solar battery charger / adapter for charging nicads. The directions are straight forward. You load the batts just like with the Renewal Alkaline charger (if you're familiar with that). Difference is the Renewal plugs into a wall outlet, the solar charger sits in the sun.

C. Crane provides excellent directions on their web site for getting the most mileage from nicads. They also price match with anyone.

C. Crane

The solar battery charger / adapter works superbly as an adapter for the radio.

Best Wishes,

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), July 07, 1999.

I ordered stuff from Gray's awhile back,

http://www.grayssports.com/productl.htm

and he emailed me a notice saying they were cancelling sales of the hand-powered flashlights due to low quality. I emailed back saying I knew they were junky (I had one before) but wanted one anyway, so he included it. They do work and without great effort, just don't expect to pass it down as a family heirloom.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), July 07, 1999.

Thanks again, Bingo. Since you wrote your reply, I did some more checking-- I did see a solar recharger adapter that does 'pop open' to put batteries in for recharging. But the one I saw earlier doesn't look like it has a big enough compartment to load batteries. A picture of it at:

http://www.windupradio.com/solar.htm

I think the one in the pic may only re-charge ni cads that are "AA".

Which leads me to yet another question: what type of batteries are in the baygen flashlight? (I was hoping to be able to re-charge them via solar, as well...). Thank you.

-- winter wondering (don'temailme@posthere.com), July 07, 1999.

I used my Katadyne pocket filter on a trip to the Miskito COast in Honduras about 12 years ago. It is well built and works exactly as it promises. It is harder to pump than other filters because its filter is different. You'll know when to change the filter... water won't get through at all, or so slowly that you'll tear your hair out.

There's no reason to question their 13,000 gallon claim, but it depends upon how dirty the water is that you're filtering.

I think it's a good filter for a back-up but not for long term usage.

My advice is to start filtering most of your drinking/cooking/washing water right now and see if that's how you want to filter water every day for months at a time.

-- walt (longyear@shentel.net), July 07, 1999.

My limited experiences...

White LED Flashlight, no experience with white but I have a red LED keyring light from Photon, I've had it 18 months and it works well, still on first battery. Produces quite a lot of light, I used it to video with in the dungeon of an Irish castle! Also, being red it doesn't ruin your night vision as much as white light (Astronomers use red lights while checking star charts etc). Very recommended.

The "squeezy" dynamo lights are of very low quality, but cheap enough to buy a few. For their price I wouldn't be without a few around, but definitely agree with previous poster's comment re "not heirloom quality!". My opinion is buy a few if you can get them cheap enough. They produce a reasonable amount of light per squeeze, and are pretty good for walking around in the dark, squeeze, walk 5 paces, squeeze, walk 5 more, etc.

Solar battery Charger: I've got a small cheap solar charger, not Baygen, just a $20 thing from an Aussie equivalent of Radio Shack, (Dick Smith Electronics, he used to be called "the Electronic Dick!") It works well enough, charges 2 D cells in about 10 hours of exposure to bright sunlight. You need to move it around a bit so it keeps facing the sun. Recommended, I intend to buy 2 more (at least).

I've thought about the Baygen Radio, but I've got a big 9 band "Patrolman" radio from Radio Shack, had it for about 20 years, runs for a l-o-n-g time on 6 D cells, and has great bandwidth coverage, I decided to just stock up on D cells, both normal and rechargable. Although, after seeing the positive responses here, I'm reconsidering!

No water filter experience at all, yet!

As an aside, good plan splitting the forum, congrats to all involved and many thanks.

RonD

-- Ron Davis (rdavis@ozemail.com.au), July 07, 1999.

The Baygen wind up flashlight works great - just don't set it on the ground with the handle "unwinding" - lol. I also have a Russian pump flashlight. Must be made for a guy with big strong hands. Takes a lot to keep pumping. I keep it in my son's bug out bag. It seems ok quality, though, as far as sturdiness. Also have the Baygen freeplay radio. Have it plugged in and hooked up to a shortwave antenna and it works just great! Have also tried it on wind up and that works fine too. Would recommend it.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), July 08, 1999.

Ron and others,

I too am pleased by the positive answers here. But also an aside. Because I am really new here and didn't quite understand the forum split, I had originally posted this at the 'original' (not prep) forum. You may want to read some of the answers posted there as well. One person in particular had some bad experiences with both the baygen flashlight and radio. On more than one occasion....

That info is at:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0013Kf and is part of the very detailed answer from Tom.

Thanks all

-- winter wondering (don'temailme@posthere.com), July 08, 1999.

"White LED Flashlight" - any experiences? Overall product impression? Do they really last as long as they say (batterwise and no bulbs needing replacement-wise?

 

Well, since I headed up a massive 1,800-plus bulk-buy of white LEDs direct from the manufacturer with a bunch of fellow TB2K regulars, and have been building crap like crazy with my 70 LEDs, I might have useful info on that subject from a practical real-world-use point of view. I also have a website up that is devoted to white LEDs, their uses, and information. I'll refer to pages from it on occasion in my post. (If anyone reading this has any white-LED info that would be good to post, please let me know. I'd be happy to credit you accordingly.)

 

First, the positives...

White- LED flashlights have much longer usable life on a set of batteries than an equivalent incandescent bulb does. A LOT longer. Take good care of the LED-based flashlight and it'll serve you for a very long time, especially in the case of the aluminum-bodied ones that have such a durable casing. Just don't drown the light (read: Drop it in water) or trash it, and take care to check the batteries for leakage, etc.

Dramatically increased toughness and impact resistance. (Ever had a flashlight bulb go south just from the light being dropped? I have. Trashing a bulb could be a very bad thing in a post-SHTF world, especially if that was your last bulb.) If each LED is properly mounted with a spacer to help take the shock, white LEDs can survive very severe drops.

The light tends to be more uniform in color balance, although this seems a bit odd at first since it looks to the eye to be bluish-white. Fewer dark spots as well. The light tends to taper off smoothly off-axis. Shadows are generally crisp and well-defined.

The light is visible for a LONG way off (three to five miles in my tests, in clear conditions at night) and reflective surfaces are visible for two miles or more with no source other than the LEDs. Street signs glow as if self-lit and car relfectors shine like they were lit up from within from a long way off.

White- LED lights also use a lot less current than incandescent bulbs for the same output at spot's center, stretching those batteries a lot farther. Use Lithium batteries with their ten-year shelf-life, or NiMh (NOT NiCd!!!!) rechargables with a solar charger and your light could last longer than your possession of it. (Take that as a hint to safeguard it if TSHTF. Others may see it and want it. I planned to build a few small six-LED units for barter items.)

With some creativity, you can build really small but really effective flashlights. My six-LED flashlight is about 3" long and an inch in diameter. For my next white-LED trick I planned to build a three-LED light using a single 12-volt 23A or equiv. battery that would be an inch square and half an inch thick. A postage-stamp light.

The best advantage is that they are really easy to work with if you have a rudimentary understanding of electronics. Just keep the voltage below their maximum rated limit and they'll last for a LONG time. (Nichia's model # NSPW500BS white LED has a 100,000-hour rated lifetime, which is about 11 YEARS of continuous operation.)

 

Now, the negatives...

White- LED lights need higher voltages than incandescent, although they stretch the power much longer. (My six-LED flashlight, which was converted to LED from incandescent, runs on two A544/PX28A/equiv. 6-volt alkaline batteries for about twenty hours total. The two batteries combined are almost the size of a single 'AA battery. They are widely available at radio Shack, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc.)

White- LED lights need a certain number of LEDs to be effective. I'd not use less than three LEDs for reading at close ranges, and six LEDs can produce enough light to use for moving around with comfortable levels of visibility. Single LEDs on lithium watch batteries (such as those little keychain jobs) are good for very basic applications but that's about it. So, if you get a white LED flashlight, I'd strongly recommend getting one with six LEDs if you can find one. (Again, my six-LED flashlight, which was converted to LED from incandescent, is bright enough to read text by from several feet away.)

White LEDs are visible for a long way off, which could be a problem if you are being pursued or need to approach a potential target or meal with stealth. They just seem to "jump out" to the eye, more so than typical incandescent flashlights.

For brighter light, you'll need to drive them with a high-efficiency driver to get the most out of your batteries. See my LED driver page for schematics for a basic timer-chip-driver that can push hundreds of LEDs at once with minimal drain. You'll need a decent level of hobbyist-type expertise with electronics to build one, but it'll be well worth it. My second LED driver prototype drives 36 white LEDs off eight 'AA' batteries. I've had the same batteries running it for a few months now. It consules less than two watts of power at 12 volts at full brightness and you can see it for MILES...

The LEDs themselves are static-sensitive. Small static charges can toast them. Proper handling precuations for anti-static semiconductors are required to prevent damage.

The biggest downside is cost: They are REALLY expensive. Nichia wants $ 1.60 EACH IN THOUSAND QUANTITIES for theirs! And that's direct from the manufacturer. If you'd like to buy plain LEDs to play with, wait for the next LED bulk-buy and get in on it; it'll save you a LOT of $ over buying them in small quantities from distributors.

 

Hope all that info helps you out with that facet of your queries! If you want more detailed info, want to build a driver, or want to know a few sources for the lights, E-mail me. I have PLENTY of info.

 

 

OddOne, who's spent too much time tinkering with white LEDs...

 

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), July 08, 1999.

(posted at both forums) - sorry for the cross posts...

Thanks Odd One for posting the info about LED lights. I did visit your website yesterday-- but I have to admit I get the willies when instructions start including ohms and schematics. I get the 'Ohm my gosh!' reaction happening. S0rry -- bad pun. But, on a more serious note-- and on a topic I plan to post on separately, I am not very handy when it comes to building things. Worse, I am just a new 'GI'-- in fact I probably don't even GI to the full extent. I just know that I'm feeling very pressed for time with a great deal of concerns. Not only is there limited time, but limited finances. And because of each of those things, I need to 'GI right the first time.' Really, this should be a separate post from my original queries (split between two forums). And I'll try to put something together as a new post at the prep forum.

an overwhelmed winter wondering (who would e-mail some people directly, but whose e-mail program is a piece of junk and inaccessible right now.)

-- winter wondering (don'temailme@posthere.com), July 08, 1999.

[Start quote]

an overwhelmed winter wondering (who would e-mail some people directly, but whose e-mail program is a piece of junk and inaccessible right now.)

[End quote]

My E-mail address is real, so when you get your E-mail client ina more cooperative mood and want to discuss white LEDs on more easy-to- deal-with terms or want info on where to get 'em or flashlights made from 'em, let me know. :-) Same to anyone else that wants that sort of info.

The ever insane...

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), July 09, 1999.