Bought another torchlight - the Nite Ize Buglit

While the haze was about, I took shelter in a shopping centre while waiting for my friend and I chanced upon some lights in Home-Fix. Frankly, I get the feeling that DIY products sold in an air-conditioned are often marked up in price and the only reason I was in the shop was only to window shop. It is particularly enjoyable to look and feel products from air-conditioned shops but they ain't the best place to buy stuff from since they probably charge you for the air-conditioner in their products.

Brand Intro
It was then I chanced upon a little keychain light from Nite Ize. It a US brand that seems to have a few basic products and a lot of other products that revolve around it. One of their basic product is the Inova Microlight, which is a simple 5mm keychain light. The same keychain light is then incorporated with several other add-on products that add value to the light that they have. By doing so, it makes it easier for mass production because their basic product is essentially the same for their entire product range.

 Its a bug!

Size comparison

Left: Photon microlight, Middle: Nite Ize microlight by itself and the bug legs. (If you don't fancy the bug legs, you can also get the microlight by itself)

The mini-clip and flexible legs are also sold on its own if you wish to purchase more.

The Buglit Microlight
This is the little light that caught my eye. It is a perfect replacement for my decade old Photon microlight which was mysteriously damaged when I put my keychain bunch into my bicycle saddle bag. I was really disappointed because it is very well thought out and in my opinion, the best keychain light.

What I look out for in a keychain light
1. Firstly, it has to be extremely convenient to carry around. Being a torch light enthusiast, you can have many expensive and advanced torch lights lying around at home. But, normally, no one carries their torchlights around most of the time. As the old adage goes "the best camera you have is the one that is with you when the need arises" and it is the same for torchlights.

2. Made of durable plastic. Why plastic? When something is hung on the same keyring as keys, they are bound to be scratched by keys. Some metal keychain lights have to go to great extent to be anadoized, galvanized, etc. just to be hardy enough to be used alongside keys. What's the point of that when plastic is hardy enough and soft enough to withstand hard objects?

3. I hate it when keychain lights needs to be continuously pressed in order to keep it on. That effectively means that you'll have to reserve one hand just for the torch. I need one that switches on after 1 click.

4. Auto-off feature: keychain lights are bound to be turned on accidentally one time or another. Having an auto-off feature saves the battery from running down and saves you from the nasty surprise of having a dead battery when you need a light the most. (Most keychain lights do not have this feature. The Photon microlight has this and it is why I regard it as the best keychain light).

5. Run on reliable and common lithium coin cell batteries. Lithium coin cells are meant to be reliable for 10 years and more, unlike alkaline coin cells that have lower capacity and will drain away in less than 5 years. (Most scientific calculators use the old LR44 alkaline coin batteries.)

Why I bought the buglit
Although the buglit doesn't have an auto-off feature (I haven't test it yet. Nothing was said about this on in the product description), what the buglit offers in return is the weird flexible legs that serves the dual purpose of protecting the switch from accidental activations

EDIT: After leaving it on for more than 10mins, it did not shut off and I can safely say that it does not have any auto-off feature.

The button is in the middle for both microlights. The Photon on the right has 2 buttons: 1 for contant on (to scroll through different modes) and the other for momentary on, which is rather clever.

Strobe mode for extra visibility. Can possibly double up as a front blinker for bicycles in a pinch. =)

 The run time and output intensity doesn't seem to be proportional. HIGH is 6x brighter than the LOW, but the runtime is only about half of LOW. This is because of the way ANSI standard calculates runtime. This light is probably not regulated, which means the light output drops as the batteries drain. The mircolight will spend most of the 10hours near or below 1 Lumen in HIGH mode (I.e. 6 lumens to 0.6 lumens) .

"The continuous time lapsed from the initial light output to when the light output is at 10% of the initial light output." -ANSI definition

Practically, this lamp will operate at 6 lumens at the beginning of the battery life and slowly dim down till 0.6 lumen for the first 10hours. But this is okay as this is enough for indoor use, close-up work and getting you to your big ass torch lights. I prefer keychain lights to be non-regulated because this means they can run for a lot longer than regulated lights. In an emergency, its better to have a dim light than no light at all.

 

 It uses 2x 2016 lithium coin batteries, which is incidentally the size of 1x 2032 battery.

 You can use 1x 2032 battery instead of 2x 2016 batteries in this. The brightness will be reduced but the run time will be doubled. I like this "coincidental" feature because I bought lots of 2032 batteries from dealextreme a few years ago. I have several lights that uses 2032 and I hope to standardize the batteries.

The flexible "bug legs" offer a creative way to go hands-free. This greatly ups the versatility of the light. In fact, all lights should have this feature!

In all, if this light is available in your area, do get one! Everyone should have a reliable keychain light to prepare for the occasional. It is reasonably priced too.

Eneloop glitters!

Got these 4 AA eneloop glitters for my birthday present. These little things have been regarded by most forumers at Candlepowerforums as the best rechargable NiMH batteries in the market and it is hard not to see why.

 

Self Discharge

These little things have impressively low self discharge. Self discharge was a problem with rechargeable batteries in its early days because it gave rechargeable batteries a bad reputation of being dead every time you need it. Couple that with the slow overnight chargers of the yesteryear, users of rechargeable batteries needed to be extra thoughtful when planning to use their batteries for whatever purpose. Most batteries would be flat by the end of 2-3 weeks and needed to be charged again. Then came the infamous high capacity Sanyo 2500mAh I bought about a decade ago which had the ability to lose almost all its charge in less than half a week. That was a turning point in battery history where people started to doubt the usefulness of trading self-discharge for higher capacity. After that, Sanyo started making eneloops, the first low self discharge batteries with albeit lower capacity of 2000mAh.

The low self discharge feature, for the first time, made consumer rechargeable batteries reliable.

No. of Cycles

It turned out that the benefits of changing the battery internal structure for low self discharge also rewarded the battery with longer longevity. Unlike normal rechargeables, low self discharge batteries tend to be rated for a higher number of recharge cycles. My glitters are rated at 1500 recharges while the latest eneloops are rated at 1800 recharges. Even though mine are the older version, they will still last way beyond normal NiMH batteries that are often rated for 500 recharges.

Performance

Wait a minute, there should be a catch in here somewhere. Does it perform worse than normal rechargeables? It turns out that they don't. In fact, they are the most recommended batteries for high powered torchlights.

Price

With such features performing way beyond most batteries in the market, one would expect that these eneloops to be rather expensive, but surprise! They are not. In Singapore, 1 AA or AAA goes about $5 to $6, which is about the same price as other brands.

I normally don't go for consumables that come in a pretty package because that is like buying a more expensive a nice printer cartridge not for increased ink capacity, but rather for its looks. But for well designed products like these, I'm going to make an exception. I may just get more of it to complete the collection. Heh.

My new 2xAA Batteries Emergency Charger for iPhone 4 / 4S/iPod - Black from dealextreme!

Hey everyone! I've finally received my new iphone portable charger from dealextreme. Its SKU67065 from dealextreme.com. I bought it for US$5.30, which is a reasonable price considering that most brand-less li-polymer mobile chargers go for about SGD$10.

I bought this because my dad's old hand-me-down li-polymer based portable charger isn't really working out for long trips away from the power socket. Sure, it does help to ensure I'll survive the rest of my day but that would mean I will have to be conscious about the battery usage.

The biggest difference between this and my old portable mobile charger is that I can always replace fresh batteries to charge my phone so that as long as I have enough batteries with me, I can always keep my phone juiced up all the time. Using rechargeable NiMH batteries to power this little thing provides a guilt free environmentally friendly way to keep a smartphone happy for hours. This is unlike energizer's energizer's aa portable phone charger which was reputed to be only good when used with expensive lithium batteries.

I particularly like the clean design of this portable charger. There are no switches, buttons whatsoever. All you need to do is to insert them batteries and plug it into your phone. Viola! It starts charging instantly. Due to this simplistic design, it is feasible to leave your batteries inside all the time without the circuitry slowly draining the battery away (refer to parasitic drain below). 

The finishing of this charger is also quite high quality. The plastic is tough and durable. Something that I expect to last quite some time.

 

Simply slide to unlock.

I used lithium batteries and it worked too.

The size and design complements the clean iphone look and is not at all obstructive when I used the phone when charging.

The bottom part of the charger follows the contours of the iphone so that it can be rested on a flat surface. This is good as it is unlikely to bend the connectors in the long term.

So far, I tried two different NiMh batteries:

MAHA imedion 2400mAh  - 60% increase (avg).
IKEA 2000mAh NiMH - 50% increase (avg)

Parasitic drain (not plugged in): 0.4mA
[Theoretically, a pair of MAHA imedions would be completely drained after being left inside for 8 months]

The charging data is pretty consistent given the delta in battery capacity and phone charge increase. I am also particularly pleased that this little thing produces very little heat in the process of charging, translating to minimal energy loss.

I would recommend using Low Self Discharge (LSD) NiMH batteries for your charger to give you the assurance that there will still be energy left in the batteries when you really need them. Typical NiMH batteries will lose most of its energy by around 3 weeks while LSD batteries can retain as much as 70% over a year or two.

All in all, an excellent buy with a very reasonable price considering the build quality and efficiency of the circuitry.