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Light For Life Flashlight Tuesday, December 09, 2008 - Ehud Rattner Home >> Picture Of The Day >> Innovation   
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| 5.11 Tactical has recently introduced their new innovative flashlight - "Light For Life" UC3.400. Unlike regular flashlights, which require constant battery changing, this new gadget offers a rechargeable battery that can be recharged in a minimal amount of time. Various military and rescue units could benefit from this new development, since it ensures that its users will have an operating light source at all times. | ||||||||||
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Most electric rechargeable devices share the same drawback – a lengthy recharging time. Even modern rechargeable LED flashlights need hours to take a full charge, and lose a little running time with each battery cycle. According to 5.11 Tactical, the Light For Life UC3.400 utilizes an ultracapacitor to hold its charge, providing about 90 minutes of light per charge. Although it doesn’t sound like much, its full-recharge time of 90 seconds is highly impressive. Moreover, the maker of UC3.400 claims that this super-recharge could be made at least 50,000 times.
The UC3.400 is made of durable polymer, it’s water resistant and uses 3 LEDs, giving it even greater durability. Aside from the flashlight, the kit contains a DC Charger, nylon belt ring, and a mounting bracket. Although the flashlight itself offers a unique system of recharging, its dependence upon electric sources (unlike the Datexx hand cranked USB charger, for instance) and its limited 90 minute operation time could hold back potential buyers.
The development of the innovative technology that enables fast super-charging was made possible due to 5.11 Tactical’s partnership with IVUS Energy Innovations, the makers of Flashpoint Power Technology. As a part of their promising marketing, 5.11 Tactical offers a limited lifetime warranty. Furthermore, the new flashlight is priced at $170; although this might not be suitable for private use, military organizations, police units and search and rescue teams might find it extremely useful (if they can tolerate the 90 minute operational time limit).
TFOT has also covered a system capable of channeling the energy created by movement into electric energy, developed by the Idaho based Company Motion 2 Energy and Philips' Power4Life series, a line of devices intended to help consumers keep their growing array of mobile devices charged and ready on the road. Other related TFOT stories include the USBCell Battery, a gadget that combines a 1300 mAh Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable battery with a USB plug, a generator with no batteries, developed by Perpetuum, and the aforementioned Datexx hand cranked USB charger.
For more information on 5.11 Tactical’s new flashlight, see the company’s website. |
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The manufacturer\'s data sheet states 15 minutes output at 270 lumens on high (67 lumen-hrs), or 60 minutes at 90 lumens on low (90 lumen-hrs). From this, I\'d estimate that on low the device draws approximately 1 watt from the ultracap, with each LED each operating at 0.3 watt at around 100 lumens per watt, with roughly 90% DC-DC converter efficiency. This is 1 watt-hour from the ultracap. On high, this device would draw about 4 watts from the ultracap, with a little over 1 watt reaching each LED, given a slightly lower LED efficiency at the higher brightness and a significantly lower converter efficiency, possibly a bit over 75%. Compare this with two AA NiMH cells (at 3 watt-hours each) that together store 6 watt-hours. Ultracaps are a breakthrough technology, but the energy storage density is still pretty low, as we see here. It will be a few years before ultracaps become the most satisfactory overall choice for flashlights. |
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Your comment was very technical and thorough Robert. From a EE, I thank you for your research and perspective. I agree that it will be a while before this type of flashlight is applicable to the masses and I myself will be waiting... Thx again. |
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If I still did law enforcement, I\'d buy one right now. The way cops use their lights is different than most others. The low setting would be used most and rarely for a full 90 min. Make a traffic stop and you\'re back in your car in 5 minutes. The light is charged. Conducting a search the light is on only in brief flashes. (A constantly on light makes you a target.) And when you\'re back in your car, its charged. I still carry a SureFire Aviator light that has 3 LEDs for low light and a high intensity bulb for 65 lumens of high intensity light. It gives me 60 minutes of high intensity runtime on 2 CR123 batteries and several hours if I only use the LEDs. That light cost me $200 when I bought it and the battery costs killed me when I used heavily every day. This thing is a boon for cops, no batteries to buy, no bulbs to fail at the wrong time. |
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Recent developments made all-LED flashlights extremely useful and bright. I retrofitted several conventional flashlights with the 3W LED "bulb" from Maglite, including a nice rubberised 2xAA flashlight from Taskforce (ditch the "cap" that keeps the bulb in, lightly shave the hole in the reflector with an Xacto knife, and it press-fits nicely together), and one of my new favorites is Target's "private label" River Rock brand 2xC flashlight that belts out 142lm from a single Cree LED. Their 1xAA critter similarly puts out 42lm from a 1W LED. Would highly recommend any of those 3, as light output is great and they use conventional (read, cheap) cells (AA, C). |
