Tag Archives: lighting

Lightsticks over the doorway II

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A fairly common survivalist practice – setting a lightstick on top of the doorway to a room so its always there if you need it when the power goes out. Nothing special there. But, like all things on a long enough timeline, those lightsticks have an expiration date. Based on my personal experience, I usually ignore that expiration date…as long as the lightsticks were in a cool dry place (like the inside of my house) they should be fine. But, lets test that.

Heck, only 19 years past expiration……….

I did a round up of lightsticks and pulled a few out of the pile to try out. They foil packages were dusty, but everything seemed okay on the inside.

No leaks. Nothing broken. Vials inside the plastic tubes are fine. All looks good. Other than chemical degradation over almost twenty years, there shuldn’t be any reason these shouldn’t work.  But, I didnt come all this way for theory. Lets crack these in half and see what does (or does not) happen:

As I 99.99% expected – they work fine. I suppose I should revisit them in a few hours and see how much life they have left in them but for my uses these are strictly short-term illumination devices. I use them to find my way to a real flashlight or lamp, or theyre for marking something.

I ordered some newer ones of Amazon a few days ago and they got here today, so I’ll be replacing these (much) older one. But its nice to know that after sitting in situ for almost two decades they work just fine. YMMV, of course, but I’m confident that these things will last far beyond their prescribed expiration.

I also keep a couple of these in my larger first aid kits, my generator supply box, and anywhere I think I might some lighting in an emergency when nothing else is available. These things are never a first choice, but for a source of light that is explosion-proof, water-proof, wind-proof, and will work when batteries have self depleted ten years ago.good choice. Cheap insurance for about a buck and a half each.

ETA: keep in mind, not all lightsticks are made by the same people. If you buy some Made In China lightsticks versus, say, the actual  Cyalume product, you may get different results.

Sunday outage(s)

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This paid off.

Yesterdays power outage was not an anomaly, it seems. Power was out for about an hour today but over a much broader area of town. I went ahead and ran the generator for that hour, mostly because it was just time to unlimber it and let it get some exercise. However, buying the new UPS’ yesterday for the security cams worked perfectly. Cams, monitor, and DVR stayed up quite a while as I fumbled around getting the generator out of it’s Hardigg case and out into the yard. Very pleased.

Just a few blocks away, a friend of mine is without power and has been for an unusually long time….several hours now. I brought over the desklamp/batterybox combo referenced at the beginning of this post and said to go ahead and not even worry about using up the battery...running it six hours a night it’ll last a freakin’ month.

And, should the power continue to be spotty, I also have this little gem I fabbed up on a whim.

Not sure what’s going on locally in regards to this two days of spotty blackouts…Im guessing its something fairly minor…but it does give me an opportunity to test out gear and theories, and it also points out some holes I need to fill. Most notably, a better base-unit-style police scanner…..with UPS, natch.

Wanna see something cool?

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You guys remember that a few weeks back I bought a like-new Aladdin kero lamp for $25? Well,check this baby out…it is literally new-in-box from about 40+ years ago:

How cool is that? Absolutely brand new and left over from the Reagan years.

And, heres the sad thing: from a pragmatic, practical, and logistical standpoint this is a silly purchase. It’ll run eight hours on one quart of fuel. Thats four nights on a gallon, which means I have about 400 days worth of kero for this thing. Thats 20 5-gallon cans. Those take up a lot of space. And this thing generates heat, which isnt always welcome. And a degree of indoor pollutants. And a fire risk. And some delicate spare parts (mantle, chimney). Whereas a good 12v. LED light will, as I’ve proven, run 21 nights (at least) on one charge, poses no fire risk, generates several times the light, no heat, can be recharged from multiple sources (generator, car, solar, bike generator, etc.) and doesn’t require delicate spare parts. From a practical standpoint, this item makes absolutely no sense in my preparedness TOE. Except…I like them. I like their charm, warmth, good looks, and general homey-ness. But, make no mistake, the primary emergency lighting ain’t these. But…on a cold winter night, when youre sitting by the window watching the wind howl and blow the snow around, its a good deal more comforting than the harsh LED lamps.

Oh…price? $89 plus shipping. Couldn’t resist.

Link – Tactical Flashlight Review

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Its a golden age of lumens these days…what with rechargeable batteries and retina-scorching LED technology. I rather like the Fenix brand of lights, but here’s a fairly in-depth review that you might find interesting: THE BEST TACTICAL FLASHLIGHT – TEST DATA & RESULTS

Your mileage may vary, of course…but for me I have found that a well-built LED flashlight that takes a readily available battery (or a rechargeable that offers the option of using the rechargeable battery or a common battery interchangeably) is the way to go. I rather like the Fenix PD35.

Whatever you do, make sure to get at least a small pocket flashlight to carry everywhere everyday. I have the little AA-batt Fenix 12 and I can’t begin to describe how handy it is to always have a small, bright flashlight on hand.

 

Right place, right time IV

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Trolling through Craigslist and came across this little number, brand new and unused for….$25. Yes please.

It’s a very nice, very new Aladdin oil lamp. If youre going to do kerosene lamps for emergencies, this is the guy you want. I’ve been meaning to get a couple more but hese last few years these things have been quite difficult to find. Most places are always out of stock and the prices….well….$150-$200 for one of these isn’t unheard of. Fortunately, you can sometimes find these in junk shops or yard sales for significantly less.  You can order up a lampshade and lampshade hanger to go with these, which makes them wonderful lighting for cold dark winters nights. And they even throw out a little heat.

Spare mantles, chimmenys, burners, wicks, and that sort of thing are always a good idea. I have one of these that I’ve carried around for the last forty years and it works just fine.

Since my ’emergency fuel’ of choice is kerosene (stoves, lamps, heaters), this lamp fits into my plans quite nicely.

The fact that I also got it gor about 1/8th the price of a new one is just icing on the cake.

Moral of the story: don’t discount Craigslist for getting the things you need to increase your resilience.

Weaponlight upgrade

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I try not to be a dinosaur, but sometimes it just happens. Case in point: weaponlights.

This is the G19 I keep on the nightstand:

It’s been sitting by the bed for…mmmm…the last15 years, at least. It wears some night sights that, really, I should be replacing and it also has a Streamlight M3. This is a weaponlight that, in todays world of high-tech, would not even rise to the level of airsoft. At the time I got it, which was probably 20 years ago, it was decent. But, time and tech march on. I was at a gun show today and thought perhaps it was time to up my game.

This is an Olight Valkyrie PL-Pro that I picked up at the gun show. It surpasses my ancient M3 in so many ways that the only real way to express it is through a picture:

And that is not with weak or dying CR-123’s in that M3. The simple truth is that battery and LED technology have advanced so far since I purchased the M3 that, compared to what is available now, the M3 doesn’t even clock in as ‘toy quality’.

And speaking of technology, the M3 has one function: on/off. This Olight has a high, low, strobe, temporary on, constant on, and a lockout function. Even more interestingly, it is chargeable through USB.

And…the unit has a low charge warning indicator, and a charging/full indicator on the charger. And that charger, by the way, attached magentically…which is kinda neat.

And since its LED you get brighter light, longer battery life, and less fragility than with the older incandescent bulbs. Man, how technology has changed.

So…upgrade time for the trusty bedroom Glock. So far it seems like a fine product and I might get another one or two fr some of my other pistols. After all, its dark 50% of the time. Oh…and I need to swap out those faded tritiums as well.

‘Tis the season for holiday upgrades!

Flashlight history sites

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As much as the field of guns has it’s wildly nerdy devotees who geek out on what might otherwise be considered ‘useless trivia’, the field is not alone in that. Case in point: flashlight nerds.

A posted about flashlights and a little bit about MagLite and, unsurprisingly, there are blogs out there dedicated to the history of such:

It’s a fascinating thing, to see how the technology and design have changed over the years. There have been very few advances in technology that trickled into the realm of survivlalism in such a pronounced way….the advent of LEDs and newer battery technologies have really made a tremendous sea change in flashlight options compared to the olden days of survivalism.

Both of those links are fascinating reading, doubly so if you have law enforcement experience. No doubt the KelLite’s bring back some memories for the long-retired cops.

 

Fenix PD35

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Man, I remember in the very fledgling days of my survivalist existence the flashlight to have was the MagLite. The bigger the better, and MagLite made some of those things in as many as, I believe, 6 D-cells which was alot like carrying a baseball bat. And, of course, that was the idea behind it. MagLite’s unspoken-yet-obvious big selling point was that you could beat someone to death with it if you needed to. And, back in those days, you had a Krypton bulb that threw out a decent bit of light compared to the flashlights of the day. But if you dropped your MagLite there was a good chance the filament in the bulb would break, so they came with a spare bulb nestled in the tailcap.

Now it’s thirty years later and technology has actually delivered on its promise, at least as far as flashlight are concerned. Thanks to LED’s we get ten times the battery life and about that much times the brightness.

I mention this because I sent a pocket flashlight to someone as a gift and got one for myself on a whim. And I am astounded at the light output in it’s maximum mode. The light in question is the Fenix PD35 v3.0 1700 Lumen Tactical Flashlight with Two ARB-L18-2600Us and LumenTac Organizer.

For the last several years I have been carrying a Fenix E11/12   which has proven to be an outstanding choice for an everyday pocket light. Bright enough for most operations without getting into the overly tactical realm. It’s small, runs on one AA batt, and fits in your pocket quite nicely.Its a good everyday carry kind of item and I recommend it highly for that.

But…sometimes you want something in the same (or similar) size and form factor but you want to up the firepower. So, after examining the one I got as a gift for someone I decided I very much needed this thing in my repertoire.

It runs off an included rechargeable battery. The battery charges off of USB cable so you can pretty much charge it anywhere. Probably even off a Goal0 solar panel that’s designe for charging USB appliances. And, since it is USB, you can charge it off of anything that is meant to charge your phone…like those portable little battery banks. But, in a crunch, it’ll also run just as nicely on a couple of those CR123 batteries you’re using in your Surefire weapon lights. So..dual fuel.

The biggest attraction , to me, is this retina-scorching maximum setting on this thing. Hit the button on the tailcap to on/off. Once on, there’s a small button at the front bezel that you can click through the five power settings. Lowest setting will give you a nice ‘work light’ output for finding things close at hand in the dark, highest setting will look like an aircraft landing light. Hold down the selector button for a few seconds and you get a wildly disorienting strobe on maximum setting. Pretty sure it’ll induce an epileptic seizure on pretty much anyone…epileptic or not. It remembers what setting you had it on when you last used it, so if you turn it off on low, it’ll be on low when you turn it back on. Turn it off on maximum, and when you turn it back on…maximum.

Runtime, according to the paperwork, is something like 200+ hours on the low setting and about five hours on max. Battery recharge is about fifteen minutes and the battery has a red/green LED indicator on it to let you know when its charging/charged.

Price? Not cheap. About a hundred bucks which, even with Bidenflation, still seems like a bit of a bitter pill. But…cheap bastard that I am, I’m telling you that you’ll get what you pay for with this thing.

It’s about the size of your average Surefire light, but still of a size that would fit in a pocket. Theres a belt clip and lanyard for keeping things handy and from getting lost. If you do things like take the dog out at midnight, or walk home from work late at night, this is the last word in pocket handheld illumination.

Do I think it’s worth a hundred bucks? Hmmm. I think so. I’ve never had an occasion where I wished my flashlight had less power, but I’ve been in plenty of situations where I wished it threw a beam further or brighter.

So…thumbs up from your buddy Zero.

Lightsticks above the doorway

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While investigating other blogs, I found this post: The Light Stick Over The Door Trick

This is something I’ve been doing for almost thirty years. I leave a lightstick on the top of each doorway in the house. They are unobtrusive, mostly out of sight, but when the power goes out you know theyre always there and they are just what you need to find your way to a real flashlight. (Assuming you don’t already carry a small flashlight in your pocket at all times…which you should.)

I might have mentioned this before but, honestly, I don’t have time to trawl 20 years of blog posts. I will say, though, that with lightsticks being relatively cheap, it’s worth it to replace them every couple years. And always keep them in the foil pouches until ready to use. I’ve never had one fail, but I tested one last year that was almost 15 years past its expiration date and it worked just fine. But for less than a dollar each, why take chances?

As an aside, I also keep a couple lightsticks inside any container of emergency gear so that if I need to use that gear in the dark, I have a light source of some kind. I tape them to the inside of my Pelican gear cases, and I always have one or two in every larger first aid kit. (Thats in addition to a small, lithium-batteried light.)

Power failures have a habit of being unplanned, which means next time youre in the bathroom and the power goes out, it’d be nice not to stumble your way outta the bathroom, down theahll, to your computer room or wherever you keep your emergency lighting tools. Instead, find any doorway, reach up, and -presto- illumination.

Evolving from Fenix 12 to 12 v2.0

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So the term “EDC”, as you know, has become the handy prepper acronym for ‘Everyday Carry”. It’s also used as a noun in interrogatives, such as “Hey man, show us your EDC” which is an invitation for every swingin’ johnson to dump his pockets on the bunk and display magazines, ammo, knives, watches, multitools, pens, flux capicators, or whatever they think they need to have on them at every moment of every day.

Theres only a handful of things that I keep in my pockets – wallet, flashlight, pocketknife. And, surprisingly, the flashlight gets quite a bit of use. So, imagine my annoyance when I discovered that I somehow lost my Fenix E11. Not a big problem since they now make the E12 which is virtually identical. Put when I went to Amazon to replace the E12 I pulled out of storage, I discovered that the E12 is also now history. Instead it has been replaced with the E12 V2.0. So..I hit the buy button.

Here’s the skinny on the E11 and E12 line of little AA-batt flashlights. For the money, I like these a lot. I’d like a SureFire even more but given that I just lost my last E11 I’m reluctant to spend $200 on a flashlight that has a higher than 50% probablity of winding up lost and rolling around  on the floor at CostCo.

I got the new E12 V2.0 yesterday and it is as handy as my older ones, but has some differences. It is slightly narrower in diameter than the older ones, although the emitter section is of the same diameter. It is also noticeably shorter, which Im not sure I like. The shorter length makes it hard to hold in your fist and operate with the thumb. But, the more compact design is welcomed by my pockets. Biggest difference is that the tailcap switch has three modes…low, med, high..which means if you want a small task light for reading menu’s in a restaurant of finding your dropped wallet in a darkened theater you can do so without lighting up the area like a movie set. Also, theres a very welcome and remarkably clever belt clip that allows you to orient the light up or down when you carry it.

Price is about the same..$27~ so no real change there. My experience has been that these are excellent little flashlights for everyday pocket carry. Pretty unobtrusive, puts out a good amount of light, pretty bombproof, run on easily acquired AA batts, and have features that make them more useful than 3-for-$5 pocket lights you find at Horror Fraught..I mean, Harbor Freight.

YMMV, of course, but if you’re looking for a solid performing little pocket life that can withstand alot of abuse and won’t break thebank, this might be worth looking at for you.