Ultracapacitor/LED flashlight recharges in 90 seconds

Seems everyone here is focusing on the technology and cost of this device. For me, I use a flashlight only when we have a big storm and the power goes out... great for the first 90 minutes, but then I need a recharge and have to plug it into a wall socket (I presume)...not going to do me much good at that point... This thing should come with a buzzer that alerts you to when there's about 5 minutes of light left so I can then search for my other flashlights and batteries :-) .

$170 is a lot for a torch, but not a lot for a very viable piece of new technology. The developers have thought about the 'run down' behaviour and the demand for quick charge from users. At 270Lumen it is a lot brighter than any other LED torch I have seen ! Maybe I won't buy one yet, but the idea is very forward.

Waiting for the days when cell phones will be charged in such a small time.

I believe they've broken the record of $/lumen-hours with this one. For those of you interested in savings if you're using flashlights a lot, see the link below: www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap/batteries/batts.htm

Folks, you''re likely not the market. I enjoy my $1.99 single AA LED flashlight a lot. However, if you use a flashlight *every night* for a living, even D cell flashlight batteries are going to cost. As does the time spent buying, inventorying, changing, disposing (hazardous waste) them in a commercial or public safety situation. Since this flashlight charges in 90 seconds(!), it avoids all that. For police, fire and other such jobs, $170 for this is actually a bargain. For them, something that just works - for years and years - is invaluable. So, why so expensive? Do the math - even if you use chintzy 20mA LEDs, 70 minutes of 20mA * 4VDC is over a kilojoule of energy. Store that much in ultracapacitors, add the charger, the LED constant current control, the state machine to select modes (probably a small microcontroller), a custom case and reflector, and know that sales will be small enough to amortize the ROI as being a significant part of the cost. Oh - and do it for $170. I''d rather not - these folks *did* do their homework. But just like many other higher end professional tools, it''s out of my price range. Sigh.

At $170 a copy they will only sell a handful without a discount contract from the Police or the military or some other ?we need it no matter the price? and user. I sure ain?t gonna get one to find kitty when she sneaks outside at night. Their website does offer ?free shipping on orders over $35? which is easily obtained. However, with deliveries are not scheduled until 2009 so we can expect knockoffs to hit the market before theirs does.

2yrs ago I bought off the street(!) a pair of those (ostensibly) shaky-lights, with the coil and magnet inside, and made sure they *did* light before forking over the 10bux for them. Turned out it was only a steel slug and unconnected 1-layer "coil" of wire, and the LED was powered with a pair of coin-cells in the head. Ah, well. What I did was wire up a "joule thief" (small cheap 1xstr boost converter) circuit to light up the LED from a pair of sub-C NiCd cells I had lying around, which fit the flashlight's body perfectly, and connected them through a 1N400x diode to a small coil I affixed to the opposite end. Now it charges the sub-Cs from my Sonicare(tm) charger! Just drop it in and let it go overnight. If you want *bright*, though, 28bux at Target will net you a 134lm River Rock brand compact flashlight that runs for 60hrs from a pair of C cells. Got one, love it enough to go get another as a spare.

As it appears their marketing is directed at Police/Fire/EMS, guess who will be paying for these expense little toys!!

It might be interesting to see how much of the $170 is license fees...

Did I read that correctly, $170! Someone really doesn''t want to sell very many, do they? I understand all the economics involved but for a flashlight to cost $170 retail it had better make breakfast too! (At least once a week for a year