Faradeus : self-charging flashlight

Yes, to make shaking easier.

Sure, I haven’t invented anything new (and guys, come on! I’ve mentioned Michael Faraday on a project page :wink: )
What are key benefits of my project in comparison with old plastic chinese flashlights? GOOD MATERIALS!

And I mean high quality internal components, ultra thin wire to have 3500 coil turn, diod bridge on schottky diodes, N45 rare-earth magnet. Everything I’ve wrote about are expensive components. I guess a magnet alone costs more then chinese flashlight itself.

Heh, imagine how much shaking you’d have to do to charge up a decent 1000 lumen light! You’d shake yourself to death, first.

Sometimes it’s bad to be honest :wink: Ok 20 Ansi lumens or 100000 Chineze lumens :wink:

Well, if the shaking action is similar, it could be easily used by the male population, and provide an ECO alternative to onanism.

I’m not knocking this, if it is done well and efficiently, reliably and durably I am interested. Just one moving part is very attractive.

Make it totally waterproof to a good depth (laser welded, or bonded) with a magnet/reed switch, totally durable and shock proof and I’ll be tempted

Nonsense, I was able to lead a group of 7 mountain bikers home in pitch blackness with one 18 lumen Petzl headlight. My first maglite was a AAA solitaire with 2 lumen output, in candle mode it could light up a whole room once your eyes were properly adjusted.

Agreed Zulumoose. 20 lumens is lots.

Now here is a war story, years ago I was out with my ski club (actually my sailing club, we did this every year), last day, we had booked an evening at the top mountain hut after the lifts closed. A fondue evening, to be followed by a run back holding flaming torches. 1.5 Km down, 7Km distance. Red and black.

Then the proprietor offered around his home made schnapps. So we imbibed (would have been rude not to).

By the time we left it was past midnight, we were all inebriated, a storm had blown up, the flaming torches blew out instantly. So we had a discussion. The decision was to go off-piste, directly down, 2.5 Km. the snow crust had frozen hard so we thought even those without powder skis could do it.

I was the only one with a decent head torch, so I lead from behind. Our guide led from the front, she had double ended skis and could do a black run backwards faster than any of us forwards, as for the snowpark…)

So we got all of us back with just my crappy head torch, a “1W” led powered by three duracells.

And the sweeper-up on the snowmobile (we did do some risk assessment) didn’t have to work, nevermind calling in a piste basher to take more down.

So, hundreds, or thousands, of lumens are an extravagance. Keep it real and let your eyes work.

Looks interesting if it does require minimum shaking and the size is about right.

I still have 2 of the original Shake Lights from I’m guessing around 20 years ago. They were quality built but required too much shaking for the minimal light they produce. They were around $40.00 back then and I got the pair for next to nothing as people who originally paid the big bucks found out fast they were more hype than anything and let them go for cheap.

They did spawn a slew of imitators that were cheaper but were absolute junk. Guess I’ve kept these around in case the apocalypse comes to fruition. :wink:

Good luck with your project.

P.S. These original Shake Lights are good for arm exercise!

20 years ago Ferrite magnets were used. And now we have neodymium that are 15-20 times stronger in the same size. That’s the main difference.

I agree . When its really dark a little goes a long way . Demonstrated that in a cave once or twice. A Skillhunt on low was all I needed

20 lumens would also be easy to get from a regular AAA battery, or rechargeables + tiny solar charger.

Hmm, reminds me of this device…

This seems to be an exciting concept.

Imagine scaling it up. Get light, and get exercise, too.

Wle, and what if zombie is at the doorstep and your solar charged flashlight was layin on the dark shelf? :smiley:

Here’s an idea, make an inductive docking station to charge it up usually. You have the coil already, it just needs another one in the dock, like an electric toothbrush.

Like the emergency torches that you can buy already. Some of them switch on automatically if the mains power goes.

Interesting project indeed.

One thing i’m worried about is i’ll never use it… unless i ran out of every other possible light source, including a lighter or matches. And then, years after, i fear the Li-Po battery will be dead from aging when i finally need it. How long will the battery last unused? In most situations i’d rather carry a couple AA lights and spare batteries rather then this somewhat big light.

Still, if i was stuck in a remote cabin for days and was out of every other power source, i’d be glad to have it.

Eternal flashlight? Will it be serviceable to change parts or upgrade it?

Considering this shake-me light dimension i’m sure some 3D printed add-on/sleeve could easily turn it into an eco adult toy… Love is energy! :heart_eyes: Don’t forget to remove the add-on before going out with your light during a blackout though… :person_facepalming:

Li-po battery will start degrade after 5 years but supercap is almost eternal. It has capacity for 2 minutes of light.

If you have at least basic skills - why not?

If a lithium battery is left attached to a circuit for extended periods of time, even if the circuit is off, it will slowly discharge and drop below minimum capacity causing permanent damage.
Hopefully the flashlight has a physical battery disconnect or that lithium cell will be dead long before 5 years pass.

It is physically disconnected with button with fixed positions.

That’s a good point. Hopefully the parasitic drain is very low. It could be very low; I have a Zebralight that has a parasitic drain of only 2.4uA. That would last for decades, depending on the size of the battery (it’s probably something like 300mAh).

How long do glow sticks last in storage? It seems that a bunch of those might make for useful emergency light, when every other light source is dead. They’re about 10 cents each on Amazon. But if they only last a few years before the chemical breaks down, then that’s not much use.

Or a road flare. Good for light, and scaring away bears and wolves and zombies.

Korean girls try Shake Weight (ENG Sub)

Korean girls try Shake Weight (ENG Sub)

That’s so awesome! Good luck with the sale, fantastic little project, thanks for sharing it. Put it up on Candlepower as well.