My photon microlight started to fail a few months ago and i have been looking for a small keychain light to replace it (it served me well over the last 10 years or so) and when i saw Don's post on here with a link to Photon2 clones at DX i just had to order a few 10 packs, they are fantastic, much better output than my old photon and the price was amazingly good too.
However i wasn't a flashaholic when i bought the original photon... back then i thought the 6D maglite would be the last flashlight i would ever need... oh so big oh so bright!
I am a flashaholic now so i feel the need for more than just a direct replacement (or 30), i read a few keychain light reviews on various sites and the TiKey looked good but for the cost (around £25-30 in the UK) i decided i would be better served by paying a bit more and buying a Drake or Wee, hmmm... decided on the Wee (and later both ), but as it turned out they where not available at the time so i decided to take another look at the TiKey
(and order a Raw SS while waiting for the Wee SS to be restocked wife/spend guilt rising fast!).
Google turned up a few sites selling TiKeys in the UK for around the price i remembered but this one (based in Austria btw):-Qualityflashlights.co.uk TiKey Titanium LED Flashlightis one of the few flashlight purchases to have me reaching for my credit card without a fearful glance in the direction of my wife , at a measly £8.95 plus £4 p&p it works out to be exactly what i paid for the photon microlight all those years ago.
From reviews i see the output to be similar to other photon style lights which is exactly what i want but in a more geeky/blingy form factor and so i ordered one, and the following day (today) ordered 3 more , i will post again once i receive them and let you know how the transaction went.
A moderately interesting thought occurs to me - three LR44s are the same length as a 10180 cell as used in some Lummi lights. It is a really good price for it. Will I, Won't I?
Probably not - I own a Fenix E01 which is comparable in output but runs forever on an AAA.
Received my Tikey's today (2 for me 2 for gifts) , delivery was fast and packaging was well done so two thumbs up for qualityflashlights.co.uk .
A brief summary and maybe a few pics to follow.
In terms of light output the standard Tikey appears much brighter than the DX keychain/fauxton/photon microlight's that i have and the tint is the typical nichia blue(ish) hotspot fading to yellow(ish) spill which i prefer to the DX type all blue tint and basically it works and will do the job the photon microlight used to but where the photon only added utility to my keyring the Tikey adds style too.
Tikey No2 has been modded (hacked/bodged/juryrigged) already with a spare Wee 25 lumen LE and 10180 but as the LED on the LE is significantly larger than the 5mm it replaced, the head will need boring out a little for best results.
It works as is but the LED is not central and it sits well back in the head so i guess im losing a lot of light and side by side it doesnt look as bright as the standard Tikey to my eye but the LE is all flood and a warmer tint of flood at that.
I think i will probably try a couple of other 5mm LED's in there before making any permanent changes to the head, maybe i have a Cree 5mm in a drawer somewhere... im certain i have a couple of Nichia's in a warm tint (i like a warm tint) and its going to be fun modding this little light to my needs/whims.
midieval10 , It seemed expensive to me too when i was looking at paying around £25 for one, but from my perspective at £8.95 for a Titanium keychain light i dont think it is expensive and especially when you consider i paid £12.95 for a photon microlight but compared to a pack of 10 DX keychain leds at around £3 (which it must be said do exactly the same job) the decision to use one over the other comes down to one factor for me... Bling!
Apologies for the poor picture quality, my wife is the photographer in this house but claims she is too busy right now and i am not allowed to "mess about" with her camera so i had to take some shots with my phone cam, hopefully they are clear enough.
Unmodded Tikey on left showing back of PCB, Modded Tikey on right with Wee LE , i soldered the negative wire from the PCB onto the LE but the positive is not soldered (yet). The Wee LE has a small button similar to the one on the Tikey PCB and my intention was to put an oring around it that sits proud and must be compressed to complete the circuit, at the moment i have to unscrew the head until its almost off to switch the light off.
It is not very clear but the 5mm LED on the left is sitting well up into the reflector, the Wee LE on the right is way down in the head and badly off centre
Beamshots taken at 6" (ish) again the standard Tikey on the left, beam looks more blue to my eye, and the Wee LE on right looks more yellow
Tikey V Photon Microlight2 clone, Tikey on the right this time.
brted, i am sure it will be a challenge to bore out the titanium however if it comes to that it will be someone else's challenge as i have access to a machine shop where i work and the old fella's that run the shop are a good bunch and always willing to help so the boring shouldn't be a problem, but im going to try some other 5mm LEDs in there before doing anything irreversible to the head, and i am hoping that a warm tint 5mm i have will give me the tint and if so i will purchase a selection with different viewing angles to try and get the flood, my ideal would be a Wee LE tint with similar flood but in the 5mm format, if i dont find one that suits then i will modify the head to fit the Wee LE, however it goes it should be fun and i will update as i progress.
Or if it is 10 lumens it isn't going to be for long. It uses four minute watch batteries (LR621 - for better performance replace with SR621 but they cost more) of 2.1mm thickness by 6.8mm diameter. The battery is about the same size as the positive contact on a CR123 and has a capacity on a good day of 15mAh. For comparison an LR44 as used by the TiKey is 11.2mm in diameter and 5.2mm thick and has 150mAh in it, at least in the good ones and probably a bit more in the SR44 silver oxide version
There's a TiKey on its way to me. Must get some 10180 cells too. Probably run for ages anyway - and is cheaper than 3 SR44 cells are locally. May even dig through the Saft catalogue to see if they make primary cells in that size. If they cost less than the light it'll still be cheaper than feeding it SR44 cells. LR44 are the lower voltage alkaline variant - available from DX for about $4 for 50. SR44, silver oxide cells - higher voltage, higher quality - cost about 10x as much. There are an amazing number of names for this cell: A76, AG13, G13A, LR1154, L1154,RPX675, D76A, V13GA, PX76A, PX675A, GPA76, 1128MP, 1166A, S76, 10L14, MS76H, 357, 303, SR1154 or GS13, 228, 280-62, J, SB-B9. It is probably the most common camera battery of all from the film era. The variety of names for camera batteries used to drive me nuts. We usually sold Duracell branded ones but they got rid of all their quality control staff in the late 70's and about a third of all of them were unsellable so we got different batches of cells from different manufacturers with different names every time we got more.
@ Ways - It looks like you are making your own chain mail something out of split-ring washers? So what are you making or what did you make? Just curious.
Alternatively its a handkerchief size piece of chainmail i made with spring washers not for any particular purpose other than trying to make chain mail. It turned into a kind of long term project i come back to every now and then and make another hanky sized piece maybe ill join some to make a shirt or something one day. In the meantime they come in handy for holding small objects with a predisposition for rolling off my desk and they are kind of therapeutic to play with while idling.
I work in a place where the customers wear such hats for real. Let's not talk about why.
To take one example there was the guy who pulled out his own right eye and handed it to a nurse. Given the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the Control of Terrorism Act - this is not psychosis but plain common sense. Let's not talk about Section 44 of the Control of Terrorism Act (Otherwise known as Arrest Anyone With A Camera Act) or the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act in its entirety. That one goes, "decrypt this now or go to prison till you do. Ask your lawyer about it? Add 5 more years in prison for telling him about it. And you still won't get out of prison + 5 years till you do decrypt it"
Or the time the police kicked down my door because I'd used a torch to find my way to bed. The cops had the effrontery to send me a bill for destroying my back door.
How big is your chain mail now? Maybe you can post a pic of the whole thing when you get a chance or when your wife has a few minutes. I'd really love to see it. :)
Complicated situation, is he trying to make a point about an unjust law, is he hiding incriminating information in the encrypted data or is his truly unable to co-operate because of his mental health problems?
I should imagine buying time on a Cray XT to decrypt the files would be prohibitively expensive.
I could probably do it on my old ZX81 in an afternoon though.
), but as it turned out they where not available at the time so i decided to take another look at the TiKey 
, i will post again once i receive them and let you know how the transaction went.
