Halo Mini 1aaa light from Meh, ($2 deal alert today, usually $3 each, in 3-packs)

Meh: 3-Pack: Halo Mini-Lite LED Flashlights (August 31 only, US central time I think).

They are on sale today for $6 for 3 lights ($2 each), free shipping if you are a Meh member. The rest of the time they are 3/$9, still pretty good.

They are a little bit bigger than the classic small 5mm 1aaa lights, but they are still smaller than any 1aa lights I’ve had. UI is one level twisty, can’t go wrong. Output is medium, I dunno, I’ll make a wild guess at 30 lumens. Way higher than 5mm leds but not a lumen monster. Tint is not too bad, again by the standards of old 5mm’s. The lanyard attachment is unusual: a fairly sturdy braided leather cord affixed to the tail end of the light. They also come with a circular carabiner that is near useless because it is made of steel(?) and is ridiculously heavy for its size.

People complain that they eat batteries (that’s why Eneloops were invented) and about crappy QA such as poorly cut threads. I didn’t notice this on the unit I carried for a while, but that’s a small sample. Re battery consumption, I will try to measure the current draw sometime, but meanwhile I can attest that L92 lithium primaries work fine in the light.

I bought 3 of them a while back, carried one for a while til I lost it, gave one away, still have an unopened one, and am about to order 3 more.

They come with a no-name AAA alkaleak(?) cell inside the light, and an insulating disc to keep the light from turning on and draining the battery during shipment. Don’t forget to remove the disc before trying to use the light. The instructions mention that, but who reads instructions, so there.

This being BLF I think it is hard to ignore a usable $2 light. Good stocking stuffer, etc.

Addition (Sept. 7): weight of light w/o battery = 21g, weight of carabiner=11.2g, weight of included battery=6g. Battery is suspiciously light since alkaleak AAA is about 11g, so this is probably a zinc-carbon battery(!). That might explain commenters complaining that the light rips through batteries. Anyway I will put an Eneloop in it. I haven’t yet measured tailcap current. Yes it has a removable tailcap, no idea why. The head threads on this light (the 2nd of my 3) are rather loose so I will try to lube them. The 1st light was better about this. Still can’t complain for $2. Eventually I may just scavenge the driver for another light.

i was curious so ordered the 3-pak special on 8/31, and they finally arrived today.

They work okay and make a good keychain light, plenty bright to see stuff in the corner of the trunk or walking up to a dark door. True color rendition is excellent, i give it a 10.

Looking down into the reflector i see 3 annular regions, like a slope change in the parabolic curve. It must work to blend the beam because there is no annulus in the wall shot.

The pill seems to be held into the head with some sort of glue (hot glue gun?). i’m not quite ready to break it apart yet but will eventually and report the findings.

The braided leather tail strap and the steel ring carabiner are kinda quirky design feature but fully functional.

I put a crappy non-Eneloop in it for a while and it worked ok, but I noticed it is a heck of a light brighter on either the L92 lithium or a fresh alkaline. I didn’t try with a worn alkaline or with an Eneloop yet. I do have some old Eneloops but it will be a few days before I can get to them.

L92 lithiums are really nice at 1.8V;

alkaleaks are next at 1.5V;

but rechargeable NiMH at 1.2V are fairly worthless substitutes for 1.5V/cell designs.

I don’t know if the relatively low nimh output came from the lower voltage, or higher internal resistance in this particular cell. That’s why I still want to try an Eneloop. Fwiw I remember the Fenix E01 had very flat regulation until the cell was almost fully depleted.