Well, El Nuevo y Mejorado Grande Lampe de Poche now puts out 80 lumens (dropping quickly to 70 lumens) on the AAA alkaline cells. Color temp is 5600K with a 0 Corpse Rendering Index. About an 80 color rendering index. I hate so say it, but it’s actually a not to shabby of a Lampe de Poche.
Here is the modified light engine. I’ll probably fill it with silicon carbide epoxy:
And the new money shot:
In order to call attention to the important work that *texaspyro*has done on this light. I tried to make improvements myself and have failed. He apparently is more talented than I and seems to be on the right track. The BLF community needs to be aware of his efforts and fully support him with our Time, Talent and perhaps even Treasure. Any help or encouragement that can be provided, I am sure will be greatly appreciated.
I potted up the head (reflector/LEDs) in silicon carbide epoxy. Luckily nothing came loose and it still works. There is plenty of room behind the reflector/switch for a driver…
I was in my Dollar Tree today and spotted a NEW Lampe de Poche! First thing I noticed was that it is made of some sort of Translucent material. Really sharp looking, unique, I mean how many items do you see that are translucent. I gotta say, the industrial design team that created this light knew what they were doing.
There were only a couple of these new lights on the rack, but there were a number of the triple emitter LED style available. When I picked up a red colored light to inspect it more closely, I was stunned to see no LED’s in the reflector area of the light. Instead I noticed a clear glass sphere of some sort.
Just then the stock boy, who had been working in the same isle came over and said “I see you found the new lights”. I looked up at him, as I was kneeling down at the time taking the photos. I noticed that he had this great look of excitement in his eyes. I told him I was interested in LED flashlights and that I had bought an LED Lampe de Poche a couple of weeks ago, and I was in the store to see if they had any other shades of purple. But he didn’t even hear a word I said, he immediately started explaining how this latest light used a light source other than LED. That in fact it did not emit light like an LED does but rather it radiated light through “Black Body” radiation. By now he noticed that I was looking at him kind of funny, so he explained that the job at DT was just temporary, he really was waiting for a position to open up at Pratt & Whitney (UTC) and that he was a recent grad, majoring in Solid State Physics. He went on to explain that although LED’s are effiicient energy wise, they have 2 problems. One is that they have to run cool and secondly that the color spectrum of light that they produce tends to be rather narrow. He pointed out that the light source in this new Lampe de Pouche was actually running at much higher temperatures than typical LED’s. And because they radiated light through black body radiation, the color spectrum of the light produced was much broader. So much broader in fact that the excess heat generated was actually radiated away in the infrared! I stood there in awe, thinking, how ingenious these designers of this light are, no heat sinks required! The stock boy noticed my eureka moment and went on. He talked about the Wien displacement law, the Stephan Boltzman law and some other stuff that I can’t remember. After he finished, I asked him the obvious question, are you a flashaholic, and do you belong to any internet groups? He replied yes he was, and yes he used to be on CPF but got kicked for talking too much theory and buying cheap lights. I told him about BLF and he thanked me and walked off. I then turned to select my new Lampe de Pouche but hey were all gone. I looked up the isle and there went a young mother with her 2 children with the last 3 lights.
Damn you! Now I have to go back and get me some Lampe de Poche en Choutchoucs… I wonder if a Bridgelux C9000 will fit in them?
wow, they have achieved new technology and are selling it at amazing rock bottom dollar store prices instead of premium LED costs.
i wonder how long ago that incandescent patent expired?
What’s really encourgaging to me, is that instead of looking to the government to subsidize this new technology, this manufacturer and retailer are working together thru low prices to bring this technology to critical mass. As in most new technologies, there are huge R&D and retooling costs that must be amortized thru the useful life of the product. This very low initial introductory price tells me that they both anticipate HUGE public demand and a very long product life cycle, allowing them to more than recoup those very significant startup costs. The future of this new technology looks very “bright” indeed!
Great idea. Perhaps this translucent material can withstand the excess heat better than the last one. (see my failure above) I would race you to be first with this mod, but knowing you, you probably already have a Bridgelux C9000 laying around. Besides my Dollar Tree is out of stock on the host.
Eagerly awaiting continuation of the plot
Worse.
A candle has the opposite of Dimming. Light one, measure your output, then place it on its side on your best sofa, or any pile of paper will do. Give it a few moments to “Ramp Up”, then measure again… Brighter? True “Warm White” light? Let’s see your wee LEDs do THAT!!
That’s why they call it “Candle Power”!
+1 for candle!
Dim
I was at my local Dollar Tree again over the weekend, looking for other shades of purple of the original Lampe de Poche. So far I have found 5 different shades, my wife says I’m crazy and that they all look the same. I went to get my NW C8 flashlight because only then can the difference be seen, but when I got back with it she had left to do some grocery shopping. Anyway, while I was looking around DT I found this great new light, and I don’t need to remind you that this is DT - everything’s $1!
Apparently, this one just came in and not only has a belt clip, but also has a swivel head HOW DO THEY DO THAT. Think about it, with wires and all going to the battery - amazing. I checked out the light engine on this one and it is also NOT led but rather the new clear glass type, only this one is longer and cylindrical. I haven’t had a chance to tear this apart yet as I have been to busy with my purple light collection, but as soon as I do, I will post pics here.
I must say that I am also very impressed with the rate at which new and exciting products are being released. This “Lampe de Poche” - Dollar Tree alliance is proving to be very fruitful. We are definitely in the golden age of tech.
I haven’t seen much of texaspyro the that last few days, no doubt he is busy with that BridgeLux mod. Can’t wait
ROFLMAO This has been a wonderful story of a company rising up and really shining. :bigsmile:
Oh Joy and Joyosity squared! Rejoice and joice again! Los Dios del Poches have blessed us poor mortals with three, yes, count’em three new Lampe de Poches (well dos Lampe de Poches and un Lampe de Poche Del).
The two on the left are incandescents and will probably need a driver or nickel-zinc batteries to do something good.
The one on the right is a 3x5mm DEL monster that uses 3xAAA pilas (no incluido). It puts out 12.5 lúmenes with pilas frescas. The color temperature is a corpse puckering, zombie suckering, mummy humpering 14,000K!!!
This Just In! Breaking News! Lampe de Poche is NOT Spanish. It is some long forgotten, obscure little language called “French!” Only a few people in the known universe are known to speak this language. I understand that they are good kissers, though. I guess one’s gotta do something with that tongue when nobody else speaks your tongue…
Did they have any purple ones?, they are hard to come by.
I noticed another translucent one in the center, I’m sure that will be the fashion trend this spring
How many emitters in the “Del”?
I am so excited for the future, did you notice that time between product releases has gotten shorter and shorter. This is a very good sign, the company is really ramping up production and the R&D team is certainly in it’s stride. I am looking forward to another new, major announcement from them in the very near future. Perhaps a paradigm-shift
The DEL has three 5mm emitters. Wonderful, eye searing, 14,000K emitters. That light is rather purple. I think that they had one purple version of the orginal Poche.
The also had a new version of the original Poche with the “hand grenade” knurling on the body. The new version has a much less agressive pattern.
I think the swivel head incandescent is destined for a Nichia 219 in direct drive.
First a little background. A couple of weeks ago I happened to catch an episode of Modern Marvels on the History Channel. The episode was called “Mad Electricity” and featured the life of Nikola Tesla. What is important here, relevant to “Lampe de Poche” is that Nikola Tesla was way ahead of his time in the areas of the transmission of electricity, High voltage experiments, alternative lighting and even quantum mechanics.
I got a call this afternoon from the Dollar Tree stock boy, the one I mentioned in an earlier post - the Solid State Physics major. Well anyway he called, so excited in his speech that I could hardly understand him. I knew something BIG was up and my anticipation was so great that I had a hard time controlling myself also. He told me to come to the store right away, he had something VERY important to show me. He said to walk in the front door and as soon as I make eye contact with him, to turn around and meet him in the parking lot.
Even though I was right in the middle of cataloging and organizing my collection of purple “lampe de poches” I dropped everything and dashed out. The 5 mile drive to the Dollar Tree store seemed like 50. Once I got there I walked in, trying not to look conspicuous. He was over by the Helium tank filling up balloons. (That reminded me that I need to buy some and send up an XM-L in blinky mode some night so that I could read about it the next day) Anyway, when I walked in, he nodded his head and I turned around and waited for him in the lot. A couple of minutes later he came out around the corner of the building, walking quickly with his head motionless, all the while his eyes were darting back and forth wildly. I noticed he had a small brown paper bag tucked under his arm pit.
When he reached me he was out of breath and didn’t even say Hi, but rather told me that he just got these from his ex-college roommate who now happened to be a buyer for Dollar Tree. He said he got 2, one for me and one for himself. They were 2 new “Lampe de Poche”. The first thing I noticed was that one of them was purple, I asked for that one and he said OK. The second thing I noticed was that they did not look like any other “Lampe de Poche” I had ever seen!. Just then a car pulled in and parked right next to us. He got spooked and took the other light and ran back around the store. I also got a little nervous and took my purple light and went back home. What I learned and came to realize over the next few hours absolutely blew my mind!
As I was driving home I was trying to figure out what just happened back there. Why did he call me up, meet outside, give me a “Lampe de Poche” then suddenly run off? Then I remembered, ex-roommate, buyer for DT, aha, He got a hold of a couple samples of pre-release lights. Lights that are not yet available commercially. No wonder he was acting strangely. When I got home, I took the light into my workshop and set it on the bench to photograph. Here it is.
There are so many things to notice here that they can’t be put into a single sentence. First, it is purple and it is translucent. There’s that fashion trend again. You can see in the background of the card that it also comes in green, blue and yellow. The fact that it has a punched hole in the top tells me that this could be an actual retail package, it could be a mockup, but if it is real then we might see these in the stores very shortly. On the back of the card there is a barcode, model number and perhaps a serial number?
Looking at the light source I can’t help but notice the constant progression. During the last 3 interations, we have seen a round glass sphere to an elongated shape and now to a “U” shaped tube! The light emenates evenly from the entire length of the tube.
But what really knocked me over (and I actually did fall out of my chair when it hit me, really) is the Westinghouse logo on both the front and back of the packaging. This is an authentic “Lampe de Poche” but there is also now a Westinghouse logo
Here comes the Paradigm Shift, What is the significance of the Westinghouse logo? It basically boils down to Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. In the early days of the transmission of electricity Thomas Edison and his companies preferred Direct Current (D.C.). Nikola Tesla and Westinghouse preferred Alternating Current (A.C.). A long story short, Westinghouse bought Teslas’ patents. Tesla was known for his brilliant ideas and also his great showmanship. There are stories of Tesla lighting up entire rooms, without any visible source of light. Could it be that Westinghouse has had an old Tesla patent for some new and advanced lighting system? And could it be that it is just now being brought to fruition? Could explain why perhaps “Lampe de Poche”, a technological juggernaut has now partnered with Westinghouse, an old patent rich company?. This new Lampe de Poche that was given me could be just the beginning of a Paradigm Shift. We could on the verge of seeing some enormous advances in lighting technolgy! I for one welcome this new member, Westinghouse to this new triad of “Lampe de Poche”, Dollar Tree, and Westinghouse. Technology, Marketing and Industrial Might. What a combination, who else can compete?
I stopped by a Dollar Tree today looking for that latest Lampe de Poche… no joy. They did have these. Where else can you get a light and three LR44 cells for a buck?
Just finished the mod on the 2xAA swivel head Lampe de Poche a Pince:
Just finished the mod on the Dollar Tree Luminare de Contact DEL hockey puck: Dollar Tree Luminaire de Contact DEL mod
Lampe de Poche..
Do you think it's possible that these designs are coming out of the Porsche factory ?