Cheers!
I see more and more lights with that function, but I can’t imagine that a lot of people actually use it more than once a year or so - but on the other side, I don’t live in a region that has many natural disasters that cut electricity for a few days and I don’t go camping or somewhere I don’t have electricity readily available basically 24/7.
So - how many of you do use this function?
Do you specifically buy lights because of this or is it more of a “nice to have”?
I barely do. I forget it exists honestly. however I am sure in an emergency where you need a few percent of battery to call 911 or something… it existing is better than it not. as long as you have a cord…
This thing has a port built into it. and a solar panel and crank generator charger along with the internal Panasonic 3600mAh 18650. theoretically in an emergency it is basically an infinite power supply for a phone… if you are willing to exercise your wrist or WAIT a LONGGGG time for the sun to recharge the internal batt.. I might add another 18650 to it tucked inside the case to double it’s capacity. I already swapped the stock 6500K LED for a 2700k 519A.
I’ve tried it to see if it works but I’ve never used a light as a power bank. I have a 20,000 mah power bank and I don’t use that often.
About as often as I use a powerbank.
Never. Got actual powerbanks that I generally keep fairly charged.
Figure a light with powerbank function just has that much more parasitic drain constantly sniffing the port to see if anything’s connected, plus just that much more crap that can go wrong.
I think it is one of those functionalities you don’t want to use but want to have.
No emergency needed, your phone just lost charge and you really need to make a call. Plug it to your flashlight, wait for 5 minutes and make that call.
If I’m hiking, I carry one of those USB doodats that will allow me to use any Liio battery as a powerbank.
Never actually used it (bc I charge my phone right before I start walking). So happy I have it
I haven’t owned an actual power bank for over a decade, easy.
I have two Wurkkos TS22s, they are my only lights that have a power bank function iirc, although I have a dual bay charger that can do the same thing and can accept two 26800s (once I dremeled the plastic enough that they would fit). LOT of capacity that way I reckon. Still haven’t used the charger that way more than once though.
Anyway to really answer your question, I’ve only used the power bank function in a light a handful of times. Once to charge my phone when the power was out for a day or so this year.
Two separate times to charge 18650s, that were inside another light, that I was going to use in an Armytek headlamp (best headlamps btw) for working on my project C10 last year.
I don’t really use the TS22s that much unless I know I’ll be out for a while, cause the tint. I usually keep the stock one in the vehicle with the double USB-C cable though, just in case, unless it’s too cold out.
That thing seems like it would be nice to have just for backup. I may look into it, even though I basically never use or need a powerbank. I really like that you swapped a warm emitter in, makes it look much nicer. I can’t stand CCTs that cool unless they’re in throwers.
If they had something like that with a built in radio that would be even better, for like storm sheltering or whatever. Is that what the screen is for? Or is it like a power level readout or something?
edited: wow I could’ve just zoomed in and answered my own question, probably disregard that last part.
Never, why because a dedicated powerbank is very cheap today. Also, if you use your light to charge youe phone, you wont have a light anymore.
Mine is the ER210.
they also make an ER310 which I wanna buy as well. It looks pretty cool and the one I have currently is pretty solid so I bet that one is even better.
The ER310 also has a dog whistle built in and dual battery sources )6x AA batts and a 18650)… my plan with that is to run really high capacity Alkaline batts, or really high capacity lithium or NIMH batts. and then swap the stock lithium cell for a Panasonic 3600.
That thing would be such a unit in an apocalypse. The flashlight lasts forever. and 18650s are small enough to carry in pocket. Mine gets used pretty often as a flashlight, as well as a headlight for my bicycle and I often listen to the radio while riding as well. it also obviously has a weather radio function, and it fits in to the pocket of a coat pretty nicely. as long as you got decent sized pockets.
I ALSO hate cold color temps. especially on an emergency device. why on earth would I want bleak gray white light when in a stressful situation. I don’t believe they thought that one through. The warm white is much better.
there is also the ER50. I have not personally used or seen it. it seems like the “Base Model” of the lineup:
The ER310 is nice, and I like that it offers dual fuel, but I’ve found that the weather alert will occasionally go off even if it’s nothing in the area. Could just be a matter of where I’m situated, but that happens now and again. I might try to grab a desk unit that offers SAME support in the future.
Very rarely, but not never. Usually, if I’m going away from home for long enough I might need a charge, I’ll just use a battery pack.
I can see how having a 21700 light with this ability would be potentially useful if you want to travel light and you’re away from home or away from a vehicle.
Even “traveling light” means at least two different flashlights.
I currently only have a few 18650 lights with this feature and it’s just too slow. I’ve experimented for an hour or so and concluded it’s nothing I want to rely on.
With a 21700 light maybe there’s something there. I wouldn’t mess with it unless it can put out 2 amps. You still have to experiment ahead of time and make sure that the light will charge your particular phone or other device. And you’ll want to experiment with battery voltages at different levels in both devices. And it seems like you would still need to carry a car 12v powered and electric power supply to plug the cable into if you were to have those options available.
I got some of these recently from Amazon and they work pretty well. I like being able to monitor the voltage of the vehicle at all times. They are 12 volt cigarette lighter adapters that have two USB A ports and two USB C ports and one is PD output.
They’re just chasing lumens, and would rather stick in an emitter that puts out 500lm of arctic 7000K light than 350lm of nicer 3000K light.
I’m saving this, I will definitely be getting one maybe by the end of the year. unrelated, but I’m really trying to get rid of a few things currently as I’m in a pretty not great way.
Anyway it reminds me of the old radios my family would have (except far better in every possible way) every time we were all in the ole tornado shelter my great grandfather built into the hill. except in those days we had “bad” lights and candles. primarily the big plastic lights that take the 6v lantern batteries, and similar.
I didn’t know I needed something like that, but it will definitely come in handy. our winter doesn’t usually get bad until the first quarter of the year. lived through the '99 and '09 ice storm here, and in '09 I was at Grandma’s without power for weeks. luckily we had propane heat and camp stoves. it sucked then, but I actually kinda look back on that fondly in some way.
Sorry for the tangent, and thanks much for the details and recommendations. I’ll definitely be getting one and also swapping the LED. was it a standard 3535 mcpcb or did you have to rig one into it?
a lot of “uneducated to lighting” people I have seen equate cool white to automatically mean brighter. I believe at least part of it is that 99% of any light that you can get at Walmart or whatever other store are all like 6500k+. Only other option I can think of is some Milwaukee ‘Tru-View’ branded lights that are maybe 45-5000k. one (possibly discontinued?) model even uses a B35AM!
one of my brightest lights comes out to maybe ~3-300k? haven’t done the math on it. K9.3 with 6x DD 4500k 519As, and 3x 2700kDD (the ones on the edges of the triples). nice and warm, with a red second channel.
Anyway, I gave my buddy my Sofirn D25LR that I put a 4000k XPL-HI into. he does a lot of work outside, either building house/garage frames or working on other people’s vehicles. I still find him using a cheapo like 7000k AA zoomie instead for some reason. I’m trying to get him to buy an Armytek Wizard C2 Nichia warm in 4500k. I have been extremely impressed with both of mine (3000k green and 4500k black), insane run times.
I know I always end up typing out way too much all the time. But most of my lights are all 4500k and below, with my most used being around 2700k- 3500k. I find cool CCT light to be mentally and visually fatiguing inside buildings, and not great for much else except throwers. That’s really the only time I can stand the high CCT. when someone around me uses their phone light, I am actually nearly disgusted. although I have seen ONE phone light that was nice. some older moto model, it had a cool and warm CCT tint mixed, and it seemed to have good CRI as well.
I think I actually only used it once but there were plenty more situations where I wanted to but turned out the particular lights I had with me didn’t have the function (FFLite lineup is confusing in that regard, some have it some don’t, despite having same/similar drivers).
Could come handy when travelling light where it’s easier to take a couple light or cells that You need either way than lugging an additional powerbank.
Though I never take it into consideration when choosing a light, so there’s that.
Pretty often. Incredibly handy for camping vacations.
In an emergency I would be trying to charge the flashlight, not the other way around. :-)
I usually charge the flashlight off the motorbike during the day, and once I go to sleep I charge my phone off the flashlight over night.
