Oh yeah! And i am refering to the incan type. How
Many hours does it last the bulb burns out? What
Kind of battery is best used for this light? Will the
Bulb burn out faster if we use 1.8 lithiums compared
To nimh and alkaleaks?
No idea but at a guess nimh longest, then alkaleaks, then 1.8 lithiums shortest. Some mods available to convert to liion though.
I still own one, but don’t have any answers, except thinking that nimh would be best.
The question is, why? Why do you even want to use it?
Well, i don't know really. I guess its the same reason
Why we have 900 lumen aaa lights? Planning to edc
It for a while. Actually reserving this in case of emp. Lol
You can tell when it’s burned out? 
Looks about the same to me.
Be nice, think of them as moon mode only lights.
Lol. You will take back what you said when i show you
My skyray 9 incan light. It will blow your candle away. Lol
PLURSE SHOW DAT LITE! 
An incandescent’s rated life is very dependent on its supplied voltage.
The higher the voltage, the more rapidly the bulb will blow out, somewhere around the 16th power.
Thanks for the info. Though i wonder if ni mh or alkaline will have the lower load voltage. Guess il stick to eneloops for safety reasons. Thanks
I personally wouldn’t worry about the life, it’s probably between hundreds and thousands of hours. If it goes out, it’s time for an LED replacement!
I use it ONLY to walk around in da house, to see my little daughter when she sleeping and not hurt her eyes…2 Lumens… :bigsmile:
Ah yes… the good ’ole mag solitaire Incan.
I used to EDC one for a bit before white LED lights came out. The solitaire looked gorgeous and felt awesome in the hand.
… but the output was virtually useless. On a fresh cell with a fresh bulb max output was 1-2 lumens.
It focused too. It had 2 modes: “spot” and “donut”. Spot mode was bright enough that if you held the light in your hand you might be able to illuminate a keyhole 1-2 feet away. Donut mode was completely useless.
Like all incan mags at the time I think the solitaire also came with a spare bulb in the tailcap. I think the bulbs were only good for a couple hours of output before burning out, but output steadily declined as they used up their lifetime. Also, like the other incan mags, the filaments in those incan bulbs sometimes broke if you dropped the light.
Personally, I found the 2xAAA pen-sized incan minimag to be much more practial.
I found that the bulbs turned black and greatly reduced the output long before they actually burned out. They blackened faster when the battery was low, for some reason.
I have several cards of them (2 to a card) around here somewhere. Seems to me they were only about a dollar a card. They have a quite a short life span. There should be one spare hidden inside the tail cap, unless it’s been used already.
It’s a pretty feeble light by todays standards, but in the pitch dark a couple of lumens is a lot better than nothing. Walmart is still selling them here for $7 apiece.
Hahaha yeah.
And trying to fiddle with the spare lightbulb in the dark after the main light bulb broke was rather frustrating. Very easy to drop the tiny bulb, spring, or carrier, and hard to line up those pins when you can’t see.
Personally, I found the 1-2 lumen output to be pretty useless even back when the Solitaire first came out. It was a light that looked great until you turned it on… then its pathetic output was apparent.
The 2xAAA one had a bigger reflector and had a much higher output (probably 10 lumens or so). Unlike the Solitaire it could be used for more than just finding the keyhole for your keys.
The newer LED Solitaire is actually a pretty useful light. I’ve had one in my pocket so long the finish is 90% worn off. I can’t even remember when I last changed the L92 in it, despite using it for some minor task almost every day.
Pro tip: cut a short piece of clear gas line tubing and slip it over the Solitaire from the back end - it fits very snug and makes a great bite ring for when you need both hands free.
The Solitaire was my first EDC like a lot of other folks- there was nothing to compare in size or durability back then. But this is now and there’s a whole lot better to be had these days. I still have a couple that work and only that single quality keeps them out of the trash can- I just can’t toss out anything that still works.
I’m no expert but from what I’ve researched EMP is both an over-rated danger for many things and metal-bodied flashlights by nature are about 95%+ shielded already so you’d just about have to be at ground-zero for them to be affected. That would probably toast you along with your incan or LED flashlight. If EMP worries you wrap an extra tiny-light in several layers of aluminum foil or stick it in a all-metal cigar-tube and forget about it. I keep extra stuff that would be affected shielded and stored but not flashlights; out of my many at least a few will work no matter what happens including a few direct-drive LED jobs.
My EDC keychain lights take a beating and I kept a Solitaire in my motorcycle toolkit back when I rode so that one took a beating too. IIRC you had maybe 15 minutes of usable light with a fresh alky at best before a distant firefly looked brighter. And yes, the bulbs quickly blackened- I swapped to the spare bulb for that reason many times (I kept losing the lights when they fell off my clip-on keychain or unscrewed themselves with parts lost). It seems bulbs were good for a few (3-5) batteries before they fried. I wouldn’t take a large handful of incan Solitaires for my new Tank 007 E09 which would outshine and outlast the lot of them on one battery instead of their 20. If I want an Incan I want one that will do better than that!
Just my thoughts, take ’em for whatever they are worth to you.
Phil
Hmmmm. Bulbs die after 3-5 cells? And someone said
It will last a hundred hours before dying 
guess
I will store this light then.
Do remember that mine got beat to death, and those tiny filaments are rather fragile. I think most folks did better.
Phil