Review: Dollar Tree Flashlight (Lampe de Poche)

snakebite · April 19, 2015, 7:38pm

like a tiny srk.
i still have a few of these shiny turds here too.
even with 18500 in them they are still alive.
maybe because the - side of the led is in contact with the tube they dont burn up as fast?

dchomak:

YEP, got it at Dollar Tree, 5-6 years ago. The only TRUE dollar store left - everything is still a dollar. The day I bought this there was a Scoutmaster there buying all they had for a camping trip his troop was going on. He actually described this light as having “good throw” Up until then, I had never heard the term, but I knew what he meant by it. He was right, it would throw clear across the room!, better than the other 6-8 LED shower heads that were also available at the time. Of course the 6-8 LED lights were “flooders” I remember giving them out as stocking stuffers that Christmas and was everyone impressed!
A closeup of this triple emitter looks impressive but wait ’til you see the scale of it is in context.

I have been gifting LED lights to family members ever since, and every year they are impressed at how much progress there has been in the technology. I still find it amazing that a light this small, with but just 3 emitters us able to throw so many photons all the way across a room.

poiihy · May 29, 2015, 9:01pm

LOL

best thread ever!

Very interesting and funny!

I've been looking for something like this and I found it! :D

snakebite · January 10, 2016, 2:32pm

how the mighty have fallen!
reduce to whoring out their name to dollar stores!

dchomak:

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?