I was just at a wedding where they handed out dozens of these styrofoam led light sticks onto the dance floor after everyone was loaded, and they were a BIG hit! People loved dancing with them! It was a blast!
I’m further derailing the topic I already took over, but that little chip is impressive! It will start from as low as 0.7V, and once started will continue to run down to 0.2V before cutting off around 0.18V. I will be doing a build with this little light in the future, so keep an eye out for that. Almost worth the $3 just to get the driver since I can’t find info on that chip anywhere.
As for the wedding favors, it is a contender for sure, still going to wait for The KD light and see about a price break on the SF10 though.
I have several BLF-348’s, and one of them has bad threads. Yours may have just been a dud, too. Maybe they occasionally get stripped at the factory when they’re putting them together, because the threads are very fine and easy enough to strip if you’re not careful.
The first thing I did on all mine was the move the clip down, so it wouldn’t interfere when replacing the battery. I think that’s essential if you don’t want to risk stripping the threads.
But other than the thread issue, I think it would make a great wedding hand-out. Very classy, minimalist design. Easy to operate, takes a AAA battery. It produces a very useful 50-lumen beam for about 1 hour.
While a AA light would give more run-time, most cheap AA lights look a big too “tactical” for a wedding. Or look too cheap. And, frankly, no non-flashaholic is going to EDC a AA light; it’s just too big for most people.
We’re a bit OT, but I love my AAA light. I go for walks with it, camp with it, it’s boring but good enough for basically all my uses. And I’m looking forward to get another (10440 actually) with way more output.
I don’t think many will mind if we go OT on a necro’d thread…
But yeah, I’m on much the same boat as you. As long as it doesn’t first turn on to moonlight mode, for quick utility lighting, nothing beats an AAA minitorch for me - the convenience of carrying one without even feeling it just can’t be beat. I only pull out my bigger ones when I’m keeping it on for more than, say, 10 seconds.
Well, IAm4Wheeler was correct about the cheapo KD light. Pressed in plastic lens and reflector holding a plastic pill and terrible 5mm “straw-hat” type LED, output even on a fresh lithium AA can’t be more than a dozen lumens, seems even dimmer than old incandescent mini-mags.
Right now it is looking like I will be giving out the inland R22, just need to pick up a few more samples from microcenter.
^
Very sorry to hear that. Would have preferred that I was wrong and you found a great bargain for your wedding and us too.
Eh, I’m out $4, and I learned something, so no big deal. That’s why I only bought 1.
Looking into custom engraving the Inland R22 now, since it only has a small Inland logo stock, there is still lots of blank space on the head and the bottom of the tailcap for me to use. For $4-5 the little R22 is really quite impressive honestly. Especially for something picked up in a brick and mortar store.