Orion RedBeam II LED

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Brand and Model:Orion RedBeam II LED
Price ($USD):$7.95
Type:Flashlight
Description:

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Orion RedBeam II LED
[webmaster note: vote moved from description]


Junk, the thing has a bad hot spot in the center. Outside the hotspot you’ll have almost no light. I have better luck with the light I got at Walmart for a few bucks. The other selling point is the battery life. I’m sure it is good as you will not use this thing. I’ll be sending mine back;)

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=101537

Orion RedBeam II LED
It is adequate, not very birght , but on the expensive side for a flashlight.

Overall Rating: 6
Performance:6 Value:5
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=175496

Orion RedBeam II LED
Price: $17.95 I had several issues with this flashlight. I decided to void my warrantee and try to fix them myself.

1. At full brightness it wasn't bright enough for my wife. I went to Radio Shack and added a third 5000 mcd LED (the smaller 3000 mcd would have fit better, but RS didn't have any in stock.) To do this, on the side opposite the thumb wheel I drilled two small holes in the circuit card and cut the trace that goes to the existing LEDs. Across this third LED I placed a 510 ohm 1/4W resistor on the thumb wheel side of the circuit card. At low settings this resistor lets me use the existing two LEDs without the third LED. This gives me more adjust range than I had before and lets me get more usable battery life out of the flashlight than I'd get with 3 LEDs without the resistor.

2. The light pattern was difficult to read with. To fix this I lightly abraded the from of the LEDs with emery cloth and cleaned the newly sanded grooves in them with a Q-Tip and alcohol. It was dimmer, but more useable after the sanding. I sanded a little at a time until it was the way I wanted it.

3. There was an annoying amount of light leakage out the sides of case with the third LED installed. I used some of my wife's gold fingernail polish to paint the backs and sides of the LEDs. This also seemed to help restore a bit of the light lost from the sanding.

Note: I keep her throw away fingernail polish bottles for odd uses. I tried shining the LED flashlight on several test strips painted with her junk fingernail polishes and the gold was the brightest. I was smart enough not to touch her new bottles of polish. If I did, I'd be seeing stars for sure.

4. Note to manufactures: Two AA batteries can be set up to power two LEDs in parallel for twice the current as used in the 9V flashlight. AA batteries have four times the amp hours as 9V batteries and these two AA batteries costs about 1/4th that of a 9V. So if you used AA batteries, the flash light would last twice as long and the batteries would cost less. The only draw back is the AA cell holder costs more than the 9V cell holder.

Overall Rating: 4
Performance:5 Value:3
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=292980

Orion RedBeam II LED
I have the No-Name version of this just called "night Vision LED Flaslight" Looks identical to the Orion and similar price. Mine has a fairly even light pattern it has a bright outer circle and a bright center circle with a C shaped dim band around the center, It is acceptable for finding way around scope in dark but not great for trying to read charts. Looks neat so I'll keep it but you would probably be better off using a red gel over a normal flashlight.

Overall Rating: 6
Performance:6 Value:6
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=168851

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