Handheld Spotlight

[carwiz]

Well, if you were asleep, a spotlight wouldn't do you much good either. Why not invest in an alarm system? Many are cheaper than that flashlight.

 

[seekermeister]

Perhaps not, but it is 3 times stronger than the one linnemeyerhere suggested. As I said previously, I want something stronger, so if you have an affordable suggestion, please post it.

I have already considered the other possibilities...alarms, surveillance cameras, etc. and while the light doesn't solve all problems, it is the method that I'm interested in at the moment.

 

[seekermeister]

While roaming about the net, I came across this:

Buy.com - Rokinon 9 x 65mm Enhanced Night Vision 50+ Series Binoculars

It caught my eye, because it is cheap, at least compared to most other night vision devices. However, it appears that it doesn't project a light source, and only collects available light, so I don't know how well that would suit my situation. Just a thought.

 

[Anak]

After some problems with my vehicle being broken into and vandalized, I moved it to a location where I could see it from my apartment, but recently, the street light above it has become intermittent, being off as much or more than on. I spoke with the apt. management about it, and was left with the feeling that what I got was lip service about replacing it.

If your parked on a public street, and the pole/street light is in the public right of way, your apt. manager was the wrong person to voice your concern to.

Take a pencil, and paper with you the next time you go to your vehicle, and look at the pole that has the defective light.

Somewhere at eye level maybe higher there should be at least one metallic, could be a hard plastic identification tag with embossed metallic, could be hard plastic numbers nailed to the pole. They could be vertical or horizontal.


The first identifier is usually the Utility acronym, since your in Oklahoma it may resemble OGE, PSO or AEP then it will have a set of numbers like 22588 S34685 following that, if your not sure you will need to go to your local government, and ask what Electric Utility services your area.

Once you find the utility, call their customer service number, and explain what the streetlight is doing, and give them the numeric and/or alphanumeric pole tag that you wrote down. there may be more than one tag so write down any that you see. It would also help if you gave a street location.
It could be a bad bulb, socket, wiring, or automatic day/night sensor.

I do this once every year or so with a streetlight across the street from us. I call up PPl, and anywhere from a few hours to a day or so they come out, and fix it with no charge to me.
Its a public utility, remember?

Here is a listing from the: How do I know if the Commission regulates my electric utility?
I posted this because it has a large list of Utility links that maybe helpful.

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks, but it is not parked in the street, and the street light is owned by the apt. complex.

 

[DustSailor]

Don't know how cheap it is, but there are motion detecting lights, and here is one i saw real quick: Heath Zenith 240 Degree Halogen Motion Sensing Security Light - Bronze SL-5512-BZ - product summary - Bing Shopping

http://www.bing.com/shopping/search...etions&tk=&spv=&sl=C&sc=&st=&ast=BBBB#x0y2390

Give walkers a scare

 

[marsmimar]

I've been using this Black & Decker VEC157BD for over 2 years without any problems. It's rechargeable (either AC or 12VDC) and a charge lasts about two months. Just to play it safe I recharge it once a month. It's rated at 2 million candlepower and over 96,000 lumen. It also has 2 white LEDs on either side of the main bulb so you can use it as a standard flashlight in enclosed areas without blinding yourself or others. And it retails for $40 - $60 depending on sales and venues like eBay or Amazon.

http://servicenet.blackanddecker.com/documents/English/Instruction Manual/90558476,VEC157BD.pdf

 

[Trucidation]

Reviews for that are pretty appalling. Won't burglars just rip the lights out of wherever they've been mounted? Unless you can secure them up a lamppost or something.

Edit: was referring to DustSailor's post about the Heath Zeniths.

 

[seekermeister]

I've been using this Black & Decker VEC157BD for over 2 years without any problems. It's rechargeable (either AC or 12VDC) and a charge lasts about two months. Just to play it safe I recharge it once a month. It's rated at 2 million candlepower and over 96,000 lumen. It also has 2 white LEDs on either side of the main bulb so you can use it as a standard flashlight in enclosed areas without blinding yourself or others. And it retails for $40 - $60 depending on sales and venues like eBay or Amazon.

http://servicenet.blackanddecker.com/documents/English/Instruction Manual/90558476,VEC157BD.pdf

Your reference to it's brightness is confusing, because it is contrary to everything I've read so far in regards to the ratio between candlepower and lumens.
Does anyone know of a definitive means of converting between these values?

EDIT: I found this article:

http://www.theledlight.com/lumens.html

which may explain all of this, but I'm still reading it and trying to digest it.

 

[Duzzy]

Your reference to it's brightness is confusing, because it is contrary to everything I've read so far in regards to the ratio between candlepower and lumens.
Does anyone know of a definitive means of converting between these values?

EDIT: I found this article:

Lumens, Footcandles, Candlepower, Measuring Light Output

which may explain all of this, but I'm still reading it and trying to digest it.

Read here OnlineConversion Forums - View Single Post - Comparing lumens and candlepower? ,I found it helpful and if you want you can read the full thread by clicking the link in the top right corner, also this candle power / lumens has similar info.

I don't know about this stuff but Black & Decker has a later version rated at 105520 Luminous Intensity - Black & Decker Tools | V-3 Million Power Series.

Reading some reviews on Amazon you'll see it's another mixed bag of opinions not that there were many.

 

[seekermeister]

The thing that throws me about your Black & Decker link, is that it specifies a luminous intensity, which is not the same thing as lumens, candlepower, radiance or iluminance. I'm not certain what they are talking about. What is important to me is lumens, because that is the amount of light measured at the target, not that coming out of the light itself. If one makes a supposition that a light specifying lumens is measured only at a 1 foot sphere, then I suppose that you could determine the lumens, but no one uses a light at that short of a distance.

Even if one knows the amount of light that is being produced, that is not all that there is to it, because both the lens and reflector work into the equation in some fashion. I have yet seem any means of computing all of these factors to know exactly what to expect from a beam at any given distance.

 

[Duzzy]

I agree Black & Decker's reference to luminous intensity is somewhat confusing.

From what I've read (not much) I think one of the biggest problems for choosing a spotlight is that there is no standard to measuring in either candle power or lumens eg. the distance/method they use.

I think I would go to a local store and ask for some advice, not your local Walmart or your big stores where the service staff wouldn't know jack but somewhere small where the staff would have more of an understanding of what there selling. If your lucky they might even let you test a couple of brands which specifiy in different measurments and allow you to get some clue to the differences and if you buy something they recommended and it doesn't meet your requirements then at least you could take it back easily depending on their return policy.

Good luck with this, going by the forums I linked it sounds very hard to understand what will fulfill your requirments.

 

[seekermeister]

somewhere small where the staff would have more of an understanding of what there selling.

Does such places still exist? I can remember stores like that many decades ago, but if there are some still around, they are hiding from me. Maybe because I never go to expensive stores.

 

[Duzzy]

somewhere small where the staff would have more of an understanding of what there selling.

Does such places still exist? I can remember stores like that many decades ago, but if there are some still around, they are hiding from me. Maybe because I never go to expensive stores.

Well there is 2 or 3 in my town but I do live in Australia.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Pelican Products 9430SL Spot Light Remote Area Lighting System

 

[seekermeister]

That light looks very interesting, but it doesn't give many specs on it, and when I have looked at similar lights before, the price was prohibitive. The fact that they don't publish a price, and require that one request a quote seems to reinforce that likelihood.

I came across one light that I'm thinking about:

WAGAN EL2741 12 VOLT 18 MILLION CANDLE POWER CORDLESS RECHARGEABLE HALOGEN SPOTLIGHT

The price is right, but I can't find any reviews on it. I wanted to call for information on it, but they don't have a toll-free number. Every other light that I have found in it's class had some pretty bad reviews, which made it sound as though that the odds were that the lights would arrive in less than desirable condition.

EDIT: Being a 10 pound light, I guess it's not something that one is just going to snatch and grab very easily. I would need to keep in in position most of the time...at least at night.

 

[Duzzy]

i had a look at this forum about spotlights and the chap endorses cyclops, thet have a few on amazon.

Cyclops CYC-S6X Thor X Scout 6.5 Million Candle Power Rechargeable Halogen Spotlight Reviewed | Million Candle Power

EDIT: Ignore me the reviews weren't great and I think you have looked at this one by what you wrote after boohbah's post.

Did you look at this one boohbah linked too? It looks like it might be suitable it has a video review by a customer which gives an idea of the distance and spread of the beam.

It's $38.88 on Amazon if I'm reading right - Amazon.com: Thor Rechargeable Spotlight: Home Improvement

EDIT: The Pelican one linnemeyerhere linked to, I had a quick look on Google and found prices around $600 - $800.

 

[seekermeister]

That video was very helpful. It gave a good idea of what brightness to expect, but considering the ranges that he gave at a couple of points, it didn't seem that the beam was very wide...just judging by the number of tree seen. Since that light is ~ 1/3 the power of the lights that I have been focusing on, I would imagine that they have a wider target area, which I would prefer.

Maybe I'm looking at this all wrong, but I want the light for two purposes...first, the obvious of seeing a deterring vandals, but also a second, in that I figure that occasionally I will shine and innocent tenant, and they will complain to the management, which might give them some motivation to fix the street light.

 

[Duzzy]

That video was very helpful. It gave a good idea of what brightness to expect, but considering the ranges that he gave at a couple of points, it didn't seem that the beam was very wide...just judging by the number of tree seen. Since that light is ~ 1/3 the power of the lights that I have been focusing on, I would imagine that they have a wider target area, which I would prefer.

This is just another problem you face, a lot of products don't specifiy there beam angle. I noticed that the expensive Pelican one does and it's only 10 degrees so I wouldn't think that would be very wide.

 

[seekermeister]

I hope that I don't regret it, but I went ahead and ordered the WAGAN EL2741. I don't know that it counts for much, but I did send an email to the seller, asking about it's track record, and they claimed that they have not had any problems with it. I also asked about the battery recharge time, and they said that after the intial charge, that it should take ~ 6 hours to recharge. Guess I shall just have to wait and see.