GLOW 400 FLASHLIGHT
(WHITE/VIOLET LEDS)



Glow 400 Flashlight (White/Violet LEDs), retail $6.99 (www.lifegearcompany.com...)
Manufactured by (Unknown) for Life+Gear (www.lifegearcompany.com)
Last updated 02-04-12





This is the Life+Gear Glow 400 Flashlight.

It comes in a rather large plastic body, and has the following operational modes:
  • Flashlight.
  • Glow wand.
  • Both flashlight and glow wand simultaneously (at the same time).
  • Glow wand flashes.
  • Glow wand automatically flashes when dropped in the toliet or any other water.
Not only does it have those handy modes, much of the barrel can be used to store small articles, such as paper money, keys, change, jewelry, spare batteries, or other small articles.

It has two rather bright (medium-power) LEDs, and feeds those LEDs from three AA cells.


 Size of product w/hand to show scale SIZE



The Glow 400 Flashlight comes ready to use as soon as you purchase it -- the batteries are included and already installed.

On the barrel near the front of the light, there is a rubbery black button.

Press it until it clicks and then release it to turn the unit on in "flashlight" mode.
Do the same thing to have both the flashlight and the glow wand on at the same time. Do the same thing again to turn the flashlight part off but leave the glow wand on.
Do the same thing again to cause the glow wand to blink at a rate of approx. 1.25Hz (approx. 5 flashes every 4 seconds).
Finally, do the same thing one last time to turn the unit completely off.

Just like it reads on the backs of many shampoo (or shampiddle) bottles, "lather, rinse, repeat".
In other words, pressing & releasing the black button starts the cycle anew with the white LED flashlight portion of this product coming on.



If the Glow 400 Flashlight meets water (lake, stream, oceanside, falls off a dock, rolls off the boat, your sub springs a significant leak, if it falls out of an airplane and into Niagra Falls, etc.), it will automatically begin flashing its safety wand at the expected flash rate (~1.25Hz) and will keep flashing until the batteries poop out or until it is fished out of the water and the black button is pressed once. If the unit begins blinking again shortly thereafter, you may need to dry off the two small metal contacts located almost directly on the opposite side of the unit's head as the black pushbutton; then press & release the button and see if you have better luck.

It was tested successfully with fresh water (both in the cistern and directly from the faucet), so it ought to work just as well in salt water.

If the unit is already on in any mode when it goes "splash", the wand will not blink.



The Glow 400 Flashlight feeds from three AA cells; they are included and already installed when you purchase the product.

When they poop out, follow these instructions to change them:
  1. Unscrew & remove the bezel (head), and set it aside.
  2. Tip the "guts" out of the flashlight body and into your hand, and set the flashlight portion aside as well.
  3. Remove the three used AA cells from the compartments in the "guts", and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.
  4. Insert three new AA cells into the chambers for them, orienting each one so that its flat-end (-) negative faces the spring for it in each chamber. If the unit comes on at this time, don't worry about it -- that wil be taken care of shortly.
  5. Place the "guts" back into the barrel, orienting them so that the white "platform" faces outward, and the end of that "platform" that almost looks as though it has been cut off faces the black arrow printed in the inside of the barrel.
  6. Place the bezel back on, and screw it snugly in place.
If your light is indeed on at this time, turn it off using the black pushbutton on the side of the barrel.



This is a flashlight/safety wand in a rather hollow plastic body, not a flashlight in a metal body that's meant to be bashed, thrashed, trashed, and abused, so I won't bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a porch, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a large claw hammer in order to smash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoņata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piņata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout, with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannoņata is only used to shoot piņatas to piņata parties away from picturesque Piņata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight in a metal or sturdier plastic body might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be a bit more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight meeting the above criteria.

It *IS* waterproof and it floats when dropped in water, so you need not be too concerned about using it in inclement (bad) weather.

While attempting to perform a battery discharge analysis of its twin (using automated equipment), I discovered that the product has a 1-hour (60 minute) auto-shutdown; this is presumably so that if it "goes off" during storage or transport, the batteries won't be drained until they're deader than doorknobs. I've included the chart of *THIS* flashlight farther down this web page (after the beam cross-sectional analysis but befoer the videos) that illustrates this quite vividly.
This one-hour auto-shutdown affects *ALL* modes, not just flashlight and safety wand modes -- even blink mode turns itself off after an hour.

Does this evaluation look an awful lot like the one I made for this product?
Thought you'd say so. That's because they're extremely similar; differing primarily in the LED color of the LED in the safety wand and in the color of the bezel ring, so I was able to use its web page as a template for this one.



Beam photograph on the test target at 12".
Measures 182,400mcd on an Amprobe LM631A light meter.



Beam photograph on a wall at ~10 feet.

Those colored graphics toward the left are my "Viva Piņata" posters, that clock that looks like a gigantic wristwatch is my Infinity Optics Clock, and that sign that's so colorful and gay
* to the right of that clock is my LED ''SIGNS'' Sign.
You may also be able to see two of my SpongeBob SquarePants plush (Patrick Star and Squidward Tentacles) and two Digimon plush (Calumon and Greymon).






Photograph of the violet LED "glowstick".


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (flashlight mode) in this product.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (glowstick mode) in this product.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (flashlight mode) in this product; newer spectrometer software & settings used.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (flashlight mode) in this product; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 420nm and 470nm to show LED's native emission peak wavelength of 443.690nm.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (glowstick mode) in this product.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the LED (glowstick mode) in this product; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 380nm and 430nm to show peak emission wavelength, which is 402.920nm.

USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.


ProMetric analysis
Beam cross-sectional analysis (flashlight mode).
Image made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging.



This is an attempted battery discharge analysis, but as you can see, the light shuts itself
off after just short of one hour (52 minutes) -- this renders it simply not possible to perform
any long-term automated studies re: battery discharge.

THIS IS THE WHITE LED.



This is an attempted battery discharge analysis of the violet LED (the one in the "safety wand").




A video on YouTube showing all of the modes of this product.

This video is approximately 4.66037345289 megabytes (4,770,948 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty three minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.




A video on YouTube showing how this light turns on automatically when dropped into the toliet (or any other water for that matter).
I used the cistern (toliet tank) for this test because the water here is actually potable (drinkable) if you do not use an "in-tank" bowl cleaner; so the test units did not have to be disinfected or even disposed of after this test. The toliet was used because it is the deepest water I have ready access to. Note if you will that the light floats when dropped into the water.

This video is approximately 5.21535659343 megabytes (5,339,516 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty six minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.





TEST NOTES:
Test unit of this (plus a bunch of other products) was sent by a website fan on the US east coast, and was received at 4:09pm PST on 02-28-11 (or "28 Feb 2011" or even "Feb 28, Twenty Double Sticks" if you prefer).

* Gay = bright and lively, NOT homosexual.


UPDATE: 04-05-11
It has been confirmed by a third party who tested the 1-hour auto-shutdown that this auto-shutdown does *NOT* trigger when the unit is immersed in water and the water-sensitive contacts are what are keeping the light in "blink" mode. So if it goes overboard or is otherwise dredged, it will not summarily shut off after one hour -- it will keep blinking until you fish it out of the water or until the batteries go to pot -- whichever is first.


PROS:
Reasonably bright for a one-banger
Appears to be at least reasonably durable at minimum
Automatically turns on if it falls into the tub or other water
Waterproof
Uses batteries that are common and relatively inexpen$ive


CONS:
The "wand" seems a bit on the large side...actually, the F-ing thing is downright huge!
This is what lopped off that last star


    MANUFACTURER: Unknown for Life+Gear
    PRODUCT TYPE: Large flashlight/safety wand combo
    LAMP TYPE: Medium-high-powered LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 2 (1 ea. white and violet)
    BEAM TYPE: Narrow/medium spot
    SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/mode change/off on barrel
    CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
    BEZEL: Plastic; LED & reflector protected by plastic window
    BATTERY: 3x AA cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER- AND URANATION-RESISTANT: Yes
    SUBMERSIBLE: Yes; to 1.50M (~4.60 feet)
    ACCESSORIES: Batteries
    SIZE: 20.30cm L x 5.90cm D (incl. anti-roll fin)
    WEIGHT: Not equipped to weigh
    COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: China
    WARRANTY: Lifetime (except batteries & bulbs)

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





Glow 400 Flashlight (White/violet LEDs) * www.lifegearcompany.com...







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