BELL & HOWELL
MINI POWER POD

Mini Power Pod, retail $9.99* ()
Manufactured by (Unknown) for Bell & Howell (www.bellhowell.com)
Last updated 06-11-09




The Bell & Howell Mini Power Pod is a small light that you stick in any place that needs light - behind your car seat, on the inside of the car door, under the kitchen cabinets, in the closet, in the tent, on the boat, in the garage, in a shed, on a backpack, on your bicycle, etc.

It has three white LEDs powered by three AAA cells in its plastic; with the same flattish circular shape as and of approximately the size of a hockey puck.

It has a sticky bottom, so you can stick it on virtually any clean flat smooth surface without tools or screws.

* The $9.99 price was for four (4) units.


SIZE



On the back of the Power Pod, there is ring-shaped piece of white paper. Remove it to expose the sticky material. Stick the Power Pod wherever you need a little light: behind your car seat, on the inside of the car door, under the kitchen cabinets, in the closet, in the tent, on the boat, in the garage, in a shed, on a backpack, on your bicycle, on the wall behind the toilet, on the wall above the urinator, etc. Be sure the surface you stick it to is clean, or the Power Pod may unexpectedly fall off.

Test it on painted surfaces (like walls) first, to be sure it will not peel or remove the paint when you take it down to change its batteries.

Press the center of the window in front of the LEDs firmly and then release it to turn it on; do the same thing to turn it back off.

Yes, it really is as easy as that.



To change the batteries, remove the Power Pod from wherever you stuck it, and turn it upside-down. Using a coin, insert it into the slot at the bottom, and turn it ~1/20th of a turn. I believe you can also turn the Power Pod 1/20th of a turn counterclockwise right where you stuck it, without first removing it.

If you removed the entire unit, press the "guts" out from the front of the unit (by pressing on the transparent lens).

Remove the three used AAA cells from their chambers, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert three new AAA cells into the chambers, orienting them so their flat-ends (-) negatives face the springs for them in each chamer.

Reassemble the unit, so the transparent lens goes in first, followed by the silvery "reflector", then the base with the batteries & LEDs,

Finally, stick the Power Pod back up where you removed it from.

Current consumption measures 44.5mA on my DMM's 400mA scale.
That equates to ~14.833mA per LED.



This product is meant to be used as a household lighting device in a dry area, not as a flashlight meant to be used, thrashed, trashed, and abused; so I won't try to flush it down the toilet, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a patio, send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, let my housemate's kitty cats go to the bathroom on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity electric wheelchair, or perform other indecencies on the Power Pod that a regular flashlight might have to go through. So this section of the Power Pod's web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

The light emitted by the Power Pod is a cool white, with just a touch of blue tint. This is a perfectly normal characteristic of 5mm white LEDs though, and is nothing whatsoever to be concerned about.



Beam photograph on the test target at 12".
Measures 31,400mcd on a Meterman LM631 light meter.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the LEDs in the Power Pod.


Spectrographic plot
Same as above; newer software & settings used.
USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.



ProMetric analysis
Beam cross-sectional analysis.
Image made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging.



Photograph of a Power Pod mounted above my toilet paper holder.


WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the Power Pod at work.
This clip is approximately 1.2 megabytes (1,419,108 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.



TEST NOTES:
Power Pods (4 units in the same package) were purchased on Ebay on 02-04-07, and were received on the afternoon of 02-07-07.

Product was made in China. A product's country of origin really does matter to some people, which is why I published it on this web page.


UPDATE: 00-00-00



PROS:



CONS:



    MANUFACTURER: Unknown
    PRODUCT TYPE: "Stick-up" LED lights
    LAMP TYPE: 5mm white LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 3
    BEAM TYPE: Medium spot w/soft corona
    SWITCH TYPE: Press cover on/off
    CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
    BEZEL: Plastic; LEDs & reflector protected by plastic window
    BATTERY: 3xAAA cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: 44.5mA
    WATER RESISTANT: Splatter-resistant at maximum
    SUBMERSIBLE: No
    ACCESSORIES: None
    WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





Mini Power Pod *






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