4-LED LANTERN

4-LED Lantern, retail $21.83 (www.garritylites.com...)
Manufactured by Garrity (http://www.garritylites.com)
Last updated 03-14-06




The 4-LED Lantern from Garrity is a small camping lantern that has four Nichia brand white LEDs at the ends of a diffusing column, protected by a plastic cylinder (the "globe" on a white gas lantern).

It feeds from three C cells, has five modes controllable from a single pushbutton, and features something not found on very many lanterns, headlamps, or flashlights: an LED battery status indicator.


SIZE



Feed your lantern the three included C cells first (see directly below), and then you can go camping.

Press and release the button once for 100% intensity, press and release it again for 50% intensity, press & release it again for 25% intensity, press and release it again for slow flash, press & release it again for faster flash, and finally, press & release it again to turn the lantern off.

If you have one mode activated for more than two seconds, pressing & releasing the button turns the lantern off - no need to cycle through all of the modes.

The battery status indicator on the lantern will flash approximately once every three seconds when the lantern is off - this functions as a "Find Me" mode so you can find the product in total darkness.



To change the batteries in this lantern, turn it upside-down, and unscrew & remove the thumscrew at the center. Set it aside. Unscrew the larger disc portion approximately 1/12th of a turn, and lift that off & set it aside too.

Remove the three used C cells from the lantern, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert three new C cells in the lantern, orienting two of them so their flat-ends (-) negative face the springs for them in their chambers, and the third cell goes in button-end (+) positive first.

Place the larger disc portion of the lantern back on the bottom, orienting it so the white arrow on it faces the white arrow on the bottom of the lantern itself. Press in on it, and while pressing, turn clockwise approximately 1/12 of a turn until it no longer turns.

Finally, screw that little thumbscrew back into the center of the bottom of the lantern, and be done with it.

Due to how the product was constructed, I am unable to furnish you with current usage measurements.

Battery life is advertised as ranging from "over 200 hours of light at 100% high beam to 800 hours of light at 25% low beam."
It is not known to what intensity level(s) these values were derived from.


Photograph showing the LED battery meter.



Because the Garrity 4-LED Lantern is primarily made of plastic, "The Smack Test" really isn't that appropriate here.

"The Toilet Test" is also inappropriate. There are no O-rings or other environmental barriers visible, so I would not have performed "The Toilet Test" anyway.
So please try not to drop it in creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, oceansides, docksides, puddles of Asian elephant pee, slush piles, mud puddles, tubs, toilet bowls, cisterns, sinks, fishtanks, dog water dishes, or other places where water or water-like liquids might be found. A little rain or snow probably wouldn't hurt it though, so you need not be too concerned about using it in lightly bad weather.

The LEDs in this lantern are Nichia brand; generally known to be the best, brightest, and longest lasting ones that money can buy.

The light produced by this lantern is a slightly bluish-white, which is quite typical of 5mm white LEDs. The 50% and 25% brightness levels appear to use a dimming method called PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), in which the LEDs are supplied with full drive current but they turn off part of the time. This happens faster than the human eye can perceive; so the lantern does appear to be "on" all of the time.The telltale flicker that indicates PWM was observed when the lantern was waved about while in its dimmer settings.
Using PWM does help eliminate current-based discoloration of the light output - yes, this is a good thing.

The one-button interface is easy to learn and use, even though five modes are available.

The lantern comes with a hanging loop, already affixed to the lantern's top and folded down out of the way at its side. It stays put when folded down, thanks to a small "u" shape in the loop itself and a little plastic tit on the lantern's side; yet it is easy to unfold and deploy when necessary.



Photograph of the lantern (on "high") lighting up a bathtub.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrometer plot of the LED in this flashlight.
Ocean Optics USB2000 Spectrometer on loan from WWW.TWO-CUBED.COM.


Quicktime movie (.mov extension) showing the PWM circuit's blinking.
This clip is approximately 2.0 megabytes (2,196,396 bytes) in length;
dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than ten minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.



TEST NOTES:
Test unit was sent by S.C. of Garrity along with three other products, and was received on 09-29-05

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


UPDATE: 12-10-05
This lantern flashes briefly at full power for approximately 0.3 second once every 24 hours or thereabouts when it's off. I know I'm not just seeing things here because I've seen this at least several times with thine own eyes.


PROS:



CONS:



    MANUFACTURER: Garrity
    PRODUCT TYPE: Small camping lantern
    LAMP TYPE: 5mm white LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 4
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/mode change/off on front of product
    BEZEL: LEDs protected by plastic cylinder
    BATTERY: 3xC cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER RESISTANT: Not stated - but appears to be weather-resistant
    SUBMERSIBLE: No
    ACCESSORIES: Batteries
    WARRANTY: Lifetime

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





4-LED Lantern * (http://www.garritylites.com)






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