Hawk’s Babble-Log

I saw this small, solar-powered flashlight on ThinkGeek and thought I’d try it out.

When I first got it, it didn’t work at all. It was completely dead. I put it on my dresser, solar-panel side up for a day, but it did not have direct sunlight and so it didn’t charge sufficiently. I took it to work and placed it up on a wall which had a perfect, unobstructed view of direct sunlight. I left it there until lunchtime, which was about three and a half hours. By the time I got through with lunch, it was fully charged and it was bright! It surprised people at work.

In this picture, I have placed a clamp on the switch. You see, the switch is not a toggle. If you push it, the light is on; but once you let go, the light goes off. So I used this clamp to keep it on while I did some computer work here at home. It ran for a while, but it got dim after about half an hour. The flashlight has small capacitors, so don’t expect a long runtime. The nice thing is that you can charge it anywhere you have direct sunlight. This little guy is definately going into my emergency bag.

Direct ThinkGeek link to the Solar Powered Flashlight