Been using a few of these for a month now. Home Depot has a pack of 3 for $10! It uses 3 LED's, no batteries to replace. Crank for 30 secs and get 30 min of light. The light is very bright too. That's under $3.50 ea! I keep one in ea car, a few around the house.

I took one apart just to see what's inside and if it can be rigged up to charge a cell phone. There is a small generator, IC chip and some circuitry, and a few NIMH button cell rechargeable batteries. Don't think it will survive an EMP but the price is right.

I bought one you shake but that seemed a bit a strange to be doing in public, so I bought one of the crank ones, very nice not having to wonder if batteries are good or not, leave them for months on end and not worry about them. I suppose they might even work as a distractant to kids on car trips, as long as you don't mind the whirring sound.

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I bought one you shake but that seemed a bit a strange to be doing in public,

I have one of those as my hunting light...no chance of not having light when I need it, and I'm normally shaking it in the dark on the way to a tree, so nobody can see me to wonder what is wrong with me!

It doesn't even have a battery, just a fat capacitor, I believe.

I've got one that has a solar cell and a hand crank, works great. The small PV cell keeps it fully charged. It probably wouldn't survive an EMP, but my non-computer '89 diesel Toyota would. I suspect that the CD player would be toast, but in that scenario I doubt if no music would be my greatest concern.

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It doesn't even have a battery, just a fat capacitor, I believe.

I like a capacitor better, less components= better reliability. I think the ones you shake are less likely to break. The crank and gear mechanism in mine are plastic and won't last forever but for the price I can keep a few spares around.

I've never been very impressed by the Chinese Junk available in stores.

I got a "shake" flash light. It had an auxillary battery in it (which was dead by the time I bought it, bad sign). Then it would only give light if I was actively shaking it... kind of hard to shake a flashlight while working on a car.

I had a hand crank flash light. Not too bad. There was nothing to hold the generator in place, so with vigorous cranking, the generator broke loose from the wires. I think I managed to shim the generator in place and resolder the wires. It worked, but I wasn't too impressed with the design and assembly.

I had a hand crank/solar radio. It was ok. The solar part would only work if the solar collector was in direct sunlight. I got nothing in the shade or inside the house. The crank broke off with use. For some reason, I don't think it was set to allow solar charging when the radio was turned off (for example sitting on a shelf in the house).

Anyway, the devices that I've gotten were CHEAPLY MADE!!!!!

I've always been curious if those could be adapted for use in my tour bus some way for alt energy lighting. Or the same technology be used on a larger scale for charging battery banks or again for lighting.

Well the military did have crank units for radio power supply in WWII, might be able to find one on Ebay or surplus stores.

EMP ??? electro magnetic pulse? nuclear?

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Originally posted by john galt:
I've got one that has a solar cell and a hand crank, works great. The small PV cell keeps it fully charged. It probably wouldn't survive an EMP, but my non-computer '89 diesel Toyota would.

Wherever Possum Lake is, you probably don't have to worry much about EMP...

The biggest problem will be fighting off all the Yanks headed that way!!!!!!!

I have been thinking about old Diesel engines though... I have a couple of old trucks... they might be a pain to get running, but once started don't need any power to keep running.

I only use the hand crank ones, I just bought one of these 16 led sot beams and love it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96141

I had bought three hand crank types from Canadian Tire.
Brand name : Lightmates.
During last nights winter storm and because of power outage I needed light.
After cranking for 1-2 minutes I learned that al three were dead and not holding power without cranking.
Result : frustration and money wasted

BMW Fan

http://www.crawldog.com/klausold/

The one I keep for me has been dropped in a bucket of biodiesl as well as just dropped many time and it is well over a year old and still works great!!