Police officers in Los Angeles are about to get a new flashlight. For the longest time cops used a heavy Maglite which could double as a club. But it being the LAPD, that secondary usage was too problematic. So they've ordered new light weight, high powered flashlights for the officers. It's the Pelican 7060 which was adopted in April of this year. (See seventh item in Police Commission report at LAPDblog.
And from a news item at latimes.com that's no longer on line, there was this:
It had to be powerfully bright, easy to operate and — perhaps most importantly — too small and light to be used as a dangerous weapon that could embarrass the Los Angeles Police Department and cost the city significant financial damages.
The result: The 7060 LED, what some consider to be the police world's most innovative — and least harmful — flashlight.
Here's a review of a beta model of the 7060.
It's looks like a powerful little light, and when I first heard of it I knew I had to have one. But as it turns out, the original mid June target date for public sales has come and gone with the new target bumped up to late July 2007. So my old Economics 101 professor's advice came into play. Whenever you get the hots for some product just make yourself wait for thirty days. If the passion is still there then go ahead and buy it. Good advice for anyone, because most likely that excitement will have cooled as it did with me in this case.
A do-it-yourself high powered flashlight -
But here's something equally exiting. Check out this $10 Police Flashlight Hack video that provides step by step instructions telling how to modify a cheap flashlight into a powerful light. I made two of these, and they work.
Here's all you need: An Eveready Industrial flashlight (available at Home Depot); a Radio Shack KPR112 Krypton bulb; and three Duracell Ultra 123 three volt photo batteries (or a cheaper alternative).
The only actual labor required is the whittling away of the inner ridges of the flashlight so that the three short fat batteries will fit where the two skinny AA batteries would have gone. The video guy used a drill, I used a wood carving knife.
The little thing really does light up the night, and it fits easily in a pocket. But the bulb burns hot, possibly too hot for the plastic lens and housing of the Eveready flashlight. I don't know what the melting point would be, so short time usage is probably advisable. But if that's not acceptable there's always the Pelican 7060.
If anyone makes one of these and comes up with an improvement then please get in touch.
Updated: I made two of these do-it-yourself lights, and they worked fine, for a while. But the bulb puts out too much heat for the plastic. One of my lights got so hot it distorted the housing so much it no longer makes a proper connection. The other one still works, but I only use it for very short periods of time, i.e., less than a minute. So I can't really count depend on it.
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