Who made the FIRST Led flashlight?

[whiskypapa3]

Here is a picture of the Teckna led light (circa1988). Used it until the Photon I came out. Only problem I had was the twist switch wouldn't stay in the off position. It would come on in my pocket, got lots of strange looks walking around in a store in the evening...

 

[McGizmo]

Whiskeypapa3,

Thanks for the photo; brings back memories

Oldest LED lights I still have are pictured below. The larger one has a red LED and is likely somewhere around 10 years old. The smaller one has an orange LED and is probably 7 years old? Anyway, these preceeded the Photons and all of the superbright key chain lights, to the best of my recolection.

Very simple circuit; LED leads straddle button cell(s) and squeezing the light makes the contact.

- Don

 

[Gene]

Yes, thanks whisky for the pic! My early model had a "clickie" type push switch in back that had a small hole drilled in it for a split ring or lanyard. These later "twist" switches must have a been a cost cutting exercise as were the plastic parts in both. The plastic parts were this light's BIG downfall and I'm sure, what led to it's demise. A neat piece of LED history though!

Don,
Were those pre-Photons "give-a-ways" or actual production models?

 

[McGizmo]

Gene,

These "Squeeze" beams were both available through distribution channels and we carried both models in a chandlery I was managing at the time. If I recall correctly, the red LED unit was close to $10 and the orange, cheaper unit was around $6. The orange LED unit showed up a couple years after the Red had run it's course. We sold a bunch of these and I used them as stocking stuffers a couple years until the novelty wore off.

- Don

 

[Lighthouse]

McGizmo,
The light on the left side of your photo is available at Pepboys autoparts stores in the south Florida area. I purchased a two of them about 3 months ago and am still using the same batteries that they came with. Would you believe they only charged $1.99 each!! I've been pricing replacement batteries and can't find them that cheap! Go figure. These are actually nice little lights, we got the red leds, didn't see any other color choices in the two stores that we were in. Been toying with the idea of swapping the leds myself, but other things keep intruding on my spare time. I did have one that kept lighting up in my shirt pocket and like WhiskyPapa3, I got some strange looks and interesting comments.

 

[McGizmo]

Lighthouse,

I'm surprised these are still around! We had many customers who considered them disposable as they couldn't or didn't bother, trying to find replacement batteries. I too had trouble with the "non-lock out" squeeze feature

- Don

 

[Saaby]

Many many years ago, before I realized I was a flashaholic, I made my mom buy herself one of those squeese lights--the one on the left. It had red casing and a red LED--Energizer or Eveready if I recall. I win the value award--it cost all of $1

Great little light, I completely disassembled and reassembled it several times. Don't know what happened to it exactly--but I think all the reassemblies and the years of pocket carry (Probably only 1 year) wore it down until the case just didnt' stay togerher anymore.

 

[INRETECH]

I had the Teckna led light also

It was a nice light, but the switch mechanism was really cheap and wore out

 

[Tomas]

Heheheheh ...

My mom just asked me if I wanted one of my old lights back rather than just throwing it away, since with her CMG, Arc, and Opalec lights she doesn't really need it anymore.

I said Sure!

The one she handed me was the one mentioned earlier in this thread and the darn thing still works fine!

Here's a pic of an early LED flashlight: The FOREVER LIGHT by Solarts (mid-80's).

I'm really surprised the two NiCd cells inside are still willing to give it a go. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (It has been kept charged, though.)

 

[JohnK]

Peter

First to sell Luxeon powered LED flashlights was Arc over a year ago.>>>>

Durn, I had NO idea this was so ... fresh, I've only been here for 6 months or so, good gosh, what a change; we've got commercialy produced lights popping up everywhere.

 

[tvodrd]

I have a Streamlight mm copy from the '70s-early'80's with a really dima*ss red LED. Does it count?

Larry

 

[paulr]

A while ago someone posted a scan of an article by some military guy making his own LED flashlight (red led) for covert ops circa 1974. It wasn't commercial of course, but it explained the circuit for readers wanting to build similar lights. I think the light was a modded 2AA penlight or something.

 

[shankus]

I wonder how long it will be before this question is asked.

"Who made the last incandescent flashlight?"


And what do you think the answer will be?

(Mag Instruments)

 

[snakebite]

i could swear i have had an ls nearly 2 years.
or are you going by the date it was first sold to the public?

[ QUOTE ]
JohnK said:
Peter

First to sell Luxeon powered LED flashlights was Arc over a year ago.>>>>

Durn, I had NO idea this was so ... fresh, I've only been here for 6 months or so, good gosh, what a change; we've got commercialy produced lights popping up everywhere.



[/ QUOTE ]

 

[The_LED_Museum]

I took some pictures of a prototype Arc-LS on 11-05-01, and I think I got the actual flashlight sometime earlier. (I looked through my system, and it looks like I took many of the pictures on Friday, 08-03-01, and I'm guessing I took these pictures on the same day I received the Arc-LS.)

So it looks like the Arc-LS was born in mid- to late-summer 2001 - I'd guess sometime in July 2001. But the "first run" Arc-LS really didn't take off until spring 2002.
So, spring 2002 is when the Arc-LS was produced and became available to the general public.

 

[Silviron]

I built my first red LED penlights back in 1974, We used them for covert stuff and night vision preservation. Wrote an article on it a few years later, and about 5 months after it was published, a couple of small companies were trying to sell them commercially. Don't know if they ever sold any because they wanted like fifty dollars for one.

I doubt that I was the first guy to do this. I imagine that a bunch of electronics geeks independently came up with the idea long before I did, and probably astronomy guys made some too. However, I like to think that I was the guy that introduced the concept to the SpecOps community though.

There is a copy of the article I wrote over on the Darksbane (Not the forum, but my little flashlight site)

Edited:
Oh Paulr- I missed your post the first time; that was me. I don't remember actually posting it here, but may have, or maybe you ran across it on my site.

 

[Doug Owen]

I too made one in the early seventies from the first LEDs I saw (red of course). A couple of penlight cells, a bitty microswitch and little reostat. A layer or two of electrical tape rounded out the package.

The company I worked for at the time (Applied Radiation) made therapy X ray machines, and some of the testing was done in the dark. I'd use it to read meters (up real close, of course, they were dim then). I ended up making several for other guys. No telling where mine got to in the thirty odd years since, it's for sure no longer in the bottom of my tool box.

Doug Owen

 

[paulr]

Silveron, yes, that's the article I remember. Cool!

 

[Fuchshp]

It's a pitty that darksbane link doesn't work anymore

 

[chadvone]

I built one seven years before I was born.