River Rock 0.5w 2AAA

UnknownVT

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River Rock 0.5watt 2x AAA from Target for $9.99
RR05Pk.jpg


It's available in this semi matte black and a shiney silver alumium.

Size compared to some known lights -
RR05Size.jpg


Heads -
RR05Hds.jpg


Vs. gen 2 MJLED drop-in for MiniMag 2AA
RR05MJLED.jpg
RR05MJLED2U.jpg


Vs. Nite-Ize LED Drop-in for MiniMag 2AA
RR05NiteIze.jpg
RR05NiteIze2U.jpg


Vs. 8LED 1AA "Xnova" New
RR05Xnova8.jpg
RR05Xnova8_2U.jpg


Vs. Fenix L1 v2.5 (Non-Premium)
RR05Fenix.jpg
RR05Fenix2U.jpg


Current draw at end of beamshots -
2x Duracell AAA supplied with light
Open-circuit = 1.552V and 1.553V
Current draw ~75mA.

Comments: in daylight when I first got the River Rock 0.5w the beam seemed very purplish-blue, at first I thought it had a very purple tint. I've now gotten used to it, and it doesn't seem so purple any more.....

Not shown in the beamshots the central hotspot does have a donut ring of purplish-blue.
 

InfidelCastro

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I bought three, ended up giving one away and keeping one. Took the other back. I wasn't that impressed with the dimmer two. Mine is ok. Mine does have and fairly decent hotspot and ok brightness for a 2AAA. I use mine on nights when I deliver pizza to see numbers on doors and when I'm walking between buildings and such. The other two were slightly dimmer, mostly flood with slightly dimmer less noticable hotspots.

The momentary on button on mine has cracked in half, but it still works. Going to send them an email asking for a replacement tailcap.
 
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goldenlight

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Mine has a somewhat irregular (a little blotchy) hotspot, and is quite blue. but is quite bright.

It has found a home in the cupholder in my car. I've got several lights in the glovebox, and I EDC at least 3 now that it's cold out (coat pockets!) But I am finding that I use the little RR 0.5W 2 x AAA quite a lot, since it's so handy. My glovebox doesn't have an internal light in it, and it's pretty full of stuff, so i use the little RR light to find stuff in the glove box or under the seats, a lot. The color put me off a bit at first, but I'm used to it, now. (Hey, it was $10!)

I don't lock out the tailcap, since it's nearly coming off the barrel when locked out. I decided to get a silver one, and that was a good decision, since it makes it easy to find in the dark. I like the looks of black flashlights much more, but really, it's not as practical as shiny silver, or bright yellow. That's why about 95% of my flashlights are black or natural HA III. Go figure....

But for $10, the little RR 2AAA is a good bargain, and cheap enough to consider disposable. I'm storing it head down in the cupholder, and so far it hasn't fallen out. Nice little light, for the money.
 

InfidelCastro

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My River Rock 2AAA is also quite blue. But I'd also say it's quite a bit brighter than my 2AA Mini-mag with Nite-Ize. Maybe twice as bright. The pictures above seem to paint a different picture.

Course as I mentioned, it was also the best of three.
 

UnknownVT

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InfidelCastro wrote: "My River Rock 2AAA is also quite blue. But I'd also say it's quite a bit brighter than my 2AA Mini-mag with Nite-Ize. Maybe twice as bright. The pictures above seem to paint a different picture."

Color/tint sometimes can give an impression of higher brightness, especially blue in normal indoors (incandscent) lighting - where it is predominately yellow - so the blue is more visible due to the higher color contrast.

Also the River Rock 0.5w is pretty well focussed so its hotspot is more concentrated than the wider more "flood-like" hotspot of the Nite-Ize, its better throw would also make it look brighter.

My River Rock 0.5w (although less bright) holds its own quite well against the 1watt Fenix L1 v2.5 (Non-Premium) - which shows that the River Rock 0.5w should be at least a good to average sample.

Just an anecdote -
when I first got up this morning in the bright sun-lit room I turned on the River Rock 0.5w and the hotspot really looked blue to me - almost like it was a blue LED.

Now shining it around in a room lit by both daylight and a warm fluorescent coil bulb it looks pretty white (with some blue tint) - no where like it was a blue LED......

There was another thread River Rock 2AAA Beam changes that asked if the beam tint/color changes.

I think in my case it's simply my eyes/brain adapting -
but could there be a tint/color shift as well?
 

UnknownVT

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Just did a current draw measurement in comparison with the Nuwai 0.5w 1AAA (TM-310H) and both the results were surprisingly LOW

Current draw of this River Rock 0.5w 2x AAA = 60mA,
with 2x AAA alkalines both with open-circuit readings of 1.495V
(note this is lower than my earlier current draw measurements - as the batteries were new/fresh then)

Compare this with the Nuwai 0.5w 1AAA (TM-310H) = 144mA
with one of the same AAA alkaline battery with Open-circuit 1.495V

River Rock 0.5w 2AAA is pulling from the batteries a total of only 0.18 watts
Nuwai 0.5w 1AAA is pulling from the battery a total of only 0.22 watts

Even going back to the higher initial measurements on the River Rock 2xAAA -
Current draw at end of beamshots -
2x Duracell AAA supplied with light
Open-circuit = 1.552V and 1.553V
Current draw ~75mA.

This is still pulling from the (fresh) batteries a total of only 0.23 watts

We know that the step-up cicuits are no where near 100% efficiency -
so the power at the actual LED has to be even lower.....

So are these LEDs under-driven, or is the 0.5 watts rated some other way?
 

InfidelCastro

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UnknownVT said:
Color/tint sometimes can give an impression of higher brightness, especially blue in normal indoors (incandscent) lighting - where it is predominately yellow - so the blue is more visible due to the higher color contrast.

Also the River Rock 0.5w is pretty well focussed so its hotspot is more concentrated than the wider more "flood-like" hotspot of the Nite-Ize, its better throw would also make it look brighter.

The sidespill alone is brighter than my NightIze Minimag.
 

UnknownVT

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InfidelCastro wrote:"The sidespill alone is brighter than my NightIze Minimag."

WoW! that is dramatically brighter.

I don't know what to say - I'm pretty sure the 2 Nite-Ize drop-ins I have are pretty normal and comparable in their brightness.

The one sample of River Rock 0.5w 2AAA again seems good/normal - as shown by the side-by-side comparison beamshots - especially how it holds up so well against my Fenix L1 v2.5 1watt Luxeon.

I recall you had more than one River Rock 0.5w 2AAA - was this bright one substantially/dramatically brighter than the others?

Please also see my bit (above in Post #9) about the current draw and total power consumption of these "Nuwai" 0.5watt (including 2 samples of the Nuwai 0.5w 1AAA (TM-310H) ) -
they seem surprisingly low in the range of only 0.18 - 0.23 watts at the battery(s)

Can you please do a current draw measurement (as well as the open circuit voltage of the batteries) on your bright River Rock 0.5watt 2AAA?

Thanks
 

Icebreak

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The beam shots show it to be similar in brightness to the Fenix.

Is this true?

I have the River Rock and was considering a Fenix.
 

zespectre

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I bought one RR as an EDC... and have since purchased 10 more as gifts for others. It's going to be a BRIGHT Christmas!
 

UnknownVT

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Icebreak wrote: "The beam shots show it to be similar in brightness to the Fenix.
Is this true?"

In a word - No -
one has to be careful looking at beamshots - even ones that are side-by-side in the same photo - the first full exposure is a kind of "average" optimized exposure attempting to show the beam characteristics the best a camera can.

The shortcoming is the limited dynamic range of the camera (or even film) as the hotspots are normally so bright - that they are grossly over-exposed so even if one hotspot is brighter than the other - the photo can't show it.

That's the reason for the -2 Stops Underexposed shot which attempts to show the difference - again the hotspots are still over-exposed which cannot show the difference, unless they are quite dramatically different - the side-spills are better represented in the Underexposed beamshot - and tends to show the difference a bit better.

Having said that the River Rock 0.5w 2AAA does hold up quite well against the Fenix L1 - but the Fenix is definitely brighter, and its beam is much smoother, it has a much, much nicer tint - and please remember mine is the Non-Premium model so a P(remium) model should be even better in tint.

Just on sheer beam quality and brightness I would rate my Fenix L1 much higher than the River Rock -
but for $10 the River Rock is great value - and I thought highly enough of it that I bought 2 of the Nuwai 0.5w 1AAA (TM-310H) the smaller single AAA sibling 0.5watt and am very pleased with those too (see the linked comparison review).
 

Vikas Sontakke

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I recall getting about 100mA draw from my RiverRock 2AAA with
fresh batteries. With NiMh, I get somewhere between 70 to
90mH. One morning I left it on for 5 hours and it was still
at the same brightness!

If yours is not pulling close to 100 on a fresh cell, then
it is not putting out enough light.

Interestingly, the Nichia CS (Grmpy's group buy) in a photon
clone comes surprisingly close to River Rock 2AAA. I have MJled
cut in 2AA MiniMag on alkaline which is very similar to RR.
Vincent, do you any trick to get useable bim shots from
Canon ELF series digital camera?
 

UnknownVT

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Vikas Sontakke wrote: "I recall getting about 100mA draw from my RiverRock 2AAA with fresh batteries.
If yours is not pulling close to 100 on a fresh cell, then it is not putting out enough light."


Ah! this really depends on the scale used on my digital multi-meter (DMM) -
initially when I didn't know what the likely current draw was I used my normal 10A scale - and that showed 0.10A (that's 100mA) -
being as that is less than 200mA - I moved it on to that more sensitive scale - and that's when I got ~75mA with fresh batteries. The current reading did vary a bit that's why I put the ~ sign in front to the figure, it jumped about a bit between something like 80+mA to 70mA.

But my eyes and beamshots (eg: against a brighter Fenix L1) show that it is not underperforming - it is pretty bright - obviously not as bright as the one that InfidelCastro describes - which seems exceptionally bright.

Even allowing for a 25% less current draw - that should not give a very dramatic difference in brightness level.

Perhaps you'd be kind enough to please do some more current draw measurements with the batteries currently in the River Rock and see if it is still drawing 100mA? and please tell us what scale/sensitivity you're using?

Thanks,

BTW- even allowing for your 100mA with 2 AAA that's 3.0v x 0.1A = 0.3 watts which is still significantly below the rated 0.5watts, and that's at the battery only and not even allowing for the step-up circuit which we know is not 100% efficient.
 

Icebreak

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UnknownVT -

I'm usually a little better at reading beamshots. After reading your reply I studied them again and can now make more sense of them. Thank you. That is some good work and the effort is appreciated.
 

Vikas Sontakke

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I always use the 10A scale on my DMM. I trust those number more than the one I get at the lower range. The lower range goes upto 400mA. Also on my DMM, 10A input is different and is fuse protected. It must be lot less less load on the cicuit to use the 10A scale. I will try to find fresh alkaline AAA and see what readings I get. Edit:- Just measured 2AAA, each no-load 1.567V, input current 120mA. I have also momentarily ran it on 3AAA NiMh (3.6V), the current goes to 200mA and it become much brighter.

I am little bit concerned that your beamshots show that River Rock is approaching your Fenix. Yes, your Fenix L1 is brighter, but it does not seem to blow River Rock out of the water. Am I expecting too much from Fenix?

If it is a camera trick, can I request you to underexpose 2nd shot more?
 
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InfidelCastro

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UnknownVT said:
InfidelCastro wrote:"The sidespill alone is brighter than my NightIze Minimag."

WoW! that is dramatically brighter.

I don't know what to say - I'm pretty sure the 2 Nite-Ize drop-ins I have are pretty normal and comparable in their brightness.

The one sample of River Rock 0.5w 2AAA again seems good/normal - as shown by the side-by-side comparison beamshots - especially how it holds up so well against my Fenix L1 v2.5 1watt Luxeon.

I recall you had more than one River Rock 0.5w 2AAA - was this bright one substantially/dramatically brighter than the others?

No, I wouldn't say substantially. The sidespill is about identical. It is noticable though, mostly around the hotspot. It has a little bit more throw than the other two had at the expense of more artifacts in the beam, especially around the hotspot. But yea, the ambient light is basically the same.

Can you please do a current draw measurement (as well as the open circuit voltage of the batteries) on your bright River Rock 0.5watt 2AAA?

Thanks

I sure would like to, could you tell me an easy way to do this? I have a couple of multimeters. Want to be careful not to burn out the fuse.
 

LightObsession

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My Nuwai 2AAA .5w lights are definately blown away by my Fenix L1P. There is no comparison except that the beam patterns are similar. The Fenix is WAY brighter than the 2AAA .5w.

I've been carrying the Nuwai since I got them last January and have been carrying both the Nuwai and the Fenix since I received the Fenix.
 
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