parametrek
Enlightened
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2013
- Messages
- 578
Looking for a reliable, compact, simple, indestructible lantern that is made in US? Willing to trade a little CRI for the most unique design you've ever seen? Read on for my first ever serious light review: the UVPaqlite.
I really like LEDs and their uses. For fun I type up every scrap of information about flashlights in my free time and using that info to help people find their perfect flashlight. The big parts of "perfect" for me are efficiency, simplicity and minimizing waste. LEDs, even the earliest, were such a huge improvement over incans. Similarly when rechargeables displaced primaries for general use. It is such a relief to no longer have to throw out bulbs or batteries.
But can we do better? It is nice to have a bulb that won't shatter, but even LEDs stop working if they are cut in half or smashed with a hammer. And while using less batteries is good, maybe there are lights out there that don't need any batteries. There is still room for improvement, new technologies to explore. The UVPaqlite treads new territory by breaking every preconception of what a lantern should be. Consider it's unique advantages:
Of course nothing comes for free. There are downsides and tradeoffs:
Maybe you are scratching your head. No batteries? Is it powered by magical pixie dust? Yes, though I would call it magical pixie refractory cement. In 1993 the secret that turns a high temperature cement into a light emitting technology was discovered. It is completely inert, odorless, noncombustible, has high hardness and is stable up to 2000C. Sadly the photonic properties are not as stable as the base material. At temperatures of 1090C it will stop emitting light. Though 1000C is the temperature of a candle flame, so you should have a ready alternate source of light in that event.
Principally the UVPaqlite is constructed out of two materials: a multi-layered polyethylene shell and the light-emitting strontium aluminate ceramic. The outer layer of polyethylene is two sheets of 4 mil plastic, and the inner layer is two sheets of 10 mil plastic, for a total of 28 mil. This is tough stuff! The ceramic particles are typically two to four millimeters across.
The UVPaqlite is designed primarily for outdoor use and comes in three sizes:
(Volume, lumens and throw are my own measurements.) For reference, an 18650 cell is around 67 cubic centimeters and 46 grams. The UVPaqlites do indeed pack light and are hardly noticeable in a backpack. Here is a beamshot:
It is nice to see that they are not using the typical angry purple-blue harsh LEDs common to many camping lanterns.
Here are the three sizes again, with a banana for scale:
Here is a closeup of the emitter:
Now, on their website they claim a 10 hour runtime after only a minute of solar charging. This is not ANSI runtime (to 10%) or even Black Diamond runtime (to 0.25 cd). It seems their runtime is how long the emitter is visibly emitting light, one of the most generous ways of measuring runtime I've ever heard of. It seems like an appropriate way to rate the runtime of an illuminated marker, but not a lantern.
In my own tests, it was still visible after 10 hours though the luxmeter stopped detecting light approximately 5.5 hours into the test at 0.007 lumens. Besides the extremely generous runtime cutoff, they have one of the most severe step-downs that I have ever seen in a light. I do appreciate that it is smooth dimming, allowing your eyes to adjust, instead of an abrupt step. I was unable to calculate the exact algorithm for dimming. It is not linear, quadratic or even exponential. Superficially it bears a resemblance to a half-life decay pattern, except that the half life gets longer and slower as the charge runs down. ANSI FL1 specifies that we turn on the light, wait 30 seconds, note the output, and begin timing until output falls to 10%. With that metric, we get a runtime of 6 minutes. But since the dimming rate depends on the charge, here are several runtimes:
The beam pattern is pure flood. There is no reflector or optics, saving weight and bulk. The pattern is fairly non-conventional for a lantern. It is double lobed, bright from the front and from the back but rather dim when viewed edge-on. If you know microphones, think bidirectional figure of eight. This graph only shows one side.
Maukka was kind enough to run a sample through his gamut of tests:
4600K is a good tint, but the 55 CRI leaves much to be desired.
The combination kit I got also came with two of their re-usable glowsticks. These are one of the cheapest items they sell, and it shows a little. It is a simple resin cast, with a layer of strontium aluminate particles suspended. The edge of the cast were fairly rough. While they did already knock off the worst of it, I still felt a need to go over it with a hand file. The two glowsticks can be tied together to make a single longer stick. I found this usable for reading as long as the glowstick was wider than the page. On a single charge, I could read a book for 90 minutes.
UVPaqlite is not the exclusive user of this technology. However they are the only people I know of using pure, unadulterated material. Everyone else grinds the strontium aluminate into a fine powder, which is then blended into a plastic. The fineness of the powder reduces how long it glows and all of the non-glowing plastic blended reduces the brightness. Here is a small compass made by Brunton. You can see the spots where some of the fine powder clumped together. These spots are as bright as the Paqlite, but overall the Paqlite is seven times brighter per square centimeter. When they say they are the brightest, they are not exaggerating.
For sturdiness and reliability, there is no technology that even comes close. There is no glass to break, batteries to leak, circuits to burn out. It is waterproof, crushproof and bendable. It will not lose potency after decades of use or storage. It is the ultimate cockroach light.
The design and engineering of the Paqlite is, in a word, perfect. Usually I can find at least one bad engineering decision that I wish I could fix. The most questionable part is the use of a common food-type vacuum packing bag for the outer layer. It still even has the "tear-here" notch! But as a cost-effective production engineering hack it is very clever. The Paqlite's design appear to be at a local optimum, and I see no way they could be made lighter or sturdier or more effective. It simply can't be improved upon, and that makes it a pleasure to use.
The large Paqlite works adequately as a night light in a typical bedroom, even charged by nothing more than ambient light. When it is the only light available and your eyes are dark-adapted it is more than sufficient to avoid tripping over obstacles. I suspect it will be handy in extended power outages and I look forward to trying it when camping. The smaller sizes will likely work inside a tent, but I'd stick with the largest unless you are counting every gram.
They do have a wide variety of other styles which might fit your needs better. I already mentioned the glowsticks. After the Paqlite, they have a heavier and more stylish version called the Matlite. While the Paqlite resembles astronaut food, the Matlite appears like a small plastic cutting board. Personally I'm not interested in the Matlites, since they are heavier and more expensive. If I had a boat or RV, the Matlites would be a good addition. The glowsticks also have a stylish version called the Tooblite, which are cylindrical and have a more even distribution of strontium aluminate. For EDC purposes, they have a 44mm long matlite luggage tag, a keychain-sized Tooblite Mini and a necklace pendant.
The smaller versions seem like they would make great markers, as a low cost and robust alternative to tritium. Hang them on doorknobs or glue a tag to a light switch plate. However if I were using them as markers outdoors I would compliment it with some retro-reflective cord to make it easier to find under more circumstances.
Overall there is nothing else like the Paqlite and in many ways they are superior to LEDs. Presently the low CRI is the largest weakness. I am curious if a white version with multiple colors blended could help.
I really like LEDs and their uses. For fun I type up every scrap of information about flashlights in my free time and using that info to help people find their perfect flashlight. The big parts of "perfect" for me are efficiency, simplicity and minimizing waste. LEDs, even the earliest, were such a huge improvement over incans. Similarly when rechargeables displaced primaries for general use. It is such a relief to no longer have to throw out bulbs or batteries.
But can we do better? It is nice to have a bulb that won't shatter, but even LEDs stop working if they are cut in half or smashed with a hammer. And while using less batteries is good, maybe there are lights out there that don't need any batteries. There is still room for improvement, new technologies to explore. The UVPaqlite treads new territory by breaking every preconception of what a lantern should be. Consider it's unique advantages:
| • Waterproof | • No fragile circuit boards |
| • Lightweight | • Rechargeable |
| • Floats | • Immune to over-current and over-voltage |
| • Drop proof | • Solar powered |
| • Only 4mm thick | • Totally EMP proof |
| • Foldable | • Batteries will never age or lose capacity |
| • Crush proof | • Convenient hanging loop |
| • Multiple sizes | • Smoothly variable output |
| • Simplest possible UI | • Optionally non-metallic |
| • No moving parts | • Neutral white temperature |
| • No batteries | • No integrated circuits |
Of course nothing comes for free. There are downsides and tradeoffs:
- Single mode
- Minimal throw
- Green-ish tint
- No off switch
- Poor CRI
- No user interface
Maybe you are scratching your head. No batteries? Is it powered by magical pixie dust? Yes, though I would call it magical pixie refractory cement. In 1993 the secret that turns a high temperature cement into a light emitting technology was discovered. It is completely inert, odorless, noncombustible, has high hardness and is stable up to 2000C. Sadly the photonic properties are not as stable as the base material. At temperatures of 1090C it will stop emitting light. Though 1000C is the temperature of a candle flame, so you should have a ready alternate source of light in that event.
Principally the UVPaqlite is constructed out of two materials: a multi-layered polyethylene shell and the light-emitting strontium aluminate ceramic. The outer layer of polyethylene is two sheets of 4 mil plastic, and the inner layer is two sheets of 10 mil plastic, for a total of 28 mil. This is tough stuff! The ceramic particles are typically two to four millimeters across.
The UVPaqlite is designed primarily for outdoor use and comes in three sizes:
| size | weight | volume | max output | throw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15x19.5 cm | 37 grams | 54 cc | 6 lumens | 1.1 meters |
| 20x25.5 cm | 71 grams | 101 cc | 12 lumens | 1.6 meters |
| 20x38 cm | 96 grams | 150 cc | 20 lumens | 2.0 meters |
(Volume, lumens and throw are my own measurements.) For reference, an 18650 cell is around 67 cubic centimeters and 46 grams. The UVPaqlites do indeed pack light and are hardly noticeable in a backpack. Here is a beamshot:
It is nice to see that they are not using the typical angry purple-blue harsh LEDs common to many camping lanterns.
Here are the three sizes again, with a banana for scale:
Here is a closeup of the emitter:
Now, on their website they claim a 10 hour runtime after only a minute of solar charging. This is not ANSI runtime (to 10%) or even Black Diamond runtime (to 0.25 cd). It seems their runtime is how long the emitter is visibly emitting light, one of the most generous ways of measuring runtime I've ever heard of. It seems like an appropriate way to rate the runtime of an illuminated marker, but not a lantern.
In my own tests, it was still visible after 10 hours though the luxmeter stopped detecting light approximately 5.5 hours into the test at 0.007 lumens. Besides the extremely generous runtime cutoff, they have one of the most severe step-downs that I have ever seen in a light. I do appreciate that it is smooth dimming, allowing your eyes to adjust, instead of an abrupt step. I was unable to calculate the exact algorithm for dimming. It is not linear, quadratic or even exponential. Superficially it bears a resemblance to a half-life decay pattern, except that the half life gets longer and slower as the charge runs down. ANSI FL1 specifies that we turn on the light, wait 30 seconds, note the output, and begin timing until output falls to 10%. With that metric, we get a runtime of 6 minutes. But since the dimming rate depends on the charge, here are several runtimes:
| charge | runtime |
|---|---|
| 20 lumens | 1.25 minutes |
| 10 lumens | 2.5 minutes |
| 5 lumens | 6 minutes |
| 2 lumens | 11 minutes |
| 1 lumen | 20 minutes |
| 0.1 lumens | 2 hours |
The beam pattern is pure flood. There is no reflector or optics, saving weight and bulk. The pattern is fairly non-conventional for a lantern. It is double lobed, bright from the front and from the back but rather dim when viewed edge-on. If you know microphones, think bidirectional figure of eight. This graph only shows one side.
Maukka was kind enough to run a sample through his gamut of tests:
4600K is a good tint, but the 55 CRI leaves much to be desired.
The combination kit I got also came with two of their re-usable glowsticks. These are one of the cheapest items they sell, and it shows a little. It is a simple resin cast, with a layer of strontium aluminate particles suspended. The edge of the cast were fairly rough. While they did already knock off the worst of it, I still felt a need to go over it with a hand file. The two glowsticks can be tied together to make a single longer stick. I found this usable for reading as long as the glowstick was wider than the page. On a single charge, I could read a book for 90 minutes.
UVPaqlite is not the exclusive user of this technology. However they are the only people I know of using pure, unadulterated material. Everyone else grinds the strontium aluminate into a fine powder, which is then blended into a plastic. The fineness of the powder reduces how long it glows and all of the non-glowing plastic blended reduces the brightness. Here is a small compass made by Brunton. You can see the spots where some of the fine powder clumped together. These spots are as bright as the Paqlite, but overall the Paqlite is seven times brighter per square centimeter. When they say they are the brightest, they are not exaggerating.
For sturdiness and reliability, there is no technology that even comes close. There is no glass to break, batteries to leak, circuits to burn out. It is waterproof, crushproof and bendable. It will not lose potency after decades of use or storage. It is the ultimate cockroach light.
The design and engineering of the Paqlite is, in a word, perfect. Usually I can find at least one bad engineering decision that I wish I could fix. The most questionable part is the use of a common food-type vacuum packing bag for the outer layer. It still even has the "tear-here" notch! But as a cost-effective production engineering hack it is very clever. The Paqlite's design appear to be at a local optimum, and I see no way they could be made lighter or sturdier or more effective. It simply can't be improved upon, and that makes it a pleasure to use.
The large Paqlite works adequately as a night light in a typical bedroom, even charged by nothing more than ambient light. When it is the only light available and your eyes are dark-adapted it is more than sufficient to avoid tripping over obstacles. I suspect it will be handy in extended power outages and I look forward to trying it when camping. The smaller sizes will likely work inside a tent, but I'd stick with the largest unless you are counting every gram.
They do have a wide variety of other styles which might fit your needs better. I already mentioned the glowsticks. After the Paqlite, they have a heavier and more stylish version called the Matlite. While the Paqlite resembles astronaut food, the Matlite appears like a small plastic cutting board. Personally I'm not interested in the Matlites, since they are heavier and more expensive. If I had a boat or RV, the Matlites would be a good addition. The glowsticks also have a stylish version called the Tooblite, which are cylindrical and have a more even distribution of strontium aluminate. For EDC purposes, they have a 44mm long matlite luggage tag, a keychain-sized Tooblite Mini and a necklace pendant.
The smaller versions seem like they would make great markers, as a low cost and robust alternative to tritium. Hang them on doorknobs or glue a tag to a light switch plate. However if I were using them as markers outdoors I would compliment it with some retro-reflective cord to make it easier to find under more circumstances.
Overall there is nothing else like the Paqlite and in many ways they are superior to LEDs. Presently the low CRI is the largest weakness. I am curious if a white version with multiple colors blended could help.
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