Krill Lamps

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David Williams

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OK I did my part to help out the BF server fund and bought 3 Photons. I'll buy 1 more next week and 1-3 Krill Lamps.

Does anyone here have a Krill Lamp Type/Color recommendations? With 4 types and 7 colors available that's 28 possiblities. They will be used for nighttime trail use and reading in the tent. I suspect my daughter will commandeer one for her use so maybe I'll get 2-3. She'll most likely use it for reading at night. Does the 360 put out more overall light than the 180? How much brighter is the extreme over the standard? What is the battery burntime in real life?

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"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"
-Nordic proverb
 
We got 2 green Krill's from Tim Flanagan, both of them are the extreme Krills with 1 a 180 and the other one a 360. The green exteme 180 is the brightest according to Tim, and the 360 is the next brightest.

We gave them a good solid workout this summer tent camping and while they are good lights I was dissapointed in them somewhat.

The 180 green is the brightest Krill and after about 15 min of darkness you can sort of read with it but you strain your eyes. Don't even try reading with the 360 as it's not bright enough, plus the light ends up really straining your eyes shining into them as you try to read holding it between you and the book. It also seems like they are not as bright as the standard chem lights I've used.

The 360 is good for a tent night light after your eyes have gotten adjusted to the dark, but going from a campfire/gas lamp lighted area to darkness the Krill is almost worthless. It's bright enough to see with after about 5-10 min of darkness and fine to move around in the tent once your eyes get adjusted to the dark. Plus you can mark your porta potty with one for the women
smile.gif


The 180 was the eldest daughters toy/night light when she was outside at night. We could see her from quite a distance when she was out playing in the dusk/dark. We were camping in remote areas with no source of lights other than the stars and it was quite dark

We used these lights for about 8 nights of camping then stored them for a month. Used them again for 4 more nights without any noticable loss of light.

Only problem is that both lights were droped and tosed around by our girls (6 years and 17 months) and now you need to play with them to keep running. Every so offten when bounced or jostled the quit working, you need to "thump" the light a few times to get it working again. I've played with one time and time again and it just does not want to stay on. (this is with a 17 month old playing with it) The copper insert in the cap also fell out and this was a real flimsy piese of copper, I need to try and glue it back in but have not done anything about it yet.

 
Shrike,
They had one small batch get out that had an intermittent electronic package and we thought they had all been accounted for. Seems like you might have one that was missed. It's under warranty- send it in for repair/replacement. Email me if you need further info.

David,
I can read the WSJ with the Ex180 without discomfort using green. The 360 makes me squint to read the WSJ and would provide some discomfort fairly quickly I think. As Shrike states (quoting me, no less
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), the Green Extreme 180 is the brightest configuration. Basically, it's a doubling factor. The Krill360 is the baseline, the Krill180 is twice as bright (half the amount of luminescent film + full current=twice as bright). The Extreme360 is almost twice as bright as the original Krill360 and the Extreme 180 is twice as bright as the Ex360. To quote from the manufacturer:
The Krill® Lamp was designed to replace 12 or 6 hour chemical light sticks, with a light output equal to a light stick after it has been activated for about an hour.
Click to expand...
To get more of a bead on actual "numbers," here's the graph the NASA trials have come up with for the Krills(Extreme only, 180 and 360) v. chemlights.
glowstick_lightstick_nasa_comparison.jpg
. Hope this helps.

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Regards,
Tim
Nor'east Knives
noreastknives@bigfoot.com

There are two rules for ultimate success in life.
Never tell everything you know.

 
Thanks Shrike, thanks Tim
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Excellent information and suggestion in type/color. DL I read Doug's article when it first came out. A good read again. I think he added more info as I don't remember the article being that long.

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"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"
-Nordic proverb
 
I have a green X180 and X360 both of which I bought from Tim. Anything that throws light will aid in seeing things but the light from the krill is unfocused and 'diffuses' quickly. I can read by my X180 but only if I'm holding it four inches or less from the page. I would use photons for reading because you can hold them farther away and they are small enough you can tape/velcro them to you head, hat, tent, etc.

IMO the krill excels as an improvement and replacement for the chemstick, great for visibility and lighting up a trail or tent softly. It can be your one and only flashlight if you are willing to adapt to the lower light levels, but if you get frustrated when you can't see well, get a focused beam with more output.

Lastly, Unless you really think you need a 360 I would say go with a 180. If you wear it around you neck or secured against your body you are basically losing half your light and if you use it to look at something up close it is nice to have the backside blocked out and not shining into your face.

I think the krill's are great and very useful, but I don't think thay will wow most people the way photons do.

JE
 
I figure a Krill Light to be a super long- duration chemlight. In the Army we used chemlights all the time as marker lights, mostly so you could find things in the dark. They were rarely used for real illumination like a flashlight, and were never designed to be. They are just too dim. But they are convenient, and cheap.
 
David,

There's no need to get anything but the extreme, whether 180 or 360. You may be disappointed otherwise.

Ditto on the 180 if you're going to read with it. You need that one side blocked.

If you just keep in mind that its replacing a chem light you'll be fine.

It's a great light if used within its parameters.

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Frank Norman
Valdosta, GA
 
a very interesting thread......but, geez, it would have been a bloody lot easier to follow if someone hadn't caused it to scroll off my screen.
Doesn't seem to happen often so I don't think I need to dump my computer system just yet. Do I ?


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BrianWE
ICQ #21525343

 
Sorry about that Brian! I hate it when that happens as well- the image would be fine except for the space allotted for our names on the left. I'll try not to let it happen again.
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Regards,
Tim
Nor'east Knives
noreastknives@bigfoot.com

There are two rules for ultimate success in life.
Never tell everything you know.

 
Tim,

Edit your post and try this code:

<img width="641" height="480" src="http://www.kriana.com/glowstick_lightstick/glowstick_lightstick_nasa_comparison.jpg">

(There is no hard return, that is a space being turned into a soft return. If there is more than 1 line to the code in this post) and you get:

<img width="641" height="480" src="http://www.kriana.com/glowstick_lightstick/glowstick_lightstick_nasa_comparison.jpg">

It is a little more work and some of the resolution will be lost. But it won't inflate the width of the thread.

I have decided on the Extreme 180 in green. Thanks for the input. Isn't the green Photon with a battery mod the brightest? Hmmm.

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"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"
-Nordic proverb

[This message has been edited by David Williams (edited 14 November 1999).]
 
Better yet, post links to images instead of the images themselves, that way people aren't forced to download the whole thing.

BTW, we also have Krills in the BladeForums.com Store... http://www.bladeforums.com/store/accessories/krill/index.html

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
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