I am always amazed at the engineering of things from China. Brilliant ideas combined at times with terrible execution which leads to head scratching and the inevitable, "what were they thinking," comment. And then other times you get very good quality and design. You just never know.
(Of course China is one of those countries where you shouldn't joke about execution... So perhaps I should have used a different term.)
Anyway...
The little LED flashlights were a great idea. However, despite the machined aluminum housing and the gasket seal and the illusion of them being waterproof they are not and they corrode inside. And they have four little AAA batteries when it looks like one C cell would fit perfectly. But, it won't. Of course that would only be 1.5v and the AAA's bring it to six so I guess that is the point.
But, I digress...
In my efforts to restore aging stereo equipment I came across a product called "DeOxit". I bought a little kit on Amazon which has samplers of the different products.
I figured if this chemical can help audio connections then why not annoying flashlights that you have to bang of the table to get them to work. So, I applied a trop of DeOxit gold to each of the contacts and suddenly I had light. I am quite impressed. You may ask me why I chose DeOxit gold out of the box of products? That happened to be the tube that was open and said on the instructions that it would improve electrical connections.
I also used the DeOxit fader lube on the switches and potentiometers on the Dynaco PAS-2 amp that Muddy Valley gave me and the difference in sound was amazing. Scratchy volume controls are cured quickly and the 40 year old balky slider switches now work.
And... if you put the term DeOxit into my Amazon search box and then buy the product I will get a kick-back. I like to think of it as a bribe or a payoff. Makes me feel edgy... or is that the excess coffee I have consumed this morning?
Of course the DeOxit costs more to buy than five cheap Chinese flashlights but that is not the point...
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Just a comment on the durability of those little led lights. One harvest my nephews were unloading the grain truck and using one of those flashlights at the to watch the truck didn't overflow the swing auger. Somehow the flashlight got dropped into the grain and went into the auger. They shut everything down and then slowly and carefully engaged the pto while watching up on top of the bin. Amazingly the little light survived the 50 foot trip up the auger and was easy to spot in the grain bin because the light was still shining. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteRalph, Which us to the head scratching part of Chinese engineering. A durable and long lasting product when it works, but it has a major failure where the tiny springs contact the battery holder which then makes the whole thing fail prematurely.
DeleteThe "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost," school of engineering... Probably Stanford...