DealExtreme Superflash clone taillight review
 

I just posted a review of the DealExtreme superflash clone on my Livejournal account:

http://johnridley.livejournal.com/343400.html

Compared to a real Superflash, I think it holds its own pretty well. Not as bright on axis, but as soon as you get off axis it compares very favorably,. At $3.54 shipped, I think it's a light to consider especially if you're the type that likes to keep a spare light or two in your bag to hand to ninjas, or if your organization wants to give away lights for a promotion or safety campaign.

Check the permissions on that link; I get a 403 on it.

Booooo
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None of us are cool kids with livejournal accounts.

Why the hell is it in Russian for me?

Sorry, I forgot to mark it as public. Fixed now.

Yeah I noticed tonight that the SF reflectors aren't reflectors. Kinda dumb.
Runtime test please.
Be interesting to see if the cheap leds fade with time too... cheap/overdriven leds tend to have a short lifespan.

OK, but it'll take a few days. I suspect flash runtime will be less, since it appears to me that the LED is on longer when it flashes. That's just a guess though.

Good Test, Thanks

It's been running for 48 hours now and still seems about as bright; I looked at it a minute ago and I still have spots in my eyes. Test continuing...

OK, I stopped it at 60 hours and did comparisons of brightness with those batteries and fresh ones. It's dimming, but it's still flashing away and is still pretty bright.
Photos added to the review page.
BTW this is with 1000 mAH NiMH AAA rechargables.

Thanks for the review, I'm going to get some and try them myself.

How is the mount? All the blinky lights I've had from DX had very poor mounts made of brittle plastic which broke after only a few days of use.

I haven't mounted it on my bike yet. Seems pretty much identical to the PBSF. The plastic doesn't seem particularly brittle. All I can do is to put it on my bike and see how it lasts.

The thing is STILL blinking, 75 hours now. It's kind of starting to annoy me. The batteries are at 1.15 volts per cell, definitely on the way out but 0.95 volts per cell is minimum discharge voltage. I'll probably stop the test before it gets there.

Wiil the DX light fit in the PBSF mount?

Yes, pretty close. It fits in, doesn't snap into place on its own, but with a tiny bit of pressure on the latch, the latch clicks and then it's OK. I'm sure the SF would go onto the DX mount just fine, though I can't check it now, the DX mount is at work. I've been clipping the DX to my helmet when riding.

Thanks a lot for the review !!!

OK, it's at 86 hours now, and the battery voltage has dropped below 1 volt per cell. NiMH cells shouldn't go below 0.95 volts per cell so I'm stopping the test and saying about 90 hours is the runtime in flash mode 1.

Note that it might run a bit longer with fresh alkaline cells.

Did you have the lights lying sideways on your trunk lid for the comparison shots? If so, then the "off axis" comparison isn't representative of the way that they would be see when mounted (vertically) on a bike. Can you add a comparison to show them that way? Or are you assuming that the design of the reflector is such that the difference would be comparable?

For those who are curious, here is the dealextreme link: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35036

I had them lying sideways. The projection on the wall and the appearance of the optics give me no indication that the optics would be any different regardless of the orientation. I'll give it a try anyway.