A bit of electronic treasure from the past. I bought this unique little rechargeable flashlight from a long gone (and much missed) shop in Glasgow called RME. The RME stood for Radio, Mechanical and Electrical, and it was a surplus and salvage store based in Howard Street in Glasgow, Scotland.
What made this little flashlight appealing was that it was rechargeable directly from the 240V mains supply with a standard figure-8 style mains connector. I was very intrigued by how they had managed to fit a charging circuit inside such a small light. keep in mind that this was from the 1980's so it seemed a remarkable electronic feat.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
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What made this little flashlight appealing was that it was rechargeable directly from the 240V mains supply with a standard figure-8 style mains connector. I was very intrigued by how they had managed to fit a charging circuit inside such a small light. keep in mind that this was from the 1980's so it seemed a remarkable electronic feat.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
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Mains straight into the back of a thumb sized flashlight is just hilarious to me lol
If you wish to visit a store like RME, there's one like this in Tokyo: Tokyo Rajio.
My grandpa had something something very similar except its a lot newer, it had folding prongs hanging off the back though instead of a figure of 8
Hey Clive could I buy this from you
Final opinion a candle ! 😂
I recently found something similar to this. Its from a german company called AEG and from 1960. It uses a detachable head in which the tungsten lamp is which then reveals the SchuKo 240V connector.
It charges two 225 mA NiCd cells through a 250V AC 0,2 uF foil capacitor and a 300 Ohm inrush limiting resistor going to a FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIAH!!!.
Quite nice torch as well. Very high quality.
ANyone here ever visit Bardwells in Sheffield? THE Aladdin's cave of elctro-tronic stuff.
Love these vintage flashlight teardowns . Please make more videos on vintage flashlight.
Hello Clive, can u tell me what is the battery capacity of the flashlight ?
I am confused how u can charge batteries with just a resistor, BTW can u please check the output current while charging?
Pifco made something like this in the late 60s, it used nicad cells, you charged it via a two pin plug built in, you need a shaver adapter to work it. Acculux also made such rechargeable torches. As for nicads I'm still using old Ever Ready ones, some sadly will die due to crystal build up, they can suffer what is known as memory loss, sometimes the crystals can be melted by using a car battery charging the battery for ten seconds, I have revived many a nicad doing this. You can still get nicads on eBay but I find plenty at car boot sales, I also use the original Ever Ready chargers to. The voltage of a typical D cell instead of being 1.5v with nicads it's 1.2v so there not that good in things with a high currant drain, they won't last as long, Rayovac did an Alkaline rechargeable but not tried these yet, Alkaline batteries use potassium hydroxide as the electrolyte, zinc carbons are amonium chloride, the first types were wet cells known as Leclanche, a glass jar full of amonium chloride, sal Amoniac. A pourus pot filled with manganese dioxide as a depolerizer, carbon rod positive center, negative pole was a zinc rod. Zinc carbon batteries today work on the same principle except the electrolyte is a jelly.
3….2……1 and the price has gone up.
80s isn't that long ago
So, with Brexit in law on January, 2020, I assume you don't need to be in compliance with with European standards and can go back to 240 volts, happily.
I had a Braun rechargeable electric razor. And I was impressed with its input specs: 15 to 400 volts, AC/DC.
Essentially anything but lightning.