I've been taking a new interest in this subject lately- which, of course, doesn't imply any expertise.

IMHO, while I respect Peak's decision (and the reasons behind it), I think the priorities may be misplaced, and I think many may end up regretting the "feeding frenzy" going on with ARCs right now.

Like most electronics, LEDs and the flashlights that use them are improving at a rapid pace now. It's very possible that trying to preserve the LED past thousands of hours will seem pretty silly in retrospect, when the new ones are twice as bright, for the same battery life, for half the price.

After decades of neglect as a cheap throw-away item with no profit margin, flashlights have caught the imagination of both engineers and consumers now, and I expect the rate of change will shortly be approaching Moore's law. As with other things (computers, consumer electronics) that are changing at that rate, I'd advise buying exactly what you need, exactly when you need it, and not trying to anticipate needs more than a year or so into the future. As much as one might regret the loss of a good company like ARC, better products are probably right around the corner.

Advances in flashlight technology will be nothing like Moore's law. The limits on computer speed and capacity are unknown, so computers will continue to grow exponentially for awhile yet. However- there is a limit to how well a flashlight can do- 100% efficiency. That's the only number that really matters: how much light can you get out of a limited battery.

A lot of things are currently limited by our current level of battery-related technology. Cell phones, Laptops... the list goes on.

I was under the impression that Peak had been supplying parts for Arc. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

There's a review of the Peak LED Solutions AAA in Outdoor-Magazine.com.

Peak LED Solutions site:
http://www.peakledsolutions.net/index.html

Outdoor-magazine.com article:
http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_article.php?id_article=169

Bear

Well, there are several possible responses to that...

There is certainly a theoretical limit to efficiency in converting electricity to light.

I'm not at all sure that means that any current technology is anywhere near it's limit. We're going to see some pretty impressive advances in LEDs, cells, controlling circuitry etc. for a long time to come... and, I think, with increasing rapidity.

If you mean whether the technical advance is theoretically unbounded, well, maybe not... but I remember reading the indisputable (at the time) mathematical demonstration that the cube-square law prevented there from being anything like a "ray gun", as the heat generated at the source would destroy any such device long before the heat generated at the target was effective. No matter how efficient your reflectors, etc, you hit the beam-spread limitations much faster than the limitations of your materials.

That was before the laser... then we just threw out all that theory, and acted like we never thought that, just like we always do when a theoretical limit is transcended.

PL:

Certainly there will be astonishing advances in flashlight technology and I look forward to it. My point is that it can be nothing like the exponential growth in performance that computers have been enjoying for the last 50 years. Moore's law states that the speed and memory capacity of computers doubles approximately every 18 months, while the size and cost go down, and this is still holding true. My cell phone has millions of times the computation power of ENIAC, which filled a room. Comparing flashlight progress to this is ridiculous.

Hmmmmm...I'm not sure if it is kosher for me to say this on the board, but I have an extra Arc AAA that I would be willing to let go. My email is
pauldavidson@lycos.com
It is one of the last ones they made and has a Sept. inspection sticker on it.

I've been tempted by the Peak Solutions lights, but still hold a little bitterness over the way they started and what they did to Mr. Gransee.

Paul,

Email sent. Again, hoping that this is kosher with the management.

What did they do????