 | TMS Poloshirt winner |
10/04/08 17:33
 I just love my little wind up torches-got a Woolworths one for boat last year-the usual problem you arrive back on the boat after few winter visits-your main batteries are flat or perhaps your gas sniffer is oversensitive.Grab the emergency torch-dead as a doornail-nearest batteries in my case are thirty miles away-ouch! If you pick up a good example with a good onboard battery(and they do vary)if battery is low just open winding handle and wind for a couple minutes and problem is solved.I have no got one at home ready for the power cuts.You should be able to pick one up for well under £10-our local gift shop has some very good ones for under £5 -and here is there latest-Maplin are selling a neat little FM/am windup radio for £10 Waterproof bagged would make ideal emergency items. Phil
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Some will even charge your mobile phone in an emergency! Andrew
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I picked one up at the Outdoors Show at the NEC. Cost £9, I think. It should be able to charge a mobile phone in an emergency, but I can't get that part to work! The torch works fine though. They had cheaper ones for £5.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
17/04/08 13:34
 I found mine early this winter at the Winchester service station M3 northbound. It has a large magnet on one side making attachment to a car etc. easy, and a rotating head to the lamp to angle it in the preferred direction. All for less than £10. So, i added 5 of them to Christmas stockings and they are used, liked and praised. Got my little 12v-240v b&w tv there too and it has served me well during the winter w/e evenings onboard, for under £20.
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| Edited: 17/04/08 13:39 |
| TMS Poloshirt winner |
28/04/08 15:39
Don't trust the phone charging facilty too much. 15 minutes winding will give you about 1 minute's speaking and you get RSI or Tennis Elbow for you troubles!
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
07/05/08 10:30
 £3.50 local s/market ..... excellent job. Charges mobiles as well. I wound it up for a minute and LED's (3) max stayed on for 3.5 hrs. Ok it was probably part charged already. It is now essential part of my boat gear. Other addition - Dot-It LED stick up lights. It's now inside the entrance to my boat and is handy to switch on by pressing lens and lights steps into cabin. £4 at Homebase .... unfortunately I missed the Texaco sale of them at £2.49 .... Seems LED lights are providing all those bits and bobs that are handy - plus no wiring as all work of AA / AAA batterys for ages or have wind up capability.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
07/05/08 18:08
Wondered what those led stick up lights were like-as for wind up torch mine kept its charge all winter on boat Phil
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 I had one of the early ones that you shake back and forth. Someone put it in a cockpit locker that was 2 feet away from the autopilot's electronic compass (located inside the boat).... causing us to go around in circles as soon as the pilot was engaged. The compass-safe distance seems to be well over a metre, so now we keep a little LED head-mounted torch in the cockpit instead.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
08/05/08 18:15
 ...probably because any generator requires permant magnets to be present in it construction  W.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
09/05/08 11:32
...probably because any generator requires permant magnets to be present in it construction W.
Funny ... I put my wind-up torch next to a Compass I have on my desk at home ... Silva Tactical Compass .......... never moved a degree at all.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
09/05/08 14:05
Surely this is about shake up one being shaken in locker by boat motion!?Did read on instructions to my old Sharps autopilot not to get sensor near radio/or any power cables-min.3ft. Phil
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
09/05/08 18:55
Thats odd Nigel... my knowledge of generators is rusty but sure they work by inducing a EMF between fixed magnets? Maybe alone they are not powerful enough to make a difference untill generating power? Somewhere I have an incident report of a light aircraft having to land in a field due to fuel starvation after not being able to find their desination - due to a set of golf club apparently causing a significantly large compass error which put them miles off course. W.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
09/05/08 20:31
Compass without anything next to it. Compass with wind-up torch next to it. Compass with wind-up torch and switched on. As you can see no heading change ...
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
09/05/08 21:19
Off to play with my wind up radio now! W.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
13/05/08 09:21
We were given a wind up radio several years ago and it has been brilliant! Most do not have long wave but ours has making it even more useful. Once wound its charge actually seems to last much longer than the torches. The best wind up torches we found were only about £2.99 in local chandleries on the east coast a couple of years ago, they work with a trigger action so you can keep charging with one hand while still aiming at what you want to see.
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| TMS Poloshirt winner |
28/06/08 19:16
Well down the road and well used on board. Still working well and very pleased. Only problem is local Supermarket has stopped selling them !! Have to find another source.
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