While out in SanXia, a suburb of Taipei, we stopped at a "dollar store". A US dollar would be about NT$30 (30 New Taiwanese Dollars). But although everything was cheap, the prices might range from NT$10 to maybe NT$200. While there, I bought 3 of these LED lights for NT$30 each.
Here's a movie of it working, the intense light overwhelms my camera movie mode.
How can such a small cheap package put out so much multicolored light? The magic of LEDs. So I started taking it apart. The first pass gives us:
The plastic covering just reflects the light, the metal case is just for the key chain ring. The innards are in the middle. Another iteration, gives us:
Another plastic casing, a push button switch(some extra), 3 button batteries in series(so it operates at 4.5V), and one LED. Nothing special yet except for the switch extra:
A push button needs a spring, but the sequencing and control is in the "extra" black piece. I'll explore that part next time.
Great light! I myself have gotten hooked on the little flashlights from Harbor Freight. They are free with a coupon and even come with batteries. They come from China, of course.
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