Neat addition to your car

[jzmtl]

Just got a couple of these: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.22091 Look around, they have a few other colors too.

It's half the price of Spotlight brand, but I disassembled it and from what I can tell its constructin is almost identical. It basically plugs into your cig lighter socket and be forgotten till you need a light. Use a half watt emitter, 20 lumen or so. Internally it use three NiMH button cell in series, so doesn't hold much power, but should still run for an hour or two. It uses trickle charge, so will take a long time (8 hours?) to charge up, but they won't get used much anyway so won't be a problem. When charging a red LED residing next to the main LED lights up to let you know it's charging, but it's dim enough to not affect anything during night driving. The beam is not white like high powered LED, has a blueish center but not as bad as 5mm LED, should work just fine for map reading or find stuff under the seat.

For $8, it's an absolutely fantastic addition to anyone's car.

Warning on fitment, while it snaps in perfectly in my jeep, my parents' civic has a plastic guard surrond the + contact of lighter socket (intentionally to prevent cig lighter from working?) so it can't make contact without some modification, make sure yours isn't like this.

[american lockpicker]

Led Lenser also makes one of those.

[jzmtl]

Yeah I've seen those, more expensive and not as easily available thou.

By the way, if you have a charger or something that has a plug in transformer with 12v output you can charge this light that way, rig up some copper wire and electrical tape. I did it this way initially since my car isn't a daily driver.

[DaveK]

I've got one of the LED Lenser ones. It's pretty good.

[jzmtl]

I looked up led lenser on their website, they say it uses a 5mm led, so this one is probably 2 or 3 times brighter.

[I'm Still Bison]

Looks like a definite addition for the cars of several family members

[jzmtl]

Buy one first to make sure it fits, apparently late model vehicles make it intentionally that cig lighter doesn't work in the socket, thus by extension this little gadget.

[DaveK]

The LED Lenser one is sized for the newer, narrower sockets, and came with a simple adapter to fit in the old type (which I have in my car).

[jzmtl]

Huh, I actually found the newer ones are bigger and wouldn't make contact reliably. (07 honda vs. 00 jeep)

[Rodion]

Makes me want to buy a car. 

[american lockpicker]

Makes me want to buy a car. 

For what its worth I heard you get a free grey Led Lenser light when you buy a BMW...