Random Stuff from Dealextreme

Hello again!  Yes, I know it's been a while since I last posted.  Unfortunately there's been a bit stuff going on in life, so the blog has been put on hold for a few months.  I thought I'd breathe some life into this blog with a couple of posts on some small cheapo gadgets I found interesting from Dealextreme.


Glass/Screen cleaner with Keychain Attachment

When I saw this on the dealextreme website, I thought it looked interesting.  I was planning on attaching it to my phone and using it to clean and wipe down the screen when necessary (glossy touch screen smartphones always seem to pick up alot of finger prints!)

 The screen cleaner is pretty small; with the circular portion measuring ~27mm in diameter.  On one side is a plastic covering which says ezyflash (I have no idea what that is?!).  The other side is felt-like surface that is actually used to clean the screen.  Extending from the circular portion is a small strap that can be used to attach the screen cleaner to your keychain or phone.

Felt-side of the cleaner is used to wipe the screen

Unfortunately in practice I'm finding the screen cleaner a little lacking.  It does okay in removing dust and gross deposits from small LCD screens such as those found on your phone or camera.  However, it doesn't do a very good job of removing oily deposits.  Instead of lifting up the oily residue, it just smears it around.  If you need to remove oily residue and fingerprints, I'd suggest using a microfibre cloth.  I find this microfibre cloth to work well, however it is a little more expensive.

Link: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/screen-and-glass-cleaning-keychain-25462


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Keychain Dynamo Flashlight with 2 LEDs

I like the idea of having a keychain flashlight that can be manually charged by winding the handle.  Hopefully this means you will never have to worry about the flashlight running out of batteries. 

 
This keychain dynamo flashlight measures ~42mm x 32mm x 13mm.  On one side of the body is a button that is used to turn the flashlight light on/off.  On the other side is a wind-up handle that can be retracted in or folded out.

Handle can be folded out or retracted

 The body is made from plastic and to be honest feels a little toy-like.  Its sort of fun winding up the handle to charge the battery, however care needs to be taken not the use too much force.  I was a little over vigorous and I believe the internal cogs lost traction with each other.  I took it part and had a little fiddle to realign the gears.  Here's a photo I took after I opened up the flashlight:

 
This keychain flashlight has 2 LEDs.  The beam is fairly floody and has a blue/purplish tint (which is typical for this sort of LED).  The output is not particularly bright and I estimate it would only be around 2-4 lumens.  When fully charged the light is brighter, however with usage the output drops quite quickly.

Overall, I would consider this dynamo keychain flashlight a cool toy to have, but I would not rely on it for important usage. 

Link:  http://www.dealextreme.com/p/2-led-white-light-hand-crank-dynamo-flashlight-with-keychain-random-color-20ma-nimh-118732