My other flashlight.

"1 Watt L.E.D. Upgrade & IQ Switch® Combo" by Nite Ize.I have had one of these kits installed on a Mini Mag-Light for a couple of years now and it is great! The kit includes a replacement for the bulb and a replacement for the tail-cap. Simply replace the tail-cap, reflector and the bulb. You may have to turn the new bulb if it doesn't work right the first time, as it has to go in one way only. With the new reflector, you will screw the lens assembly all the way down, it won't turn the light off as the old one would, if it does, push the new lamp in the rest of the way, that should fix it.

The new lamp will put out a nice bright spot, I have not been able to get a real intensity level published for it, but it is nice and bright. I rarely need anything brighter for day-to-day work.

The tail cap is the magic here. It has a recessed push button switch and marker light in it. The marker light flashes once every 5 seconds or so. The switch will cycle through the 5 modes if the button presses are within 2 seconds of each other, if slower, the next press will turn the light off.

• Full power - 100% - approx 7.4 hours with alkaline batteries (calculated)
• 50% power - approx 15 hours
• 25% power - approx 30 hours
• Slow strobe - approx 50 hours
• Fast strobe - approx 15 hours.

In addition the light will flash for a few seconds and go out after 14.5 minutes. I have had to replace the batteries a couple of times, each time it seems that the batteries were dying of old age rather than over use!

I had a "No roll bezel ring" (rubber ring around the bezel) but it would not stay on anymore and got lost. It wasn't much use to me anyway.

A couple of modifications I have made, one was a reflector strip around the side of the bezel, the other was to add a ring of glow in the dark material around the lens of the light. (This is not my light but another done similarly.)

Earbud and lapel mic for Motorola radio

I hate to do it this way but, this seems to be a house brand from this dealer...

I needed a personal mic/earpiece for my work radio, after a short search on Google, I found this little puppy:


"3' Coil Earbud Audio Mic for Motorola HT1000 XTS5000 HD Switch" from Valley Enterprises. It was priced reasonably at $29.95 plus S&H. This retailer was prompt and the product arrived within 3 days of my order.

The audio quality is excellent, if you have never used an air-tube earpiece, you don't know what you are missing! They are lightweight, stay in place, comfortable and help cut out extra sound from your surroundings. I have used another air-tube earpiece before for other radio work and love them. In my initial tests with this earpiece I only had to have the radio at 1/3 of the volume level I normally do with the added bonus that it sounded like the other person was talking right behind my ear. A second earpiece (mushroom) is included but not pictured, a different size and color.

The lapel mic is considerably smaller than the normal Motorola hand mic. With a 3 foot cord, there is plenty of options for where to place the mic and route the wires. In addition to the PTT on the mic there is one on the top of the radio connector, a little easier to press than the one on the side of the radio itself.

Found an I-Bot in the wild.

May I present the "I-BOT" wheelchair, designed by Dean Kamen (Better known for the Segway Scooter.)

Now, I have seen these wheelchairs before on TV and at tech demonstrations but this is the first time that I have found one "In the wild." A passenger on the Link Light Rail was using one. I would not have made note of this except that:

• He was waiting at the platform in the 2-wheel standing mode.
• He had taken the escalator to the platform level.
• He boarded the train, maneuvered through the central part (C-Section) of the passenger area.
• Remained in the standing position while the train started moving.

When the train started moving, the chair did a wonderful job of maintaining it's balance, but did have to retreat about 5 feet to recover it's 'footing.' As the train rolled away, I saw the operator lower the chair to it's low or flat setting.

This is a marvelous invention, and I was very impressed with it's ability to adapt to the moving train. It's a shame they have to be so expensive. ($26,000 at a glance.)

(Photo from "New Mobility" web site.)

Uniform shirt pockets.

Well, I finally went and did it, I made an Instructable! This one is about how I modify my uniform shirts to make the pockets more functionable for me. It involves moving the button onto the flap and tacking down the corners of the pocket. Pretty simple to do.

I hated having to button/unbutton the pockets to access my RFID and pocket computer. This keeps them both secure and accessible.

NightStick LED Flashlight

Here I will review the NightStick 1112 LED flashlight (photo from GoodMart.com.)

In my job, a reliable light is necessary, so I depend on LED light sources for their battery and bulb life. I carry 2 flashlights when I am in the field and this is the one I place in the work vest. I was attracted to the large "flood" feature for giving train signals in the dark, where the size of the light source is more important than the brightness of the spot. The brightness of the spot function was a nice surprise as I use another flashlight for that function.

The data sheet says the following about the light:

• Spot, 1 LED - 25 lumens
• Flood 12 LEDs- 24 lumens
• Battery life: (4xAAA alkaline cells)
  
• 18 Hours Spot
• 16 Hours Flood
• 8 Hours Both
• Movable/removable clip
• 6.9" long.
• 3 oz.
  

I have removed the clip from mine, it just slides on and off, and I don't trust the clip for my line of work, but it can hold the light in an appropriate manner for illuminating a clipboard from your pocket.
The design gives a good gripping surface, relatively slip free, and is not likely to roll around much. It fits in your pocket nicely due to being ovoid.
I have a slight issue with the power switch, it is difficult to actuate with the clip in place as it is under where the clip would be.

One modification I have done to this light was to place some retro-reflector in a ring on the spot end of the light, adding to the visibility.

Yech, I hate being sick...

Got sent home from work last night. The boss says I need to rest. O.K. I did. Now it's my weekend, and there is so much to do around the house I feel like I need to go back to work and get more rest.

Fed the fish in the pond, it's a 400 gallon Rubbermaid bin sunken into the ground with 17 feeder goldfish. The fish are now between 1.5 and 3 inches long. The water is kept clear with a home-brew bio-filter. (More on this later.) Having a few minutes with the fish is a happy time.

Finally saw the doc about this head cold like thing that's been hanging on for too long. I am starting to feel better already.

Winter is setting in, the trees are dumping their leaves on my bare soil that should become a lawn sometime next year. We were hoping to get all 28 yards of top soil moved around before Halloween, but that will not be happening. We have to park the cars between the piles of dirt in the parking strip, and I won't be able to get the wrought iron fence back up in time. (Well, maybe.) I wanted to get it back up and put Barbie heads on the spikes for Halloween, but my wife said NO to that idea. She does want the little tricksters to come to the door.

Wow, 3 days off in a row, whatever shall I do with myself? >;)

Just plain wrong...

Some of you may admit to knowing who R. Crumb is (Fritz The Cat, Mr. Natural, etc..)

He has released a new book, "The Book of Genisis; Illustrated by R. Crumb." Not to mention that it is rated first in 3 catagories at Amazon!

What a strange place this world has become...

Post game traffic and the ride free area.

Tonight we had a Sounders game. (Ho-ray for Soccer, Seattle has a team that doesn't suck!)

The trains (ST's Link Light Rail) can handle the loads well with one little problem:
The buses in the DSTT (Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel) are trying to collect fares from the Thousands of fans trying to get North or East after the game.

The trains do not require waiting for each person to dig out their $1.50 (or whatever the fare is now,) they just open all 8 doors and let them flood in. The buses are stuck waiting on each of 50+ people to scrounge up their fare and drop it in the box, one at a time, taking up to 4 minutes at times for a coach to fill at International District Station in the DSTT. And double that if the first coach stops at the back zone and the one behind it needs to stop at the forward zone!

I don't have a solution for this (that management would consider,) so, I guess we are stuck with it for game nights.

At least there are no more Mariners games this year.

Utility Vest

I will kick it off with a review of a vest I use all the time in the field.

This is the Mesh Concealment Tactical Vest from 5.11. Designed as a duty belt to be worn under a jacket, it works well to hold my field gear. Their literature describes its use as an emergency call out vest and I can't agree more. I am able to carry all of my duty gear in this vest including the following:

• Flashlight
• Motorola Astro radio with mic and earpiece
• Spare battery for radio
  
• 2 pair gloves
• several large zipties
• Leatherman Surge
• Wrench for cowlings
• Railroad rule book
• Train orders
• Notebook
• 1lb keys

This may not seem like much, but it adds up when you have to get in and out of a vehicle several times a day and need to have your tools handy. With the vest, I can wear it all day, keeping the weight off my neck by clipping the strap to my belt in the back. The mesh holds the load well but allows air to circulate underneath. Anyone who knows me understands that I am not that physical, but I wear the vest up and down stairs (167 feet each way) for my daily station check and it doesn't shift around much.

It is easily covered by a hazard vest or jacket.

After shift, I remove the radio from the pouch, un-clip my mic from the radio, and the whole rig gets tossed into my locker for the next day.

The vest is sold with Velcro backed pockets for:

• Radio - use for the radio.
• 2 Magazines - One holds the Leatherman, the other, zip-ties and wrench.
• Baton pouch - C-Cell or smaller flashlight. (I use the NightStick)
• Cuff pouch - Holds 2 pair thin work gloves or many latex gloves.

It has large pockets (Velcro closure) in the front that hold my rulebook, train orders and notebook. Cable routing is made easy with Velcro tabs and sleeve to hold excess wire.

After using it a while a couple of modifications have occurred to me. I purchased a couple of yards of 2" Velcro at the hobby store and covered the hook side of the side straps so that they wouldn't rub against my shirt, it was causing excessive wear, and the extra hook sections can be used to provide additional hold-downs for belt-looped carriers if you need more pockets (Like for your Nextel.) The other modification I made was to move the front cross strap to the back and use that to tie it to my belt (taking the weight off of my neck,) and use the front belt strap to connect it across the front instead of to my belt. I am a much larger person and this works better for me.

The web site lists this at $59.95 at the time of this writing, I believe it to be worth it.

(Photo is from the 5.11 web site)

Welcome

Yet another attempt to start a blog. This one should be focused mainly on my work with Seattle Central Link Light rail.

I am a Metro supervisor working for Sound Transit in Seattle, WA. I will address different aspects of my job, and interactions with the public.

I will also review products that I use in my job here. No review will be sponsored, this is just the stuff I found that works well for my job.