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.