Tag: Flashlights

Technician Tuesday: Some last flashlight links, and then I’m done with this topic for a while.

While I was looking up flashlights and flashlight standards earlier (here and here), I found a couple of sites which have more information about flashlights and ratings.

Both seem to focus on the 2009 version of the flashlight standard. I found both to be interesting. The first is Flashlight Wiki.

And there is also LED Resource.

I have a relative who swears the new LED flashlights which use sets of AAA batteries last for a shorter amount of time than older flashlights with incandescent bulbs and C or D batteries. I haven’t done any testing on that. And I don’t know of anyone else who has done testing on this. If I find someone who did, I’ll post about it.

Technician Tuesday: About that flashlight standard.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about flashlight specifications. At the end of that post, I mentioned there was a standard for flashlights.

I was curious. I went looking for a standard described as ANSI NEMA FL 1. ANSI is the American National Standards Institute. NEMA is the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. I assume FL 1 means it was flashlight standard number one.

Searching for “flashlight” on NEMA’s site brought up the result “Flashlight Basic Performance Standard.” That link takes me to a page which says ANSI/NEMA FL 1-2009 (ID: 100237) has been rescinded and is now held and maintained by the Portable Light Trade Organization (PLATO) and is no longer for sale on the NEMA site.

(PLATO is a catchy acronym, but I’m not sure where the A comes from. There’s no “a” between the L of Light and the T of Trade.)

Now I go to PLATO’s website. This standard appears to be the only standard they issue and it’s now called the revised ANSI/PLATO FL 1 2019 standard. Their first edition of ANSI/PLATO FL 1 was released in October 2016, with a revised edition issued in 2019.

And it costs $500.

The website says it is provided free to PLATO members. The cheapest membership on their member dues page is $1,000.

I don’t know what is in that standard that it costs $500 per copy, but I hope it’s something pretty impressive. No, I am not going to buy a copy to satisfy my curiosity.

PLATO’s site includes a list of seven icons (after I scrolled down the page a bit) included in the standard for use with flashlights, and an explanation of each icon. I did find that to be useful.