Want a burned out flourescent tube? I've got a stack of them. My brother replaced the light that was burning out these bulbs at a "every other month" rate as opposed to the light that came with the house lasted 5 years. I replaced the ballast, but I guess it needed the transformer. Gee, the fixture was as old as WWII. So, it was BYE BYE light. Now, I have an under counter LED light with foam tape placed over the lights because they are too bright. Now, I get about the same as I got with the tubes.  Okay, that story done, what about this crap?  It's a battery powered LED reading lamp. Amazing. I did actually use this device a bit. Had it hanging over my bed. It was a big piece of okay.

See, it's mountable. It might have even been designed as a lighting system. It looks like it was meant to be slid into something. When I attached it to the head of my bed, I used tape. It takes "AAA" batteries. That shouldn't be too much of a trouble. LEDs are really efficient. This little bugger should have been as bright as the sun. It wasn't. Yes, not 4 "AAA" batteries, it only takes 3. Anyone knows with an LED flashlight, you only get peak brightness for a few hours, then you get "useable" light for the rest of the life of the batteries. Not the best for reading.

Why did I buy such a thing if I really thought it was going to be a piece of junk? Well, it was $2.00. We've got a little chain here in the Northeast called "Micro Center". It's what "Comp USA" used to be only three times as big and filled to the brim with every piece of computer related tech including televisions and cameras. They are volume volume volume. I buy from them all the time. Sure I could have save a few bucks with say my new modem box or (years ago) DVD-Rom drive or (recent) 50 CDRs or (very recent) 64G USB chips. Whatever you need, they got it. A majority of the "pieces parts" they carry are bargains. One trip, we saw a huge row of bargain "gadgets" at unbeatable prices. This was one of them. I also purchased several "recording suites" for $4 each. I don't know how good the software is, but it included a microphone and 20FT cable included was worth at least  $30. Boomer uses them for his radio studio and I have one for a backup "guest" mike. I sure thought I would get use out of this little light.

6 LED. Um... 5 LED. One of the LEDs was burned out. No worry, it was $2. I mounted it to my bed, put batteries in it, and lit it up and it worked. By gosh, it worked. The lap desk with the built in LED light that never really worked, was always loose and very hard to change the batteries on, now was a thing of the past. I had good old fashioned battery powered light to read or write while laying in bed. It worked. For about 3 months.

You see, the lights sprung out and would almost look like a cross. (It's been so long since I used this POS that I forgot it did fold out so no pic for hugh.) The head also turned to a 90 degree angle. You think that a fine piece of junk like this would last as long as the WWII era light that gave up the ghost in my kitchen. No, after a bit, it would come on and flutter and wouldn't stay in place and of course, the dimming was maddening. With no screws to tighten, I said "F- It!" and it's all idle since. I had an extra lamp leftover from the previous owners. (My house did not have lights on the ceiling except in the kitchen, so they used lots of electric lamps.) I put a CFL bulb in it. I've been well lit when reading Grateful Dead books and drinking Pabst ever since.

-Ric

P.S. I got it out of the basement and have this in use now. I recall now that I couldn't even read with this, but it does make a good keyboard light. Blue light. Whoops, the head just went down. Farging POS....