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The Indium, available from AngusNoble.com,
is a neat little rechargeable, six 5mm white LED torch
built into a colorful anodized aluminum body. It has
no moving parts and uses a pair of gold colored touch
sensitive contacts on the face of the torch as a switch.
The contacts detect the electrical conductivity of your
skin (called the Galvanic Effect) when you brush a finger
across them both at the same time. This allows the light
to turn on, change modes, and turn off, just like a
normal switch.
The aluminum body is in two parts and screws together
around the middle. Inside is a rechargeable lithium-ion
battery which charges with either a UK-compatible AC
adapter or, for international customers, a USB computer
port cable. Since USB ports provide the same electricity
the world around, this is an elegant solution to provide
a simple means to charge the battery no matter where
the customer resides. Of course, you then need a computer
with a USB port to charge the unit.
The Indium comes packaged in a cylindrical cardboard
tube wrapped in ample quantities of black tissue paper
for protection. A lanyard also comes with the Indium
as well as instructions on how to tie it around the
middle of the torch.
Since the Indium is basically a hockey-puck shape,
the normal rules of engagement for testing a torch don't
exactly apply. No bezel, no tailcap, etc. The LEDs sit
recessed in the face of the unit, so are protected.
The body itself is fairly sturdy, being made of aluminum
and should withstand a fair beating. It is not sealed
with o-rings or other types of gaskets, so it should
be protected from exposure to the elements.
Output can be adjusted by sequentially touching the
two contacts on the top of the unit. First mode is "high",
second is "low", and third is "blink".
The dimming for low mode is accomplished with a PWM
(pulse width modulation) circuit which causes the LEDs
to blink very rapidly to produce the illusion of dimming
to our eyes. Moving the Indium rapidly allows you to
see the flicker. The blink mode is very rapid - probably
5-6 blinks per second.
The switching mechanism is very unique as mentioned
before. No moving parts to wear out. Just tap the two
touch sensitive contacts at the same time [tap] and
on comes the light. Hmmm...no light. Let's try that
again. Just tap the two touch sensitive contacts at
the same time [tap, tap] and on comes the light....
and on [tap] comes the light [tap, tap].... and on comes
[tap, tap, tap, tap, tap]....Well, we had a few issues
with the switching mechanism. Right now it's wintertime
in our part of the country and the humidity has been
below 30%. Everything dries out. Since the pins have
to send a tiny current through your skin to detect a
touch, and since dry skin does not conduct electricity,
I can tap it all I want and it doesn't turn on. The
instructions state to give your finger a quick lick
to moisten it and the switching system will work. I
tried that and yes it does work, but since I had just
been handling another torch which was covered with silicone
grease my Indium was now on, and my tongue was well
lubricated... Ick!
As I'm sure you have figured out by now, I found the
switching mechanism to be unreliable at best. Many times,
in fact most times, when I did get it to work it would
skip the full-on mode and go directly to low or blink
which was rather irritating. In a pinch you can touch
it with something conductive like a paperclip or a coin
to activate it. Wearing gloves? Forget it, unless you
want to touch it directly to your tongue.
What I Liked: Bright, 3 modes of
operation, rechargeable, nice beam
What I Didn't Like: Not water resistant,
Switch good in theory but poor in application.
Other Things I Noticed:
Conclusions: Colorful, clever,
and very unusual, but not a serious tool. The switch
needs further work, at least as it is being produced
at the time of this review. It's really too bad, the
Indium takes advantage of some very clever innovation,
but is held back by the reliability of the switch. 2 Stars - Fair.
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