Can a larger capacitor be used to increase the time of useful light output?
Several capacitors were studied during the development of NightStar. NightStar currently uses a 1-Farad, 5.5V capacitor. A capacitor with an energy storage capability 3 times greater than this is also available (3.3-Farad, 5.5V). However, it would require 3 times longer to fully charge this capacitor. The 3.3. farad capacitor is also larger and would increase the size of the flashlight. We concluded that 30 seconds of shaking to obtain 5 minutes of useful light would be more marketable than a larger flashlight that would require 1.5 minutes of shaking to obtain 15 minutes of useful light.
