Etón FR500 Solarlink (Black)
by Eton
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List Price: Our Price: $64.99 You Save: $35.01 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Etón FR500 Solarlink (Black)
Customer Review: Radio and lights work, but dynamo and solar do not work well
Summary: 3 Stars
the title says it all - don't expect this radio to to be ready to work without batteries around -Customer Review: Documentation and Manual useless
Summary: 2 Stars
This may be a wonderful piece of tech, but you may never know because the owner's manual and other documentation are so poor. Absolutely less than minimal instructions, in which the controls on the device do not match the illustrations. Hand crank options very disappointing. I love electronic gadgets, have had this for two weeks and still can't operate it.Customer Review: Not what i expected
Summary: 2 Stars
I returned this item because it wasn't what I expected.I had to buy a adaptor for my cell phone,the one enclosed did not fit my cell phone.The batteries also have to be replaced.Customer Review: disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought the Etón FR500 Solarlink in black from Amazon, think that it deserves demerits instead of _any_ stars, and I am writing this review minutes before returning the radio.
The instruction booklet that comes with the radio tells you to plug the rechargeable battery pack's connector into the radio, and it tells you that you must either turn the crank or expose the solar panel to sunlight to charge the battery, although any bright light will also charge the battery.
The radio's controls suffer from bad ergonomic design. For example, the band selector ring and tuning knob are mounted concentrically, but turning the knob with large fingers can easily move the selector ring because it doesn't have firm detents to make the ring stay put on the band you chose.
The booklet doesn't tell you _how_ to use radio although it tells you how to turn on the LED flashlight, the red flashing LED, the anemic siren, and the weather radio alarm. It also tells you how to set the LCD clock, the alarm, sleep, and snooze functions as well as how to turn on the LCD display's light.
To use the Etón FR500 Solarlink as a radio, you must do _two_ things: You must press the power button, _and_ you must turn the power selector knob to DYNAMO to draw power from the rechargeable battery.
As a multiband radio receiver, the Etón FR500 Solarlink is a low quality device with a low gain radio frequency amplifier and excessively wide tuning filters in the FM band. At the low end of the FM band, low power stations may all be heard simultaneously.
Across the Hudson River from New York City, with a line of sight to the Empire State Building, where most radio stations in NYC have their antennas, I was able to tune in only a few of the strongest FM stations in the middle of the band!
On the AM band, I was able to tune in only strong stations anywhere on the band. On the shortwave band, I was not able to tune in any stations. Of the seven weather band channels, only the last one was active and came in loud and clear. As the instruction booklet recommends, I used the tiny, useless, whip antenna for the FM, shortwave, and weather bands.
If you tune in a station on the low end of AM band, the radio won't retain that station's tuned frequency when you switch to another band and tune in a station at the high end of that band.
On the shortwave band, the one foot long antenna is too short to be effective, and it's very difficult to move slowly and smoothly either up or down the shortwave band because too many frequencies are covered by the tuning knob and because the tuning knob springs in the opposite direction you were turning it after you release it. You may be able to live with that lack of resolution in the AM and FM bands but not in the shortwave band.
Also, while the frequency display is digital, the tuning knob turns the controls for an analog tuning circuit. The consequence of that is poor stability and a display that shows frequency drift on the AM, FM, and shortwave bands.
A selling point of Etón radios is that they have a crank that turns a dynamo, but their advertising doesn't tell you that their dynamo doesn't have a flywheel to keep the current running after you stop turning the crank. Clearly, a crank driven dynamo with a flywheel is the only way to build this kind of radio, but to be good a flywheel would have to be heavy. Of course, a heavy flywheel would require a much sturdier case than the Etón has.
Instead, the Etón dynamo uses rechargeable batteries to store charge. Of course, rechargeable batteries may be recharged only a finite number of times before you must replace them, and they might be dead during an emergency.
As a device for emergency use, the Etón FR500 Solarlink relies completely, and to your detriment, on three, small, rechargeable batteries, and the instruction booklet helpfully informs you that you may order new batteries from Etón.
The crank is flimsy, light, plastic and looks and feels as if it may break long before you have any emergency that calls for an emergency radio that is able to run off the power grid.
Don't buy an Etón FR500 Solarlink!
Customer Review: Counter-intuitive controls, poor manual
Summary: 1 Stars
Since this is a radio designed for emergencies, chances are you won't be using this radio until you really need it. And when you really need it, you'll want to quickly and easily use the radio without fumbling through the manual.
Despite a number of enticing features, I feel the Eton Solarlink FR500 fails as an emergency radio because of its counter-intuitive, poorly-labeled controls and error-filled, unclear manual.
A number of other reviewers have already documented this radio's shortcomings in terms of controls and the manual, so I won't re-hash the same details.
If you do purchase this radio, do yourself a favor and sit down when you are not in an emergency situation and re-write the manual; re-label the button diagram, translate the errant French words into English, and remind yourself that in order to use the AM/FM/Shortwave radio, the Multifunctional Knob needs to be in the "Off" position. (And if you use the optional DC power, switch the Power Supply Knob to "Dynamo" to tap DC power)
Then hope that when emergency strikes, you haven't lost the manual and you have enough light to read it.