LED Head Torches

[moz]

My head torch finally got to the point where I decided to replace it. this is annoying, because it's only on its third set of batteries - but it's a cheap LED Petzl, and the switch is one of those annoying slide ones and it's failed. The rest of the torch is fine, it's only a couple of years old. But a set of batteries is good for about 150 hours of use, and I only use it for half an hour at a time, so the switch gets hammered. So my advice is only to buy led torches that have nice rugged push buttons to turn them on and off.

Looking at Flashlight Reviews site is a bit scary. There are good head torches, cheap ones, and there's the Petzl Myo. The only major downfall of that light is that it's unregulated, so the output falls off quickly as the battery voltage drops. But the competition is 4x the cost ($OZ130 delivered vs nearly $OZ500) even if it is a much better product. So I bought the Petzl model that has a detachable battery pack and built a 4-cell pack. I get about the same voltage from four rechargeable cells as 3 brand new disposable cells, only they sit on that voltage for 80% of their discharge capacity.

Playing with it I'm really impressed - the 3W LED gives ample light for wandering around in the dark, and on full power with the diffuser on it's enough to see the dark spots when digging around my bag under street lights. The technology has come a long way since I bought my last one

Testing this give me exposures of 1/3s, f/2.8, 800ISO, 85mm at 5m. That's just using the torch. And I could focus in pitch darkness at 10m (our hallway is 10m long). The expensive model has twice the power output, so hopefully ~1/6s under the same conditions. But significantly more expensive (also more waterproof and with a much better battery life).

[Glen]

Hi Moz,

Which unit did you buy?

Petzl make some great units, I am going to buy one myself soon. One thing you might want to do, if you are electrically inclined, is change the LED.

Doug at Flashlight Reviews semi retired this year and has only done a few select reviews since. If you look at the reviews they are all of the new Cree or Seoul LED which came out at the end of last year. Petzl tend to use std LEDs (multiples with low output) or Luxeons which put out about 80 lumens. Since December of last year Cree and Seoul hit the market, they provide about 130-140 lumens for exactly the same power input as the Luxeon. So you can have twice as bright or twice the runtime! Definitely worth the change, a Seoul will fit into a Luxeon heatsink.

Great review, Thanks Moz

[Killakoala]

Both of my Maglights have single LEDs in them. They are much more powerful than the globes they replaced.

LED lights rock

[Paul]

LED lights rock

They also blinded the shit out of me tonight in Hornsby at a set of traffic lights that were updated..

[moz]

Sorry, Petzl Myo Belt XP

$130 delivered from Wellington Surplus. The belt model has a plug between the battery and the torch, letting me play with the power supply more easily.

Glen, I dunno how keen I am to open it up and replace the LED. It's held together by some ugly security-screw plastic pivots and 4 tiny star-head screws. Taking it apart could be tricky. The left hand shot (click for bigger) shows the pivot screws.

Here's my contribution - a pretty standard power plug with a 4-AA battery holder. I couldn't get solder to stick to the (chromed?) battery terminals, even with scratching the surface up, so I soldered on my own leads and cut the supplied ones short because they're very fine wire and this light can draw nearly an amp peak (in theory). I added some holes to take the cable ties in an attempt to get a bit of strain relief.

I'm going to whack the meter on it soon and see how much current it draws, but for now I'm happy that 3 brand new Duracells gave me 5.1V and the 4 2AH NiMH AA's gave 5.3V open circuit. I just need to find my fake AA for measuring current...

I have been building my own bike lights (or improving commercial ones) and that has big trade-offs in terms of reliability, and the worst part is that until I've made the mods I don't know what the finished reliability will be like. My Jaycar giant rear bike lights that I just swap 5mm LEDs in are more than twice as bright for the same power, but reliability is unaffected. But the 3W LED hack from a flashlight didn't last long, and my older halogen lights were quite erratic in that respect. But the 5W Luxeon running off a (rectified) 500mA dynamo has ~500 hours on it now.

[binky]

I have a black Diamond Vectra IQ that has both a Xenon bulb & a set of 3 leds as well. Very happy with it.

[Glen]

It does look difficult Moz, no need to wreck something working perfectly.

Killa, the improvement is amazing in the Mag's with LED, and that is Luxeon.

[jberth1]

I picked up a Petzl Tikka XP a while back and couldn't be more happy with it. I was after one without the battery pack on the back of the headstrap, so when laying on my back (like under a car or in a tent etc) the battery pack wasn't on the back of my head.

It's a 1 Watt LED (rated at 40 lumens) with 3 'power' levels, plus a 20sec boost setting. The switches are push buttons, it has a wide angle lense which slides across for close use (such as reading) and takes 3 AAA batteries so it's nice and light for walking distances. It also tilts down for when you might be cooking (or even washing up....)..oh yeah - it also warns you when the batteries are running down. It also has a strobe mode for use as a warning light. It weighs 95 grams so you really don't notice that it's on your head.

It cost me US$36 (new) plus US$9 delivered from an eBay seller called 'gotyourgear' - great service, great communication, and speedy delivery. For the price I think it's amazing.

Here's a review at Flashlight reviews I just noticed...I wish I'd known about that sight before....would have saved me a heap of time.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/review ... kka_xp.htm

Highly recommended !

Cheers

Justin

[binky]

 BTW, Kathmandu still has their easter special on and their Kathmandu branded headtorches are 50% off. Not sure how robust their construction is compared to the Petzels though.

May be worthwhile to have a look?

[moz]

bike lights... big trade-offs in terms of reliability... My Jaycar giant rear bike lights that I just swap 5mm LEDs in are more than twice as bright for the same power, but reliability is unaffected

I just gotta open my big mouth, don't I?

Coming home today I noticed that my rear light was blinking somewhat sadly, as though the batteries were flat. When I bent down to turn it off... bad smells.
(Click for big)

Looks as though the drive transistor (located way off the right of the first image) failed short circuit, and tried to take out the driving electronics. Not sure whether the black skirty bits on the transistor are manufacturing debris or melted bits.

But the "good" news is that this was my control light, the one I didn't modify. The bad news... Jaycar don't stock them any more, and the US sites that do want $US50 or so. I can get more light out of a 1W red LED these days, so now I have to come up with another plan.

[photoham]

I bought a kathmandu head torch for my daughter last year - was pretty good with 3 LEDs and a xenon globe as well. It's quite well made and pretty good value @ about $40, when on special as mentioned by binky. BTW the sale ends this Sunday.

[binky]

For those looking for a new headtorch ....

Anaconda is having 20% off all their in-store products today ...
So a petzel TacTikka plus is about $70.

They have black diamond, princetontec as well.

Discount is only on today (18th April) though.
web address is http://www.anaconda.com.au/