Discussion: Headlamp experiments

I know several of us has modded old headlamps, swapped LEDs or made DIY lamps. To make them more suitalble for orienteering, AR, rogaining, training etc. Let's post here some detaisl of these projects as examples for others. I start with these two.

Headlamp 1, "RR":

I bought $45 flashlight. At first I replaced battery with a piece of wood with wires in the ends to be able to use external nimh battery pack. I mounted it on my old orienteering headlamp's band and did some test runs.


Beam pattern was ok, so I wen ton. I cut flashlight in half, replaced controller with two drivers. 2.8A one and 2 mode one 1a/150A (~ $10). So I got 4 modes: 150ma, 1A, 2.8A and 3.8A (low/med/high/turbo). I also later replaced led with best bin availble ($22) to get most out of it. It should give 800-900 lumens at 2.8A. And I also replaced all wires. The weight is about 220g without battery.

Here is some images:



Sisde by side with Wilma.




Beam shot comparison, from left wilma, The Rabbit Roaster, 20W halogen.


At first I used 5ah li-ion battery (~150g), but recently I have been using nimh ones just for savety reasons. I keep it in back pocket of my O pants, I don't mind having to carry 80g extra weight there to make sure by butt will not explode if I fell on my back. Also li-ion wasn't able to keep voltage hight enough for staying in 2.8A regulation more then 50 minutes. 4.8 NIMH can do it easily and also "turbo" mode can be used.

A video, the lamp in use, taken with Nikon P1 digital camera (not a video camera) duct taped on the band.
http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...

The Hattivatti Headlamp:

After swapping D bin P7 to RR headlamp I had one extra P7 led to play with. So I decided to do a low power trail running headlamp/bike combi light. I don't always need full power of my current headlamp, I can do just fine with lower output if I don't go off trail too much. Some details:

- SSC P7, C bin
- 2.6 cm diamater OP reflector
- 2 mode 1A/150 mA driver. Same as in RR. Led is under driven on purpose.
- 3x AAA battery pack. Sometimes 3 or 4x AAA. Or GPS a logger using it's 1700 mah battery. So this is kind of bluetooth GPS logger headlamp with integrated charger :)
- output guestimates: high 320-350 lumens (looks about same as 20W halogen), low ~50 lumens.
- burning time high 2h15min on regulation, low 15h+ (3xAA)
- weight 173 gramms 3xAA, less with other battery optons.
- head band is taken from old Silva M1
- lamp head is easily removed from the band and mounted to bike handlebar.

Some images:









Size comparison, from bottom Petzl Tikka Plus, Hattivatti, RR

Dang, that rabbit roaster is bright!

The trail looks like it is lit up by the spotlight from a prison guard tower.

meh, just get ay-ups

http://www.ayup.com.au/

Note, RR is not an overkill light. Top teams are using Lupine Betty (1500 lumens, 865 eur), Wilma (900 lumens, 500 eur) or Mila Nova (2000 lumens?, 450 eur). Some are using Pezl ultra or 1000+ lumen HIDs and some have bought now iBlaast II. In the front row of Tiomila 2008 start line there was only couple of 20W halogens. In the back row almost all were halogens. RR is just about average light.

I think our club members has used about 4000 eur for headlamps during last year or two, several of us has bought Wilma, including me. This experiment was just finding out is there a cheaper alternative and how hard way it is to go.

Making RR costs less than 100 eur (lamp, wires, drivers, thermal adhesive, battery & charger etc. without the priceless retro headband). Hattivatti one was made of left over parts, I guess making one would cost about 40 eur. But it is just a trail jogging lamp., not a O light.

Bomb, Ay-Up is a one of the nicest lights there is but getting those is not much of a choice here really. You would need five of them to get the same output as Lupine Betty, the one most top teams are using at the moment. Maybe you would do just fine with 2 or 3 dual ay-ups, but It would weight and cost quite a bit too.

This change hapenned about two years ago when HID and LED tech made the old 20W limit rule obsolete and the O federation of Sweden removed the 20W restriction.

Here is a nice youtube video of the 10mila start. Yellow ones are old halogens, no many of them in the first row. You may also be able to compare beams on ground right after the start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACRW7e4l9z0

orienteers are geeks

2000 Lumen? Ah yes, it's so much easier to see the control when it not only reflects from 1km away, but also bursts into flames.

Actually, I've found that, while more lumens is almost always better during the leg, when taking the control, a little less light is better. At that point, you should be pretty confident of your position, so there's no need for long-range vision. It's easier to see the reflector if there's less background light. I'll often switch off my main light as I enter the circle and just use my 3W LED to spot the control.

"Bursts into flames"--classic!!

Flaming controls, makes 'em much easier to find.

Maybe I missed something, but can you translate this ?
"- SSC P7, C bin
- 2.6 cm diamater OP reflector
- 2 mode 1A/150 mA driver."
Where do you get this parts? One of the things I've had trouble with is the headband. Something from something other than another headlamp.
Here is one for bikes:
http://www.instructables.com/id/High_power_LED_bik...

I'd like to build a light, the technology changes so fast, and I'm so slow. I have some 20W halogen bulbs and Gel-acid batteries waiting in my basement. Probably should toss them.

I have a few headbands from face shields (the ones used for shielding your face during grinding operations).

The headband suspension from a hard hat usually has a kink in the ring, and some other stuff that requires modification before use.

The face shield headbands already have a little point to attach stuff on either side, and some of them aren't too expensive.

Yes, the technology has been changing so fast that even professional development teams have a hard time keeping up. The Petzl Ultra is an ergonomically sweet device, but doesn't put out as much light as is technologically possible, and it only made it to the market this summer. I'm not sure that they quite fixed the low-battery fallback mode, either.

One thing about buying a face shield. Sometimes they sell the headband mechanism separate from the clear sheet of plastic. One of the links I was just looking appeared to have a full-up face shield for $2.49. For something that cheap, I'd definitely e-mail or call them to verify you're getting the head band part.

Also, there are two kinds. One type, which is cheaper, requires you to fuss with little plastic nubs and holes to adjust it. The other type has a knob on the back and lets you adjust the length quickly and easily, although it's a little heavier.

I always buy the knob (ratchet) type. If you look at Jagge's photos, you can see the knob opposite the lamp, so that seems to be the way to go.

I got a Night Rider headband on eBay fairly cheap.
It holds my NightLightning LED and my other Niterider halogen lights too, if I ever use them again.

Transaltions? Well, I guess P7 was this one.
Reflector isn't this one but quite similar (mine is from a drop in for a flashlight)

And the 1a/150ma regulator I used in both lamps.

And the bigger lamp, this is the flashlight I started with. It's reflector gives pretty nice beam pattern. The 2.8A regulator of he bigger lamp.

The headband of my old lamp is similar to those face shield ones. But i am not sure does it relly has to be so heavy and beefy. I used it just because I had it around.

I recently built a 35W HID headlamp system, based on a design by Peter Lofas (http://www.lofas.se/tester/lamptest.html). Light output is 3,200 lumens. I'm using a 6.4 Ah lithium polymer battery, which I get about 2 hours out of.

Pretty easy to build, getting the right reflector is the hardest part. Total cost was about $350US, ($200 for battery/charger, $75 for bulb/ballast, $30 for reflector, plus headpiece and harness). There's some extra weight due to the need for a digital ballast, but the light output is quite nice.