Head Lamp

[CaverStretch]

Greetings all my fellow explorers,
I am going to upgrade my headlamp before the CA trip. I was curious what everyone uses and what is recomended. I am looking for something that is bright, has a battery that is on the helmet (no cord), variable power levels for brightness, and long battery life. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Robert

[UnderUtah]

Well now, as you know I have a few ! The Sten Light that is now my backup has the little rechargeable pack attached to the back of my helmet and is pretty nice on it's own, offering a number of different intensities and corresponding run times. It is waterproof, totally sealed magnetic switch, etc. but carries a hefty price tag ($300) Ouch... My first prototype is the three emitter (1 W each) unit I use as my primary. It runs on a 4C Pack I carry in a pocket (Corded) so it can be a pain... It has proven extremely reliable despite it's poor engineering and machining . Runtime is about 4 hours. Derek and I are prototyping a Sten knock-off looking prototype (two emitters) with an external rechargable pack (that would be carried remotely due to it's size.) This should produce something like 400 Lumens (Correct me Derek) and runtimes have not been determined yet. It would also have several intesnity settings. HOPING to have a unit or two cranked-out before the CA trip (We will see...!)

These other wacky kids are using Petzl Myo XP's, excellent lights with attached battery packs and all the bells and whistles. Stu has a Pan-Asian import super bright spotter from DealExtreme.com, a geat spotter light but DealExtreme still owes me a few parts backordered from over three months ago so I don't know if I am comfortable endorsing them...

[Derek]

400 lumens should be about right. Dealextreme has a lumen meter for $28 if I could bring myslef to spend that money on one and then we could measure any light and get a true reading.

[Stuart]

lights

These other wacky kids are using Petzl Myo XP's, excellent lights with attached battery packs and all the bells and whistles. Stu has a Pan-Asian import super bright spotter from DealExtreme.com, a geat spotter light.

Wacky Kid #1 right here, endorsing yet again the amazing Petzl Myo XP. I hear they are to be had for a very reasonable price now days. I do love my Pan Asian spotter, amazingly bright and it lasts a long time 1.5 hours + at 900 lumens.

Can't wait to see the prototype MiahCheever[sup:d0cb5c4c4b]TM[/sup:d0cb5c4c4b] light. Perhaps we can refine and market them to mine explorers, I know about 500 who are interested in a bright, dependable light with a long runtime and adjustable output. Who knows, those crazy cavers might be interested also.

[Mikezauner]

I'm cheap. I use an energizer LED headlamp as a main and a few mag lights strapped to the side of my helmet as secondaries/spots. All 3 have excellent run times, and I can stay in the mine for 8+ hours at a time without a battery change. (yay old school light bulbs!)

I think I spent $15 on the whole lighting rig, including the plastic zip ties used to hold the mags in place.

[Mike]

I use the Petzl Myo XP as my main, and two LED mini-Mag lights as my lighting source. Since the mini-mags are battery hogs, I use them for spots and backups. I also keep a LED light on my keyring and a full LED 2-D flashlight in my backpack in case I pull a cheeverish move and drop my helmet down a deep and endless shaft of doom.

[Mikezauner]

That's the other reason I don't own expensive hardware like that. I have yet to lose anything while exploring caves/mines/whatever.

Although, I'm sure if I had a rig like the other guys around here I'd lose it on the first outing. I'm notoriously hard on my equipment, which is why I almost always buy based on durability, not other specs.

[Jeff]

So what does the modern day hard rock mining professional use for a light source?

[rhartill]

According to this website, India miners still use carbide lamps:

http://www.jkdey.com/history.htm

MSA sells these still battery cabled headlamps,

http://media.msanet.com/NA/USA/MiningSpecialtyProducts/MiningProducts/UltralightCapLampSystem/0207-06CapLampBulletin.pdf

largely because the ALSO sell a rack charger to charge dozens (a whole work shift) at a time. This style is largely impractical for our type of mine exploration because these lights are heavy and we would like the lighter weight to allow for carrying more ore samples to the light of day.

A lot of firms out of China sell knockoffs of these MSA lamps, with a minimum order of 1000 units. If MU’ers want to go in and order a minimum lot, we’d be ready to rock and roll

[CaverStretch]

I've been looking at getting the Brunton L5 5-Watt LED Headlamp. Does anyone have one of those?


Specifications

Rechargeable Battery External 4.5Ah NiMH rechargeable battery pack

Bulb Five Watt Luxeon K2â„¢ LED

Run time Up to 50 hours on one charge

Maximum light distance 246 ft

Weather resistant Water resistant


Features Benefits

External Battery Pack with Powersave 50 hours of use and when battery power goes low, the L5 steps-down to a shorter distance output (15%) to conserve battery power.

Four light modes including emergency flash mode Adjust light for high output or conservative use or for emergency lighting

[Stuart]

That doesn't look like a bad setup Rob, the battery pack is a plus. What kind of a price tag is there on this Brunton?

According to this website, India miners still use carbide lamps

That is interesting, I love the look of a carbide lamp. I still want to buy one and give it a try. I would also love to get one of those Permissible Mine Safety lamps, I'll keep watching ebay.

As far as bulk ordering Chinese MSA knockoffs, I think everyone here has too much of a unique style to have all the same lights

[Mike Schriber]

We just switched to these headlamps by Essential Gear...

Essential Gear HeadStream Headlamp

I've used their tactical lights before and the quality has been excellent. They make a lot of OEM products for name brands. We used them on our last trip to Calico and they performed flawlessly. They are VERY bright with good beam quality. They have two brightness settings (plus flash). Another nice feature is the rear "brake" light. It's a red LED that can be set constant or to flash. It makes it easy to pick out other people in the mine. They use AA batteries which lasted the whole Calico weekend.

We'll see how they hold up in the long run but the price is right.

I can get these wholesale if anyone is interested.

Mike

[Derek]

I also have an Essential Gear Headlamp and I like it so far. http://www.essentialgear.com/store/p...-Headlamp.html

[Mike Schriber]

I was wondering about the Focus Control model. I thought about my use and I couldn't think of any times where I would actually mess with the beam width. The extra low power LED's seem nice though.

How's the beam and fill quality?

Mike

[Mikezauner]

I tweak the beam width all the time on my mags. gives me tons of capability. There's times I want to focus on one particular thing, and others I want to fill a stope with light, and others I'm in a small tunnel and dont' really need a huge wide beam.