Black Diamond Moonlight

D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
yup...Black Diamond makes what some consider the toughest, best designed equipment around for mountain climbers...I ordered the light but it is back ordered several weeks...I expect it to excel in ergonomics and reliability...will keep you posted...
cool.gif
 

RonM

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 10, 2000
Messages
1,164
Location
NJ, USA
At $27.50 that's one great deal.

I love my LED flashlights, but for the most part I feel they are overpriced. Probably because of the lack of true mass production. The Brinkman is one of the only LED flashlights that shows what the pricing can be like from larger production runs.
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
haven't seen a brinkmann long-life led at "my" wal-mart in 2 months! seen some cheap looking incandescant headlamps though. like most "new" technology, i'm also looking for lower prices due to mass production. with reasonable quality of course.
 

Free

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
612
Location
Arizona
Well, I just recieved my Black Diamond Moonlight Headlamp and it is COOL!
shocked.gif


It is small and light weight (90g) and has 4 led's in a linear array. The leds are exposed with a curved housing around them as a reflector.

The head band is nicely balanced with the 3 AAA battery pack on the rear and the lights on the front with a simple push button on/off switch under the housing.

This is a bright headlamp! I compared it to my Petzl 7 led head lamp and it is brighter and a bit whiter. The led's must be over driven in this thing because it is almost as bright as my Trek 7!!!

Useable light is rated at 70 hours which is phenomenal considering how bright this thing is.

The only downside to this light is that it does not appear to be entirely water proof and the led's are rather vulnerable. Other than that it is fantastic!!

grin.gif
grin.gif
grin.gif
 

Free

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
612
Location
Arizona
I just compared it to the EternaLight Ergo Marine and I would say this is the closest comparison in light quality and output. The Black Diamond may be just a hair brighter but that may be because my batteries in the Ergo aren't fresh.

The shape of the beam is the same due to the same layout and number of bulbs.

The Black Diamond is far easier to use since it doesn't have all of the fancy modes and the led's don't start shutting down one by one like the Ergo.
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
I got mine the other day too, been waiting since March. Although at first it was advertised to come with a switch that selected the number of LEDs in use, the actual light is only on or off...I hear they had a problem with the selectable switch, so it was abandoned it in favor of reliability..it's bright alright, and only 3.2 ozs...
 

Free

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
612
Location
Arizona
I wonder if the 70 hrs of usable light claim was based on the selective switch plan. It seems a bit far fetched for all 4 led's running as bright as they are?
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
yessir. What's the amphourage of a triple a? I assume the batteries are in series, I'll check and measure the Moonlight's milliamperage consumption this eve...
 

Free

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
612
Location
Arizona
I just checked the catalog page on the Moonlight again and it lists it at 140 hour burn time. The package insert that came with the light states 70 hours so perhaps this number is accurate for all 4Leds.

It is hard to believe though because this thing is so damn bright!!
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
well, I measured the current between a battery and a contact, and got 143 milliamps (with all 4 LEDs burning of course), that would be 35.75 ma per LED, (the upper safe limit of LED burnage, for longest bulb life, right?) So 70 hours x 143ma = 10,010 mah or 10.01 amp hours -- er, I don't think a triple A has anywhere near this capacity...
rolleyes.gif
confused.gif
 

Free

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
612
Location
Arizona
What is the capacity of a AAA and what sort of run time can we calculate??
 
Joined
Mar 15, 2001
Messages
598
Location
Ohio
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ted the Led:
well, I measured the current between a battery and a contact, and got 143 milliamps (with all 4 LEDs burning of course), that would be 47.6 ma per LED, (the upper safe limit of LED burnage, for longest bulb life, right?) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Um... er... I hate to kibitz, but...
143/ 4 = 35.75 mA (say 36 mA)
grin.gif


Now, on the practical side... if that's 4.5 v dropped across an LED (or, 4 in // -- same thing) then I'm thinking that it would be a heck of a LOT more over-driven...
 

Free

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
Messages
612
Location
Arizona
8Hrs per AAA so that would actually make 24 hrs of light since there are three of them.

Closer but still not 70 hrs and certainly not 140 hours. Why would they claim that much "useable" light??
 

sodakar

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 9, 2001
Messages
153
Man, at $28, it's a better deal than purchasing a Petzl Tikka locally (retail $35).

Anyhow, with the Tikka, you only get 20 hours of full-brightness intensity, and after that, you get a reduced brightness up to the 150th hour.

I suspect this is probably the same issue with this light.
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> Originally posted by Marcus: Um... er... I hate to kibitz, but...
143/ 4 = 35.75 mA (say 36 mA) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks Marcus...and I used a calculator too...you know "doh" is now in the Oxford dictionary...(but according to Homer, it is spelled "d'oh"...with an apostrophe) I can't divide, but I can (try to) spell.
grin.gif

Luckily this bulletin board has editing...
smile.gif

Are you saying 36 ma is overdriving?
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
DRIVE them doggies!

"Are you saying 36 mA is over driving?"

Er... no. Not compared to some of the stuff I've seen. Unfortunately, the one thing I haven't seen in a while are the specs to the 5600 mcd LED. All I DO know is that it is "normally" rated at 20 mA. Oh, and at 3.6v. If the voltage goes up, so does the current. What I AM (er, was) saying was (er, is) that dropping 4.5 v across one of the LEDs (or 4 in //, same thing) is probably going to shorten the life considerably. Possibly to under a few seconds. ;-)

I had originally written a long, rambling treatise about the current capacity inherent in a standard AAA battery, and alternate ways of looking at the time that would be available vs the current that would be consumed, etc... but I was really, really tired, and I couldn't read it. So I just ditched it and commented on what the real value of 143/4 is.
grin.gif


From a supply-side standpoint, there is only so much power available from the AAA batteries, which is 1.5v x 1150 mAh = 1725 mWh. Stack three of them, and you get 5175 mWh. Means, 5 watts for an hour, or 1 watt for 5 hours, or .5 W for 10 hours, etc. That's a convenient fib, it's not quite like that in reality, but close enough for design work.

An LED in the "normal" "on" state, baised at 3.6v @ 20mA takes 72 mW. In theory, that 5 Wh would give us... 5175/72 = 71.875 hours. THIS makes me think that the time they're quoting is for a single LED, and probably biased low... maybe like the Infinity. IF they could deliver 72 mW for 70 hours, that would require almost 100% effiency, which I don't see in any device, much less a $27-$37 device, so that makes me think that they may start out w/ it biased fully into its "ON" state, that bias slips until it starts looking less like a LW4000 and more like the Infinity. (Grin... just got the 4000)

It might start out sucking 20, 30 or even 40 mA... Drinking 72 mW or 120 or 150 mW -- depending upon where they bias it to start with, and wind up just glowing, maybe a just a few millamps.

As the batteries are used, and the capacity drops, so do the battery voltage levels, and, if they're using passive/linear regulators, so might the LED voltage levels and/ or the current levels. It might last x hours in an over-driven state, then y hours in a "driven" state, and z hours JUST driven, etc... until you have that friendly glow that is just there... enough to read by, because it's close up, or maybe enough to search your backpack or tent with, but not enough to do hiking or even quick movement in the dark. But, as that glow goes, so do the power requirements, meaning that remaining power will last that much longer.

Man... I'm tired again... I had tables and graphs and metaphors... and at one point, I fed them all to the dog, and I think I'll go play Nintendo for a little while until I can sleep. Yawn...

If it didn't make sense, I don't doubt/blame... let me know and I'll try a forward tuck and roll and see what we come up with.
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
Doh or D'oh...
I should have just left well enough alone. Anyway, I note that the version for sale through mgear looks like it was the original model -- discontinued because of switch problems? All of the other placed I've seen the Moonlight, had it for $35-$37, which makes me think this is a close out. As an un-needed aside, one of the places had a "Sale" page... everything must go. They had a Sweetwater Guardian Microfilter. Normally $50.00, now on sale for $49.95. Makes me have to wonder... then I wonder why wonder. Night all.
 
Top