Lowes 170 lumen headlamp

[rickypanecatyl]

I ran into lowes tonight about 5 minutes before closing and saw a cool headlamp (coast brand I think). It was on sale from 59 down to 49 bucks and had the coolest looking "reostat" level to control the brightness. It claimed 170 lumens though it didn't seem that bright in the store. Batteries could have been dead though.

Anyone have this lightj and what do you think of it?

ricky

[jimbosan72]

Did you happen to notice battery size?

[J_C]

Was it Coast H7 http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...29-TT7497CP-P2
but with an updated bin LED to account for the 30 lumen difference?

Coast product page, http://www.coastportland.com/display...8%BF&mastCat=5

Other places like Amazon have it for less, $44 w/free S/H, but @ 150 lumens rating. If all new stock is now 170 lumens, it becomes a matter of who has old stock still.

[rickypanecatyl]

Yes that is the one - just that it advertised 170 lumens. It runs on 3 AAA's. The package was unique/kind of cool in that you could
1. turn it on
2. Access the focusing button
3. Use the dimmer switch

It all seemed amazingling simple/logical. At full brightness I didn't think it was any brighter than a 2 AA Maglight with led, but, I can't imagine the batteries were very strong with it being out where everyone could (and probably would) play with it.

[Neondiod]

Ha!
I just bought another version of this lamp (no name brand) yesterday cause I was bored (LED shoppaholic warning?). It cost 79 Skr wich is about 10 US dollars. The package just says 1 W, no lumen numbers. It has no focusing ability and just one button. But the casing just look the same.

I like this little light, it is small, light weight and has a nice tint. It is as bright as a 1 W Luxeon I think and the beam has a decent spill with a added little reading beam built in. The power is set by pwm (looks like 200-300 hz) and located at the battery compartment. Brigness is set in three steps by pusching the button to 100%, 75% and 50% the brightness steps is hardly notacible from each other. There is also a blinking mode. The battery time with alkalines is claimed to be 12 hours on 100% brightness and double that on 50%. On the back of the LED there is a flat metall plate, it gets only luke warm when run on 100% for about half an hour.
BR

[J_C]

The problem I have with it is the apparent rheostat dimmer control, having more power loss through resistive current limiting to end up with longer runtime seems a bad tradeoff. Otherwise I'm glad to see yet another entry in the retail store sector.

[electrothump]

I think the H7 is a great light. I have two of them. How does everyone else, (that actually own the light) like theirs?

[dla]

I hate to play captain obvious here, but just how long do you think 3xAAA's is going to provide 170lumens? About 60 seconds?

[Hacken]

a lot of Coast products over @ Lowes