Anybody use this headlamp???

[Brian321]

Has anybody used this head lamp, Or knows somebody who has it? I want to buy it for my future caving adventures, but im not sure if its worth the money. Does anybody have any experience with it?

http://www.vipercave.com/index.php

 

[AndyStroup]

That is one beautiful light. I have not even seen this light but it does look good. I have just ordered a Lupine Betty and expect it at the end of the week or I might have got one. But is it just me, or does that lamp look an awful lot like a Scurion? The one thing about the headlamp that may or may not be a good thing is the lens. I like clear lens lights. And the brightest level of light lasts for less than two hours? Might need a little more fine tuning before it gets on a helmet of mine.

 

[capo]

You can buy this kit 701 complet from cutter(in the ende of the page). It will be the same effect like betty 14 from lupin, but twice cheaper and it looks good.

http://www.cutter.com.au/products.php?cat=Cree+XPG

 

[NYCaver]

Looks like a great light. The only thing I wonder about is the switch being on the battery pack. They claim through testing this was found to be the best but that runs contrary to every other headlamp design I've seen. I suspect that it's to reduce the depth of the lamp assembly by moving the electronics to the back. This makes sense, but would annoy me. I would find out how easy it would be to get a new battery pack in the battery case on your own if needed. If this company ever goes out of business, you don't want to be left with something that's too difficult to deal with yourself. Li-ion life is ~2-3 years if treated well. Finall, the direct competition (Scurion) has selectable beam types.

 

[gillestugan]

The switch doesn't necessarily have to be at the same place as the electronics. Just add two more threads in the cable. The switch is obviously low current as you have to unplug the batterypack to turn the lamp off completely.
And different beamshapes would have been nice...
I find it hard to believe the batteries inside the pack not to be standard cells and exchangable. Bu of course thell rather see you buy a new pack for £169.95...

 

[uk_caver]

The switch doesn't necessarily have to be at the same place as the electronics. Just add two more threads in the cable.

It seems the electronics are in the battery box, and there are connections to the headset for
Main LED power
Battery indicator LED
Thermal sensor.

As someone suggested here:
http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php/topic,8806.0.html
80lm for an 'extra low' power setting seems pretty excessive.
Maybe OK for a MTB light (which I understand the manufacturers also make), but for a caving light?

Personally, inspired by discussion on one of the Zebralight threads, I spent a few hours last week adding an ultralow setting to the driver firmware for my caving light, and that was because I thought that with LEDs having advanced from the early 20lm/W luxeons I started with, having had my low power setting creep up from 2-3lm to 10-12lm over the years, it was time I stuck a proper moon mode back in.

But then I guess that not running at 800lm at full power, I do have some dark adaptation, so I can still see adequately with a handful of lumens.