Arc AAA earpiece

[Alledges]

Took an Arc LE and LS camping in Maine. Moonless nights favored the LE. The LS brightness might have been better in mixed illumination. Had the LS on a jakstrap headband and it was great for open spaces and trails, but was blinding in camp for close up tasks and for anyone who got in it's way. The LE held in mouth and improvised "lanyard and micro-biner earring" mount worked great for two hands tasks and anything else within 50 ft.

With the rise of reasonably bright micro lights like the Arc AAA, Photon, Infinity Ultra, how about an ear mount accessory? Took the earpiece from a hands-free telephone headset (some headphones also come with earpieces) and attached LE with velcro. Very "Resistance is futile" look, but works well. Not as uncomfortable or unwieldy as headband, but LED far back over ear puts spot slightly off center. Simple velcro mount doesn't allow precise position. Seems to me this might be a viable niche for jakstrap or niteize or a CPF modder. Adjustable over ear piece with flashlight clip or velcro wrap connected via ball and socket for precise adjustment. Light, small, and hands-free.

 

[Cutter]

Ahhh....it's music to my ears when I hear that L.E.D. flashlights are getting "too bright". But then, of course, that can never happen.

 

[Darell]

A while back we were talking about making an official Arc baseball cap that would have two elastic loops on the bill for holding a couple of Arc AAAs. Dubbed the Dork Cap™, it wouldn't win any style prizes, but for functionality, it can't be beat. Puts the lights right up front where they do the most good, and they can be infinitely angled by changing the angle of the cap. Something with Velcro could be easily constructed like this.

 

[logicnerd411]

I vote for the cap!

 

[Graham]

Lest we forget...

The Dork Cap™

I should revisit this idea - I've got a few more LEs now, so I could make a Dork Cap quad version. Or even an Arc LS version!!(..and the crowd goes wild.)

The mind boggles..

Graham

 

[dilettante]

Wow! Great Idea! Three ARC AAAs are lighter (2.25 oz) and I bet brighter (especially if you had 3 LS versions) than a Petzl Tikka Headlamp. Pluse you can have one, two or three LEDs on to suit your purposes. Sure it would be more expensive than a Tikka, but it's an excuse to buy two more ARC LED lights

 

[Darell]

Now you're getting the hang of things around here dilettante! But don't think of it as an "excuse." It is more of a reason.

The beauty of Graham's design is that you can put as many on as you want, and remove as many as you want to take with you, or give to others. Can't do that with a Tikka, can ya? This way you can hand one light to your wife so she can go use the can in the middle of the night, and you're still safe from the boogie man in your tent. Plus you can swap out colors, and even use your cap as a navigation tool with a green on one side and red on the other. Just make the required airplane noises with your arms out, and you're set

 

[Graham]

Watch out, Darell. You're giving me ideas, here.

I can see strange things happening at my place on the weekend with velcro, Arc AAAs, and the Dork Cap™..

Graham

 

[Wits' End]

Dork Cap™ How do you get the Superscript TM? This is a question from a non-tech savy person.

 

[Graham]

Well, I cheated and copied and pasted it from Darells post. However, if you are using Windows, you can open the character map, which is somewhere in Accessories I think, and go through all the interesting character codes and symbols, and just copy and paste from there..

You can get all sorts of stuff this way, like these ♀♂ and these ♠♣♥♦♪♫...

Graham

 

[sunspot]

Here is another cap shot. scroll down a bit btw, I am looking for a click stop pivot thingie.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Please look at my post titled
( A New Light Project, My Dream Light )
I still think it's the best idea yet, and no one has addressed it!
Thanks

 

[hank]

I want little swivel-mounts for the Arc AAA _heads_ with the wires routed to the side or rear where the batteries can be placed counterbalancing them. Maybe the ball mounts that Berkeley Point uses can have swivel bases?

Some lightweight little ball and socket mount with a thread to accept the AAA head and a route for wiring -- snap that into a grommet on the cap or, heck, clip it to the earpieces of a decent clear pair of "safety glasses" and it'd be ideal for close up repair work.

 

[dilettante]

I ordered two more ARC AAAs. Right now I carry a Tikka plus one ARC AAA hiking, but I'm going to sew a piece of bycicle inner tube to the visor of my hiking cap so I can use three ARC AAAs in "headlamp mode" and leave the Tikka at home. As I said above, three ARCs are lighter than a Tikka and probably brighter. They're more water resistant and more reliable (triple redundancy). I can use one, two or three LEDs, give one to a buddy, etc, etc. I went with all one color (turquoise) but you could mix-and-match. Thanks for the idea