Eveready \"Essentials\" LED headlamp
I'd wanted a headlamp for a while and saw this thing for around $12.50 at an industrial electronics store. It might be in the $10 range at someplace like Walmart; I don't know. It runs on three AAA's and is about the size of a PT Aurora, but no fancy electronic switching or microcontroller (I like things simple).
It has two white LED's under molded acrylic focusing optics, surrounding an unfocused red LED. There's a three position switch on top so you can select between using the two white LED's, turning off the light (center position), or using the red LED. The LED holding assembly swivels up and down through a useful range. The presence of the red LED is also a nice touch, for night vision, less-obtrusive use, etc.
Construction quality is ok, not the greatest. It doesn't seem very waterproof, but neither does the Aurora. There's an Aurora-like fabric headband and a rubber forehead pad on the back of the light. You do notice the weight after a while, but it's about as comfortable as you can hope for from a thing like this.
My main gripe is that its optics focus the beam a little too narrowly for my preference. It makes a sharply defined circular disc of light on the wall, maybe 2 feet in diameter at 5 feet from the wall? It's narrow enough that it doesn't cover the whole page when you try reading a large book at normal reading distance, so you have to keep turning your head as you read instead of just moving your eyes. There's a weird, lumpy spill pattern around the disc created by the lenses, that's ok for walking around, not so great for trying to see what you're doing fixing something.
One other gripe: the included elastic headband is a bit short, so even adjusted to its longest setting it's still a little bit on the tight side for me. It's ok since I expect to wear it just a few minutes at a time, but I wouldn't want to wear it continuously on a long caving expedition or anything like that.
Overall this thing is a reasonable value for the money and I'm happy with it given my very infrequent need for a headlamp, but if I were doing it over I might have spent a few more bucks and gotten an Aurora and relied on a handheld light (Photon or whatever) when I want a red LED.
I'd wanted a headlamp for a while and saw this thing for around $12.50 at an industrial electronics store. It might be in the $10 range at someplace like Walmart; I don't know. It runs on three AAA's and is about the size of a PT Aurora, but no fancy electronic switching or microcontroller (I like things simple).
It has two white LED's under molded acrylic focusing optics, surrounding an unfocused red LED. There's a three position switch on top so you can select between using the two white LED's, turning off the light (center position), or using the red LED. The LED holding assembly swivels up and down through a useful range. The presence of the red LED is also a nice touch, for night vision, less-obtrusive use, etc.
Construction quality is ok, not the greatest. It doesn't seem very waterproof, but neither does the Aurora. There's an Aurora-like fabric headband and a rubber forehead pad on the back of the light. You do notice the weight after a while, but it's about as comfortable as you can hope for from a thing like this.
My main gripe is that its optics focus the beam a little too narrowly for my preference. It makes a sharply defined circular disc of light on the wall, maybe 2 feet in diameter at 5 feet from the wall? It's narrow enough that it doesn't cover the whole page when you try reading a large book at normal reading distance, so you have to keep turning your head as you read instead of just moving your eyes. There's a weird, lumpy spill pattern around the disc created by the lenses, that's ok for walking around, not so great for trying to see what you're doing fixing something.
One other gripe: the included elastic headband is a bit short, so even adjusted to its longest setting it's still a little bit on the tight side for me. It's ok since I expect to wear it just a few minutes at a time, but I wouldn't want to wear it continuously on a long caving expedition or anything like that.
Overall this thing is a reasonable value for the money and I'm happy with it given my very infrequent need for a headlamp, but if I were doing it over I might have spent a few more bucks and gotten an Aurora and relied on a handheld light (Photon or whatever) when I want a red LED.
