Good, inexpensive headlamp for garage work?

[cac313]

Greeting headlampers!

After spending the last two weekends working on my motorcycle at all hours I found that I was using my flashlights a lot to see what I was doing. It really didn't fit the bill and things probably took longer than they needed to.

Sooooo, when I was at Harbor Freight today I noticed they had a couple of headlamps under $6 and I was tempted. I did refrain as I realized it would be better to get some good advice from CPF'ers first. I could use that saved $6 on a totally NEW flashlight (shhh, don't tell the wife!)

Also, when I got home I remembered that my wife had a headlamp from her pre-me, caving days. Turns out she still has a Petzl Micro that works, I popped in some new batteries and it fired right up. I was fairly unimpressesd with the light, I've got some good LED torches and they have surely spoiled me over the incan bulb that was in there.

Found some threads pointing to some drop in luxeons for about $20 which would be fine but I do think that the Micro is possibly a bit big for what I want. I do like that you can adjust from flood to spot but I just wish it was smaller.

I'd really like to find something in the 1AA category that has some good flood and is really light to wear. If runtime could be 3-4 hours that would be good too. I've got a goodly supply of Eneloops so no worries there. If I'm in the garage for longer than that I need to be whacked anyway

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Hondo]

I just ponied up the $44 (shipped) for the P4 version of the Zebralight (see nearby threads), which should be great for stuff "at arms length" with it's flood beam. If you want something closer to the Harbor Freight price, the Rayovac 1xAA light at Walmart for just under $19 is not bad, especially with the ability to throw with the optic exposed, or flood with the diffuser swung over it. Only one brightness level with the white beam, and about 2 hours on one Eneloop, and then it goes out suddenly, but after about 10 seconds you can turn back on with either the red or blue 5mm LED's at reduced brightness for a while - not a big deal in the garage.

I also like the 2xAAA River Rock headlamp, about the same size as the Rayovac, but with two levels of white light. Low is real low, and the stock beam is real blue, but I managed to put an SSC P4 emitter in mine, and now it rocks, much brighter and very warm white. These lights appear to be gone from the Target stores, but are now sold, online mostly, under the Streamlight brand as the Enduro, around the same $15 price as Target. Runtime is more like 6 hours on high, no change when I added an SSC.

Hondo

 

[cac313]

I managed to put an SSC P4 emitter in mine

How hard was the mod? Any thread or pics on that?

Thanks

 

[kitelights]

A strong second on the ROV 1AA from Walmart. At present, I don't think that it can beat for the price.

The RR used to be my favorite because of the size and weight, so I've got a couple of NIB as spares. I'll let one go if you're interested before I try the mod myself.

The ROV is easier - no hassle, but the RR will offer two levels and if you like or want the modding experience....

 

[swxb12]

The RayOVac 1xaa for <$20 at Walmart is nice, but you'll feel like you're burning through batteries like crazy. At less than 2 hours, it just stopped working on an alkaline and I had to change battery.

You'll have to bump up the budget to $40-50 range, but the ZebraLight is much more brighter and efficient (lasts a whole lot longer on a battery) and more solidly built (metal body). Can be used as a small hand-held flood light too.

Can't really go too wrong with either for basic home/auto use, imo. I'm keeping both (Zebra still on the way...)

 

[mdocod]

I think if you want to keep the budget down, go for the rayo-vac everyone is talking about. It may not have a long runtime, but considering it's only eating 1 cell at a time it's not a bad deal at all really... The flood filter on it will be perfect for closeup work.

 

[maxilux]

I think for your work you can take the Streamlight Enduro or an RiverRock.

 

[BlackDecker]

The Rayovac is far better than the River Rock 2AAA (I own both). ROV doesn't have that angry blue hotspot of the RR. Runtime is greatly improved when using Sanyo Eneloop NiMh batteries or the Rayovac Hybrid NiMh.

 

[Oddjob]

I have both the Rayovac and the ZebraLight. I think either would suit your needs. The ZebraLight is brighter, has three levels and longer runtimes and in a pinch can double as a pocket light. It is more expensive but I think it is worth it. I do not use the red or blue LED's on the Rayovac whereas having 3 levels on the ZebraLight is very handy.

 

[cac313]

Despite many suggestions for the Zebra (and it DOES look very cool) it's simply beyond my price range at this time. I really like the look and idea of it but $$$ is definitely a limiting factor.

I checked out the ROV that everyone suggested and it looks good. I am confident that should I want to try it out I can find it easily at many different stores.

In the meantime I scoured DealExtreme and found this

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1298

For $5 shipped I decided to give it a try. The design looks like EXACTLY what I had in mind from the get go. Multiple intensity/runtime options, multiple emitters for good overlap with less shadows, light and CHEAP.

I know that DX takes a long time to get here but I'm in no real hurry.

Besides, with the ROV readily available I can always pick one up if I really need to have one now. As many of you flashaholics have mentioned "if you are considering two different lights.....buy both!"

Thanks for the advice, I'll post a mini-review when the DX gets here if anyone is interested.

Craig

 

[Hondo]

How hard was the mod? Any thread or pics on that?

Thanks

The RR headlamp mod was a bit of a pain, probably not an ideal first mod, but for anyone generally handy, and half decent with a soldering iron, no real big deal. The first trick after you unscrew the bezel and remove the two screws is that to pull the board/switch assembly forward, you must depress the switch at the same time. I pulled it out by the switch body with needle nose pliers.

The next hurdle is that the 5mm LED has solder points under the LED, and the SSC has leads on the side, and a positive base. I used old trimmed 5mm LED leads tapped flat on an anvil to solder in the board holes and bend outward around where the SSC will sit. I insulated the base of the SSC with arctic alumina epoxy, plus a piece of fancy electrical tape - do not want the negative lead contacting the base of the LED!

Finally, the LED will be wedged under the switch body and above a little 5-legged component on the board. It fits, but was a bit high, so off center in the reflector. I pulled it out and dremelled a little pocket, about 1mm, in the bottom of the SSC body to let it slide down over the little component. Perfect centering!

After installing the switch/board assembly back in, I chose to omit the black plastic piece and substitute a couple of little pieces of plastic tubing as spacers under the screw heads. You could bore out the hole in the black plastic piece for the bigger emitter, too.

It is a very worthwhile result, as the RR (Enduro) light is a nice compact, long running light with dual modes, although low is REAL low and I use high most of the time. It's only fault was the nasty blue beam, which has turned many off. With one of Photonfanatic's USVOH SSC's, it is nice and warm, a smoother transition from hotspot, and overall much brighter than stock. It still only pulls about 150 mA from the batteries, so probably is driving the LED at under 100 mA. This is a good thing, since you may have noticed there is little opportunity for heat sinking in there, basically just through the leads. But at such a low drive current, it should be running plenty cool, no worse than the stock 5mm.

Whether it is worth the effort or not depends on how much you are in love with the form factor of this light. I obviously liked it a lot. I love it now.

The one thing I still like about the Rayovac 1xAA is it's ability to flip between throw and flood (and halfway between, too) with the rotating diffuser. I would like to come up with a removable diffuser for my modded RR now for up-close stuff. You should get a pretty floody beam like that with the 5mm array light you have ordered, should be good for the garage. I think I saw that same light on sale at Meijer a few weeks ago for 2 for $10, plus tax, so you got a good deal.

Hondo

 

[Windscale]

cac313,

It looks like that your kind of garage work required a simple clustered LEDs light. Some of the Chinese ones, with over 20 LEDs running on AAs or AAAs are very cheap. They would have sufficient spill for your work and their runtimes are great, even with rechargeables. Do not spend money on expensive lights unless you have to (or if you wanted to, having been infected by the CPF virus!).

 

[Marduke]

What about the energizer 6-led headlamp? has two for flood, 2 for spot (using optics) and all 4 for a mix. I also remember seeing a version somewhere that had a 1 watt Luxeon in the center for throw.
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/hdl33aod.pdf

 

[cac313]

...In the meantime I scoured DealExtreme and found this

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1298

For $5 shipped I decided to give it a try. Thanks for the advice, I'll post a mini-review when the DX gets here if anyone is interested.

Craig

I just checked the mail after getting home late and it arrived. I'll take some pics this weekend and compare it to some other common lights.

Initial impression is that it's a good deal for the money! ($5) I popped some E2 lithiums in it and turned off all the lights.
The settings are low>med>high and off. Low is the two bottom middle leds, medium is the four middle leds, high is obviously all eight leds. In my completely dark kitchen with no external lighting or moonlight even the low mode is good for close up, arms length work. It's pretty light weight and fairly comfortable.

More soon,

Cheers!

P.S looks like dealextreme is down for the moment. Weird.

 

[cat]

cac313,

It looks like that your kind of garage work required a simple clustered LEDs light. Some of the Chinese ones, with over 20 LEDs running on AAs or AAAs are very cheap. They would have sufficient spill for your work and their runtimes are great, even with rechargeables. Do not spend money on expensive lights unless you have to (or if you wanted to, having been infected by the CPF virus!).

Yes, I agree. I'd have bought one like that if I'd ever seen one in a shop, but all I'd ever seen was Energizers and Petzls. But now, having been infected, I ordered a Zebralight 2 days ago. Also for working on bikes. I know they're not in the same price range but they're still a good deal when you compare to the more expensive Petzls/etc that are still plastic and have heavy packs of batteries that would be inconvenient for the garage work.

 

[cac313]

Did a mini-review with some beamshots here

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=176775

Thanks again for the advice.:thumbsup: