Hurricane first impressions

NoFair

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 22, 2004
Messages
1,556
Location
Norway
Got a new headlamp from Little Monkey in the UK http://littlemonkeycaving.co.uk/hurricane.aspx.



Specs (just half the runtimes since this is for the single XP-G Littlemonkey)

http://littlemonkeycaving.co.uk/techspec.aspx



More info: http://littlemonkeycaving.co.uk/instructions.aspx



The model is the Hurricane and it puts out about 700 lumens on high. It is also completely waterproof and very sturdy (aluminum housing).



The headlamp is made for caving and is made for helmet mounting so I made the headstrap below for use when skiing/hiking. Both Silva/Brunton and Petzl make straps that would work fine with it.



One XP-G has an optic and produces a beam very much like the PT Apex just brighter. The other is all flood and is mounted further forward in the light. The combined beam gives a wonderful combination of a Zebralights flood and an Apex' throw. Low is very usable outside, medium is good for most uses, high is very bright and max is :eek: :thumbsup:



Runtime depends on the battery pack, but ranges from a few hours on max to a few hundred hours on low. It pulls about 1A on high from an 8V source and about 20 mA on the lowest setting. There are 4 brightness settings to choose from.



John who makes them put neutral white XP-G leds in it for me (I dislike cool white leds) and built and shipped it very quickly There is now a neutral white option and I believe he is using R4 5B1 XP-Gs for the neutrals. Customer service is excellent and John is very fast at replying to e-mails.



It runs on anything from 6-9V (made for 2 li-ions at 3.7V each) and I'll either run it on 2/4 18650s or 4-5000 mAh RC Li-Poly packs. The Apex pro 2cr123 pack will run it at the 3 lower brightness settings with primaries and all 4 settings with rechargeables. Runtime on max will be short though:devil:



Magnificent piece of kit and it is user upgradeable so I plan on keeping this for the foreseeable future.



A few things to note:

  • It does pull a few mA when off so it is advisable to disconnect the battery pack when not using it
  • Since it is made for helmet use the weight is slightly more forward than with small headlamps like the Apex.
  • It isn't cheap, but compared to comparable lights it isn't expensive imho.
  • It has a battery meter (press and hold and it will blink 1-4 times depending on the battery level)

Pics next to an Apex (with a Seoul high CRI) and Arc6:

IMG_7589.jpg


IMG_7587.jpg


IMG_7584.jpg




Sorry about the bad light , but it is pretty dark here



Sverre
 
I like the harness you built for it. Just emailed Little monkey to see when the next batch of Hurricanes will be ready. Think Im going to need to order one, need to start paying attention to the British-US currency exchange rate.

They look great.
 
I think John is making the new run slightly different. Seems he got swamped with orders and had difficulties keeping up with demand.

Still very happy with mine. Thx for the harness compliment :)
 

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