My custom headlamp - updated with new anodised parts!

[ahorton]

My custom headlamp - Beamshots added

I was planning to finish this headlight before showing it off in this forum, but then I realised that I love watching the slow progress of other projects. So I should allow you guys to enjoy the slow progress of mine.

My machinist just sent me these photos.

60mm wide, 34mm high and 30mm thick (in the direction you look while wearing it)

It will hold:
One XR-E behind a 30mm Aspheric lens.
Two XP-Es (or maybe XP-Gs?) with 10mm optics behind a polycarbonate window.

Its name is/will be SPIKE. (Spike is an orienteering term meaning 'to navigate perfectly to a checkpoint')

... that's enough info for now...

 

[BillyNoMates]

Re: My custom headlamp

Nice. Looking forward to watching this progress.

What is the projected weight once it is fully assembled?

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

The head part will be a little under 100g. I'm hoping to get away with such a heavy thing by having the mass very close to my forehead. It's only 30mm thick and most of the mass is at the back, within 10mm of the hinge.


The LiPo battery pack at the back is about 140g (this was a mistake, more like 180g) but it gives a very nice 37Wh (another mistake, should be 32.5Wh) (at 1A discharge).

My aim is to keep the whole thing under 300g since I've found I can run with a well balanced 300g headlamp. (Petzl Zoom)

I considered cutting down on the aluminium in the front but I like the strength of it. I also didn't want to cut down on the battery because I run in 24 hour events and the night is about 13 hours long in winter.

37Wh lets me run at a comfortable:
2W (2 x XP-E @ 350mA) for 11 hours,
4W (XR-E @ 1A or 2 x XP-E @ 700mA) for 2 hours when I'm searching for checkpoints
which leaves around 7Wh for the driver.

 

[BillyNoMates]

Re: My custom headlamp

That is a good spec. The Aspheric will come in extremely useful for long-distance scanning. I often run at night as well (although not for 24hours!!) and I realise how difficult it can be to spot gates/styles and other features from distance - a good throwing headtorch should help to save some time.

I'd be interested to learn more about your battery - 37Wh seems very high for a 140g battery pack (I'd have thought 25Wh would be more normal).

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

I'd be interested to learn more about your battery - 37Wh seems very high for a 140g battery pack (I'd have thought 25Wh would be more normal).

Right you are. I just weighed it and it came in at 162g. And by the time I wrap it up in tape and add a cable it becomes about 186g.

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

A few more pictures I quickly shot with my phone. I'll take better ones when it's a little more assembled.

The round black thing is a simple silicon boot from DX to cover a clicky switch. You can see how it fits in the oval-shaped thing which gets bolted onto the bottom of the lighthead. It should be easy to see how most parts will fit in the big part I pictured above. The lines on the page are 7mm apart.

My cells. LiPo, 60x70mm, including protection circuit. 81g. I'm putting two together. The connector I'm using is a simple screw-on thing that is IP67 rated (waterproof to 1m for something like 30 minutes). I've left it in a bowl of water for days and nothing has got in. I want this for when I go canoeing at night.

 

[vtunderground]

Re: My custom headlamp

This looks great! I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[kramer5150]

Re: My custom headlamp

Wow... nice progress

:twothumbs

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

Wow... nice progress

:twothumbs

Thanks. This is acutally the continuation of the project I started in this thread. I've been working on it fairly solidly since then but I stopped posting because I realised that it was going to take a long time of fiddling around before I was happy with a design.

 

[dom]

Re: My custom headlamp

Looks like a good project ahorton.
I've been working on a headlamp myself and know how long things take.

Have the smaller bits of Al been lasercut?

Have you any beamshots of your aspheric?

Cheers
Dom

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

Yes the smaller parts were laser cut because that is nice and cheap. I designed it so that only one part would need cnc machining. However, it does mean I have to clean up the laser cut edges a little.

I don't have a camera worth of beamshots, but Packhorse has been using the same lens for a while now and he has taken a few comparison beamshots. Have a look at post #4 of this thread.

 

[dom]

Re: My custom headlamp

Thanks mate.
I'd already looked at that thread -silly me - after i looked at your aspheric sales thread.

Very useful looking beam.Should work well with your widebeam XP-E optics.

Have you looked at waterjet cutting for your Al bits - though the extra expense
may not be worth your deburring time for
the lasercut bits.


Cheers
Dom

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

No I never looked into water-jet cutting. It only takes me 30 seconds per part, so I'm not too worried about it.

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

A few more pictures.

Just checking that everything fits together before I think about anodising.



Some LEDs in place.

Nice and small.

Side view showing the bracket that the elastic goes through.

Enough room in the back for 2 17mm drivers. (DX 15880s are shown but I probably won't use them.)

The whole thing currently weighs 110g with all components and including the headband bracket.

I considered thinning the metal a bit, (since it's currently strong enough to drive a truck over) but it doesn't seem to matter when I put it on my head.

 

[vtunderground]

Re: My custom headlamp

NICE!!!

How water resistant do you expect it to be? If the beams end up like I'm expecting, this may be a good caving headlamp.

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

The weakest link in water resistance will be the battery connector which is only ip67 (1m submersion). In fresh water this won't matter and I'll be happy enough to give the plugs a wash after they've spent time in salt water. A small amount of CRC or WD40 sprayed into the plug before connecting them will probably make them pretty resistant to salt anyway.

As for the lighthead, I'm hoping for at least 10m. A friend of mine who dives will test one out for me. He can go down to 40m so that's the most I'll test it to.

The thing has been designed so that at every joint I can put a wide bead of sikaflex (very strong silicon glue). The thinnest connection between two parts is 5mm wide and that should be plenty to provide a seal.

The polycarb window presses against 10mm optics, so they will take some of the pressure. The polycarb is 2mm thick and only has an exposed area of ~3cm^2. Extra pressure on the crown glass lens will only push it harder against the silicon o-ring.

Of course, underwater, the aspheric lens will not focus the light anymore. I considered adding a window in front of the lens, but this was never meant to be a diving light. I go canoeing at night so I need to be able to swim with it, but not actually see underwater much.


Caving scares me. I'm into sane sports like rockclimbing, canoeing and bushwalking.

 

[rapidoxidationman]

Re: My custom headlamp

I'm looking for a good light to give to an ultramarathon runner lady friend of mine for her birthday in early July... How's your project coming? You wouldn't be making a couple of these (and need some cash to make another) would you?

PM me if you're interested...

ROM

 

[ahorton]

Re: My custom headlamp

My headlamp has now been used for two 24 hour events with about 13 hours of dark in each and I have been able to make a few small design changes.


I made 3 prototypes and played around with different drivers, power settings and lenses (for the XP-Es) before I had something I was happy with.

The prototypes all looked a little different but here is one of them:

So I sent the new design to the machinist and now I have my final aluminium parts. Some were sandblasted before being anodised black. I think I prefer the sandblasted versions.

I even got the name 'SPIKE' printed on the top. The letters are actually sharp but the photos aren't great.

It's a pity my photography skills are poor because these things look really cool. I am very happy with how it has turned out. My racing mates are also pretty keen to get their hands on them since they have seen they prototypes being used.

 

[jamie.91]

these are awesome any thay look cool too, i want to see some beamshots lol

i would buy one lol

jamie

 

[Jagge]

Re: My custom headlamp

Looks good. I wonder has mr Spike seen it yet.

Any thoughts of putting P7/MC-E leds is and squeeze 1000 lumens out of it for short but fast runs?