mdocod
Flashaholic
Ok... so after spending some time doing some research on headlamps, and
finding out some of the good bad and ugly, I think I have figured out, what my ideal headlamp would consist of. (I'm just rambling and dreaming and just letting my imagination flow as I go here... so feel free to pounce all over this and tear my idea to shreds, after all, it's just an idea....)
Firstly... I noticed that there is a major lack of high power incandescent headlamps available(from what I can find). Most are very dim, and unregulated, with the exception of a very few that do have regulation, but are still rather dim compared to some LED options...
I am a big fan of incan lighting, it's just more pleasing and easier on the eyes, not to mention- in an outdoor situation, the color rendering is so much better for those EARTHy colors... Like the dirt brown walls of a cave. Gives the impression that the light is really penetrating and soaking into the scene, where LED lighting feels more like it is glaring back more about the color of the LED output, rather than giving to good information about what you are looking at... I suppose this is more personal preference, but I think I have an idea that some people might agree is awsom...
Ok... so it would be a LI-ion powered headlamp. It would have many battery configurations available.
small pack:
2 18650s, series or parallel configuration, 3.7V 4.4AH or 7.4V 2.2AH
big pack:
4 18650s, all in parallel, or 2s2p configuration, 3.7V 8.8AH or 7.4V 4.4AH
the packs would be arranged with the cells positioned next to each other, certainly not end-to-end..
Quality protected cells like Pila, WE, or AWs would be recommended.
The battery pack would be mountable on the rear of the head, or wired down to a pocket to reduce weight on the head.. All parts would be part of a system, fully interchangable. The entire pack would be easily removable from the head ..with a good plug system that could be plugged in and unplugged many times... So spare packs could be preloaded with cells and quickly swapped into action for extended trips(this way the conflict of spare cell storage is already taken care of). Wire extenders would be available in 1, 2, and 3 foot lengths so they could combined to create the ideal length to put the pack where you want it. Decent gage wire (14GA stranded for example) would be used throughout.. A mounting plate would be available for helmets.. you'd permanently attach the plate to the back of the helmet, and the battery packs would all have a "slide-n-snap" type setup.. (does that make sense?) The same type of plate but with padding would be on the back of the head when using the normal straps, the pack would slide onto this instead.
18650s are chosen because they have awesome energy density, they are well worth the slightly larger heft compared to a pair of CR123s or a 17670. a single 18650 (even the 2200mah protected ones) has more energy available than a pair of primary CR123 photo batteries. same length, just 2mm more diameter, and rechargable. The 2x18650 is about 16watt/hours with little to no self discharge. A 4xAA NIMH pack using the best cells available is only about 13 watt/hour, and that's using 2700mah cells, which still suffer from self-discharge.
Now... Here's the FUN part... The head unit. The business end of this unit...
Essentially, it would be a solidly built head-plate with plenty of comfy padding, the padding would be removable, exposing mounting holes to mount to a helmet. The hinge obviously would need to be built well enough that if you were to WHACK the head of this thing on a rock, the hinge would not bust under the pressure. So I wouldn't might sacrificing some weight here and going with a good metal hinge...
The switch would be some beefy and easy to locate and use even with thick gloves on.. maybe even a rocker switch. Something more reliable than the typical little dinky clickies mounted to chipboard that we find in so many lights, (including headlamps).
Now... here's the cool thing: this unit would take 2 (yes 2!)D26 tactical lamps. Aluminum would be ideal for heat dissipation, but might be too heavy, maybe a combination of aluminum in some places, and a plastic composite where heat isn't as big an issue.. I'd like the body of the head to be able to assist the Lamp assembly in heat-sinking for those who might decide to run LED modules...It would have 2 separate head units on their own hinge, so they could be adjusted individually, each would have it's own switch on the top side .could even have an interchangable heat sinking version of the head unit with a finned design.
This type of setup would allow the user to decide what kind of output vs runtime vs weight he/she wants... a 4 cell 2p2s setup could run a LF ES-9 for about 5 hours. Undoubtedly- more and more D26 drop-in modules with LEDs will become available in the near future. One of these new Cree drop-in modules available could be run for 6 hours on the small pack, or 12 hours on the large pack.
The maker of this light would ideally make some of their Own D26 lamps... Some regulated low power LEDs, and some high power LEDs, maybe a few incans as well with various output options... so you could load one side with a low power option, and one side with a high power incan... Or for people like me... A pair of P91s... (only about 45 minuts runtime, but FUN right!!!)..
and then of course, since if you went through all the trouble to make this nice system with interchangeable parts and heads and lamps and battery packs, you'd make a mounting bracket for bike handlebars.
finding out some of the good bad and ugly, I think I have figured out, what my ideal headlamp would consist of. (I'm just rambling and dreaming and just letting my imagination flow as I go here... so feel free to pounce all over this and tear my idea to shreds, after all, it's just an idea....)
Firstly... I noticed that there is a major lack of high power incandescent headlamps available(from what I can find). Most are very dim, and unregulated, with the exception of a very few that do have regulation, but are still rather dim compared to some LED options...
I am a big fan of incan lighting, it's just more pleasing and easier on the eyes, not to mention- in an outdoor situation, the color rendering is so much better for those EARTHy colors... Like the dirt brown walls of a cave. Gives the impression that the light is really penetrating and soaking into the scene, where LED lighting feels more like it is glaring back more about the color of the LED output, rather than giving to good information about what you are looking at... I suppose this is more personal preference, but I think I have an idea that some people might agree is awsom...
Ok... so it would be a LI-ion powered headlamp. It would have many battery configurations available.
small pack:
2 18650s, series or parallel configuration, 3.7V 4.4AH or 7.4V 2.2AH
big pack:
4 18650s, all in parallel, or 2s2p configuration, 3.7V 8.8AH or 7.4V 4.4AH
the packs would be arranged with the cells positioned next to each other, certainly not end-to-end..
Quality protected cells like Pila, WE, or AWs would be recommended.
The battery pack would be mountable on the rear of the head, or wired down to a pocket to reduce weight on the head.. All parts would be part of a system, fully interchangable. The entire pack would be easily removable from the head ..with a good plug system that could be plugged in and unplugged many times... So spare packs could be preloaded with cells and quickly swapped into action for extended trips(this way the conflict of spare cell storage is already taken care of). Wire extenders would be available in 1, 2, and 3 foot lengths so they could combined to create the ideal length to put the pack where you want it. Decent gage wire (14GA stranded for example) would be used throughout.. A mounting plate would be available for helmets.. you'd permanently attach the plate to the back of the helmet, and the battery packs would all have a "slide-n-snap" type setup.. (does that make sense?) The same type of plate but with padding would be on the back of the head when using the normal straps, the pack would slide onto this instead.
18650s are chosen because they have awesome energy density, they are well worth the slightly larger heft compared to a pair of CR123s or a 17670. a single 18650 (even the 2200mah protected ones) has more energy available than a pair of primary CR123 photo batteries. same length, just 2mm more diameter, and rechargable. The 2x18650 is about 16watt/hours with little to no self discharge. A 4xAA NIMH pack using the best cells available is only about 13 watt/hour, and that's using 2700mah cells, which still suffer from self-discharge.
Now... Here's the FUN part... The head unit. The business end of this unit...
Essentially, it would be a solidly built head-plate with plenty of comfy padding, the padding would be removable, exposing mounting holes to mount to a helmet. The hinge obviously would need to be built well enough that if you were to WHACK the head of this thing on a rock, the hinge would not bust under the pressure. So I wouldn't might sacrificing some weight here and going with a good metal hinge...
The switch would be some beefy and easy to locate and use even with thick gloves on.. maybe even a rocker switch. Something more reliable than the typical little dinky clickies mounted to chipboard that we find in so many lights, (including headlamps).
Now... here's the cool thing: this unit would take 2 (yes 2!)D26 tactical lamps. Aluminum would be ideal for heat dissipation, but might be too heavy, maybe a combination of aluminum in some places, and a plastic composite where heat isn't as big an issue.. I'd like the body of the head to be able to assist the Lamp assembly in heat-sinking for those who might decide to run LED modules...It would have 2 separate head units on their own hinge, so they could be adjusted individually, each would have it's own switch on the top side .could even have an interchangable heat sinking version of the head unit with a finned design.
This type of setup would allow the user to decide what kind of output vs runtime vs weight he/she wants... a 4 cell 2p2s setup could run a LF ES-9 for about 5 hours. Undoubtedly- more and more D26 drop-in modules with LEDs will become available in the near future. One of these new Cree drop-in modules available could be run for 6 hours on the small pack, or 12 hours on the large pack.
The maker of this light would ideally make some of their Own D26 lamps... Some regulated low power LEDs, and some high power LEDs, maybe a few incans as well with various output options... so you could load one side with a low power option, and one side with a high power incan... Or for people like me... A pair of P91s... (only about 45 minuts runtime, but FUN right!!!)..
and then of course, since if you went through all the trouble to make this nice system with interchangeable parts and heads and lamps and battery packs, you'd make a mounting bracket for bike handlebars.
