New Icon Irix Headlamp

[Captain Spaulding]

Im very interested in your run time tests on low Beacon. I dont have the patience for those, but am doing another on one high.

Are you starting with alkaline, lithiums, or Ni-MH?

 

[Beacon of Light]

NiMH as always, that's all I ever use.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

My preference as well. I REALLY hope we can get close to 100 hours on low with one NIMH. However with my first test on high, I have doubts.

 

[gunga]

How does the UI work on the 1?

 

[defloyd77]

My preference as well. I REALLY hope we can get close to 100 hours on low with one NIMH. However with my first test on high, I have doubts.

I severely doubt it with NiMH, alkaline may be another story.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

I severely doubt it with NiMH, alkaline may be another story.

Well my second test on high with a different eneloop lasted 2:25 as well. Am I out of line expecting more run time with an NiNH?

 

[defloyd77]

Well my second test on high with a different eneloop lasted 2:25 as well. Am I out of line expecting more run time with an NiNH?

No, not at all, I meant the runtime on low, my mistake.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

I'm sorry, I re-read my post and didn't mean what it sounded like. I understand that you meant low but I was asking if you guys think that I am expecting too much with only getting 2 and a half hours on high with an eneloop... I guess I should try an alkaline.

 

[Solscud007]

How does this compare to the Saint minimus in terms of performance? Obviously price is a big difference.

 

[Beacon of Light]

Capt. Spaulding, 2 1/2 hours on high is pretty good actually, that comes out to 150 minutes. Look at some of the single AA handheld lights and see what their runtime is at high. Some aren't even an hour. For runtime, low is where it's at and I am starting the runtime on the IRIX I this afternoon. IRIX II will follow the conclusion of the first runtime test.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Oh ok. I guess I just thought these 5mm led's wouldn't use as much power and I guess the 100 hour on low claim made me expect more on high. It's cool, you're right 2.5 hours is no slouch! I'm going to try an alkaline just for grins.

 

[Beacon of Light]

I started a runtime test at midnight last night on both the IRIX I and II as well as a 4Sevens Quark AA (running on a single AAA). The IRIX lights were set to low and the Quark was moon mode. I got to say, other than a wider hotspot with more flood, the IRIX lights seemed pretty much as dim as the Quark moon mode. This is a good thing. If this gets the runtime advertised at, these will probably become my favorite headlamps. I did compare the IRIX beams brightness to other low lights like the ReVO and the ReVO was much bright on low which is 1.5 lumens and the IRIX are supposed to be 5 lumens on low (which was one on the reasons I wasn't looking forward to an IRIX since a 5 lumen low is too high for me) but as I said it has about the same brightness as Quark moon, and in fact the hotspot on the Quark moon has more intensity that either IRIX. This was welcome news and now we wait to fine the results of the runtime test.

 

[dealgrabber2002]

Also 5mm leds sticking out like that with no lip below will likely cause a glare problem for eyeglass wearers.

Does it cause glare for someone that wears eyeglass? Thx.

 

[edc3]

Yes, swiveled all the way down it glares with our without glasses.

 

[dealgrabber2002]

Yes, swiveled all the way down it glares with our without glasses.

I guess Iris II is not for me then. Does anyone have the Iris I? Can you tell does it cause glare for someone that wears eyeglass?

 

[Beacon of Light]

I don't wear glasses, but with the same design, I would think they would both have the same issues if one has glare for people that wear glasses.

 

[RobertM]

I don't wear glasses, but with the same design, I would think they would both have the same issues if one has glare for people that wear glasses.

Thanks for the info. As one who wears glasses, a headlamp that causes glare is pretty hard to deal with. While these look pretty cool, I think I'll stick to my Saint Minimus.

 

[Beacon of Light]

IRIX lights on low @ 35 hours looking the same as when I started Sunday night at midnight.

 

[dealgrabber2002]

I don't wear glasses, but with the same design, I would think they would both have the same issues if one has glare for people that wear glasses.

I was hoping the Iris I wouldn't because the 5mm led does seem to protude out like the II.

 

[mellowman]

Beacon, I gave the current draw from the battery in a previous post.

High was .7A and lowest Low was .025A. Just divide this number by the mAh of your battery to get run time. Probably should multiply by say 85% to account for driver efficiency as it converts the 1.2V of the battery to 3.2v to 2v (3.2v on high, 2v on low).

Ex. on low: 2000 mAh Eneloop on low @ 0.025A = 2000mAH/25mA = 80 hrs * 85% = 68 hrs. With an alkaline or lithium bat, capacity is around 3000mAh which gives around 100 hrs. Actually I think lithium's (L91) are around 2850mAh but nominal voltages is higher which should improve efficiency a bit.

Ex. on high: 2000 mAh Eneloop on High @ .7A = 2000mAH/700mA = 2.86 hrs * 85% = 2.43 hrs. L91 should be 3.64 hrs.

BTW, Spaldings post giving 2 hrs 20 min or 2.333 hrs on an eneloop gives an efficiency of 81.7% on high which might be a more accurate efficiency number to use, at least on high.