Petzl Core battery

[276]

Found this on gearbuyersguide on youtube. Gives you the ability using your computer to change the brightness & runtime of your Petzl using this new rechargeable battery & software, also can make the light regulate the output.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SApIW_s_C9w




( I am not affiliated with Petzl)

 

[uk_caver]

So to know what a lamp is going to do, I have to remember not how the lamp works, but how a particular battery has been programmed?

If I was planning to use a headlight for anything important and of decent duration, I would take spare power, use the amount of light I want to use, and swap power sources if necessary.
I wouldn't plan my next night's usage (or caving trip) to the nearest hour and then reach for a laptop to configure a battery pack to last just long enough.
Equally, though definitely a cool sales trick, unless I'm actually doing the reprogramming in the dark and wearing the lamp on my head while doing it, being able to set the light to a particular level to demonstrate the brightness is of limited value when it comes to me working out if that level is enough.
In reality, even if I wanted to select intermediate levels, I'd actually be much better off (and probably far more accurate) estimating likely usefulness by getting used to the 'standard' output levels of a light for a night or two, and then using those levels as a benchmark for picking intermediate levels to use.

I'm also wondering about a battery pack that costs close to the price of the light it fits into.
If the lights were specifically designed to take the pack, why not just have a dumb battery pack, and specifically design the lights with an on-the-fly configurable UI, so the light itself would be a better light, irrespective of what power source it was using (Tikka RXP?)

 

[Szemhazai]

LOL so actually you are getting Li-Ion battery with programmable voltage output... In this size it is 7,2V 800mAh or 3,7V 1600mAh with a buck/boost driver :thinking:

USB connected so 5V input -> 3,7V battery

5h at 91% for tikka xp it means that you need actually about 4,3V and 210mA so 0,903W * 5 => 4,511Wh. Buck/Boost 80% -> 5,64Wh

3,7V*1600mAh = 5,92Wh

What did I win ?

 

[petersmith6]

sooo i have to lug my lap top up a mountain just incase i need to charge it up....mmmmm.they seam to of created a solution to a problem that didnt excist till they invented it. i have an old tika with lives in my ruck sack with a baggi of 9 spare batteries( 6 alkalines and 3 lithiums) that will keep me going for quite a while.now why cant they make something thats truly water proof and will work with say 2 cr123 or 1 18650....or maybe 4 cr 123 or 2 18650!! now that should give some runtimes and out put.

 

[hopkins]

This new tech could have some important uses not apparent to us yet.
Like the airplane. "What good is it?", many scoffed.

 

[uk_caver]

Like the airplane. "What good is it?", many scoffed.

And just like an airplane, I suspect that hardly any headlamp user I know would see a pressing need to buy one just at the moment.

Seriously, this looks like the equivalent of someone buying a car which has a few fixed speed/economy settings, and then spending a similar amount on one or more add-on fuel tanks that each overrode the car's settings to values a user could configure, as long as the configuration-per-tank is done at home.

Given the choice, and assuming they actually wanted configurability, I think most people would just buy a car with a wider range of settings that they could choose between while driving, unless it was radically more expensive.

However, I have to assume that Petzl must think there's a sufficient market somewhere. I just don't see that market involving me, or likely many people that I know.

 

[jirik_cz]

Programmable battery sounds like a flashaholic's dream. I'm surprised that it came from Petzl.

 

[tabaliah]

I own a Petzl Tikka XP2. I purchased it because it was the best that I could do where headlamps were available, and of the brands that were there I tend to pick Petzl in my other gear. It is far from perfect for what I purchased it for, rock and alpine climbing.

I already carry spare components on a climb. Being several pitches up the side of something steep is not the time to be without illumination - not quite cave dark but dangerous all the same. As well alpine starts often require lighting on the hike in, and many a day requires it on the way out as well.

This already requires three different levels of lighting, and two different types. I carry two headlamps and a flashlight, not to mention spare power sources. I really don't need a pack full of differently charged batteries to go with my menagerie. It seems (as one poster has already said) like a solution to a problem that didn't exist before the solution was created in the first place.

I would much rather have a light with constant output, dial-able brightness settings and combination flood / moderate throw. Others may have differing requirements, but they make so gosh darn many lights it should be easy to find one to fit ones needs without resorting to the complexity and expense of computer programmable batteries.

Of course one should mention ones aversion to winblows as well - so one may not be able to use the aforementioned provided software anyway

.michael