PT Byte?

[ringzero]

Another compact headlamp that's piqued my curiousity:
http://www.brightguy.com/products/Princeton_Tec_BYTE_LED_Headlamp.php

Great price for a PT headlamp and looks decent for the price.

Seem to recall some discussion about the PT Byte here, but have no luck at all finding it with the search function.

Those of you who've owned one of these, did you find it good, bad, indifferent?

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[dla]

poc - dont' waste your money.

Use the search to find out more.

 

[carrot]

I bought one last week and I'm in the middle of still testing it. A full review will come later once I've really put it through the wringer.

As of right now I am happy with it. It feels solidly made and the use of 2xAAA instead of 3xAAA means that it's simple to recharge on any NiMH charger. The battery latch has not opened accidentally yet and seems fairly sturdy.

The white LED is a bit on the warmer side compared to most cool white LEDs and is very nice for walking around. The red is dim but perfect for close up tasks.

The user interface is so-so: it always goes from off-> red -> low white -> high white -> off. Unlike many other headlamps, you must click through the other levels to turn it off. However, the simplicity is appreciated.

It advertises IPX4 water resistance so I took it to the shower. The lens fogged up and the batteries got wet inside but it continued to function just fine. The switch did require more presses than usual to get to the right mode but once it dried out it worked perfectly again.

I could not replicate the issues I heard about in other reviews.

For the price it is hard to compare to anything else. The Petzl Tikkina 2 at $20 uses two 5mm LEDs and has no red LED. The Princeton Tec Fred at $20 might be comparable: one red LED and three white 5mm LEDs. Higher up in the price ladder ($40) gets you the Petzl Tikka 2 Plus which has a Seoul P4 and a red LED. The Mammut S-Flex and S-Lite offer similar functionality at $30 and $20, respectively, but I have not tried those yet.

Thus far I am cautiously optimistic about it being an excellent low-cost headlamp and so far others who attended PF16 agreed with me: some mentioned they'd like to try them out for their kids, since they already have high-end headlamps for themselves.

 

[ringzero]

Carrot, thanks for the mini review.

Only thing that worries me is lack of water resistance. Seems only poor to middlin' at best, but it still might be OK for use in the rain.

Look forward to reading your full review after you've had more time to thoroughly ring out your Byte.

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[robostudent5000]

I could not replicate the issues I heard about in other reviews.

I'm guessing you mean the complaints about short battery life. I think the complaints were based on using alkalines. I was looking at this light a few months back and couldn't find any reviews based on using it with nimhs or lithiums. I would be very interested to see how it performs with better batteries, cuz if not for the battery life issue, the lamp looks like a great deal and, for me, like something that could fill the slot the SL Enduro used to fill.

 

[carrot]

I'm guessing you mean the complaints about short battery life. I think the complaints were based on using alkalines. I was looking at this light a few months back and couldn't find any reviews based on using it with nimhs or lithiums. I would be very interested to see how it performs with better batteries, cuz if not for the battery life issue, the lamp looks like a great deal and, for me, like something that could fill the slot the SL Enduro used to fill.

Actually the more concerning complaint I heard is that once the batteries are depleted to a certain amount the light will refuse to shut off. I have not been able to replicate that one, and will probably do an informal runtime test on these Duraloops I have here.

 

[carrot]

I posted my review on the Byte: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?312695-Princeton-Tec-Byte-headlamp-review

Am also doing a runtime test on my Duraloops now. I'm not sure at what point I'll call the test over, but I guess I'll know it when I see it.