Runtime Graphs Princeton Tec Apex, Quad, Vizz Industrial, Vizz for Eneloops

[sponge_bob_128]

Made some runtime graphs for 4 Princeton Tec headlamps generated with the Ceilingbounce Android App. Note all of these Princeton Tec headlamps are Made in the USA and have IPX7 waterproofing. The headlamp light was just roughly aimed at the phone running Ceilingbounce. The tests were made in a small open cardboard box with a paper towel on top and hole in back. The room was air conditioned but no fan was used to cool the headlamps. Thermal step down maybe likely at high settings. It was maybe at most 80 F in box. All tests were done with Eneloops (White). Eneloops have a more brickwall curve near empty which likely confuses the runtime extension algorithms made for alkalines. I did not test lumens and Princeton Tec's (Nominal) Distance/Lumens should be taken with a grain of salt. Did not test very low brightness and thus very long lasting settings. My reason for the tests is to determine the best settings for night hiking.


Princeton Tec Apex Headlamp (640): Heavy (10.5oz) with top strap. Eneloop 4xAA.
Nominal Specs:

Spot High: 640 Lumens, 120M Distance, 84 Min Regulated, 90 Min Runtime.
Spot Med: 350 Lumens, 92M Distance, 120 MIn Regulated, 720 Min Runtime.
Spot Low: 70 Lumens, 67M Distance, 540 Min Regulated, 720 Min Runtime.​

Flood modes were not tested as they all have less throw than the Lowest Spot Beam.








Graph Commentary:

• High Spot is near spec (Ansi FL1). Note Headlamp will flash 3 times when it crosses some low energy level (graph can go to 0).
• Med Spot is regulated for 160 Min (vs 120 Min) but then only has 174 Min Runtime (vs 720 spec.). Eneloops have a more brickwall curve at empty so this seems to confuse this mode.
• Low Spot was regulated at 100% for 12 hours (vs 9h) and then the flashlight auto turned itself off at 12 hours. Would have had to move the headlamp to turn it back on.

Conclusion for night hikes: Low Spot is fine for all night. Could go up a little from
low (with variable power setting) to optimize brightness vs runtime. Use High Spot for
temporary navigation challenges.

Princeton Tec Quad. Eneloop 3xAAA.

Nominal Specs:

Flood High: 50M Distance, 60 Min Regulated.
Flood Med: 24M Distance, 300 Min Regulated.
Flood Low: 17M Distance, 600 Min Regulated.​

• Flood High stays up pretty high for 200 Minutes and at 10% after 255 Minutes. Regulation-y behavior much beyond the spec of 60 Min. Would need to swap batteries every 3.5 hours.
• Flood Med stays up pretty high for 480 minutes (8 hours).

Conclusion for night hikes: Better than the specs whould indicate. As the headlamp does not have a spot beam mode I could run High Flood and then take my Surefire E2D Defender Ultra (Spot Beam 1000 lumens) clipped into a pack shoulder strap for navigation.


Princeton Vizz Industrial (420). Eneloop 3xAAA.

Nominal Specs:

Spot High: 79M Distance, Not Regulated, 71M at 30 Min, 40M at 600 Min. (420 lumins)
Spot Low: 25M Distance, Not Regulated, 22M at 30 Min, 20M at 600 Min.
Flood High: 36M Distance, 360 Min Reg, 36M at 30 Min, 14M at 600 Min.
Flood Low: Not tested here.​

Graph Commentary:

• Spot High: Holds up for about 50 Minutes and then collapses. 10% at 70 Min and quickly very low after that. Spec. looks pretty off.
• Spot Default: Holds up for about 100 Minutes and then collapses. 10% at 120 Min.
• Spot Low: Stayed pretty high for 12 hours. Test terminated prematurely.
• Flood High: Holds up to about 160 Min and nearing 10% at about 210 minutes. Would have to swap batteries every 3 hours. I believe the Spec. data is a copy bug from the Regular Vizz that has 1/2 the number of flood LEDs.
• Flood Default: Holds up to about 330 Minutes. At 10% at 420 Min. Swap batteries every 6 hours.

Conclusion for night hikes: Flood Default (or Flood High) going up to Spot High temporarily for navigation.

Princeton Vizz (regular) (420). Eneloop 3xAAA.

Nominal Specs:

Spot High: 79M Distance, Not Regulated, 71M at 30 Min, 40M at 600 Min. (420 Lumens)
Spot Low: 25M Distance, Not Regulated, 22M at 30 Min, 20M at 600 Min.
Flood High: 24M Distance, 360 Min Reg, 22M at 30 Min, 10M at 600 Min.
Flood Low: Not tested.​

Graph Commentary:

• Spot High: I thought the headlamp would have identical behavior for the Spot LED as the Vizz Industrial but they are not. The Vizz quickly drops down to around 60% near the beginning to gain more runtime.
• Spot Default: This mode also quickly drops the brightness near the beginning but doesn't gain as much runtime.
• Spot Low: Not run but should be like the Vizz Industrial (lasts long time, i.e. over 12 hours).
• Flood High: As expected, with only 2 flood LEDs instead of 4, the highest setting last over twice as long as the Vizz Industrial.

Conclusion for night hikes: Both Spot Low and Flood High are pretty low power. Would probably have to use the Vizz's variable power setting to adjust somewhere between Spot Low and Spot Default settings but would get variable hard to repeat runtimes.

 

[desert.snake]

Excellent work, thank you very much!

Princeton Tec Apex Headlamp

Low Spot was regulated at 100% for 12 hours (vs 9h) and then the flashlight auto turned itself off at 12 hours. Would have had to move the headlamp to turn it back on.

After disabling it, was it possible to activate it again at low or any other level ?

 

[sponge_bob_128]

Excellent work, thank you very much!



After disabling it, was it possible to activate it again at low or any other level ?

Yes, the 12h auto turnoff looks to be a feature for when the headlamp has been accidently turned on so as to not completely drain the batteries. I could turn it back on at any level. The buttons on the Apex are on the bottom of headlamp so I would have to lift it up and the carefully reposition the headlamp to the exact position keep measuring. I tried this once the level was much lower compared to 100%. Another possibility is to just interrupt the test some where in the middle so as to reset the shutoff timer.

 

[sponge_bob_128]

Yes, the 12h auto turnoff looks to be a feature for when the headlamp has been accidently turned on so as to not completely drain the batteries. I could turn it back on at any level. The buttons on the Apex are on the bottom of headlamp so I would have to lift it up and the carefully reposition the headlamp to the exact position keep measuring. I tried this once the level was much lower compared to 100%. Another possibility is to just interrupt the test some where in the middle so as to reset the shutoff timer.

Forgot to add. My SkyRC MC6000 charged this test's batteries for 1343 mah (out of 1900-2000 mah). So about 30% left in the Eneloops.

 

[sponge_bob_128]

Here is the Apex Spot Mode on Low Eneloop Graph with a interrupt (turn off/on) at 11 hours so that it does not turn off at 12 hours automatically. Slight movement of headlamp increased measured output. Note that it looks regulated to about 18 hours which is twice the 9 hours for the Spec (non-Eneloop). Stopped it a little early but it was plumenting towards 10% pretty quickly. There is a huge gulf in regulated runtime between Medium and Low Spot settings (2.66 vs 18 hours) and you have to hold down the button to play with variable output mode making a repeatable setting difficult.