Poorboy wants a cave light

My caving hobby takes me places where a good light and a strong rope keep you going.
My normal load of lights when I go underground is:

*Petzl Tikka, back-up main light and vertical work light
*Surefire G2 modded to 200 lumens, spot lighting distant passages and camera aiming
*Photon 5mm light, setting up survey stations
*Autolite carbide lamp, main light, used everywhere but on-rope and underwater

I love the light generated by the carbide lamp but there are several drawbacks to having a two-inch flame on your head, especially when I'm hanging on a rope eighty feet in the air. I've tried many different electrical lamps but always go back to my carbide because of the lack of peripheral view with the spot designs of commercially available lamps.

I would like to build a lamp that would allow me to see where my feet are, without constantly pointing my whole head down. I would like it to be lightweight, with good battery life and fairly light. What I have in my head is a lamp with nine led's. Three, three watts, one in spot and two in flood, the floods angled slighty away from each other. Six 5mm arranged to illuminate my immediate surroundings. I would like three on/off controls, for the 5mm's, the floods and the spot. It would be nice to have a full and half power setting or a dimmer for the floods.

Unfortunately I know jack about electronic design. Is this project feasible for a novice? What would I need between the battery and the leds besides the switches and resistors? What size resistors would I need? How would I wire them so everything worked properly? The caves I usually work in are around fifty to fifty-five Fahrenheit. Would there be a temperature problem if I used a milled aluminum body? What size Li-ion would Ii need to run the floods on half and the 5mm's for 10-12 hours?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Well, if you just want to see where your feet are (they should be under you), you could just get a CMG/Gerber Infinity Ultra and duct tape it pointing down to your primary light. Maybe not what you're looking for, though.

Try searching in the headlamp forum for the Princeton Tech Corona. It has eight leds and several brightness levels. It runs on 3xAA batteries and on the low settings will run a long time. May be what you are looking for without the hassle. Here is a link to the review on flashlightreviews.com. It was given a perfect score of 5.

I do alot of caving,
and I have found these to be the best...

HEADLAMPS:
PT Corona - nice flood of light, 8 Levels, small, good price.
Stenlight S7 - simply the best headlamp out there. Rather pricey.

HAND LIGHTS:
SL 4AA Luxeon - great throw, water tight, FLAT regulated runtime, great price.
UK 4AA LED - good price, very water tight, 10 hour runtime.

NECK LIGHTS:
Arc AAA or AA - small, light weight, bright enought in a cave, good runtime
Fenix L1P - little larger, lot brighter, more throw, can be modded to dual level, good price

~John

If you are interested in the PT Corona you might want to email the manufacturer and see if they are using the Nichia NSPW500CS yet. I emailed them several months ago and they told me they would be using them as soon as they used up their remaining leds.

How about these?

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2005/10/brightfeet_ligh.html

LOL,
Jeff