Any thoughts on Black Diamond SUPERNOVA?

Outdoors Fanatic · Jun 26, 2006

I couldn't find any decent reviews with the CPF standards.

I've found a store selling these for a really good price ( it is thier last piece actually), is it a good headlight? How's the regulation, brightness, runtime? Does anyone here have one?

Thanks in advance.

mrme · Jun 26, 2006

It is my favorite headlamp. It is a little heavy, but the light is very good. It has been discontinued and is a bit hard to come by.

If you can find them, Energizer makes a bulb that works a little better than the stock bulb. It was a spare bulb for the Double Barrel 4 AAA flashlight. The color is a little better. Wal-Mart used to sell them. Note that the bulb is 3 volts and you cannot use the standard BD bulbs that run on 3.5 volts.

The color from the incadescent is often better than that of the LEDs. I find the dim yellow color of the low setting ideal for reading with tired eyes or when I don't want to toast everybodies' night vision.

In the unlikely event that this is the first generation Supernova, the LED will only run off the little backup battery. If it has 2 LEDs you KNOW its not and will run the LED first off of the AA's and only run the little battery when the main ones are missing or exhausted. If the LEDs have 3 light levels, you also know it is not the first generation. I guess the surest way to know is to remove the backup battery and see if the LED runs. That little battery is $5 and only lasts a few hours, but the early model was a bit smaller. If it is a first generation Supernova, you will want to save the LEDs for emergencies as it is costly light.

Do you mind me asking where you found it and how much? If you decide against getting it, I might be interested. These lights are incredible when you replace the 5mm LED with a Luxeon.

chumley · Jun 27, 2006

Flashlight Reviews has a great review on the Supernova. I got one from REI Outlet.com and use it somewhat. I like to use the wide focus when I need to use the light for close up work.

REI Outlet.com has the Space shot 2 on clearance which is a bit brighter than the Supernova, but has a seperate battery pack.

Outdoors Fanatic · Jun 29, 2006

mrme said:
It is my favorite headlamp. It is a little heavy, but the light is very good. It has been discontinued and is a bit hard to come by.

If you can find them, Energizer makes a bulb that works a little better than the stock bulb. It was a spare bulb for the Double Barrel 4 AAA flashlight. The color is a little better. Wal-Mart used to sell them. Note that the bulb is 3 volts and you cannot use the standard BD bulbs that run on 3.5 volts.

The color from the incadescent is often better than that of the LEDs. I find the dim yellow color of the low setting ideal for reading with tired eyes or when I don't want to toast everybodies' night vision.

In the unlikely event that this is the first generation Supernova, the LED will only run off the little backup battery. If it has 2 LEDs you KNOW its not and will run the LED first off of the AA's and only run the little battery when the main ones are missing or exhausted. If the LEDs have 3 light levels, you also know it is not the first generation. I guess the surest way to know is to remove the backup battery and see if the LED runs. That little battery is $5 and only lasts a few hours, but the early model was a bit smaller. If it is a first generation Supernova, you will want to save the LEDs for emergencies as it is costly light.

Do you mind me asking where you found it and how much? If you decide against getting it, I might be interested. These lights are incredible when you replace the 5mm LED with a Luxeon.

Thanks a lot man!

I've already ordered their last piece, it's the first generation though (one 5mm LED only). But that's fine because I really don't need the weak bluish light emitted from the 5mm LEDs, as I bought this one exclusively for the much more useful regulated xenon lamp.

I'll try that Energizer bulb, thanks for the heads up!

Outdoors Fanatic · Jun 29, 2006

chumley said:
Flashlight Reviews has a great review on the Supernova. I got one from REI Outlet.com and use it somewhat. I like to use the wide focus when I need to use the light for close up work.

REI Outlet.com has the Space shot 2 on clearance which is a bit brighter than the Supernova, but has a seperate battery pack.

Yes, the review is great indeed (it is the first website I went to gather info, as usual). But there isn't any graph showing runtime/regulation. Not to mention bightness, cause I really can't read Lux readings as I've been spoiled by Lumen measures :grin2:

Flashlights Review says:

Overall Output - 1500
Throw - 442

How to convert these numbers to the new Flashlight Reviews system?:huh2:

mrme · Jun 30, 2006

Outdoors Fanatic said:
Thanks a lot man!

I've already ordered their last piece, it's the first generation though (one 5mm LED only). But that's fine because I really don't need the weak bluish light emitted from the 5mm LEDs, as I bought this one exclusively for the much more useful regulated xenon lamp.

As best I can tell there were 3 versions of this headlamp.

First it had a Willy Hunt Voltage regulator on the incadescent and the LED ran just off the 6V battery.

Then BD had someone else making the regulator that had the LED run off the AA's. Once they were dead, it would run off the 6 volt. This is the version I got and you probably are getting.

Then they added a second LED. The headlamp was discontinued not too long after that.

Outdoors Fanatic · Jul 1, 2006

mrme said:
As best I can tell there were 3 versions of this headlamp.

First it had a Willy Hunt Voltage regulator on the incadescent and the LED ran just off the 6V battery.

Then BD had someone else making the regulator that had the LED run off the AA's. Once they were dead, it would run off the 6 volt. This is the version I got and you probably are getting.

Then they added a second LED. The headlamp was discontinued not too long after that.

Then BD had someone else making the regulator that had the LED run off the AA's. Once they were dead, it would run off the 6 volt. This is the version I got and you probably are getting.

Exactly! I got that one, it has one LED but it run directly from the 4AAs as the Xenon bulb, not only from the little 6V backup battery (i've tested it). What a great headlight! The lone 5mm LED on med/high is plenty of light in the dark, and the main bulb is just awesome.

I was wondering if the stock bulb (and the spare one) is the Black Diamond 'bright' or 'super bright' version? This isn't in the manual... Also, is this bulb rated at 3V or 6V?? Can I use Petzl, PT or Streamlight bulbs in this headlight? [I think this is a regular bi-pin type of bulb?]

Thanks in advance.

chumley · Jul 2, 2006

The Supernova uses a bulb that is only for that model. You need to order the Supernova bulb. It might be a good idea to get a few while they are still available.

I haven't been camping in a few years, but I wish I had the Supernova when camping in the past. Long runtimes on the leds, and regulated incan make it a great camping headlamp.

mrme · Jul 3, 2006

Yeah, I am sorry to say there is just one bulb BD makes for the Supernova. It is a bulb designed for 3 Volts. Nominally, bulbs are specified at a lower voltage, like 2.8 or something, but it is a 3 volt bulb. The other BD headlamps run on 4.5 Volt bulbs. So, you want bi-pin bulbs that are for 2 cell flashlights.

Avalibility might become a problem since the light is discontiued. I bought quite a few spare bulbs for the Energizer Double barrel lights when Wal-Mart cleared them out.

What you can do is solder a simple bi-pin bulb onto the base of a BD bulb. As long as you hold onto the burned out bulbs, you could recyle the base. Without the base, most bi-pin bulbs will float in the socket. With the avalibility of bi-pin 3 volt bulbs, you really have some options. Just don't get carried away and melt the reflector (as I have done). Keep the current below an amp and you should be okay.

The PT Yukon bulb (a 4.5 volt headlamp) works much better than any of the BD headlamp bulbs in all other BD headlamps (except the Supernova). It is well worth the trouble of soldering a base on it. The bulb is avalible at REI.

Outdoors Fanatic · Jul 5, 2006

mrme said:
Yeah, I am sorry to say there is just one bulb BD makes for the Supernova. It is a bulb designed for 3 Volts. Nominally, bulbs are specified at a lower voltage, like 2.8 or something, but it is a 3 volt bulb. The other BD headlamps run on 4.5 Volt bulbs. So, you want bi-pin bulbs that are for 2 cell flashlights.

Avalibility might become a problem since the light is discontiued. I bought quite a few spare bulbs for the Energizer Double barrel lights when Wal-Mart cleared them out.

What you can do is solder a simple bi-pin bulb onto the base of a BD bulb. As long as you hold onto the burned out bulbs, you could recyle the base. Without the base, most bi-pin bulbs will float in the socket. With the avalibility of bi-pin 3 volt bulbs, you really have some options. Just don't get carried away and melt the reflector (as I have done). Keep the current below an amp and you should be okay.

The PT Yukon bulb (a 4.5 volt headlamp) works much better than any of the BD headlamp bulbs in all other BD headlamps (except the Supernova). It is well worth the trouble of soldering a base on it. The bulb is avalible at REI.

Gee! All this soldering job sounds way too complicated to me. I was checking a few bulbs online and found a few of them to be pretty interesting.

Do you think I could use the Princeton Tec Rage bulb (xenon, 2.6 watts, powered by 4AAA), it looks like it would greatly improve the total output. Since it's only 2.6w I don't think there will be problems. I don't know if it's below 1 amp though, is it?

Which other 3V bulbs can I use besides the original BD Supernova replacements (without too much trouble with mods) ?

Thanks man!

mrme · Jul 6, 2006

Outdoors Fanatic said:
Gee! All this soldering job sounds way too complicated to me. I was checking a few bulbs online and found a few of them to be pretty interesting.

Do you think I could use the Princeton Tec Rage bulb (xenon, 2.6 watts, powered by 4AAA), it looks like it would greatly improve the total output. Since it's only 2.6w I don't think there will be problems. I don't know if it's below 1 amp though, is it?

Which other 3V bulbs can I use besides the original BD Supernova replacements (without too much trouble with mods) ?

Thanks man!

I doubt the rage bulb has the right base and 4 AAA lights usually run on 6 volts, not 3.

You can certainly find the bulb now, it just might not be avalible in a few years as a Supernova bulb. The internet makes this kind of thing easier.

Your headlamp should have come with a spare bulb. It will have spots to strore 4 spare bulbs (2 in the bezel and 2 in the battery pack). They last a long time since they have a soft start feature. Most lights hit a cold bulb with all the current it wants (several times the opperating current), which will wear down the bulb faster. A soft start limits the current on start up so that your bulbs have a longer life.

So I wouldn't worry about it for now.

cave dave · Jul 23, 2006

I had a Supernova generation 2 for a while. I think the first version used a remote battery pack and more batteries. I gave it away to a friend. I think the new generation of LED lights are much better. The Apex blows it away and even an EOS will give it a run for the money. One of the things I didn't like is it wasn't waterproof and the batteries and also the PWM circuit could get wet in a dunking. The bulb also wuld never get centered and it had weird ringy patterns.

It did however have a very nice wide spill. And I will say it did last a good long time on 4 Nimh. I could easily get through a 6-8 hr caving trip without changing batteries by lowering the light output when I was crawling or not moving.

Any thoughts on Black Diamond SUPERNOVA?

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