Need a solution for some of our pilots...

Heres the two types of booms used by most of our pilots... I have been talking to some of them and they are looking for a lighting solution for there headsets..

They are looking for a light that they can clip to ther mic boom, and be bright enough to have usefull light in a cockpit..
The problems that we have living in Northern Alaska, is that winters can get down to 40 below zero.. and the ones they are using arent surviving whether it be batterys, or design..
These lights will go outside clipped to hats.. can be multimode or not..
I Post this in hopes for a custom light, or something that I have overlooked..
thanks for any input given!

Have you looked at Photon Freedom Micros? They have attachments that can be used hands free. They run on coin cells, for reading instruments and such these come by in many led colours. Simple design and body is composite I think. Switch is a simple design and also comes in 4 modes........their link http://www.photonlight.com/

to add to the above, the lights he is talking about use coin cell Lithium type batteries, which will still work to about 0*F but if the light itself is going to get -20 to -40*F chances are the battery is going to have issues.

hmm, if i remember right the only consumer type of battery that will work in that extreeme of a condition is a Zinc-Air, and they would have other issues, like thin air, and would still be weaker when cold.

so lithium is probably your best bet.
human breath headed to the mic, and heat comming off the human should have the temps usable for lithium.

a photon (type) light will do 30 strong hours of very low light , the newer ones might have a bit more SPOT then they want, but the led could be changed or diffused as needed. they burst up when you first turn them on, then the smaller weak batteries will have the light drop a bit as it stays on over time.

are they going to want colored light?
do they need to read maps with important colorations on it?
Is the light needed for continous use or intermittant?
what kind of power would they need?
spot or flood?

i would mention a very lightweight headlamp instead, like a 4led adjustable level headlamp, if i didnt already know how clunkey and huge and weighty the headsets are. or a headlamp with both white and red leds.

a really neet trick would be to drive the light off the headsets power, because half of them headsets connect to the planes power already, making it available right there . a modification, there is even room in the mic unit itself for the leds to stick out of the plastic. i bet in 10 years plantronics or somebody will build it right in.
but then what do you do when the plane power fails and you still need to fly ?

How about something like this, batteries could be kept safe and warm in your pocket. https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/168080

Picture stolen from YCLOs thread, thanks YC

[The problems that we have living in Northern Alaska, is that winters can get down to 40 below zero.. and the ones they are using arent surviving whether it be batterys, or design..
These lights will go outside clipped to hats.. can be multimode or not..
I Post this in hopes for a custom light, or something that I have overlooked..
thanks for any input given![/quote]

I have no idea whether this would work, but at the website countycomm.com, there is a little light, like a photon, which comes with a clip that can be used on headsets or ballcaps. I have some of them and they are bright. Countycomm says they are being used by emergency medical personnel. AND THEY COST A BUCK AND A HALF. For that you can afford to try one.

bill lafferty

Whatever light you use, the batteries will fail at -40 (-40C = -40F, BTW). You need to keep the battery warm. If you only need a small light, the battery might fit inside the earpiece, with a small-gauge umbilical lead from it to the light head on the mic boom. The lead would need to be made of silicone rubber, otherwise it would become brittle and crack at those temperatures.

I'm sure you could get someone to make something like this for you, based on a Cree XR-E emitter with CR2 or CR123A powering it.

DM51 said:

Whatever light you use, the batteries will fail at -40 (-40C = -40F, BTW). You need to keep the battery warm. If you only need a small light, the battery might fit inside the earpiece, with a small-gauge umbilical lead from it to the light head on the mic boom. The lead would need to be made of silicone rubber, otherwise it would become brittle and crack at those temperatures.

I'm sure you could get someone to make something like this for you, based on a Cree XR-E emitter with CR2 or CR123A powering it.

Click to expand...

yes! sounds like something i would do, stuff Li-polys of about 2000ma behind the speakers in each earpiece, and put a HID on the top with a swivel mount. :devil: have a charge port in it, but how do you put a potentially dangerous battery in a pilots ear?
you cant put anything inside the part your ear goes into, unless is was small and very flat, cause it gives ya coliflower ear quickly, what looks like a lot of space there isnt.
an way underdriven cree on a full sized star board would mount on the backside of the mic, and provide a beautifull flood.

Sorry if this is wrong, as
1st I'm just an armchair hero and
2nd not situated in a country with a real winter ...
but imho most ANY light will survive temps, where a human will be near to die.
I am pretty sure inside a cockpit there are no temps in a range mentionned
(at least the interior of that heli at skiing in the Selkirks was much too warm but to cold)

Get a nice light with batt, size, runtime and output that fits,
and put it inside a pocket while outside the flyer.

PS: I'd also opt for a light that runs on the plane's power

VidPro said:

yes! sounds like something i would do, stuff Li-polys of about 2000ma behind the speakers in each earpiece, and put a HID on the top with a swivel mount. :devil: have a charge port in it, but how do you put a potentially dangerous battery in a pilots ear?
you cant put anything inside the part your ear goes into, unless is was small and very flat, cause it gives ya coliflower ear quickly, what looks like a lot of space there isnt.
an way underdriven cree on a full sized star board would mount on the backside of the mic, and provide a beautifull flood.

Click to expand...

LOL, you wouldn't have to put the batt in his ear, but in the earpiece - just cut away some of the foam liner padding.

My shooting earmuffs are about that size and they have 2xAAA in each ear, so a CR2 would fit without any trouble, and would not be any more dangerous than just about anything else you might run across in the Arctic. It's about the only place to put the battery to keep it warm without having power leads getting in the way.

but some of them things use GEL ear things, they arent harder foam like shooting things are. they squish down a lot further.
course mabey its my ears sticking out like ross perot

You might do well with 2 lights, a pocketable bright light and a less bright boom light. The pocket light of about 100+ lumens and the boom/head light at only maybe 25 lumens.

VidPro said:

but some of them things use GEL ear things, they arent harder foam like shooting things are. they squish down a lot further.
course mabey its my ears sticking out like ross perot

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LOL, some of them use a liquid or gel-filled ring to give a good seal to your head, but there's usually a lot of extra foam padding in the rest of the space. There would be room for a small battery too, unless they are very slimline earphones. Maybe the OP could advise on that.

65535, yes, it would be sensible to carry another light in a pocket.

That custom "headlamp" looks like a great solution, but are they available?
You guys are right when stating that they wont be outside for LONG periods.. just enought to load the patients onto the planes..

They really want one light to transfer between there headset and there ballcaps..
Headlamps do work, but most steer away due to interference with the headsets, which they leave in the cockpit when they get out..
The most interested pilot uses a "ballcap" light that clips to the underside of the bill with 4 or 5 leds.. but it dies really quick in the cold due to battery design..
For the color question. universally, white is good, but for night missions I know some of the guys would appreciate a green option, since it is the most visible spectrum that effects night vision the least..

yellow said:

I am pretty sure inside a cockpit there are no temps in a range mentionned
(at least the interior of that heli at skiing in the Selkirks was much too warm but to cold)

Click to expand...

LOL.

Was it Selkirk-Tangiers heli-skiing Ltd. out of Revelstoke?

I has a nice trip there. A couple of sets of vascular surgery on my foot to repair the frostbite damage and I'm almost recovered.

Temps were around zero on the last day and I blew out the hinge of my boot and a little moisture got in.<shrug>.

We had this crazy south african pilot with a bunch of combat hours in angola. I heard he crashed a few summers ago lifting an oil derek.

Did you take a light? (lame attempt to obfuscate my hijack) :naughty:

What about attaching something to the outside of the earpiece? I have a little adjustable swivel clip that sticks to the side of my monitor designed to hold a pen. It has two halves that are spring loaded to accommodate different sized pens, and the whole thing swivels 360 degrees. It goes wide enough and is snug enough to easily accommodate a 2AAA MiniMag. I can't find a picture of it, but I found similar things online. Would be perfect to stick a single AAA light like an Arc with lithium batteries in it. Examples of "pen clip" type things that could work:

http://www.pdapanache.com/products/PUC.jpg
http://www.capcityequipment.com/miscinventorypics/0089-hatclip.JPG
http://abcsafetyglasses.com/mly-qp1.html
http://www.hardhats.4ursafety.com/hard-hat-flashlights.html

big_erb said:

You guys are right when stating that they wont be outside for LONG periods.. just enought to load the patients onto the planes..

Click to expand...

You're not using it outside for long time, so just insulate the light and it takes longer to cool down. Wrap a foam sleeve around a tubular light. Give preference to plastic body designs, they don't conduct heat away that quickly.

By the way, how do you turn the light on/off ? Wearing gloves ? If turning it on before going outside, you can fully sink it into a foam sleeve (sewn to a hat) so you don't have to access the switch. As the light will be running when taken outside, it keeps itself warm.

speed, and practicality are a big deal, due to time and safety.. Some of there guys have been flying up here for many years, and have tryed solutions already.. I was talking to a few of them, and told them I would throw it out on the forum, for a possible fab solution or a already manufactured light that would be more suited for this job..

Great brainstorming so far guys! thats whats great about this forum, and the people who are members of it! LOTS of creative juice flowing..

What about a headlamp style light that doesn't necessarily require a headband. Some come with a clip that can be attached to just about anything. Check out the the Petzl e+lite, and Inova 24/7


http://en.petzl.com/petzl/frontoffice/Sport/static/Services/ELITE/elite_video.htm
http://www.brightguy.com/images/bgimages/emi247.jpg

I have worked in -40 and worse, and it cannot be emphasised too much how quickly things cool down at those temperatures. It takes seconds for this to happen, not minutes. Things that aren't designed for those temperatures just go deep-frozen solid right before your eyes, and simply stop working. Camera film, for example, becomes as brittle as glass.

The light head itself will be OK exposed to this extreme cold, and so will the power lead to it if it is made of silicone rubber, but the battery MUST be kept not just insulated but heated. Insulation alone will not be enough, because you would have to put an impracticably heavy thickness of insulation round it.

The battery could be a small one, fitted inside the earpiece shell so heat from the head keeps it warm. The power lead from it could be a slender silicone rubber one, leading to the mic boom where the light head is attached. The on/off switch could be a rotary one mounted on the outside of the earpiece.

Alternatively, if the OP thinks this would be OK, Marduke's idea of mounting the light head on the earpiece instead of the boom, could work. Again though, the battery itself would have to be INSIDE the earpiece.

Sorry for repeating myself here: OP, please feel free to tell me to shut up if I am being a nuisance.

I'm a GA pilot. I have used Photon Freedoms in cockpits often. They can be found on line for $10-$15 easily.



They come in various colors; I use the red in the cockpit at night. I carry a white for charts; but heck, since GPS who uses charts anymore? For close range they are great. They dim nicely and use lithiums which will help a lot in the cold. For cockpit use I way prefer the "covert nose". Small enough to keep in a pocket which should also help with the cold/battery issue...