The new Petzl Tikka

Has anyone tried the new Tikka 3-LED headlamp from Petzl?

I was very impressed with the unit I tested (or more accurately, am testING).

On used batteries (used ~1.5 to 2.0 hours) it is still slightly brighter than a white Photon II with brand spanking new batteries which I am comparing it with as I type this.

The tiny 3-LED light uses 3 AAA cells, and is supposed to provide light for 150 hours.
The first 12 at near-full intensity, another 24 usable as a tent or indoors illuminator, and the remainder of the 150 hours usable as a hands-free reading light.
You can also buy red & green lenses for it for special applications.

I have to complete my tests, but some initial results are up.

Also, has anybody tried a Bonfire LED tent light by CMG?
I got one of those things too, and it performed pretty much as advertised.

I posted some initial results for both lights on my website.
By initial, I mean I have not yet completed testing and have not yet rated the products.
http://ledmuseum.home.att.net


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Hi telephony (Craig!?)

Petzl Tikka looks interesting but I don't have one yet.

About the Bonfire, I like the brightness of the 3 leds, sufficient for room or tent light.

The things I wish they'll improve on are;
1. Housing un-necessarily bulky. Lots of unused space inside the housing.
2. Top rubber cap with battery contacts does not fit or close top properly. Peels off easily. If you drop the flashlight top rubber cover and batteries fly off the housing. Also try inserting the light into your backpack full of other stuffs (or jeans pocket) and then take it out, rubber top cap is separated from the housing.
3. Lanyard does not hook well into the cutout and pushes the rubber top rubber cap off the housing.
4. Not water-proof or at least water-resistant
5. LED plastic frosted cover not tightly fitted to the housing.

It is advertized as an outdoor or camping light but its contruction is not robust enough for outdoor or camping use.

Comparison shot of KRILL extreme 180 green and Bonfire


Bonfire Lights Off


Bonfire Lights On


Circuit Board Front


Circuit Board Back


Parts




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2d_edge

Craig et-al,

I got a Petzl Tikka today. First impression - way too cool. Very compact and very bright.

My first test of any headlamp is to see how well it fits on my climbing helmet and also see how much light spills into my rx glasses. Taking my dog for a walk in the neighborhood park (thru the dark sections of course) let me evaluate the brightness in an urban environment. Pretty good. I would rate it just as good as my eternalight and equivalent to my home-made headlamp with 4 4000mcd Nichia diodes. I am very pleased.

There was a little spilled light into my rx glasses which is only slightly distracting. Because the tilt angle is fixed, this is easily fixed by moving the lamp a little bit up on my head or by wearing a hat or helmet.

Next test coming up - hit the trails and do a bit of rock climbing with it in the middle of the night. And if I am lucky (which means some poor sole isn't) I will use it soon on a night-time mountain rescue call (which if statistics hold for my team, should be within a week or two).

I have no doubt that this will be one great headlamp.

I see somebody here disembowelled their Bonfire for the sake of the camera.

I didn't have to do that to mine - a simple fall from 3.5" (around belly button height) onto carpet was all it took to destroy my evaluation sample. From what I can determine, the battery contacts deep inside became deformed, and can no longer apply tension to the batteries.

Looks like I'll have to "finish it off" in order to repair it. A plastic tit in back of each spring is preventing me from re-forming them by pushing a screwdriver through the light's business end.

For those interested in the horror story, go to http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/bon1.htm and scrolling to the last third or so of the page where the latest results are.

As far as the Tikka, I haven't had the opportunity to test it any further since I've been busy with the web and getting my new wheelchair set up to my liking.
The next time I'm prowling around at night, it will come along for the ride and my review of the product can continue.
From what I initially experienced and from initial reports I've seen though, I expect that I'll be issuing some high marks for this light.

(Postscript: I botched the URL of my Bonfire review - let's see if this edit fixed it)

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net


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<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by telephony on 11-20-2000 at 10:09 PM</font>

The new Petzl Tikka sounds nice!. I was about to purchase a Princeton Tech Matrix which also has the versatility to change out the head assembly for standard lamps.
Does anyone have any experience with this light? How would they compare?

Thanks for any feedback!

Dave

the Tikka is quite light weight. It is worn on a 'single strap' headband, (no over-the-head band) and you can forget it's there it's so light..it's a little difficult getting that third aaa battery in near the hinge, to sit snug.. (it is possible to install it wrong and think you have shut the case properly, but you don't, and then have a problem getting it to work right..) - but you get the hang of it after a few tries..One solution to this hinge problem is to pull the case halves apart so you have maximum length of 'hinge' material pulled out to fold around the battery, as you snap the case shut..(make sure the edges are tight all around)

I got my Petzl Tikka couple days ago and about two hours into the first set of battery; I noticed one of the LED looking yellowish and not as bright as the rest. Is this a starting sign of LED failure or just miss matching of LED at the factory?

Thanks for any info

Here is an idea for the Tikka that I will pass along to Petzl.

I have not dismantled mine completely because I usually just regret doing things like that in the future. But, I have removed the front lense (plastic cover) for the headlamp to clean it.

It might be feasisble to put in a focusing lense cover much like the PAL or Brinkmann so that the user could switch between flood and narrow beam. It may not be a pretty looking beam but for longer distance illumination, it may work. Maybe a slip over lense so that one would not have to remove the built in lense cover.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MHLee:
I got my Petzl Tikka couple days ago and about two hours into the first set of battery; I noticed one of the LED looking yellowish and not as bright as the rest. Is this a starting sign of LED failure or just miss matching of LED at the factory?

Thanks for any info <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You know, it *really* sounds like one of the LEDs is pooping out. They aren't supposed to do that, but no LED manufacturer can produce 100.00% perfect batches of LEDs - a few pissy ones will still show up in any given batch.

If it gets much dimmer or even goes out while the other two are still lit (let the batteries go to pot to find this out), then you should return it to Petzl, explaining the problem ("one LED dims or goes out well before the others") and I bet you'll get a brand new light in return.

An LED behaving that way was probably "zapped" by a static charge during the assembly process and thus damaged at the subatomic level. Dimming or going completely out while others in the same circuit stay lit is a cardinal sign of this type of failure.

As for an update to my Tikka review, I haven't yet done it. Been extremely busy over here - still recovering from the "slashdot effect" which some of you may already be familiar with.

I can say though, I "modified" my Tikka to serve me better. Since I do not do caving or rock climbing, I detached the headband and attached the Tikka to the steering tiller of my wheelchair to use as a headlamp for terrorizing the bars at night with.

When used in this fashion, it outperforms other LED flashlights I've mounted on my console in the same manner, plus it actually looks *good* to boot.

Eventually, this modification will be permanent - fastening the Tikka to the wheelchair with Velcro hook & loop fasteners will enable me to use it both as a headlamp and a handheld light. For this evaluation period, it is simply held in place with vinyl tape through the headband slots.

For the curious among you, I photographed the thing as mounted to my chair and will post it here.


http://ledmuseum.home.att.net

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<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by telephony on 11-20-2000 at 09:57 PM</font>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by telephony:
console in the same manner, plus it actually looks *good* to boot.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This made me think a little. It kind of looks like something out of the pilot series for Star Trek, you know, the ones with Captain Pike...

Anyway, it looks good on your chair Craig. Good idea on the velcro. I may have to do this with mine on my climbing helmet.

Did some more in-field testing with it last Friday. Nice hard snow storm - it performed really well. Compared it to a Princeton Tec Matrix (with less than new batteries) and the Petzl kicked butt. My only worry is water getting into the switch.

I have also bugged Eveready about making Lithium AAA 1.7V batteries. That would make the Tika a really good cold weather performer.