LED nirvana

[Cave_Troll]

Is it just me or are we getting greedy with light?
In the old days you had a filament bulb running at (i've no real idea) a couple of watts ? It gave out an orange glow and drained the battery.
Then we got LEDs. WOW we said, much more efficient gives out a bit less light, but we can put 5 of them in 1 headset and the battery lasts for ages, bye bye carbide.
now we're talking about LEDs running at huge wattages. yes we can blind all our colleagues and see for 5 miles but, surprise suprise the batteries don't last. do we really need all this light?
REMINDER: there are several reasons we don't cave with car headlight brightness lighting devices.

Stop being so greedy, i don't want to have to wear dark glasses underground

 

[Brains]

As I have often told people, shining your main light in my face will cause you a headache :evil:

 

[Roger W]

I suppose as the available lighting gets brighter, most people will want brighter and brighter lamps until caving gets like going for walk in the sunshine?

I remember long ago when guided tours in the Rutland and Masson caves at Matlock were done by candlelight - an unforgettableexperience!

Wasn't it H E Balch (Mendips, last century) who was in favour of candles for caving as they "cast no treacherous shadows"?

Not exactly waterproof, though.

 

[martinr]

Wasn't it H E Balch (Mendips, last century) who was in favour of candles for caving as they "cast no treacherous shadows"?

to which the traditional reply was always "because they give no useful light"

 

[martinr]

Wasn't it H E Balch (Mendips, last century) who was in favour of candles for caving as they "cast no treacherous shadows"?

to which the traditional reply was always "because they give no useful light"

 

[martinr]

Wasn't it H E Balch (Mendips, last century) who was in favour of candles for caving as they "cast no treacherous shadows"?

to which the traditional reply was: "for they give no bloody light!".

Balch's comment was made as late as 1948 (!) in his revision of "Mendip, Its Swallet Caves and Rock Shelters". The full quote (on p10) is: "Candles are by common consent the most dependable illuminant as they cast no treacherous shadows, though electric torches are a good standby in... emergencies"

 

[Roger W]

I'm afraid I'm right out of touch with what is available in the UK (been out here for a few years now) but have noticed quite a lot of small LED torches on the market here recently. Pretty solid construction, steel tubing, about 9.5 cm long and 3 cm diameter. Rubber switch button at one end, and 9 LEDs behind glass at the other. Reasonable light for 3 hours or so on 4 "Fu Tou super heavy duty" AAA cells, and still giving out enough light to see by after 7 hours - though I doubt it would cast many treacherous shadows by that stage! Looks fairly waterproof - I dunked it in my cup of tea - and robust.

Cost - about 2 pounds each.

 

[Roger W]

Aiya! I can't count.. Only 3 x AAA cells, not 4. And the thing kept shining from 9:00 a.m right through to midnight, when the wife told me to switch the thing off and come to bed. Switched it on this morning and it's still shining.

Some of you folk must be thinking "This poor guy is incredibly sad, sitting there all day watching an LED torch slowly fade!"

Well, I guess so. But I'm a long, long way from Derbyshire (where I was born) and Yorkshire (where my home has been for more than thirty years) and the only place underground I can conveniently go at the moment is the car park under our housing complex - and that's lit with fluorescent lights. And I've never had one of these LED thingys before (Balch's preferred illuminant is more up to my standard of technology!).

Thanks for letting me come underground with you, even if it is only in a virtual sort of way.

 

[NZcaver]

Does anyone have a Princeton Tec Apex? Is it available in the UK yet? :?:



The Apex has received so much praise here in the US (from cavers and non-cavers alike), that I decided to get one. Great headlamp! It has a blazing 3 watt high beam (switchable high/low), and 4 REALLY bright "regular" LEDs (also switchable) for good proximity lighting - which cavers tend to use the most. It's current-regulated, and gets great battery life. It uses 4 AAs, and has a little battery level indicator LED that doubles as a find-me-in-the-dark blinker. It's also fairly compact, robust, and waterproof to 1 metre. PT guarantees it for 10 years when it's bought outside the US (lifetime guarantee in the US). The Apex retails for about $75 in the US, but you can also find them on line a bit cheaper. Well worth the money!

Here's PTs website - http://www.princetontec.com/

And here are 2 independant reviews on the Apex -
http://www.trailspace.com/gear/princeton-tec/apex/review/7404/
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/pt_apex.htm

It was also discussed on the NSS caving forum in the US - http://www.caves.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=600

(No - Princeton Tec doesn't pay me to say this. I'm just another caver who's a hopeless gear junkie...) :wink:

 

[Rob]

I know two people who have tried these out on expeditions in the last few months. One was completely submerged in a river and filled with water. The other was rained on quite regularly and had to be taken apart and dried out 5 times in 4 weeks. Works alright still, just have to take it apart quite a lot!

 

[NZcaver]

I know two people who have tried these out on expeditions in the last few months. One was completely submerged in a river and filled with water. The other was rained on quite regularly and had to be taken apart and dried out 5 times in 4 weeks. Works alright still, just have to take it apart quite a lot!

Hmmm - good to know. The waterproofness rating on the Apex is 1 metre for 30 minutes, so if your first example was dunked deep I can understand it filling up. The other example - well if that happens to me, I'll be demanding a new one under warranty. :evil:

Unfortunately, there's no wet (or even cold) caves to try it in for, uh, THOUSANDS of miles. I'm living in Hawaii right now. Perhaps there's some underwater caves around, but I'm not going there. In the meantime, I could do a bathtub/shower/tropical lagoon test on mine... :wink:

 

[rhychydwr1]

Lidl are selling 4 sizes of torches, all with LEDs for £5.00 each. You will need two Terry clips if you want to fit them to a caving helmet

 

[AndyF]

Lidl are selling 4 sizes of torches, all with LEDs for £5.00 each. You will need two Terry clips if you want to fit them to a caving helmet

Oh cool, they sold somelast year but they went out of stock.... They were well made IIRC...

 

[potholer]

I'll check out my local Lidl, though they often don't seem to carry a good range of the non-food stuff.