Petzl Myo XP - any good for caving?

[Charlie]

Do *any* [commercial] headtorches (not 'caving lights') give the option of spot and flood at the same time?

no, except for the spill around a spot beam

or the new petzl ultra!

 

[potholer]

:

Do *any* [commercial] headtorches (not 'caving lights') give the option of spot and flood at the same time?

Yes! Most decent lamps do, Oldhams are well known for having a tight spot and good spill, the scurion has both a spot led and wide led, the stenlight can have a tight lense and a wide lense etc etc etc. The MYO to achive its 'brightness' uses a single lense to provide a spot only option, a flip down diffuser makes that wide, killing the spot.

Some people might think having a choice between spot *or* spill is better than having them effectively linked as in a Sten, or an Oldham's main beam.
For a headtorch, (as for a caving light) a spot can be a pain for close-up use.

 

[darkplaces]

Yeah this is true. I'll just switch off my spot and put my wide on on my scurion.

 

[cap n chris]

A full moon is brighter than street lamps* which seem perfectly common in areas where people live, presumably since they are used to enable people to see where they are going.

* Check it out if you don't believe me. Wander around lit streets during a full moon and you'll notice that the moonlight actually casts shadows of the lamp posts on top of the lighting provided by the lamps themselves.

 

[ian.p]

As I said... 16hrs so far

and myos will burn for 32 houres without having to recharge the batterys.

My hatred of plastic, it breaks when the shit hits the fan

and as i keep on pointing out some of the most robust lamps on the market are made out of plastic infact the vast majority of lamps that i can think of are.

ive droped my myo down a 10m pitch (due to being a plonker) it survived compleatly undamiged the weaknes of the myo is the cable not the headset.

 

[Christian_Chourot]

A full moon is brighter than street lamps* which seem perfectly common in areas where people live, presumably since they are used to enable people to see where they are going.

* Check it out if you don't believe me. Wander around lit streets during a full moon and you'll notice that the moonlight actually casts shadows of the lamp posts on top of the lighting provided by the lamps themselves.

That doesn't actually mean that moonlight is brighter than street lamps. Think about it.

Light is addative. The street light doesn't get out of the way to make way for the bright moonlight, the moonlight just makes the bright areas brighter and doesn't reach the part shaded by the lamp which is close to the ground and gives a sharply focused shadow.

Take this example: I just cast a shadow of a lamp containining a 40 w florescent bulb using my crappy doctors pen torch which has 1AA powering a tiny incandescent bulb. Which do you think is brighter?

edit: In fact, I just cast a "shadow" of the bulb itself on the inside of the shade.

 

[Hammy]

I have several times defended the use of 'less robust' lighting options for caving in selected venues and I have at last had a failure!

I foolishly lent my selection of headtorches to a bunch of scallies I had the misfortune to be working with while on an overnight bivouac in a cave. The horrors managed to lose one of my Tikka XP's and pull the cable out of the headset of one of my Myo XP's. Still you live and learn.

(PS before I get taken to task for having them (the scallies) in a cave in the first place I should point out that it was really no more than a quarried rock shelter and the rock was slate not limestone!)

 

[cap n chris]

A full moon is brighter than street lamps* which seem perfectly common in areas where people live, presumably since they are used to enable people to see where they are going.

* Check it out if you don't believe me. Wander around lit streets during a full moon and you'll notice that the moonlight actually casts shadows of the lamp posts on top of the lighting provided by the lamps themselves.

That doesn't actually mean that moonlight is brighter than street lamps. Think about it.

Light is addative. The street light doesn't get out of the way to make way for the bright moonlight, the moonlight just makes the bright areas brighter and doesn't reach the part shaded by the lamp which is close to the ground and gives a sharply focused shadow.

Take this example: I just cast a shadow of a lamp containining a 40 w florescent bulb using my crappy doctors pen torch which has 1AA powering a tiny incandescent bulb. Which do you think is brighter?

edit: In fact, I just cast a "shadow" of the bulb itself on the inside of the shade.

Yes; yes, I see.  :bow:

 

[tony from suffolk]

Yeah bright! I hate seeing stuff, its over rated. I love to feel my way round instead, I can make out a crane and a crab-winch by feel and the writing on the wall well its amazing the old miners used brail and calcite formations feel better then they look...

I agree! Except once I was caving with this young lady....

If you can lie down and be able to see your toes with a Petzl Myo XP then I would say it must be a bloody good light.

Either that or you have lost some weight since your avatar picture!

OK Elaine, at this point I'll come clean and confess the avatar photo ISN'T REALLY ME!! I've been living a big lie!! Oh god, I feel so cheap!

Anyway. I was very impressed by the light given out by the Myo during my brief ramblings with my dogs last night, although the little "Boost" button doesn't do a great deal really. I'm now looking forward to the luxury of not having a heavy battery box dragging down on my hips & jamming in crawls.

 

[clunk]

Are they any good for caving?

I think so. I love mine. Got a second as a spare as well.

 

[kay]

I've got an old Myo (don't think it's XP)  - central light and 5 LEDs - which at the moment isn't working. I've cleaned the obvious contacts to no effect, but getting it into bits and looking at all the deeper bits is probably beyond my area of competence and certainly more than I can be bothered with. If anyone wants it, either to get it working or for bits, you're welcome.

 

[tony from suffolk]

Sorry to resurrect this topic again, but I'm foolishly considering going down a cave next week and was wondering if said Myo XP will survive the two-minute submersion necessary to pass sump one in Swildon's (well, that's how long it appeared to take Kate Humble).

 

[darkplaces]

people like LesW and Cap 'n Chris do it all the time.

(Take a waterproof backup with up)

 

[Les W]

people like LesW and Cap 'n Chris do it all the time.

Dry it out fairly promptly after the trip and you should have no problems. 

If you are lazy (like me) and put it away wet, the heatsink inside will rust and eventually the rust particles make their way onto the circuit board and short the pins on the chip. Symptoms are incorrect switching or light always on. If this happens then take the light apart (Torx T6) and brush the contamination off of the circuit board with a dry toothbrush. Normal service should be resumed.

I have been using mine for 4 years now with very little problems and have only had to clean the circuit board twice. 

 

[tony from suffolk]

Thanks for the excellent advice folks! Naturally, I'll have my faithful tallow candle as backup illumination...

 

[tony from suffolk]

I finally managed to try out the Myo on a rather brief trip in Swildon's. My caving companion couldn't make it so I decided on a quick solo trip in the upper series.

Off I trolled, ammo tin in hand with spare light within. I kept the light on beam, and as I fell off the slab on the first drop in the wet way I was impressed with the way the light stayed put on my helmet. As my head smashed into the walls and I bounced around like a demented pinball, I was reassured to note the light appeared undamaged, a good test of its durability.

As I laid on the jaggy boulder floor staring upward and paralysed with pain, the light made a good fist of illuminating the chamber. Once I'd established my neck wasn't broken I managed to grovel out of the water, which had meanwhile nicely tested the headset's water resistance.

It's certainly a very bright beam. Because I'd injured my wrist I didn't feel inclined to flip up the diffuser. Using this beam I was able to notice the simple bypass to the slab climb, which in my excitement I'd completely forgotten about on my speedy descent. How I laughed!

Anyway, I got out eventually and managed to struggle over to the car. Luckily I just cut my arm, sprained my wrist and left foot & torn my knee ligaments. The light's a good bit of kit though!

 

[NigR]

I bought one of these just over two years ago and had been using it on a regular basis ever since, mainly as a head-torch for walking in the dark. I had not used it as a main caving lamp (and would have been a bit wary of doing so) but it had been inside a few easy entrances and been used for shining down the occasional surface dig. Overall, it had been very gently treated.

About a month ago it suddenly malfunctioned, the only warning sign being that the main beam started flashing even with new batteries (it normally does this when the batteries need replacing). It then stopped working completely, just totally died - no light at all, nothing. Most worryingly, the batteries got very, very hot (too hot to touch) very, very quickly (so I removed them, sharpish).

Anyway, I took it back to Up and Under in Cardiff (point of purchase) and they sent it back to Lyon Equipment who promptly replaced it (less than a week) with a new one (the upgraded model) under the terms of the 3 year guarantee.

So full marks for customer service but to answer the original poster's question - any good for caving? - I would say no, definitely not.

 

[cap n chris]

Beg to differ: you cite three caving trips. Your description of the MYO failure also sounds like it had got wet while in use and you had not dried it out.

MYOs with several hundred caving trips including sump dives (although the light is not supposed to be waterproof) are still going strong: the secret? - dry them out afterwards.

 

[graham]

I finally managed to try out the Myo on a rather brief trip in Swildon's. My caving companion couldn't make it so I decided on a quick solo trip in the upper series.

Off I trolled, ammo tin in hand with spare light within. I kept the light on beam, and as I fell off the slab on the first drop in the wet way I was impressed with the way the light stayed put on my helmet. As my head smashed into the walls and I bounced around like a demented pinball, I was reassured to note the light appeared undamaged, a good test of its durability.

As I laid on the jaggy boulder floor staring upward and paralysed with pain, the light made a good fist of illuminating the chamber. Once I'd established my neck wasn't broken I managed to grovel out of the water, which had meanwhile nicely tested the headset's water resistance.

It's certainly a very bright beam. Because I'd injured my wrist I didn't feel inclined to flip up the diffuser. Using this beam I was able to notice the simple bypass to the slab climb, which in my excitement I'd completely forgotten about on my speedy descent. How I laughed!

Anyway, I got out eventually and managed to struggle over to the car. Luckily I just cut my arm, sprained my wrist and left foot & torn my knee ligaments. The light's a good bit of kit though!

Best trip report I've ever read. 

 

[graham]

Beg to differ: you cite three caving trips. Your description of the MYO failure also sounds like it had got wet while in use and you had not dried it out.

MYOs with several hundred caving trips including sump dives (although the light is not supposed to be waterproof) are still going strong: the secret? - dry them out afterwards.

Agree with Chris. Your description of its use would hardly count as caving. I won't speculate on the cause of failure but it would seem to have little to do with caving as such.