Possibly the cheapest 'caving' lamp out there

[glyders]

Just found this on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003IPGKI0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B003IPGKI0&linkCode=as2&tag=weblinks0a-21
It says it is waterproof and suitable for caving. At ?2.99 (down from ?24.99) there is obviously something wrong with it. On the other hand, it may be worth testing out for that price.  :-\

Anyone found any better 'deals'?

 

[simonsays]

Looks like the same sort of tat freely available from your local pound shop.

Would I potter round a camp site wearing one? Yes.

Would I take one underground as a main (or even a backup light)? Nope.

 

[Blakethwaite]

Must be pretty damn bright if its got 21 LEDs in it, my Sten only has two! 8)

 

[Ship-badger]

I had one of these, inherited from my late father-in-law. No use underground at all.

 

[glyders]

I hope no-one seriously thought I was going to use it as a main or backup (I'm a Duo man through and through). However I was vaguely thinking of some sort of test in real caving conditions to see just how well/badly it coped. Something along the lines of:
1 does it attach to a helmet and stay pointing in the right direction
2 is it bright enough
3 is the light diffuse enough
4 can it be operated with muddy, gloved hands
5 does it still work while/after standing under a waterfall
6 does it still work after you bang it against a lump of rock
7 can it run for 8hrs without running out of battery or overheating
8 does it still work when you pull it out of the kitbox to use the next month
9 does it cope with repeated instances of 4-6
Anyone have any other criteria for lamp testing?

I did also have a little concern that as it specifically says "suitable for caving" on the listing it might be rather misleading for someone buying with little experience.

 

[Burt]

I've seen these on the helmet of many a scout.
After a trip underground, I've also seen a few in the bin.

Campsite light? yes.
Get-you-out-of-the-poo-kept-in-the-car-for-emergencies? Yes.
Caving? No.

 

[simonsays]

Even driven moderately, its liable to be reasonably bright given that it has 21 5mm LED's. I'm assuming that it's powered by three AAA's so the brightness would probably fall off fairly rapidly. If it's anything like the pound shop version then it's likely to fall apart in your hands as you put the batteries in.

According to eBay, virtually all torches and headlights are suitable for caving ;-)

 

[bograt]

Must be pretty damn bright if its got 21 LEDs in it, my Sten only has two! 8)

Bit of difference between a 5mm bog standard LED and a Cree.
(Anyone know how many 5mm are equivalent to your "average" Cree?, Mr Fellows?, Mr Mike?)

 

[bograt]

According to eBay, virtually all torches and headlights are suitable for caving ;-)

They probably are, they'll get you in so far, they may not get you out again!!

 

[potholer]

Bit of difference between a 5mm bog standard LED and a Cree.
(Anyone know how many 5mm are equivalent to your "average" Cree?, Mr Fellows?, Mr Mike?)

Ignoring beamshape and just thinking of total output, as a rough guide, the best quality 5mm LEDs are in the 10lumen ballpark, possibly a bit more, if run at power levels which they should last a decent time at.

However, a 21x 5mm LED light is vanishingly unlikely to be using the best 5mm LEDs.
If anyone did make a light with 21 Nichia GSs (or whatever has now eclipsed them as the best), it's likely that they'd make sure they mentioned it, and unlikely they'd be selling it for ?3

Chances are the cheap 5mm-based lights are using LEDs which cost pennies, which may be reasonably bright, but with potentially very poor lifetimes at higher power levels*, though especially if using 3xAAA alkalines, it's quite possible that the light wouldn't spend much of its time running at a high power level.

I suppose someone could put 3x decent NiMH cells in, but that would more than double the value of the light.

(*That is, the LEDs 'wear out' and show a steadily declining output at a given power consumption just by being used at their supposed rated max power level, if run for long enough (often some hundreds of hours, but with some, rather less than that).)

 

[mrodoc]

Variations on a theme. Have several of these from eBay and they don't look much different.

 

[tony from suffolk]

i suspect it'll only be a matter of time before the Chinese produce a disposable LED head torch, fully sealed, which you just chuck away when the power supply runs out. Without the relative complication of needing to accommodate removable batteries it could be made for peanuts.

 

[AR]

My experience of those silver 3xAAA headlights is that they fall apart pretty quick, I wouldn't use one underground even as a back-up. Besides, why pay ?3 from Ebay when your local pound shop will sell you one no less crap for a third of that price?

 

[glyders]

They probably are, they'll get you in so far, they may not get you out again!!

 

[crickleymal]

I had a couple of "bike headlights" from a local cheap crap store. IIRC they were something like 46 LEDs. If you gutted them you could fit the LED PCB and reflector inside an Oldham headset. Mind you the chip powering the thing usually blows at this point so I rewired it to use dropper resistors. On a 4AH battery it would burn for something like 20 or 30 hours on full whack. However it was a bit like a carbide lamp, a nice wide beam but no great depth penetration (as it were).

 

[Roger W]

I remember seeing one such headlight - in Wilkinsons, I think it was - that actually boasted on the packaging that it didn't need a mains cable!

 

[glyders]

For some situations I am quite liking the idea of fully sealed disposable headtorches. I'm sure they could be made with a very long shelf-life given no chance of water entering. Something to leave at the bottom of a bag and forget about until an emergency.