the troglite

[oli]

My university club (and most of its members) needs lights. As allways we've been allocated aprox. 1/16th of the money we asked for, so the troglite is looking atractive. its not like we're off on major expeds, so we dont need anything like the scurion.

plus points=super cheap

down sides=no one we know has one.
                no revews online.
                bad feeling about the whole thing.

anyone care to give theire two cents?

 

[SamT]

http://www.troglite.co.uk/

how does it attach to the helmet??

 

[hrock]

fits to the helmet by the standard blade conecter commonly used by caves.

the ones i have seen  looked good enought for light caving

down sides i can see are if you knock it off you helmet (as standard)  it lands on the floor falls down the pich. so it might be good to try and find a way of backing it up so it just dangles in you face till you put it back on.

i dont think it has the quickest change but that is not too much of a problem

if you ever want to do longet trips you have to take two as the battertys cant be charged.

i did sugest then to suss when thay were looking for more lights but they disided against.

if you do get them can you let me know how they hold up to uni tretment (little mantiance and novice users)

 

[Joel Corrigan]

Not seen one in the flesh, as it were, but my opinion would be not to touch it with a barge pole for club use.  You need something robust & useful that will last more than a week.  Cardiff uni got hold of some second hand headsets (Ceags/Oldhams etc), some Petzl battery boxes to fit on the back of the helmets, and some M2 reflector units from Dave at Bisun.  You're potentially looking at around ?50-odd quid a unit and these will last for years.  I really think that your next generation of club cavers will not thank you if you buy crap......

 

[seddon]

Or just buy the Bisun, if you've not the time or inclination to make them up yourselves.

They're very good, and you'll get decent after sales service, and I reckon they're in your price range.

And no, I don't sell them, or get a commission....

 

[KevinR]

I bought a Troglite for my girlfriend, (I have a KSE) we've used it on a few trips now, and first impressions are very good. The main light provides a relatively narrow, long distance beam. (relative to my light), the "side light" is 6 LEDS which provide a great side light (much brighter than my single LED on the KSE). I think I could cave in many smaller caves just on the side light on the Troglite. It comes with a simple charger with the usual LED indicators, they are also about to launch a car charger. It has two mounting brackets on the light, not sure why, but seems a clever idea.
All in all a very good value, general purpose caving light! - who needs a Scurion anyway (rumour has it that a number of bulbs have blown as they get too hot)
Kevin

 

[commando49675]

I have a Troglite and cannot fault it. It attaches to a helmet via a standard blade (approx ?3.50). Mine took a few knocks on the last trip and didn't feel loose or give me cause for concern. If you were that worried you could always cable tie it on the same way back-ups are usually attached.

The light levels are very good with a simple push switch to change between the 2 modes. I was down for 5ish hours last trip with no loss of brightness. The manufacturer claims 14hrs, but I've yet to put that to the test! For 1 day trips underground what more do you need?? The new car charger will def be a winner as I'm more likely to have my car with me than find a socket in a cave!

Its sealed design means it won't fill with water and can be used when free diving sumps or climbing a waterfall. It has no battery pack making it very light... half the weight of a Petzl Duo14.

It looks and feels robust and I expect to be using it for years to come. If your uni group has concerns, order 1 and test it out before buying in bulk... I would suggest that for any kit. 

 

[wookey]

Mike Bedford has one of these and thus I have seen it in use. He likes it, but only because he likes the yellow of oldhams and the sidelight on this thing has amazingly yellow 'white' LEDs (and the worst beam-pattern I have ever seen in a caving light). It is possible that model details have chnged (like yellowness of the 6 secondary LEDs), but personally whilst it is a neat design I thought it was a nasty light. It is cheap though.

Like seddon I'd recommend a bisun to anyone on a budget and he'll do university clubs a deal. You'll get a really good light for a similar amount of money (but will have to sort out oldham cases to put them in, and batteries).

 

[Zig and Zag]

We recently bought two Trogs. We have only used them on a couple of short trips in Valley Entrance but they seem ok. The main advantages are they are lightweight, no cables & just clip on the helmet. They seem fairly robust but only time will tell that. The battery seems to last for hours & the recharging system was simple & worked well. Our old Kirby kidney packs may give a more powerful beam in big passages but the Trogs seem good for most trips. They would be good for group trips & certainly seem value for money assuming they are robust enough to survive rough & tumble of caving.

Zig & Zag

 

[Scurion]

...- who needs a Scurion anyway (rumour has it that a number of bulbs have blown as they get too hot)
Kevin

Please do not spread rumours Every Scurion? has a temperature control built in and the LED's (not bulbs) cannot get too hot.
Maybe you heard about lamps where the LED's got detatched from their sockets and therefore overheated. That happened indeed in some cases and therefore we decided to completely eliminate that risk by soldering the LED's instead of glueing them. That process was switched in November 2008 already...

 

[Bobble-Bouncer]

-Hi there, I saw this thread before I ordered my Troglite; I went ahead and bought one.

-I thought I should come back and comment because some users have said that it is not very good, I disagree.

-It seems to me that the users that own or have used a Troglite say it is very good but the people who don't say it is not, who to trust? I personally would go with the ones who have used it.

-I have done 3 trips, Goat-church (Mendips), Swildons round trip (Mendips) and East-water (Mendips).

-I charged it to full before going down any caves.

-Goat-church is a dry cave and we were down for roughly two and a half hours. The lamp was very good and took a little bashing, didn't seam to scratch too badly and certainly didn't come of the helmet at all.

-Swildons was very good, 4 ducts and sump #1, waterproof and very bright, we were down for 2 hours.

-I then charged it to full again.

-East-water was the longest trip; roughly five hours. It got wet again, didn't lose any power.

-For ?day caves? I would say this is an extremely good light.

-The side lights I think are very bright and could match the main beam on some lamps, the main beam really nice and focused.

-According to wookey; the light is yellow, but it is actually incredibly white, maybe ?Mike Bedford?s? Troglite is defected or different, I suggest that he return it to the seller and ask for a new one or for it to be fixed.

-Throughout my trip no brightness was lost. This was good because other lamps I have experienced lose power and brightness over the trip.

-Overall I also cannot fault this lamp aside from one point; the switch should be on the top when using the standard British clip, it is currently on the bottom and to turn it on and off whist it is clipped to the helmet is somewhat awkward, it is annoying, but not fatal.

Thanks

Bobble-Bouncer

 

[SamT]

I don't mean to sound too disagreeable, and I haven't seen one of these in the flesh.

But A WHOLE 3 TRIPS. wow. hardly grounds for a guarantee of robustness.

Wonder how many trips my 1980s Oldham headset has done  :-\
(and its only had 2 new lenses, 3 reflectors, 5 bezels and 1 switch  )

 

[tomlia]

These look good for a budget lamp!

http://www.caving-gear.co.uk/products_tn.asp?id=55

 

[Maggot]

The troglite looks like a clone of the Raptor but with an internal battery. Must say, it's not the most professional looking website I ever came across!

 

[ian.p]

I was given one of these lamps to test so for what its worth hear are my opinions on the lamp:

its plenty bright enough to cave on and has a good battery life for doing day trips in the UK.

it is quite robust and watertight i beleive it will take a good bashing theres no cable to snag and get loose conections with.

Yes i compleatly agree the switch is a pain in the arse as your thumb knuckle jams against your helmet when trying to opertated the switch and it is a very positive switch on the plus side i supose theres no chance of accidental operation!

The LED is quite coulered mine is very green i suspect theyre from a cheap bin so not teribly white i think the lamp would seem a lot brighter if whiter LEDs where used.

It is very cheap for a caving lamp and to a certain extent you have to bear in mind that you get what you pay for of course its not as polished as a scurion its a 5th of the price... I also think that its realy good to see somone working on making an afordable LED caving lamp which also happens to have lithium ion battery in it.

I would probably say itd make quite a reasnable Uni club light on the basis that its cheap and bright enough to be practicle whilst still being shit enough that secound years might actualy go out and buy there own lamp!

 

[SpeleoTrog]

Must say, it's not the most professional looking website I ever came across!

My son was given one of these lights for christmas. When he unwrapped it and was unable to switch it on, I looked at the unprofessional website and thought "That's that buggered then", especially since there was no phone number, address or even a proper email address, just a "Contact us" form. In fact I couldn't have been more wrong. I filled in the "contact us" form with a brief fault description on Boxing Day. Understandably there was some delay since they were closed for Christmas but a few days later I received an email giving the address to send it to. I sent it off, recorded, and then received an email as soon as it arrived saying that a replacement had been sent out that same day. No hassle, No quibbles and a much more helpful turn around than other suppliers charging much more and with much slicker looking websites. If the light turns out to be half as good as the customer service, we'll be more than happy.

In fact, the only proble we had was with Royal Mail who took 11 days to deliver something posted 1st class, Recorded Delivery!

 

[Daf]

I have one of these lamps, and am only adding my flobsworth because I was looking around to see if anyone else even knows these things exist!

They have four good points: They are cheap, compact and light with a reasonable main beam. In fact as much as I think mine is rubbish, I have to conceed that it is probably a good backup light for carrying in (but not at the bottom of) your bag in case of light failure / high speed frontal bat impact.

Apart from this the following limitations apply:
Annoying switch position (as mentioned elsewhere) and stupid tamper proof screws on the bracket that stop you fixing the problem
Thin flimsy bracket blade that makes the thing fall off all the time and
Falls off and away because there is no way of properly tying it to your helmet or getting at it's gubbins to fettle a solution
No way of changing the battery if you're not near a charger
flimsy plastic oval lens
the sidelights seem to draw more power than the main beam
its about as robust as papier mache, but I suppose it won't smash too badly when it plummets down a pitch (mine did survive a small fall) seeing as it is very light
it sits at a funny angle on the bracket which is excellent for those long hours you want to spend inspecting your feet (that might just be with Caving Supplies protex helmets though in fairness.

Anyhow, I bought one of these in November after my old lamp had an argument with my soldering iron, I took it down a very wet Craig-ar-Ffynnon rescue, it blinked a bit and the switch was unusable with cold wet hands, I charged it for a couple of hours the next day then took it down Easter Cave and Foel Fawr on my way home, it blinked a bit more and the sidelights would only work if I aroused the switch enough by flicking it on and off in quick succession, took it home, charged it for 16 hours. I have taken it underground a few times since, and have had it out and about in the mountains, its performance is ok, nothing great and when the charge goes it goes out without any warning, then you have to crawl home in the dark and find a friendly plug socket.

Over all, disappointing, but what did I expect, it was cheap. I have now invested in a second hand Nova and have brought my old lamp back to life so now have more lights than I can shake three sticks at.

Oli, don't buy these as the main lights for your club, I'd follow Joel's suggestion, also gives your club members the opportunity to get to know how their kit works and discuss its merits while you use them as a light producing sweatshop - lock them in until all the lights are done! It may seem like a good idea to take them to the pub to make in a happy and sociable atmosphere - this is the way to the dark side, or, at least the side of intermittent lighting...

 

[Peter Nolan]

Being part of the TROG brand it's probably not appropriate (or worthwhile) for me to comment on how good this light is.
Obviously I think it's pretty good.

However, I thought I should point out that we have added a loop to the bracket so it can be securely attached to helmets using a bit of cord or something.

I used mine on a helmet that had an old style lamp bracket bolted to it last year and it did seem worthwhile to tie it on. I'll point out though, that it didn't fall off.
On the TROG HAT I sometimes don't bother to tie it on as it's pretty secure but there's still the option if you like.