They have relatively inexpensive LED lights with headbands at WalMart in the sporting goods section. Run about 50+ hours on 3 AAA batteries. I use then at one shop I do work for that, apparently, doesn't believe in lighting around the machines.
JohnF
Not always, however. I was working in a dark corner of the factory I was in -- under the last in a row of trailers for 18-wheel rigs. Where I was there was a connector panel facing down with something like 64 MS series connectors plugged into it. I had to interchange two wires on one specific connector -- solder terminal version, so no pin removal and insertion tools -- just a soldering iron.
So -- I was under there, with a trouble light and the soldering iron plugged into the extension running off to somewhere. The soldering iron was warming up, and I was trying to unscrew the ring on the right connector to get it down where I could work on it. The trouble light seemed rather bright, but it was a very dark area, so I just figured it was a matter of relativity -- until the bulb burned out, and I could almost read by the soldering iron. :-) It turns out that the extension was connected to 240VAC, not the 120VAC which the connectors on it would suggest.
*No* incandescent trouble light bulb lasts long on double voltage. :-)In case anyone cares -- the company was making "portable" flight simulators for sub-hunting helicopters for the Navy. Three portable ones (six trailer rigs), and one for installation within a building. Really early in the use of minicomputers for this sort of thing, and gazillions of wires in cables connecting the computer and analog stuff to the second trailer which had the cockpit, the instructor's console, and the sonor room from the tail of the 'copter. These days, almost all of that from the first trailer could be squeezed into a PC with a few special interface cards and lots of software. This thing took three phase power fed by 4/0 cables. :-)
As for the best trouble light that I ever got -- it is one with a short straight length of power cord, which goes into a lump about
3x3x4", and then turns into a coiled cord until it gets to the trouble light, which is a plastic cylinder, with a fluorescent lamp and a starter inside it, with a slip-on yellow rubber boot at the power cord end, and another one with a hook at the far end. I still have the same lamp in it, and have been using it on and off since about 1976 when I got it. The only switch is the power plug.To that, I've added another fluorescent trouble lamp, with the cord in a spring-loaded reel which mounts on the wall, and a switch under a rubber dome on the end with the hooks (which in this case are made of wire wrapped around a turn and a half and formed into hooks.
I don't have as many years of use on that one, but it has been very nice to use when I have needed it. It came from an MSC flyer a few years ago.
Enjoy, DoN.
I use an LED head light just bout daily
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
That looks like the $12.99 special (odd name) at Bi-Mart. I like the red LED idea to retain your night vision.
What'd you pay/where? The one listed at Wally World's website is $16.68 and has krypton and 2 LEDs, no red.
Those are better than no light, but two LED's don't produce much light and 3 AAA's are kinda heavy and bulky for a head-mounted light. Best feature is low price.
I think the "ideal" head light would use a single Luxeon and a single lithium 123 cell -- which costs about the same as three alky AAA's if you buy them a dozen at a time from Surefire. It would be adjustable in power from 2-LED dim (for max battery life) to full brightness which is about 10X that for when you really need some serious light.
Battery life at WOT would vary from about 6 hours at WOT to about 60 hours in "glimmer" mode which would still be brighter than the 2-LED jobs when their batteries are fresh. Brightness would be constant (as set) throughout battery life. Battery weight would be half that of 3 AAA's, bulk would be somewhat less than 3 AAAs.
The same basic 3-volt light could also run from 2 AAA's (different package design) if universal battery availability were a concern. Battery life would be about the same, perhaps slightly less.
AFAIK, nobody makes a light like this -- yet. Consumers seem to buy price, often without regard to performance.
If I worked under hoods or in other dark places every day, I'd surely have built one like this by now. There are Luxeon-based head lights, but they're not dimmable, they have too concentrated a "spot" for close task use, and I know of none that use a single 123 cell. I'm still working on the elex for such a light. COSMOS has very good 3-volt elex in their single-123 luxeon flashlights, but I don't know how they work.
I used Terralux TLE-5 elex in the 3-volt head lights I made for myself and Fitch, but I changed the Luxeons from side-shooter to Lambertian for close task flood illumination. They work well, but they're not dimmable. They would run off a single 123, presently run off a pair of AA's because that's what fit in the HF package I used.
IRRC I got it at Big 5.
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
The unit I linked provides MONDO light, both in its white and red modes.
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
MONDO apparently converts to 5.6 candela.
A 1-watt Luxeon light with a beamwidth of 30 degrees included angle produces about 210 candela at rated power -- about 37.5 MONDO. It would produce 1 MONDO running at about 2.5% of rated output.
I just stopped there today to pick up a $15 tactical light. BRIGHT (62 lumen) Krypton bulb, aluminum case, tactical switch, variable focus, 110 minutes on a pair of CR123A lithiums.
Ouch! $10 for a pair of those batteries at Wally World. I found the little HF headlamps on sale about 5 years ago and just picked up a couple more of them when they went on 2/$5 sale last spring. They work fine for most stuff (in the attic, under the truck, under the sink, finding the faucet to turn off the sprinkler hose in the dark.) The AA batts in those last a good long while and are a lot cheaper, but now I have a good tactical which I can keep with the P-11.
Hmmm,
- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened. ---
Those same batteries are available from Surefire for $15/doz + $4.99 S&H.
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
Mondo means I could back up a flat bed truck and trailer with a backhoe on it 1/2 mile out of a dead end canyon on a moonless night after the lighting system failed.
Shrug. Thats good enough for me.
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
Excellent. Thanks, Don. I picked up several white LEDs and haven't yet experimented with them. I suppose Lithiums would be a good power source for those, too.
- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened. ---
Shipping from Hong Kong isn't cheap. $0.01 + $11.99 s/h for batteries or $0.02 + £8.00 for the light.
The batteries are a good deal if they're quality products, but this review shows them at the bottom of the list!
I think I'll go with the SureFires, 4x the lifetime and only $19.99/doz delivered from a U.S. source.
- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened. ---
Golly! Using mirrors?
Ayup. I put that head band on the backhoe as the backup light.
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
Yes.
You'll need a dropping resistor (or elex) to limit LED current. A nice thing about lithiums is that their voltage doesn't droop over life nearly as much as alkies do. Alkies go from 1.5 to 0.8 volts per cell. CR123's go from 3 volts to 2.5 volts at about 90% depeleted, to 2 volts in the last 10% of life.
White LED's typically run somewhere around 3.4 volts, so you'll need two 123's. They'll then droop from 6 volts new to about 5 volts nearly gone. Resistor voltage (hence current) goes from 2.6 to 1.47, a change of about 38%. WIth 3 alkies, voltage goes from 4.5 volts to 2.4 volts -- but the light goes dark at 3.4 volts (1.13 volts per cell) so you discard batteries that are only a bit over 1/2 depleted when the light has diminished from full brightness to no brightness during that time.
That's how some flashlight mfrs get their lifetime claims with alkies. They may produce light for xx hours, but it will be significantly less than half output for most of those xx hours. With 3 AAA's (and resistor current limiting) you're down to half output (and half drain) at 1.31 volts per cell which is only about
25% depleted, down to 25% when the batteries are about 39% depleted, and so on.White LED's (other than Luxeons and a couple of others) are typically rated to run at somewhere between 20 mA and 50 mA. Overdriving them just shortens their life, which may be acceptable. They'll still last much longer than incandescant bulbs. If you want to run several LED's, each should ideally have its own dropping resistor for operation from a 6-volt source or less. Some flashlights just rely on the internal resistance of alkie cells -- so lithiums may overdrive the hell out of them.
For 2 CR123's and 50mA per LED, a 51ohm resistor is about right. For 100 mA per LED, about 27 ohms is about right.
There's a shit-simple elex circuit (about 3 bux worth of parts) that can supply dead flat current (constant brightness) over battery lifetime -- and it could drive several LED's in parallel if they were fairly well-matched in forward voltage drop. Email me for details if interested. It's also on the web somewhere.
Check out one of those 3W luxeon lights to go with your P-11. A
3-watt Luxeon puts out about 60 lumens, comparable to your tactical krypton light -- and the bulb won't ever burn out. Some Krypton bulbs last about 10 hours -- the bulb, not the batteries!Have fun!
Sharper Image have a LED light with a claimed 82 lumen output. I saw it today while browsing around the mall (back-to-school shopping time). Looks like a single LED. It is SERIOUSLY bright - don't shine it in your eyes! I was blind in one eye for a few minutes....
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