I was given a Tekka head light. It has a strap that goes around your head. At first, I didn't like the type of light it gave off, but have becomed used to it. It has three settings of brightness, and one that flashes.
I love it in that both hands are free. I use it a lot camping to light up what is just in front of me. If you shine it directly into someone's eyes, you are in control ....... a good thing with an intruder.
The flashy thing is fun, too.
I still use flashlights for things, but I like this headband light.
Not a good thing...folks tend to shoot directly at the light.
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
They're usually "flyback" converters. Low voltage is applied to an inductor, building up some current. Then the source is abrubtly disconnected by a transistor. Inductive "kick" produces a higher voltage that is routed thru a diode (electronic checkvalve) to the load.
A rough mechanical analog might be a hammer. Mathematically, velocity is analogous to current and force or pressure is analagous to voltage. F= MA, A is acceleration or rate of change of velocity, E = L di/dt E is voltage, L is inductance, di/dt is rate of change of current.
Some force accelerates the hammer to some velocity over a period of time. Then the hammer strikes an object which tries to rapidly reduce velocity. Result is much higher force being exerted on the object than was ever applied to the hammer.
Ah, but something you FORGOT to put into your equation is the HUGE number of batteries the standard bulb will go though while the LEDS quitely keep their 114 Lumen glow going for ages.
One important difference between the two.... the LEDS put all of their light up close... 10'-15', and then fade off fast while bulbs will shine 100'+, so LEDS are only good if you're using the light around you but THAT LIGHT is twice or three times as good as the bulb for lighting.
LED's are not yet all that much more efficient in lumens per watt than xenon or quartz-halogen. Maybe two or three times in some cases, , not more. Some LED flashlight mfrs specify max brightness and total battery life, neglecting to say that a good part of that battery life is at significantly diminished brightness.
Not true. A Luxeon in a Maglite reflector throws a tight beam that will easily reach out 150 feet and more.
A flashlight that's only good for 50 yards? Useless!
I need an easy-to-carry light [preferably one that I can attach to a rifle barrel] that'll blind at 200+ yards. For a longer-distance critter I just use a portable [2,000,000 CP] spotlight.
For close-up work I just use a 1-watt head-mount lamp.
Better to mount a NOD..second generation ..perhaps something from Litton or even something 1st Gen from Russia, which is good for around
200 meters. If your critter can shoot back..having that spotlight as an aiming point is not a good thing.
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 16:36:00 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Gunner quickly quoth:
I've often wondered about that and decided that if and when I ever lit up a perp, I'd do it from arm's length with the brightest light I could find. The little tactical zenon should work for that. A brief flash of light, directly into their eyes to blind them, then follow up with a piece of lead or two, eh?
-- Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ---- --Unknown
A headlamp would work if you flash it at the perp, you can identify them with your persistence of vision and all they have is a bright spot and you are somewhere else by then.
If you want a "blinder" a xenon strobe is far better than any continuous light. Example:
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50-joule strobe has peak output of something like 50,000 watts, lasting for a bit over 1/1000 second. Very disorienting, difficult to localize. A continous light of that power would take over 200 amps at 220 volts to power it.
Found another tidbit: strobes have efficacies of from 15 to 50 lumen-seconds per watt-second (joule). A 50-joule strobe with duration of 1/1000 second would punch out 750,000 to 2.5 million lumens. With beamwidth of 45 degrees, that's 1.5 million to 5.2 million candlepower. With better collimation, say a 20 degree beamwidth, it's 7.9 million to 26 million candlepower. You could then use your headlamp all you want, because the other guy won't be seeing anything but spots for at least several seconds.
Unlike flashbangs, strobes are perfectly legal and readily available.
A 50 joule strobe need not be much bigger than a 2D maglight, though it might be difficult to get a tight beam with that small a reflector.
On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 20:15:39 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Nick Hull quickly quoth:
Oops, I meant "xenon" there. Zenon is that cute little blonde.
My headlamp wouldn't work well for that. Too dim. The xenon tactical will definitely do the trick, though. $15 on sale at Big 5 last month. I should order a box of batts for it...
-- Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ---- --Unknown
That depends. The word which came back from 'Nam about the high intensity Xenon searchlight was that it was so bright that nobody could manage to aim anywhere near it at night -- it dazzled the eyes of the opponents too much, so none of the shots aimed at it came anywhere near.
But -- for something not too bright, and not aimed directly at the eyes -- I can see your point.
Shoulda said $3.50. A 50 joule 350-volt photoflash capacitor (from cde) is about 40mm x 40mm. One could also use several smaller caps that are readily available on the surplus market.
There are a number of chips available for charging circuits that take very little space. Recycle time would depend some on the circuitry but mostly on the batteries. Four D cells shouldn't have any problem making a 3-second recycle rate. I made a 100-joule strobe when I was a kid that would recycle in 1 second -- used a 510-volt battery that wasn't onerous to carry. I doubt that those are available anymore. That strobe could get stop-action night photos at 100 yards. They were kinda grainy when enlarged and cropped to get anything interesting, but the sports editor loved 'em -- football photos. That homemade strobe used a 6" reflector. I still have the flash head I made from an Argus flashgun. I broke one lead off the flashtube, was in dispair because that tube (Amglo) had cost me a month's paperroute earnings. I spent two whole evenings very carefully filing away the glass with a triangle file to expose enough wire for me to solder a lead on. It worked.
Accidently shorting those caps when charged, as with a screwdriver, results in a sound like a rifle shot -- and a need for a new screwdriver. Not a good thing to do when parents are asleep in an adjacent room....but I could get away with almost anything if I called it "science" and supported my habit with my own earnings.
I read in today's paper that today's teenagers, on average, spend about $3400/yr on fashion clothes, video games, Ipods, etc. I wonder if they earn what they spend.
A 2" x 3" reflector could produce a pretty tight beam in one plane, say vertical, with somewhat more horizontal disperson. A fresnel-type plastic cylindrical lens could help to collimate some in the horizontal plane.
Might be fun to make a "strobe blinder" just to see it work. Doubt if it'll make the top of my ta-do list anytime soon, though.
Yeah, I took a look. Surprisingly cheap compared to commercial units. Inductors and caps are likewise not too bad. Polyester 600V .1 uF caps were, I thought, in the coupla dollar range too. Not sure why I would bother with surplus. Well under $50 total less batteries, unless I'm seriously under-estimating the capacitors. (How big do they have to be? A smallish one for the condenser/trigger, and a larger one to hold enough charge I would think.)
3 seconds would be usable. Xicon's data sheet says 6 discharge cycles per minute (on the tube). ?? 10 seconds is an eternity for the intended use. Would need to wire up a few together to get a high enough "rate of fire".
Yeah. Probably no sooner than spring time here. Mine doesn't need to be portable... a second one for the truck would be fun, too.
Standard training is to hold the light well off to the side with the weak hand. This does two things..illuminates the target and helps illuminate your sights from the side with the back scatter.
This is where the "butt push button" lights come in handy. Hold it with your weak hand and your thumb on the button. The grip is like you see on TV when the doctor checks pupil dialation. If you are right handed..the light is naturally held high to the left.
This DOES require you to shoot one handed..
The other way that is taught...is to hold the flashlight in a reverse grip..left thumb on the button, with your shooting hand extended and resting on top of your left wrist. This puts the light very close to the weapon, illuminating the sights and the target with the sights in sillouette. Quick presses of the button illuminate downrange momentarily and when the target is aquired and its appropriate to fire..the button is held down and the trigger is squeezed.
Personally..I train for worst case..and that means the dude on the other end is smart, trained and armed..so 99% of the time..my light is held arms length to the left and I fire one handed. I hold the light chest high, so its more natural for them to shoot at the light.
Its far far better to give than receive.
Gunner
Gunner
Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry
I never worried about the bullet with my name on it. It was those addressed to "Whom it may concern" that were bothersome. Particularly those emitted from crew servered or fully automatic small arms.
Gunner
Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry
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