Equipment Review - DC Light 12 LED Headlamp
Available From: eBay seller "aunoreserve" or "extras4u"
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 58412&rd=1
Price: $11.50 + postage. Total < $20
Type: 12 x White LED
Battery Type: 2 x AA
Current Consumption (full voltage): Approx 500mA (1.5W)
Weight: 96g without batteries
Switch: Quality Dolphin style pushbutton.
Modes: On/Off only.
DC-DC Converter: Yes. No cutout voltage, will continue to work till
batteries are flat.
Waterproof: Yes. O-ring seal on front face and battery compartment.
Headband: Elastic 3 way type
Tilt adjustment: Yes, "click" style.
Focusing: No, fixed focus.
I recently purchased a quantity of these headlamps for another
purpose and as it turned out, I think they would make an excellent
Canyoning headlamp. Superior to my current Jaycar "8 LED diving
headlamp" which costs about double the price on eBay, or more than
triple the price at Jaycar.
For the price I'd have to say this is the best value headlamp on the
market. $20 gets you a 12 LED ultra bright lightweight waterproof
headlamp with an excellent DC-DC converter.
The headlamp is very good quality, well above the other $5 5 LED
Headlamps on eBay (they are shocking, I tried one, fell apart!). I
have an identical housing (bulb) headlamp branded "Gelert" as sold
by Farnell and others.
It has the usual 3way headstrap with padded head rest and tilting
adjustment.
The good points:
1) It's incredibly bright, blinding in fact, don't stare into it,
you'll regret it. It is much brighter than my 8 LED Jaycar Headlamp,
and not because it has more LEDs, each LED is noticably much
brighter. It is also streets ahead of the 7 LED Jaycar headlamp that
runs off AAA batteries (these can be had on eBay for under $10 now).
I recon it also beats my Luxeon 1W module as well. This is to be
expected given that the total consumption is 1.5W, with maybe 1.2W
of that going to the actual LEDs.The light projects a very even
pattern and has a slightly blue-ish tinge to it - very nice. Battery
life at that currrent for Alkaline cells I would estimate at 5 hours
for full brightness then reducing after that.
2) The DC-DC converter module is excellent. It is a potted discrete
component design. The cutoff voltage for full output power is very
close to the end-of-life Alkaline cell voltage. Also, it continues
to work at reduced output current at much lower voltage, so it will
use every last drop of energy from your cell.
3) It uses only 2 x AA batteries. This makes it lighter than 4 x
AA's, has greater capacity than the AAA headlamp, and you can share
the AA's with your other gear.
4) The switch feels very high quality, like the "self cleaning"
switch in the Dolphin torches.
5) It looks to be fairly waterproof, although I have not tried it
yet. O-ring seals are used against good quality smooth plastic
surfaces. Greasing the o-rings would help as usual.
6) It's light and compact.
Bad points:
1) There is no mode setting for reduced power consumption, just 12
LEDs or nothing. So it's not really suited as say a long duration
camping light.
Overall I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better value or
brigher LED headlamp. I'm impressed. For under $20 it's a bargain.
Available only on eBay as far as I know. I got a slight discount for
12 of them.
Dave
