Headlight suggestion for dog sledding?

I don’t know anything about dog sledding. But if your looking for a self contained head light with no extra battery pack, you might at least take a look at one of these Nitecores.
I have all three, but the last one I purchased; the HC60 : has become my favorite. I like them all mind you, but there is just something about the HC60 that puts it first; for me anyway. :wink:
The others are the HC50 & HC30.

Edit to add:
If interested, contact M4D M4X for money saving ‘Codes’. You’ll be glad you did… :+1:

He has codes for both the CW & NW versions. :wink:

Where are you getting that info from Lexel ?
I have an H35 wave & have never noticed it step down ?
This is the run times from the Olight site
mode 1 mode 2 mode 3
1500 lumens 550 lumens 150 lumens
2.5 hrs 8 hrs 24 hrs

No mention of step down & says 1500 lumens for 2.5 hours ?

Die Lampe soll nach ~7,5Minuten auf ~800Lumen runterregeln. Als ich das gemessen habe, hat sie das einmal nach ~9,5Minuten gemacht und bei der zweiten Messung nach ~6,5Minuten, was auf eine Temperaturregelung schließen lässt. Die Lampe wurde bei der zweiten Messung auch schneller wärmer, da sie noch nicht ganz abgekühlt war. Der Test fand bei ~25°C Raumtemperatur ohne Kühlung statt. Die Lampe ist sehr gut geregelt, bei der Messung blieb die Leistung so gut wie konstant.​

I still haven”t seen mine step down, having said that it has not been used in anywhere near 25C temperatures, maybe 10C max.
In fact I am going to turn it on on max in my kitchen now & watch to see if it does step down :+1:

Well 25 minutes so far & unless the step down from 1500 lumen to 800 lumen is imperceptable to the human eye mine is still on high.
Head unit is quite warm to the touch but not hot.
Battery pack was fully charged.
I will leave it running & see what happens :wink:

Thanks for the input guys!

Both the Nitecore and the Olight seems to be viable options. You give some, you loose some in both cases. Compromises.
As long as there’s no timed stepdown i guess it’ll be fine. It will mostly be used in cold, windy conditions anyway, so the chances of it regulating because of heat are not so high.
I’ll talk to my friend again.

More options are still welcome of course :slight_smile:

I see that that review is from over 18 months ago, I wonder if they have altered them at all as mine is about 3 months old & I know it was from a fresh batch into the UK ?
45 minutes in & the metal housing of the lamp part is hot but not to hot to touch, still no step down.

At what temperature are you testing it?

I also have a Nitecore HC60 & it is a very nice lamp & very very comfortable to wear (I have only just got it a few days ago & used it just the once so no long term experience but it does seem very well built).
The HC60 beam is narrower than the Olight although it does have quite a bit of spill.
The claimed throw of the HC60 is 117m compared to the Olights claimed 200m.
The Olight is much more powerful but not as comfortable IMO (the HC60 is the most comfortable head lamp I have ever worn).
In the specs for the Nitecore it says “Features advanced temperature regulation (ATR) ?
It depends what you want from the light but if it is lots of power & long run times (even if the Olight does step down to 800 lumens which I have still not seen) & you can live with the remote power pack I would say the Olight is the better lamp.
My Olight has now been running on 1500 lumens for over an hour & it still hasn”t stepped down.
The housing is hot but not to hot to touch.
I would guess my kitchen is about 18-20C.
I am going to turn it off now :slight_smile:

Hard to beat an SRK for run time, even the crummy ones, but a bike light might make more sense since you can protect a remote pack from the cold.

Below is basically a copy of a PM I sent to a friend last night about the HC60……
~`
As far as the HC60 goes I checked it out after I saw what was being discussed on the thread.

Mine does step down after about 25 minutes on Turbo in a 75 F room with no air flow or air movement. It is really not perceivable to the eye (or at least my eye) as it does not step down a complete mode.

It just drops a few lumens and I have to be watching the beam on the ceiling to see the micro-second blink when it does it.

  • First time it reduces power is two “blinks”, about 1 second apart.
  • Second reduction is about 5 minutes later with 1 “blink” reduction.
  • No more reductions after that.

I seriously doubt that in a cold environment, wearing it outdoors and moving; that there would be little if any reduction.
I’ll have to volunteer to go to Norway as a test dummy and learn to dog sled to verify that. :smiley:

I found the chart below done by Budda in This Review of the HC60. It is a pretty good review with some good internal pictures of the HC60.

Mine did not seem to follow the graph below however. It was much longer before it stepped down the first time.
.

Testing the thermal regulation system / Nitecore HC60

.
PS: If you look in the thread you will notice Budda tests more lumens that is claimed by Nitecore. This does not surprise me as Nitecore is usually pretty conservative in their published ratings it seems.

The spelling of the original question:

“Headlight suggestion for dog sledding”

made me want to be a BLF smart aleck…

“Well? see what tint the dog likes…”

lol

PS - hey, its FAIR… i still chuckle the first time someone (and i think it was on this site, lol) did the “let me google that for you” joke to me…

Haha! Preferred tint may vary between different breeds of dogs… Maybe I’ll just have to get it straight from the horses dogs mouth.

:slight_smile:

As it’s supposed to be a headlight (for wearing on top of the head) I think maybe the SRK will be a little overkill when it comes to size and weight. (Trying to picture it! :wink: )

But being able to keep the battery pack warm is absolutely a good point. Actually haven’t thought about that. Thanks.

Thanks. Thats very helpful information.

Another issue is the flood. As stated in the OP, my friend would like a light that is even a bit more floody than the Skilhunt H02. (I don’t actually know the angle on the Skilhunt).

If it’s an 18650 inside the tube, the LED is going to keep the tube warm anyway. External battery pack is a different story.

The LED is going to keep it warm as long as the flashlight is in active use. When it is not actively used, i suspect the battery may get cold enough to freeze (in harsh, low temperatures). As far as I know, lithiums don’t really like that(?)

They don’t like extreme temps high or low, thats for sure.

Just to clarify some terms since these can mean different things to different people: when I think of spill I think of the light coming directly from the LED without hitting the reflector. This is different than a floody beam, which is just a wide beam produced by the reflector.

TIRs tend to have narrow spill since the TIR collects most of the light that would be spilled and puts it in the beam. The reflector lights like the HC50 will have similar throw and maybe a bit smaller beam size but have a wider spill.

So, it depends on what exactly your friend wants. Spill is less bright than the beam, but it’s often useful because it illuminates things that are close, so it doesn’t have to be bright.

Making the actual beam much wider than the H02 while still keeping the same throw will be difficult; it would require much more lumen output. But if your friend just wants to illuminate more area up close, then a reflector light with wider spill might work well.

li ions do not, lithium none rechargeable do not care. –40° to 158°F. most lights that take 18650 will work with 2 cr123