Headlight suggestion for dog sledding?

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.
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Testing the thermal regulation system / Nitecore HC60

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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

Regarding Li ion cells in cold temperatures, my understanding is that you really should not charge them at low temperature, but discharging at low temp is not so bad. They will have higher internal resistance initially, but will warm up with use.

The 18650GA and 30Q datasheet quote –20C as the low temperature limit for discharge. +10C or 0C as low temperature limit for charge.

Regarding runtime, she can always carry an extra cell in an inside pocket where it will stay warm.

Also, be aware that most single cell lights like the HC50 and HC60, and probably the H03, use buck drivers and so the light output will drop (in the highest mode) as the battery voltage drops as it discharged. The exact amount will depend on the battery, but it will drop to something like 60% by the time the battery is 50% discharged. It is not a huge drop and it is gradual, but if constant output is very important you will have to look at lights with boost drivers. Some zebralights and armytek lights have this.

The Skilhunt H03 regulates the output in Turbo 2 pretty good over 3 hours

With a protected Panasonic 18650B measured at 3240mAh 4.2-3V on 400mA

Your welcome MaleNurse, my pleasure. :+1:

I did some checking around and as far as using LiIon re-chargables in cold temperatures, I checked several different brands and they are all pretty much like ‘EasyB’ said above. :+1:

Ambient Operating Temperatures

  • Charge……… 10 ~ +45℃. (50 ~ 113F)
  • Discharge…… –20 ~ +60℃. (–4 ~ 140F)
  • Storage……… –20 ~ +50℃. (–4 ~ 122F)

As far as the beam angle of the SkillHunt H02, I don’t know either & could not find it listed anywhere.

The Nitecorte HC60 is 100 degree’s.

I have a Skillhunt H03F also and personally, I like the HC60 hands down better than the H03F. But, that is just my personal preference. :wink:

As I already said, if you go with the HC60, or anything else for that matter; be sure to contact M4D M4X and ask for a Code if you want to save money. You’ll be glad you did. :wink:
And I know he has some good codes for the Nitecores, Skillhunts, and more.

Good luck and keep us posted. :+1: … :slight_smile:

Oh yeah, the HC60 comes with a 3400 mAh Nitecore 18650 battery also. :+1:

Not sure if a 7135 driver will work on 2 x CR123 but if it does it will be inefficient with more than a third of the voltage wasted. I’m personally not comfortable with lithium cells on my head so I would remote the pack or mount it on the sled, it’s what I do with bike lights, one on the bars and one on my head but both remoted. The risk/reward for wearing a cell on my forehead just doesn’t add up but that’s a choice not a rule. I use two so that one always points where I’m going and the other points where I’m looking. In this case the dogs path would always be illuminated as well. The bar mount is a wide beam and the head mount is narrower but not a thrower, just enough for look ahead.

7135 will work with 2 cr 123, it will be inefficient as you said, chips will heat up a lot, and if driver is hanging in the air will prbly trip on build into teh chip thermal protection. i used 7135 driver in my camping gazebo light, i had to heatsink both sides of driver, so it works from 6v battery, otherwise, it would heat up fast and chips would shut off, not all at once thou, but you can see light dim in steps as chips shut off.

i have a feeling, that drivers in the lights that work with 2cr123 are not your regular 7135 liner drivers, however with few exceptions, like convoy lights.

SPAM SPAM SPAM

I removed the references to the brand / model of light in the quote as it obviously didn’t meet the criteria.

And 3 fresh out-of-the-box AAAs would give you 380lm for maybe 10sec before dropping down asymptotically to 0.

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