I actually think that original buck driver is more interesting than fet/linear.
I am waiting for Lexel boost drivers, it allow to have better stabilization and efficiency.
Yeah, funny you should ask. A while back a friend of mine changed the cells out for me in a modded SRK light and put one cell in backwards. It scared me to think of a high-energy cell getting reverse charged by the other cells. But, nothing really happened. These were old generation laptop pull cells. I think they’re LG. No problem whatsoever. I was using the light right next to my head. The only way I found out was the light starting blinking a low-voltage warning too soon, so I opened it up and found it that way. I had used it for a few minutes on high with a reversed cell! When I took them out, they were warm, but not really warmer than they usually would be after running on high in a SRK. I put those back in the charger and put other cells in the light, and went back to work. So, I guess I’m saying yes… I would trust the top four brands of Li-Ion cells in a headlamp, on my head, with a high-drain FET driver blasting a wall of light in front of me, lighting up everything I’m looking at. :partying_face:
Your welcome! :+1: I understand you don’t want to divulge much right now, but when the time comes I’ll be interested to see it. I have a feeling it will be a winner!
I was designing one the other day i was thinking about starting a thread. It was going to be based a triple setup with optics. Triple setup will get the best mix between longer run times on lower levels and high output when needed.
We could also run the headlamp from an external power source like a USB battery bank or two 18650 cells that sit on the back of your head?
I normally use a headlight when hiking so it would be awesome if it had multiple uses and light weight. I would love
High Cri. (great for up close work)
Low levels (stops you losing your night vision for quick checks ect)
Single 18650 or 2170 for light weight and run times.
Close to 1000lm burst mode for a min or two.
Flood rather then spot.
Power bank function! There is some good quality 18650’s flashlights out there with this, but I am yet to find a good quality lightweight single cell headlamp with this. This would reduce one carry item and you could just carry as many cells as you needed for the hike.
I'd like to see a small clip on your shirt light ,like a throat light .about the size of a nitecore tip with the beam coming out of the flat part of the light ,
Honestly, existing headlamps do everything I need them to do, so I’m really not sure what demand a BLF headlamp would fill.
The only thing that would get me to buy another headlamp at this point is if the headlamp was an IPX8 rated aluminum tube light that had both a main reflector/TIR emitter and an additional full power mule emitter on it.
For me a good tint,decent high lumens(1000 at least) great low to mid range settings eg 1,5,30,80,12,180,210 etc and good run times… We use our head lamps a lot for caving etc so runtimes and low to mid range brightness is important oh an ipx8 waterproofing.
Suggestions from my partner are… MAKE IT PRETTY and have a silicon strip on the headband(like the Fenix Hl15/30HM50r ).
She has got excited about the Nichia suggestion(so have I a little)
Protected cells lead to long springs with hi resistance, and unprotected cells may work not stable. Also protection bord increase dimensions of headlamp at least for 5мм.
On the other hand, good driver has all needed protections.