[Review] YLP Panda 3.

(I cannot understand why the photos were
disappeared. You can still see them here)

I want to tell about interesting headlamp designed by Russian company Яркий Луч (Yarkiy Luch). This company has “profesional series” with subbrend YLP.
It is clear from the name that this headlamp is third version, but it is very different from previous ones.
The main feature is independent spot beam and flood one. without separate battery case.

SPECIFICATION

LED : XPG3 NW (4000K) for flood beam , XPL HI NW (4000K) for spot beam.
Max Lumens: 1100lm (2 x 550lm)
Weight: 58g (fhashlight only)
Dimensions: 79*32*26 mm
Battery: protected\unprotected 18650
Water Resistance Rating: IPx8
Max Beam Distance: 115m

PACKAGE



APPEARANCE




Headband. Top strap is too long and main strap maybe a bit short for big heads.


Thread

Magnet in a tailcap

Spring on “+”

Indication LED in buttons always on when light is on.

Weight and dimensions

Headlamp only - 58г
Main strap - 26.7г
Top strap - 12.7г
Magnet - 4г
18650(e.g. 35E) - 48г
Dimensions 79*32*26 мм

OPERATION

I would not say that operation is intuitively clear, but after reading the instructions one can understand its logic and convenience.

Gray button

Short press from off - turns the flashlight on in memorized mode.
Short press from on - turns off the flashlight with memorization of the mode and the type of light (Flood / Spot / combined), the minimum mode is not memorized.

Long press from off - turns on the flashlight in the minimum mode of the stored type of light.
Long pressing from on - scrolling modes in a circle. (The minimum mode is not included in the circle.)

Triple press - charge indication. from 1 to 5 flashing main diodes. The beginning of the indication immediately at the moment of pressing the third time and blinking is very fast.

Black button

Short press from on - changes the type of light in a circle flood / spot / combined.

Long press - turns on the maximum of the spot beam, the second short press returns to the initial state.

Double tap - turns on the maximum of both diodes, then short press returns to the initial state.

It should be noted that the brightness of each diode is memorized. For example, turn on third mode of flood, then turn on second spot mode , if you now turn on the combined mode, then the 3 mode of flood and 2 modes of spot will be turned. If you change modes from the combined, then the brightness is equalized

MODES

Accorging specification modes for each led are 10-35-120-240-550lm.
And runtimes are 150-36-10-5-?(Temperature control)

My measurements:
Flood : 18-70-240-460-1500mА , 7-28-90-180-530lm
Spot : 26-86-280-540-1700mА, 10-33-100-190-570lm
Combined: 40-160-600-1250-4100mА , 15-65-218-420-1300lm
Off current <0.01mA

In turbo mode headlamp heat up very quickly. From 25C to 60C during 4min.
There is stepdown at 60C to 40%.

But it is not enought so heat up is going on to 70C eaven at 40% of brightness.
Turbo mode with water cooling.(It is also IPx8 test)

Maximum mode of flood beam. There is also stepdown ot 60C.

Spot+Flood 2x240lm. There is no stepdown but temperture is 64C

As you can see headlamp has no stabilisation.

LIGHT
Flood beam

CCT = 4141K (Duv –0.0046)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 74.1
R1 = 73.5 R2 = 79.3 R3 = 82.4 R4 = 74.1 R5 = 72.6 R6 = 70.1 R7 = 81.1
R8 = 59.5 R9 = –11.5 R10 = 50.0 R11 = 70.2 R12 = 46.2 R13 = 73.6 R14 = 90.3
Spot beam

CCT = 4101K (Duv 0.0005)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 72.9 [ R9 = –19.1 ]
R1 = 71.1 R2 = 77.8 R3 = 82.9 R4 = 73.1 R5 = 70.6 R6 = 68.8 R7 = 81.3
R8 = 57.3 R9 = –19.1 R10 = 47.7 R11 = 69.2 R12 = 44.4 R13 = 71.3 R14 = 90.7


PWM 15kHz

According luxmeter
Spot: - 2400cd ANSI 100m, 4.2cd/lm
Flood: 900cd ANSI 60m, 1.7cd/lm

Beamshots
H03(nichia 219C 2700K) , Panda 3 , H600w mkII



DISASSEMBLING
Disassembling of Panda 3 is easy. 2 x T6 screw only.


Tir optics with glass lens.


Electronics with linear driver.



Copper MCPCB


LEDs

CONCLUSION

In my opinion Panda 3 is very interesting headlamp, becouse it is the only unibody headlamp with real spot/flood light.
There are some fenix models like HP25 , HP25R, but they are large and not convinient for EDC. Nitecore HC65 has auxiliary flood with 11lm only.

pros

- Build quality

- Good operation

- Compact size

- IPx8

- Thermal control

- TIR optics.

- Neutral light

  • Easy to assemble / disassemble.

cons

- Linear driver (PWM and no real stabilization)

- Wrong lengths of strap

- Difficult to read charge indication

- Low color rendering index.

- Color artifacts on the “spot” (I see only on a white wall)

- Absence of moonlights.

  • Dumb temperature control fixed

60C (140 F) is hot to be near your precious head.

I’m wondering what the perceived heat is to the wearer while using the head strap ?

IMHO, the button solder points to the board might be the failing part due to wear from use, since apparently they are the only thing holding them in place…

I like the idea of two beams and that the light is compact, but it looks like the two beams might not be that different in width. If you are going to go to the trouble of making an additional spot beam, I would make it more intense than 2400cd.

For example make the spot TIR bigger. The ~17mm TIR that fits in the convoy S2 makes a great beam with an XPL HI; wide enough to be useful at intermediate distances but with some good intensity. Mine does 20Kcd with a FET driver so it would do at least 10Kcd driven at more moderate levels.

60C it is appropriate temperature, I always set 55-60 on headlamps with adjustable temperature control. No discomfort at all.

There are shelfs for button bords.You can see it on front photo of mcpcb and under mcpcb.
It was Panda 1/2 issue, so YL pay attention to buttons.

Panda 3 is headlamp , a work tool , not WOW thing.
10-20kcd it is useless laser on ones head.
With the slightest hint of fog ones would see only “white wall”.

For real headlamp application as run, ski, bike, outdoor, caving 2400cd is enough . It is almost the same cd/lm as H600.

In med regime flood beam for work with hands. And spot beam for medium distance 10-20m.

I disagree. If you are going fast or want to see farther for another reason, you are going to want more than 2400cd.

Then you can use large throwers like blf gt. It is not headlamp’s work.

I haven’t ever found a headlamp that I liked. This is the first one. I may have to get one now, if I can. Are they available internationally? If so, what is the shop that sells them?

Panda 3 is out of stock right now, but I hope it would be restocked soon. First small batch was sold on russian flashlight forum fonarevka.ru
There is official shop
ylplight.com it has english version, international shipping and accept PP.
But panda 3 page still exist only in Russian.
Panda 3.0 — Интернет-магазин — Яркий Луч YLP - интернет магазин

change the XP-G3 to nichia 219C or samsung lh351D and it would be perfect

According to one website, the 2990 Rubles price is about $47.47 US dollars. That seems like a reasonable price, but do you think there could be a group buy here to bring it down a little? I don’t know how to run a group buy, so somebody would have to take up that responsibility. But I would really like to own one of those lights!

It is the first thing I made after review. :slight_smile:
With 351D , flood beam has 450lm ,and 1.25cd/lm and light is the way better than with xpg3.

Unfortunately international shipping is expensive.

I think GB or some coupon code is possible. YL sometimes provide good coupons for russian forum. Also they recently launch international shop so they maybe interested in promotion.
I ask them when panda3 will be in stock.

A little bit more about real tests. The traditional expedition of the speleo club Perovo in the area of the Arabica massif(Abkhazia) to the Verevkina cave has just ended. Verevkina cave is the deepest(2212 meters.) cave of the world for almost a year.

In this expedition I used Panda 3 as the main light on the helmet. Just before expedition I replaced stock xpg3 by 351D 4000K 90cri it makes light much more pleasant, and much wider.


My task in this expedition was the topography of the so-called bottom labyrinth - an extensive network of subhorizontal courses beginning at a depth of 2100 m.
The path to this depth takes 3-4 days for 10-12 running hours ( with a load of ~ 30kg) along the vertical part of the cave. Characteristic forms of relief are vertical pit (up to 150 m deep with and without waterfalls) and short meanders between them of different widths.

Work on the rope takes most of ascend\descend time
Stops for overnight taces place in underground camps at depth 600m, 1300m, 2100m.


The most interesting part of cave starts at 2100m, where the modern cave, apparently, cuts a branched network of ancient siphon pipes. Now the known length is approx. 7-8km. This part consists of "pipes" with diameters of up to 16 m, siphons, half-siphons, halls, small vertical pit.

Work in the cave lasted 14 days, 7 for way down and up and 7 for topography.

Now about the flashlight.
The first question was fixing of the headlamp on the helmet. The rubberized strap was well held and did not slip over the plastic helmets.
This, along with the standard rubber band is enough for fastening, for 2 weeks did not fall down at all.
After 2 week in undergroung the only headlamp damage is scratches on anodisation.

Buttons are too small , sometimes it is hard to find them into gloves.

PWM at 15kHz is almost invisible, it can be seen on falling water..

Ipx8 is fine. Panda3 holds pressure drop ,100% humidity, dripping water.

The second mode of the flood light was enough for comfortable work with a rope at ascend\descend.

Quick access to the maximum mode of spot allows to view the rope far away. Vertical pit with depth about 40-50m can be enlighted by spot light.

During ascend(descend) I used only one 18650.

Situation in the topography of the bottom parts, was different. One need to inspect everything for good topography. The sizes of the pipes are different, according to this, the modes of headlamp were often switched. I mostly uses 2nd and 3rd modes in all possible combinations, and the maximum of spot.

(Siphon pipe. Depth is 2150m from the entrance)
In this case I change 18650 every day. In total I spend 8x 18650 for expedition (new GA).

I very like this headlam, during 99% of the time I did not recall about its existence)

WOW

Thanks for sharing those pictures from your trip! What an experience to spend that much time that deep underground.

That is a major adventure! Thanks for writing it down, and the wonderful pictures. I’m sure that the Samsung leds made everything look better down there.
What is the purpose of mapping that cave?, is it just hobby/tough sport or is there a serious background to it?

Looks like the Panda 3 headlamp was a champ! Now I need to find a real use for mine other than just playing around!

That is very cool! What an awesome glimpse into real use.