(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 controlfixed