When will BLF bring out their own Headlamp????

Eh… we’ve had not-very-clever people who want the brightest flashlight that could possibly fit in their pocket buying Emisar D4s for the past year. They regularly burn holes in their pockets, but nobody’s managed to make one go boom.

But I’m also talking about what I would do myself, not what might happen if a novice does something dumb. I wouldn’t be concerned about putting a FET driver light made my Emisar, running a firmware by Toykeeper, and powered by a Sony VTC6 I bought from Illumn on my head.I would caution people about the potential risks just as I do when discussing the D4.

I’m currently working on a headlamp.
There are already some ‘balls rolling around’, but nothing serious yet.

But what does everyone wants to see in a headlamp?

This design I have right now might not be what everyone likes but will definitely be an awesome BLF style headlamp.

I love my Zebralight H600Fd III headlamp. It’s got just a bit under 1000 lumens but I’ve never felt that it was underpowered on any of my backpacking trips. The head strap holds it in place and I don’t feel that it’s too heavy even with an 18650.

I use it in conjunction with a throwier 18650 light that I can use to see something a bit farther off, but it most often stays in the pocket of my pack.

I chose High CRI and neutral white and it looks so nice. It’s expensive in comparison to most of my other lights, but it keeps a steady amount of light for a good long time.

Now if it would only come with some sort of insect repellent, it’d be even better!

I don’t talk/type about this light because it seems that most threads aren’t about headlamps and nearly all of the new lights I’m interested in don’t come in this form. I’m not going to put a D4 in a head band either. Too hot to tell the truth. I’ll have to reserve judgement for my FW3A when it arrives. The small size will be wonderful (one of the things I like about my Zebralights) but I don’t know how it’ll shed heat being so small.

For a budget light, I’d like to see something in a different form factor. A box instead of a tube? Easy ramping button? Dual LED (HI and HD side by side)? I like the idea of lighting the front of my pack or sternum strap but when you hear something to the side, it wouldn’t be as effective. I like that my Zebralight can be used outside of the headband. I tied a section of paracord around the neck of it to hang from my neck that’s come in handy at times.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’d be interested in a BLF headlamp and I’d probably outfit my hiking partners with one if it’s in the $20-$30 price range. Bring forth the ideas!

“Should be safe”
Are you ready to entrust this statement your life and health? Me not. Cells could be old, could be damaged…

And so it begins…… :smiley: . :smiley:
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I’d be interested to know what you have now thijsco19. If it is on par with your other designs you may already have a winner…… :beer:

https://alexnld.com/product/convoy-flashlight-headband-headlight-band-for-18650-flashlight-black/

More Nichia. Nobody’s mass-producing an 18650-powered Nichia headlamp right now, and that should be a thing. Armytek keeps saying they will, but I’ll believe it when there’s a product page showing it in stock. The Samsung LH351 series could also be good. High-CRI Cree stuff has been mostly disappointing.

Nitecore has a similar headband, the Nitecore HB02.

This is something I have been looking for since the driver in my H03 went poof.

Hoping to find something in the H03 size and format but with a nichia triple and a nice ramping driver. I guess it would be the illegitimate offspring of an H03 and an Emissar D4.

Lexel has/had some drivers for the H03 with ramping….

Do you have a link to those drivers?

Lexels drivers

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.

Haha thanks.
I don’t want to go in too much detail but it will be ‘on par with my other designs’.

Nichia or high cri is definitely something I have in my mind.

Finding the right LEDs is a small challenge as we want both high cri and high performance.

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:

I’d really like to see a tripple nichia headlamp that accepts protected 18650.
Don’t need crazy amount of power, just good hcri beam and UI.

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! :beer:

I cannot wait to see the end result! I really need a BLF headlamp! lol

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.